Using a router around the edge of the guitar top or back can cause chipouts, probably because of going against the grain. They can often be repaired, and by doing so, gets you ready for all the damaged guitars that will come by your shop. You will learn to colour match various pieces of wood and you will have in your wood collection, lots of scraps that you can browse through. I keep lots of small offcuts of spruce, cedar, ebony, rosewood etc. Bridge saddle slots often need to be filled in, in preparation for a new slot to be cut just next to it, so I keep the offcuts from edge binding and use them to fill the slot.

Before a new guitar is lacquered, the whole guitar is thoroughly sanded, and this is where little imperfections show up, like pinholes and small gaps between the binding and the top or back. Special wood fillers can be used to plug these gaps, keeping the colour the same as the surrounding wood.After the lacquering is done, occassionally the new guitar has an altercation with the doorway, so there is now a dent in the edge lacquer. Now you have a chance to do the repair and because you’ve done a great job of it, you will easily be able to tackle a lot of the damaged guitars that come your way.