That's definitely not lacquer sinking! Sorry to see it.

Last time I saw something like that it was the neighbor's kid put his recent D-28 back in its case with the vinyl shoulder strap still attached. Left it for a while. When they opened the case there was a strap-dimensioned finish bubble wherever the strap had pressed the finish. Bad surface chemistry from somewhere, my opinion.

Good luck with it, and best wishes, ML.

It does look as if the pox are about where a strap would press against the back, though. Forensics! Re the Beagle: duh. I was thinking Bounty, not Darwin. Of course, not that evolution has been disproven, along with global warming, Darwin is so very 19th and 20th century. Club Med, Galapagos. Geez. Nasty finish pimples, in ay event, but most emphatically NOT sinking, or, imho, sap leakage. Some manner of finish contact is the only thing that makes sense. I love it when things make sense; they do so seldom any more. tom

I sold the guitar a while back, so I don't have it in front of me, but I recall that it really looked like black-ish resin seeping beneath the surface of the finish. I didn't really care. I bought/sold the guitar at a discount because of it and it never bothered me. If I had paid full retail I might have been more inclined to make something of it.

Regarding "disproving" evolution and global warming, today I was walking down Mass Ave and I heard one guy yelling at another "are you telling me that you don't think that the Holocaust really happened???". folks gonna believe what they want to believe.

Compare with the picture on Frank Ford's Frets.com article about vinyl and nitrocellulose: Vinyl is Your ENEMY!

Sire Beagle, it is indeed scary what folks will believe, or disbelieve. Flat earth society, indeed. Thanks be to God (or insert deity of choice here) for music, as close to a universal language as we get. Esperanto never really did work out. Pidgin's kinda cool. Maybe ASL. I dunno. But you gotta keep your optimism. Ain't but one habitable planet as yet on record, and we'd best try the Rodney King theory while time permits. time for some blues. Maybe Am. tom

I have heard about this a number of times. My 2001 CJ-1A had the tiny bubbles. They were hard to see but there. This issue has crept up a number of times with folks I know in the industry.

I understand that Collings fixed the issue.

Mike

Mine was sn/83xx, which makes it a 2003 or so. maybe they solved the problem since.

hms beagle
What kind of guitar was the first picture from? The pattern is something I've never seen on a Collings.

just a standard D-2H with 1-3/4 nut.
what's different about it? I hadn't noticed.

Mystery Solved. The guys at Collings once again blow me away. Not just because of the shockingly fine guitars they produce, but I am pleasantly stunned by the customer care and the heart and soul they put into their business. I cam across this forum randomly, and entered an offhanded blurb about 'tiny bubbles' on my D2H. I received excellent advise from you guys and I followed through with it. I contacted Alex Rueb (thanks sonoman)via email, and this was his response (I asked him if I could mention him and his words on this forum, of course he said yes) "I'm sorry to hear about the finish issue
you've described. Unfortunately, I have seen this issue before. The
bubbles are the result of a defective batch of pore-fill that was
used in late 1999. The pore-fill has "gased-off" beneath the finish
to create the bubbles, which are trapped beneath the lacquer. This
is very much to our dismay, as the pore-fill showed no sign of being
deffective at the time it was applied. The good news is that this
can be fixed without hurting the guitar. We would consider this a
warranty matter at no cost to you. The only way to fix this problem
is to sand the finish down to the pore-fill layer and then respray
lacquer. I'm very sorry to inconvenience you with this trouble,
but we will do whatever it takes to make the situation right."
So I show up at the Collings factory with my guitar, Alex greets me smiling, looks at the guitar, confirms the problem, apologizes profusely, offers a temporary guitar for me to play (I was too much in shock to accept), and takes my guitar and phone number. He'll call when it is sanded and repaired back to it's pristine condition. I have never been treated so well by a company in my life. I want to buy another Collings just to say, "I love you Collings guitars!". Wow.

Wow, indeed.

Wow indeed! A company whose customer service is as exceptional as the guitars they build. Bravo Collings.