New Majesty Spice Melange and paint (or build) defect?

[Hotwheel]

Hi guys, i just got this brand new Spice Melange today.

When I opened it, I noticed what you can see in the attached photos.

It looks like a paint defect, it's not a scratch, but you can slightly feel it by touching it with your fingers.

You can only see in some light conditions, not normally looking at the guitar.

I don't know if maybe it's the wood underneath that creates this thing.

When opening the guitar there was also some humidity in that point but maybe that has nothing to do with that.

I'm sorry given the very high price of the guitar and I'd like to understand what you think.

 

[racerx]

It doesn't look like a paint defect to me, looks like dings in the finish. I've done similar in the past to my guitars when I sit in front of a desk or table with a 90 degree edge and I accidentally let the face of the guitar hit the desk/table. I'd talk to the retailer you purchased it from and see what you can do. If it was sitting in a showroom, then it might be from people demoing it. Maybe someone with cuffs/watch/bracelet etc when they were going for the knobs?

 

[Rbg]

This is not a paint defect in a regular meaning. This is a local shrinkage or non uniform soaking of the finish into the wood grain. It happens when you apply a finish over a porous, non-uniform wood it will get absorbed differently depending on the porosity and local wettablity of the wood. Thats why they use fillers and base coats first, to saturate those more opened grains. Then when it soaks they sand it flat and apply clear on the top hoping that it will not shrink/soak into the those more opened pores. It is a whole pretty involved process to get it right and EBMM explain some of the steps in the video. EBMM even have a hot room that should accelerate finish "drying" providing more confidence in stable finish down the road. However, wood is wood and the moves a lot that makes that more porous region even more unpredictable. In addition as this is being a guitar and not a dining table you want to keep the finish as thin as possible while maintaining adequate protection. So just flooding it with layers and layers of top coats is not an option. This is especially true with spalted maple and burls as those are very non-homogeneous woods by nature. On those woods if you accidentally send through or even almost send through the base coat/feeler/primer the solvent in the top coat will make this spot more flexible and something as you see may happen. It is still something that should've not left the factory and should've been caught by QC. There is also a possibility that it happened during the shipment. Anyway, you should contact CS and talk to them, they will take care of you. Also, they may take it under consideration as something could've been off during the finishing process and they should address it.

FYI: My burl top BFR developed some of the shrinkage where you can see and maybe even feel some waves on top of the grain over a year, so this is unfortunately something that may happen over time.

 

[Epiplatys]

Great top however, I would not worry too much about this defect. Not all examples have as nice top as yours, saying form first hand experience.

Any luthier can fix this finish flaw easily, for next to nothing (fill up, level and polish). And you will never even be able to see where it was.