In short, blacklight (or black light) produces fluorescent UV-A and as a result it causes some things to light up in the dark. It’s a cool feature at parties and on stage, but blacklight can also come in handy in the workshop. Because it gives you an extra pair of eyes when looking at vintage guitars. This is mainly due to the use of nitro-cellulose paint in the past, which according to many, is an important part of that magic vintage sound.
Vroeger werd er namelijk vooral met met nitro-cellulose lak gewerkt. Die lak is volgens velen een belangrijk onderdeel van de
But nitro also has drawbacks, as it is less wear-resistant, for example. Therefore, with these vintage guitars it is often an art to find out whether they might have been touched up or partially or maybe completely refinished over the years. After all, that has a lot of influence on the value, because the more original the better.
When looking for possible refurbishments, a blacklight can help, as original nitro-cellulose paint glows green/yellow under a blacklight. Any spots touched up later will give a different colour. So with blacklight, you can get under the skin of a guitar a bit and almost take an X-ray picture of it. Super handy! Especially since you can buy a blacklight torch for just a few bucks. In our workshop , we also use it gratefully when examining guitars.
So we only see a blacklight as one of the tools to use when assessing vintage guitars and in order to be ‘real’ a guitar has to do more than just light up. Assessing vintage guitars is a bit more demanding than just putting it under a blacklight and see if it lights up, like Fellowship founder Rudi Bults explains in this video.
Do you want to know more about vintage guitars or do you have any questions or doubts about the condition of a vintage guitar? Feel free t contact us at: info@tfoa.eu or +31 (0)523-232205
What does UV Blacklight NOT do
It blacklight might seem like a quick and easy way to tell if an old guitar is real and original but unfortunately a blacklight will not reveal all guitarsecrets. Every guitar has a story and a blacklight doesn't really tell you much about that at all, because it only reveals the current state of a guitar, NOT how it got to that state.
Maybe a blacklight shows a few dull spots on the neck or body of a guitar, which are just due to wear and tear. A reset of the neck will probably leave traces, but after that a guitar can be played for years.
Throughout the years hundreds of types of paint were used. Some light up like a Christmas Tree, others not so much. Contrary to popular belief, lighting up less under a blacklight does not mean a guitar is 'younger'. Maybe your guitar has a different kind of paint that doesn't light that much under a blacklight.
And unfortunately, there are plenty of counterfeiters who can even fool a blacklight, just by putting paint in the sun for a while or leaving a guitar under a sunbed. As a result completely refinished guitars can light up greenish/yellow under a blacklight, just like another vintage guitar.