In my opinion, if you touched it up it would be even more noticeable than if you didn't. Just can't see recreating 50-year old painted surface even closely. maybe other have different ideas. But I think sometimes those battle scars give it the mojo.

Rubbing some paste wax on the shell,letting it set 5 minutes,then buffing will make it shine like new!

i see what you're saying.. I might lust leave it alone, but I figured if I filled in ONLY the raw maple blotch with a darker shade, I'm still preserving the original finish and you wouldn't be able to tell from 5 feet away.

Should you decide to accept this mission:

I believe that Duco was nitrocellulose lacquer.

Try Stewmac.com or guitar reranch for nitro lacquer, at least for the black part.

Experiment with something unimportant to get the color and application procedure right.

Good luck

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i found some nitro at stewmac for $17.99 + shipping. Only thing is I'd have a big can of lacquer minus 30 grams.. should I even thin of using a more common type of paint that may be sold in smaller quantities? thanks for the tip

Paint has gotten weird lately , at least here in California. It now has to be made of potatoes and water soluable. (Kidding just a little).

Sometimes paint types are incompatible, some enamels may not play nice with some lacquers and vice versa.

Like the cleaners always say, try it out first on an inconspicuous area (good luck on a snare).

It's a risk no matter how you cut it. If coughing up $20.00 for a couple of grams of paint helps minimize the risk it's probably worth it.

i went to school for touch up of fine furniture pianos etc never used it except on my restorations if you dry match the color on sample paper ( buy dry i meant hair dryer etc )that's the only way to match a color if u get a powder pigments and a lacquer base in the sheen level u do a light blending with a small soft camel hair brush and then a another application of a clear coat in the sheen level if required and buff out with a finishers wax and it will look good from most angles 1 angle shows a shadow thats called a flippant when on a flat surface and since its on the side u should not have that problem ..goodluck