Cracked necks and resultant $$

[Eric***]

Hi all,

I found out last night at practice that the other lead guitar player at church had an accident. While he was playing acoustic the previous day, his Epi LP fell off of the stand and onto the stage, apparently straight on the fretboard/pickup side.

What he has now is a nice crack on the back of the neck, somewhere around the 10th fret if I recall, kind of curved along the grain of the neck (imagine an upside-down 'U' if you are looking at the back of the neck). Looking at it, the relief was obviously off, and the neck now has some seriously excessive relief, which makes me think this was structural. It didn't look too deep, but I didn't examine it that well.

I know nothing about necks aside from Gibson-esque guitars having set necks. Without a picture or further details at the present moment, can any of you speak on the likely state of his guitar? Should he be coming to terms with the end of an era or is a repair likely/possible? What should his next course of action be? According to him, he paid ~$250 for it, though he wasn't sure.

Input appreciated!

[Spudman***]

I've heard that the really good luthiers can repair those type of issues. I've never had to have it done but I've seen repaired necks with that type of damage and it is hard to tell there ever was damage. Might be cheaper than a new guitar to get it fixed.

[oldguy]

A pro could most likely fix it. Hard to say without pics, but most things can be fixed if you have a good repairman and the $$$.
I had a cracked headstock on a flying v once, and a friend of mine who owned a little mom and pop guitar shop fixed it. It was a clean break, with no pieces MIA, just two surfaces that he re-glued, sanded, and re-finished. You could hardly tell it, and it played fine afterward. I think he charged me twenty bucks, IIRC.

[M29]

I have limited knowledge on this but I have done some of this work. It is tough without pics but if it is a clean break you may be able to repair it. In order to get glue into the crack you have to spread the crack apart. This could be dangerous and may cause problems with the fretboard. Without pics it is hard to say. I hope this helps.
When I look at a guitar to buy I look for very long grain running up the length of the neck. The longer the grain the stronger the neck will be. This subject gets very involved and there are many opinions on it but it is my opinion that long even grain from one end of the neck to the other is what is strongest. Wherever you have a short span of grain you have a weak spot. I think this is the problem with your friends guitar but without looking at the neck I can't be sure but it sounds like it by the way you describe it. If there is short grain at this spot on the neck it may be a problem putting a glue joint there. Sometimes a glue joint can be stronger than the grain but being it is such a short break it may be a problem once it is repaired.

[hubberjub***]

Without pictures it's tough to tell. Gibson type guitars are prone to cracks (if not complete breaks) in the neck. Mine was a full break and the repair cost $300 including a respray on the neck. If he can't find anyone who can repair it for less than $100 the repair probably isn't worth it. Mine actually required splicing in a new piece of wood. When this guitar was black you couldn't tell it had been repaired but I have since stripped off the paint and finished it in oil. (The wood filler on the back of the neck is from an unrelated incident.)

[Eric***]

Without pictures it's tough to tell.

I'll work on getting some pics of it.

If he can't find anyone who can repair it for less than $100 the repair probably isn't worth it.

That's good to know, and I think that's the sort of info I was trying to get.

[M29]

Nice repair Hub

[hubberjub***]

Thanks M29, but this is definitely not my work. Frank Finoccio (formerly of Martin) did the work for me. This was about 12 years ago. At one point there were pictures of my Gibson being repaired on the Martin guitar page.

[Eric***]

Update: I guess he took it to GC, they said $200 for the repair, and he bought an identical replacement on the spot.

I was going to give him one of mine, but apparently he didn't like my AL-3100 and decided not to update me with pics or the update from the estimate or anything, so now it's too late. Still trying to come to terms with him hating my favorite guitar -- he must not have know how to use it, right? -- but that's that.

I'm pretty pissed off that an outstretched hand was just spit on and ignored, but there's no rule that there won't be assholes in life. Just adjust your expectations and move on.

[tele911]

Headstock repair isn't to bad of an undertaking.

Here's a step by step I did for a buddy o' mines 1980 LP Custom that he knocked over. From my thread posted over at Mark Wein's

http://markweinguitarlessons.com/for...ead.php?t=4866

[oldguy]

Update: I guess he took it to GC, they said $200 for the repair, and he bought an identical replacement on the spot.

I was going to give him one of mine, but apparently he didn't like my AL-3100 and decided not to update me with pics or the update from the estimate or anything, so now it's too late. Still trying to come to terms with him hating my favorite guitar -- he must not have know how to use it, right? -- but that's that.

I'm pretty pissed off that an outstretched hand was just spit on and ignored, but there's no rule that there won't be assholes in life. Just adjust your expectations and move on.

I'm really sorry to hear that, Eric. Some people just don't appreciate a good person offering help from their heart. I absolutely love my AL-3000.

Now, if you still feel like giving that AL-3100 away ...............

[Eric***]

I absolutely love my AL-3000.

I'm happy to know there are sane people in the world...

Bottom line is that he got a functioning guitar, and I guess his old one gave up the ghost. That's a pretty decent ending to the story.

If I can get ahold of his old one, maybe I can try some experimentation with neck replacement...

[oldguy]

I'm happy to know there are sane people in the world...

Bottom line is that he got a functioning guitar, and I guess his old one gave up the ghost. That's a pretty decent ending to the story.

If I can get ahold of his old one, maybe I can try some experimentation with neck replacement...

Check out Tele911's link to his repair. It looks great! If you do get ahold of his old one, it might be helpful to you seeing how Tele911 did such a repair.

[Brian Krashpad]

I'm happy to know there are sane people in the world...

Bottom line is that he got a functioning guitar, and I guess his old one gave up the ghost. That's a pretty decent ending to the story.

If I can get ahold of his old one, maybe I can try some experimentation with neck replacement...

Although from the sound of things he'll probably wanna hold onto it for replacement parts, or to part it out on ebay/cl.

[M29]

Eric,

If I can be of any help let me know. I would be interested to see a picture of the break still if you can get one. Being that high up the neck it might be tough to get a good enough gap to inject glue into without making the crack worse. He should probably get the tension off of the neck until something gets done with it.
Here is a thread on an Epi LP of mine I repaired. http://www.thefret.net/showthread.php?t=6106

M

[hubberjub***]

I'm happy to know there are sane people in the world...

Bottom line is that he got a functioning guitar, and I guess his old one gave up the ghost. That's a pretty decent ending to the story.

If I can get ahold of his old one, maybe I can try some experimentation with neck replacement...

That would be a great guitar to try to fix. You could learn a lot from a project like that.

[M29]

Eric,

I would try to fix the neck that is on there first and see how it works out. Changing a set neck is a major task.

M

[Duff]

My Epi LP Std ltd ed wine red birdseye just had the snapped neck repaired.

Considering this repair I decided to have a kill switch installed in it.

I'm really looking forward to getting it back and testing out the kill switch. I hope to be able to get some cool use out of the mini toggle kill switch. This LP has the Seymour Duncan hot rodded humbucker set; JB bridge and Jazz neck.

I REALLY watch and take care of my mahogany guitars now that I know just how brittle mahogany is and how easily it can crack and break. I never leave them on a stand or leaning up against things. I always make sure that they are in a secure location where falling or getting knocked over is not easily possible.

[hubberjub***]

My Epi LP Std ltd ed wine red birdseye just had the snapped neck repaired.

Considering this repair I decided to have a kill switch installed in it.

I'm really looking forward to getting it back and testing out the kill switch. I hope to be able to get some cool use out of the mini toggle kill switch. This LP has the Seymour Duncan hot rodded humbucker set; JB bridge and Jazz neck.

I REALLY watch and take care of my mahogany guitars now that I know just how brittle mahogany is and how easily it can crack and break. I never leave them on a stand or leaning up against things. I always make sure that they are in a secure location where falling or getting knocked over is not easily possible.

It's not that mahogany is brittle. It's the design of Gibsons neck and headstock.