Repair Advice please

[sebastiaan56]

Hi everyone,

This one followed me home from a friends place last year. She got it from a house clean after the residents had departed. I repaired it once, but it has gone again about 2cm up from the repair.




So do I try another repair and save the tuners and use the timber for something else? The design of this guitar is pretty poor I reckon, the truss rod finishes at the 1st fret and there is a join in the timber at about the 1 1/2 fret. It is a weak spot waiting to happen.

Do I cut it off at the third fret and make it a tenor? Stick it back on?, make a novelty coffee table? fill it with dirt and put a plant in it?

Ideas please,

Sebastiaan

[kiwigeo]

Sounds like the guitar needs to go to a home where its going to get looked after. Looks like it got left propped against a wall at a party and someone sat on it.

Im no expert on repairs but if it was in my shop Id probably look at gluing it up with some carbon fibre rods through the join for some added strength.

[Allen]

Hey, you gotta take heart that your repair is still together.

I get Stew Mac's newsletter every week or so and one showed doing just such a repair with Hide glue.

Dan used thin hide glue to penetrate the very tightest part of the crack and then full strength glue where he could get it in. This was after he had warmed the neck with a hair drier until the neck was good and warm. Then clamped everything up. The repair looked great, and it didn't seem to be that big of a deal. Mind you, they might have edited out the cussing

[Serge]

Or how about making a bran new neck for that baby, after all, you would learn how to detach a neck from a box and a fretboard from a neck, that is what i will do with a guitar that my sister in law had brought me and which is broken in the very same place as yours, i can also see the tip of the truss rod, just my opinion but regluing in a place where you cannot sand both edges might not be the best way to go.

Serge

[Paul B]

Looks like there's a hell of a lot of runout in that neck. The new break is parallel to the old one.

How does the guitar sound when it isn't broken? Is it good enough to be worth making a new neck? Judging by the pix, I think that's the only long term repair option.

[Hesh1956]

Rick Turner posted a repair technique on the OLF that sounded pretty interesting.

If I recall correctly it consisted of injecting hot water into the break area and then injecting HHG. I may have this wrong so does any of the members here who are on the OLF remember the details?

This sounds like a good place to try this.

[James Mc]

As an amateur I take any chance I get to do another neck, from my limited experience this is the area where you can take a good build and make a mess of it.

My recommendation would be to hit the local demolition yard, grab a few bits of cheap timber (silky oak maybe and something a bit harder to laminate in the centre) and build a new neck.

It’s much less stressful stuffing up a neck replacement on a cheap guitar than making a mess of something you have put lots of time energy and love into. I still get a could shiver whenever I think of my first few necks I made and fitted.

[Kim]

Hot hide glue with a pretreatment of hot water works in a split where you need to wick the glue into the separation. And with hide glue it's important that all the bits knit back together cleanly for the glue to work. Be warned, you need to dry run your clamping regime and work smoothly, not fast, just smooth. If the break does not knit back nice and clean due to splintering and missing bits, you have no real option but epoxy IMO.

Cheers

Kim

[sebastiaan56]

Many thanks for the feedback guys. It sounds alright when it is together and the kids play it, so there is enough reason for me. Im starting to think the new neck may be the way to go as the current one seems to me to be poorly designed and/or executed.

I like your idea James of lower cost timber as I claim no lutherie expertise and Id rather spend real money with Tim. I doubt much will happen for a few weeks but will post when it does. Until then I'll do the HHG remedy, it will be my first time for that as well..... What the heck its a cheap way to learn!

Again my thanks to everyone for your input.

[kiwigeo]

The join at the first fret is obviously a major design fault...someone wasnt thinking when they built this guitar. Is it a scarf joint?

Id either build a whole new neck or do a repair job on the old neck but reinforce the joint with some graphite rods.

Kim has suggested using epoxy if you cant get clean gluing faces with HHG....Im in agreement on this one.

[sebastiaan56]

Kiwi,

Yes a scarf joint, I think its dumb.

[kiwigeo]

The scarf joint itself isnt dumb but the position of it is. The joint should be up in the headstock not in the neck region.

Its a challenging repair job though and one I wouldn't mind taking on.....its a great learning experience. Keep us posted with progress pics on the repair job.

[Dominic]

Hey, i had a $500 fender acoustic that this happened to. It was hanging in its stand and when i came home from work it had snapped right near the scarf joint. In effect the grain in the head wood was all on the plane of the headstock but joined the guitar at the 2nd fret. All that cross grain wood just waiting to break off. Very crap workmanship for a supposedly good brand.

I have seen them cut through the fret board under a fret and then route in some carbon rods into the repaired neck before putting the fretboard back. Seems like a lot of work for a dodge guitar unless you want the practice.
Good luck either way
Dom

[sebastiaan56]

Thanks Dominic,

The grain you describe is exactly the same as this guitar. Asking for trouble. Maybe its from the same sub contractor?

Sebastiaan