"Face-to-Face" with my Crack...FINISHED!!!!

[animalfarm]

Bought Epi LP Special II off Craigslist for $25, description and pix indicated

cracked neck. Figgered I needed a project for cheap. This guitar

has only light scratches on back. I was anticipating a glue job, or

a snap neck and re-glue job. I cannot see ANY impact damage on

Headstock, anywhere...

 

1. Brought git home, tuned up and played for 30 mins looking for

any sign neck was compromised. Plays Great.

 

2. Removed strings, attempted to move nut front/back, and

side/side - NO movement, glued in place. I have looked very closely

at the finish cracks at the nut on both sides.

 

3. Clamped Guitar face up on bench, wood blocks to support

neck at body and middle of neck, used second clamp at tip

of headstock to gently apply downward pressure to see if the

"crack" would start to open - nothing. No movement, no sound of

wood separating, nada. Had feeler gauge in hand to see if it would

slip between fretboard and neck, no go.

 

4. Released clamp, scratched head.

 

At this point, I am thinking the "fracture" is a FINISH/Paint crack.

I can repair damage shown in following pics quite easily, thought

I'd toss it out for other ways to check neck, hate to break a perfectly

good neck, ya know?

 

[wardog]

+1 on finish crack. I recently got a epi blue burst lp plus top for 150 on ebay. description was crack neck. it looked just like the fine hair line cracks u have. I sanded neck and guess what . crack be gone and my brother is enjoying it as a 40th birthday present. Did i add the guitar was spanking new!!!!!!!

 

found it tough to give up!!!!!! ( i also did some of the test u did with no sign of neck movement) the crack was just above the heel of the guitar neck.

 

Have fun with the project!!!!!

[Gordy01]

It looks like you might have to remove some paint anyway, so you'll probably

get a better look at that point.

[animalfarm]

It looks like you might have to remove some paint anyway' date=' so you'll probably

get a better look at that point.[/quote']

 

I expected to do a bit of sanding, see what's underneath. When I do,

I'll move the neck to the Sanding Shop, which, lucky for me is only

one foot away!

[TWANG]

that's my fave thread subject line ever though...

[peeper]

Improperly cured wood and finish will do that.

[Sjael]

The crack through the neck on my LP looks just like this. ^

 

The finish cracks on the neck heel of my explorer look just like this. ^

 

Make of that what you will.

 

I'd just play it for a couple hours' date=' if at the end you're playing a harp, it's through the wood. If you're still playing a guitar, it's only the finish.

[deflepfan]

that's my fave thread subject line ever though...

Definitely an an attention getter!

 

 

Animal, Congrats and enjoy!

Sheila

[snookelputz]

It looks to me as though it went face first onto the floor, and when the paint cracked from the impact, nobody bothered to look any further. Nice find!

[AS90]

[StreakyPete]

that's my fave thread subject line ever though...

 

 

:) :) Hee-hee! I thought it was a bit 'athletic' myself!!!

 

Anyway - at $25 you surely have won a watch with that one - regardless of the extent of the 'crack'

Well done you!!

[animalfarm]

Is this ONE guy or TWO????

Or from "Dancing with the Stars" TV show?

 

 

My area is in our Rainy season (right now humidity is 85%,

hangs between 70 - 100%) for the next 5 days or so, the idea

of spray painting is a no go - way too humid. I'm waiting a bit for

better weather before the sand-down.

I'm re-stringing with a set I've had for a year/unused (not usual brand),

and will go with Sjael's suggestion - let's see if it turns into harp. THEN

the answer will be clear.

[Hungrycat]

D'joo say you got some CRACK?!?!?

[animalfarm]

Update: Did a quick "po man's" fix to the missing white

finish so I could play git while I thought about what I want

to do with it...

Masked off edge of fretboard, then filled in missing white finish

layer by layer with acrylic WHITE fingernail polish. Let dry between

layers of polish. The polish will shrink a bit when it dries. Filled until

final layer was higher than surrounding paint.

When dry, I used a razor blade (laid FLAT) to gently "shave" the

excess polish down to same level as paint. Then, wet-sand with

600, and 1500 grit, then Meguiar's Ultimate Compound, followed by

Swirl remover, then git polish. SHINE is back. Hairline finish fractures

are (of course) still visible, but nice and smooth due to wet-sanding.

 

Just wanted to pass info on to anyone that needs to fill in ding/dent

in their git, but doesn't want to refinish ENTIRE guitar. Use info at your

own discretion...

[animalfarm]

Ok, back to main reason for post:

I've got the "Tung Oil" jones going again! Did it to the neck

on a Hondo II Project, LOVED the results. Gonna Tung Oil this

entire guitar, leave neck lighter shade than body. Tung Oil will

leave wood a light color unless pre-stained first:

 

Hondo neck before and after Vermont Maple stain and several

coats of Tung Oil:

 

 

I've opened up control cavity and removed one of the pups, then sanded off

some of the black paint to see body construction - one piece, not layered wood,

same color and grain as wood visible in pic of missing finish:

 

 

My intent is to stain the body with Vermont maple, then hit it with multiple coats

of tung oil, just straight Tung Oil on neck. The great thing about Tung Oil is that is

get SHINIER with every coat, just light 0000 steel wool buff inbetween coats until

final coat. Finish is as smooth as silk. The following 2 pics show difference.

The Darker git has obviously been stained prior to application of Tung Oil,

or it was darker to begin with - you get the idea....

 

 

Once I start, I'll post pix of process, just in case someone wants a reference of what

to do, or what NOT to do! :- :-

[animalfarm]

Project begins (BTW, NO neck Cracks!) - Stripped off strings, unbolted git neck from

body, removed all hardware and bagged. Stock tuners are

garbage. problem is I sold my last set of Grovers to bud who needed

them. Now, I have NO back-up tuners. Bills paid, no $$$ for d-tip Grovers.

I'm looking at ways to "tighten up" the SLOP inherent in the factory

tuners - Last time I was able to replace factory gears with gears from

my left-over 70s Hondo II git. Now, I'll have to be creative...

Taped off Front of headstock to prevent accidental damage, cut tape

at 45 degree angle to allow for "slight" FUBARs, just in case I made boo-boo

during process.

 

Sandpaper used: 100 grit, then 150 grit, then 600 grit...

 

Quick seqence of events:

 

 

Neck is about to be hit with water-based stain conditioner, sanded again, then

stained before applying the "Magic" Tung Oil...

 

This last one I'm about to post BUGS me - My original pics showed fractures in finish, checking inside

showed ONE-PIECE body, same grain as visible thru missing finish. After sanding down,

turns out the Headstock material ABOVE the "scarf joint" is same grain, but inferior

quality wood (knot holes). This makes me think BODY (which is painted) is also the

same wood as above scarf joint. Bummer. If I sand this down, I MAY have the "Mother

of all Knot holes" as a body - inferior wood as it was going to be painted. Gotta think on this one.

One one hand, it could look like (expletive), on the other, could be unique when finished with

Tung Oil. Hmmmm....

 

[Sjael]

If I sand this down' date=' I MAY have the "Mother

of all Knot holes" as a body - inferior wood as it was going to be painted. [/quote']

You might also have this painted on:

 

 

Worst comes to worst, you can just repaint it, or hell, even veneer it!

[animalfarm]

Onward!

[Sjael]

By the way, that's a sticker off an orange crate. It's almost become a meme so I figured a lot of people would just get that fact, apparently not.

 

Point was, on a Special-II, you could sand off that finish to find a beer crate!

[freak show]

 

 

[Hungrycat]

"Sjael"' date=' judging by the vehemence of the response I think you spooked him with that image of Gay Johnny... [/quote']

 

Nope, nothin' gay here... Hows about a nice friendly game of soccer/football?

 

[wardog]

animal, did u use a machine to sand of the paint? how easy is it.? did you chip off paint first. the reason i say chip, is do to the thickness of the paint on my jr, it looks like i can chip it of easier than sanding. i had fun routing for 3 pups on it and may want to try painting one day.

[animalfarm]

Git was sanded ALL by HAND - 100, 150, 250, 600 Grit sandpaper.

Took about 4 hours, most of tough work was on top of headstock,

sanding finish off the curves and in the valley at top was a booger,

but I refused to be defeated.

 

Paint was thicker than expected - when I originally removed neck from

bodypocket, was tight fit. After sanding, had a definite smaller endpiece

with a bit of "wobble"in the body pocket. However, the Tung Oil should

nicely make up the difference, as I plan on apply MANY coats...

[animalfarm]

I hit the neck FIRST to do a bit of experimentation regarding

the TUNG OIL finish - pleased with results. After pre-treating

neck with Minwax water-based Pre-Stain, sanding out raised grain,

then Minwax Vermont maple stain, I hit neck with 8 coats Tung oil

with 24 hour dry time between coats. Lightly buffed with #0000 steel wool,

just to make 100% sure I didn't have any Dust Bits embedded, then applied

another coat TUNG OIL - been drying for several hours.

 

Quick overview of neck progress. Tomorrow, I'll check out the "feel"

of the neck, decide if it's done and prepare to go after body of git...

 

[snookelputz]

It certainly looks good catching that rainbow from the light in the middle picture! Wonder if you could get that effect deliberately?