Mattt0192 Posted December 14, 2008 Share Posted December 14, 2008 hey guys. I'm looking into buying a Dot. I like both the ebony and the natural finishes, but i have one problem... I bought an epiphone goth G-400 a few months back, it was satin black. My friend accidentally dropped it while sitting on the couch and the neck cracked from the nut to about 2 or 3 inches down the neck. He wasn't even 3 feet off the ground. I asked someone how mahogany, which is supposed to be hard, can bust like that from that close to the ground. They said that since it was solid black the factory probably made it out of crappy wood because they could hide it. Has anyone else heard of this? Should i go with the natural finish over the ebony because you can see the quality of the wood? ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarxBros Posted December 14, 2008 Share Posted December 14, 2008 hey guys. I'm looking into buying a Dot. I like both the ebony and the natural finishes' date=' but i have one problem... I bought an epiphone goth G-400 a few months back, it was satin black. My friend accidentally dropped it while sitting on the couch and the neck cracked from the nut to about 2 or 3 inches down the neck. He wasn't even 3 feet off the ground. I asked someone how mahogany, which is supposed to be hard, can bust like that from that close to the ground. They said that since it was solid black the factory probably made it out of crappy wood because they could hide it. Has anyone else heard of this? Should i go with the natural finish over the ebony because you can see the quality of the wood? :-k It's not unusual for the factory to take the uglier, poor matching multi piece bodies and put a solid finish over to cover that up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ef_in_fla Posted December 14, 2008 Share Posted December 14, 2008 Good wood, bad wood. Three feet is probably too far a drop for many guitars. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron G Posted December 14, 2008 Share Posted December 14, 2008 "Crappy wood" or "clumsy friend"? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Just Strum Posted December 14, 2008 Share Posted December 14, 2008 Neck breaks in that area are common on Epi's and Gibson when they take a fall. There is a seller on ebay that usually sells a lot of Epi's with this problem. Personally, when it comes to a Dot, I would find one intact and used. The deal on one that is intact would be far better than messing with the neck. There are a lot of people that will tell you it's an easy fix, but I wouldn't spend the time or money fixing it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mattt0192 Posted December 14, 2008 Author Share Posted December 14, 2008 "Crappy wood" or "clumsy friend"? you have no idea how clumsy... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snookelputz Posted December 14, 2008 Share Posted December 14, 2008 you have no idea how clumsy... Clumsy or not, the real question in my mind is: How deep are his pockets? And is he aware of the super rare, custom specifications - making your guitar a one-of-a-kind very valuable instrument -of your now broken (an extremely EXPENSIVE repair!) guitar? And, before you go all noble and tell him not to worry about it, consider that he probably feels guilty as hell over it. Letting him pay, or partially pay, will help get over that guilt - as well as remove the martyrdom complex that will hit you if you DON'T let him help. Besides, if he's that clumsy without a medical reason, he just doesn't pay enough attention. If you make him pay through the wallet hard enough, he'll learn its cheaper to pay the **** attention! I've an uncle who lost one hand (corn harvester), and 2 fingers off the other (one table saw, one Skill saw) who told me that the 3rd time was the charm and he got the message. He finally got a job as a Safety Director until he retired. Very effective safety lectures, dontcha know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mattt0192 Posted December 15, 2008 Author Share Posted December 15, 2008 Well sadly it, my lp special 2, my double fat strat, my yamaha classical and my crappy no name acoustic were all stolen around a month and a half ago so there is no way for me to fix it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
generation zero Posted December 15, 2008 Share Posted December 15, 2008 Wood is wood... Put it under enough stress or impact pressure, and it will split along the grain every time. You could probably lay a guitar neck across two cinderblocks and stand on it without cracking it (not advised, or covered under warranty) but run a screw into the back of it and you'll get a nice long crack. (Also not covered under warranty.) it probably just landed at the precise angle to cause the split... A few degrees either way and it might have been fine. Sorry to hear about your gear getting stolen though... That always sucks to hear. It happened to me once too, they also got my no name acoustic, LOL! So I feel your pain. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carverman Posted December 15, 2008 Share Posted December 15, 2008 it probably just landed at the precise angle to cause the split... A few degrees either way and it might have been fine. Yes, how true. It's that "precise angle" that is so hard to calculate to avoid having to deal with broken necks. If Gibson/Epiphone would attach a decal to the back of the headstock.."Caution" Drop at precisely X.y degrees", all of the grief could be avoided. They offered volutes as an option, but everybody shunned them and the collector/speculator inflated price, dropped as a result, from "hundreds of thousands" to a mere few thousand.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rpach10115 Posted December 15, 2008 Share Posted December 15, 2008 Rule#1: Strap Locks and a strap. Don't let this guy touch another one of your guitars unless he is wearing a strap. Rule#2: Don't let this guy ever touch another one of your guitars again, period! 3 feet! If he was sitting, he must be very tall. If he was standing, where the hell was the strap. If he had a strap, use strap locks. If you had all of the above, you need help :-), and he needs to learn how to hang onto a guitar. Stay away from the popcorn and fried chicken, butterfingers! As stated previously, they use the lower, less attractive wood on solid finishes quite often. Take a look in the electronics cavity of any one of these guitars and you'll see exactly what it's made out of. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
generation zero Posted December 15, 2008 Share Posted December 15, 2008 The main place the difference shows in the wood used under solid color finishes is purely cosmetic... Discolored or uneven grain, mineral streaks, plain or ugly grain patterns, things like that. If the wood is inferior on a level that would affect its ability to function structurally, it goes in the firewood pile, not the solid color guitars, LOL. It's not like they say "hey, this one's getting painted black, so use plywood instead of mahogany, they'll never know!". The only thing that might be different constructionwise is you might get a 3 or 4 piece body instead of a 2 piece, because the finish hides the seams. Obviously all the bodies are multi-piece, but they might use up some of the smaller pieces in the guitars where it wouldn't show. That being said, my natural "limited edition custom shop" LP Custom had a 4 piece body, and one of the small pieces was a little over an inch wide, on the top edge of the body in playing position. That was the only cosmetic flaw in an otherwise gorgeous instrument... :( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Posted December 18, 2008 Share Posted December 18, 2008 The neck on a guitar is holding back a tremendous amount of tension for its width when the guitar is tuned to pitch. A drop, especially on the back of the peghead, will increase that tension to the breaking point. In other words, DONT DO THAT!! The usual drop that takes out a neck is the one where the strap is worn at the neck peg and it slips off when you don't have your hand on the neck. You know, you reach over to grab something off the amp with your left hand and BAM! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
antwhi2001 Posted December 18, 2008 Share Posted December 18, 2008 Seems to be an SG / Junior thing, the Gibons are prone to it too. You see quite a few vintage ones that have had a neck repair at some stage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Red 333 Posted December 18, 2008 Share Posted December 18, 2008 The area of the neck opposite the nut is especially prone to breaks on Gibsons and Epiphones because of a combination of some other factors, too: the neck headstock angle (which is narrowing the depth of wood), for one, and because the neck has been hollowed out there to give access to the truss rod. There's really not a lot of wood there, and it's under a lot of tension, as has been poined out. Sorry about the break. That's a real shame. Red 333 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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