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Broken Neck! (No I didn't break it!)


gearhead

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Ok, I know it's not an Epi, but I just wanted to post some pics of the neck repair I just did. Still need to refinish. I've got it all assembled and playing, not bad for $45! Was brand new, looked like it got knocked over or fell from a wall rack. Still need to fix the spot on the front of the headstock too. It was worse than what it looked like in the photos before I got it. The fingerboard was broke loose about 8 or 9 inches down the neck. Wasn't sure how it was gonna turn out, but I got lucky! Dressed the frets after the repair and it plays just fine. Would have been a LOT easier repair if it had broke above the nut, I've done a few of those.

 

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USUALLY if it gets broke ABOVE the nut it's a fairly simple job of repairing it, but not always.................

BUT THAT'S ONLY IF THE TRUSS ROD AND THE WOOD AROUND THE END OF THE TRUSS ROD, WHERE THE ADJUSTING NUT/SCREW MAKES CONTACT WITH THE NECK, ISN'T DAMAGED!

My advice is that if you have no experience repairing wooden instruments, and the proper tools and mechanical knowledge, DON'T MESS WITH IT! It could easily be made worse, and if you use aliphatic resin it may not come apart without more damage! (That stuff is almost impossible to soften and remove and is stronger than the wood.)

IMPORTANT NOTE:

DO NOT EVER USE EPOXY, SUPER GLUE ETC. TO TRY AND REPAIR A CRACK IN THE WOOD! ONCE DONE IT IS PERMANENT AND CAN NOT BE TAKEN APART WITHOUT SERIOUS DAMAGE TO SURROUNDING WOOD!

Only use the proper wood glues.

 

If, for example, I wouldn't have made sure the fingerboard and neck were true when I glued it back together, I could've made it worse by the neck / fretboard having a bend in it! That would require at least a major fret dressing, or worse, removal of the fretboard and resetting, or removing the frets and leveling the fingerboard and then refretting!

 

2/26_PS: I forgot to mention that I also had to carefully remove any small, loose slivers of wood from the neck and headstock and fit them together (after the fingerboard and neck were glued) before I actually glued the headstock back on. In this case alignment had to be perfect or the very top end of the fingerboard could have a "warp" in it.

Also, because of the angle that the wood split on, I had a fairly large contact area to glue. Otherwise the neck would have needed "splines" inserted to stabilize the glue joint. Here's a photo of a "splined" repair, courtesy of crust!

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The truss rod in the Turser isn't like the Epiphone/Gibson rod.

This is how an Epi/Gibson, and many other truss rods are, that's why the necks are so weak in that area, because the neck is thin and it has a fairly large section cut out of the center for the truss rod. You can see in my original photos of the broken headstock just how much material is taken out of the center, almost 30%.

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Actually I first considered going ahead and removing the fingerboard and pulling the truss rod, but decided I would take a chance and try to repair it as it was. I had to lift the fingerboard as much as possible and scrape the old glue from the neck wood and fingerboard (the glue will not adhere to old glue, only fresh CLEAN wood). Then I used Titebond Liquid Hide Glue (hide glue can be steamed and pulled apart if the need ever arises) and clamped the neck and board together with a STRAIGHT piece of wood on top the fingerboard to make sure it stayed straight. I had to repair and clamp 2 other smaller cracks on the headstock piece, then after the fingerboard had set for 24 hours, I fitted the headstock back on using Titebond wood glue (aliphatic resin) where the neck wood went back together and Hide Glue on the fingerboard side (just in case the board may need to come off at some point). Clamped and let it set for another 24 hours. There appears to be a large gap in the finish where the crack was because I took a razor blade (held at a 90 degree angle to the surface) and scraped the edges of the finish off so I could see where the parting line on the wood was. There is a couple small wood pieces that got lost somewhere before it was shipped to me, so when I refinish the neck I will have to fill the spots.And to my amazement, the neck didn't even need an adjustment! THAT'S GETTING LUCKY! There was one high fret, number 5, that I had to level, but I'm guessing it was like that before it got broke.

 

Also, I saw on Stew-mac that they have a neat tool to repair broken (so long as it's right at the threaded end) or stripped truss rods:

 

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  • 2 years later...

Nice looking Turser LP. The local guitar store has a 335 style one hanging on the rack. I played it for about a half hour, very nice guitar indeed.

Here's some pic's of the Casino I got for $125.00 with case. It needed a little "work" too, came out great.

 

 

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had a few tursers over the years and currently own a jt res. they are nice guitars for the price and well worth repairing. stew mac may have a matching dye for your guitar i used there dyes on a refinish of the top of a guitar from the 40s and it was a perfect match so you may want to look at that . keep up the good work.. and thanks for the pics and articles.

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well what id do based on the review is get the color in the dye section and then drop fill the clear coat. basicly drop filing is done with the clear by diping a small stick or brush into it and touching it to the area needing to be filled. after filing the area to just slightly above the original finish you fine sand it to level then buff the area. ive done this on guitar tops based on the instructions in dan erlewines book and it works well. dans book is avalable from stew mac as i remember. being as the back of the joint is not flat youll have to do a bit then let it dry and work your way around. but from what i read in the reviews of those sticks. they arent really meant for that big of a job . more for small dings. sounds like youll end up with a mess rather than a nice looking fix.

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if you start here and click on previous button then you can see the steps i went through with this guitar. and the end result is the last photo. i started here so you could see the mess this guitar was when i bought it. i also had to straighten the neck. it has no truss rod so i used a method from dans book. but the body finish was a mess. so you can clearly see whatyou can do withthe dyes and some clear coat. youll see some dust on the top of it befor it was reassembled. well its not dust but cigarette ashes..lol. but they atrent in the finished picture. had the deck door open and woops.. fortunately the finish coat was hardened by then.

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