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Whoopsie - neck crack!


t-bone

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Well I got myself a brand new LP Standard, as seen here: http://forums.gibson.com/Default.aspx?g=posts&t=9861

Lovely player, lovely tone, lovely looks. But then I went and dropped the thing on the floor, head first! :-k

 

crack1jv8.jpg

 

crack2db5.jpg

 

You can barely feel it with your fingertip. Not a big crack at all, and it looks shallow, except for the fact that it runs parallell on both sides. From the bottom of the fretboard (fretboard side of the nut) down to about halfway down the 2nd fret. There's no way you can get any glue in, there's no gap at all. Could this be cosmetic only, or does it look structural?

 

And what would be the proper fix for this? I'll hand it over to an experienced tech, of course, but I can't get to him until Wednesday. What will be the most likely solution? There doesn't seem to be any loss of tone, feel or sustain. The neck doesn't look twisted, and it still has that slightly too much bow (hasn't changed since I got it yesterday).

 

Sorry for nagging to you all about this, but I'm sure you can sympathize. One day I'm going "Woppie, new Lester!" the next it's more like "Oh sheet, is this a "gonner"?"

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Too bad, dude.

Don't sweat it though, you could smash that neck with a hammer and somebody could make it look like new again.

The only thing with neck damage is the guitar just lost around 1/3 of it's value...if you're not going to sell it, then who cares?

 

How did you drop it?

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Holy crap!!! Didn't you just get her this week? Thats a real bummer' date=' how did it happen? Or did it come that way in shipping, and you just now noticed (hint, hint)?[/quote']

 

No offense intended but I think it'd be easier to live with my own occasional bone-headedness than without my honor. ymmv

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You definitely want to get that fixed; it looks like more than a cosmetic issue. But, fear not! There are lots of good repair guys out there who can make it look like it never happened and make the neck strong than it was before the break.

 

I see you're in Norway, but here's an example of what can be done (Rich Koerner of Time Electonics in Union, NJ, USA):

 

http://timeelect.com/headstock.htm

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Ouch. it's a beautiful guitar. Don't sweat it until you get to the luthier. From everything I've read a headstock crack is a common repair and I know for a fact once a repair is done the nitrocellulose lacquer finish can be restored so it's invisible. Not that you'd hide the fact when selling it, just that you won't be reminded of it (no matter, with a flametop like that you're never going to sell it anyway). In the meantime, I would back off the string tension (maybe even do it slowly).

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My first guess would be... NO!!!!

 

The FIRST thing I do when I ge t the guitar home... Schallers...

 

Even on my beaters...

 

why? ------------ I be smart like that...

 

QFT. I have strap locks on all of my guitars, even my MIM Strat that I paid $250 for. Their a cheap investment for security (barring any drunken accidents...).

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Ouch.... Sorry, must have been a real bummer.... I freaked when I got a little nick on my Robot so I can imagine how you feel, specially with a new guitar.... Doesn't look that bad though... Put it away, don't mess with it until a good tech has a look.

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Silly me put the guitar in a chair in the livingroom. My wife accidentally grazed it. The LP slid over the armrest and slammed into the floor, head first, and came to rest on it's face. I was in another room when it happened - it sounded like the hardest power-chord ever played on that guitar eusa_whistle.gif

 

It's all my fault for keeping my gear in strange places. I also use straplocks on all my gear, the dunlop plastic kind that doesn't make rattling noises when played sitting down. But that doesn't help when the guitar isn't strapped on eusa_doh.gif

 

There's a dent in the headstock's front corner, but that's just cosmetical. I don't ever plan on selling it again, so I don't care about the resell value. It's brand new, but I got it at close to secondhand price after having returned a different LP.

 

Funny story that, I originally bought a Standard Faded, but discovered a very bad "dead spot" on the 4th fret of the G string. I returned the guitar and tried out the other Fadeds in the store - and they all had that same dead spot to a varying degree. Changed strings - didn't help. All adjustments but for a fret polish - didn't help. Must have been a bad batch of wood or something. The tech and store owner were scratching their heads and finally decided to offer me this one for $150 in between.

 

So the value of this guitar might have dropped, but I'd probably still break even if I sold it today.

 

Anyway, the crack hasn't affected anything so I have no intention of selling it. It's one of a very few LP's that sort of "speak to me" if you know what I mean.

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Silly me put the guitar in a chair in the livingroom. My wife accidentally grazed it. The LP slid over the armrest and slammed into the floor' date=' head first, and came to rest on it's face. I was in another room when it happened - it sounded like the hardest power-chord ever played on that guitar [img']http://forum.gibson.com/public/style_emoticons/default/eusa_whistle.gif[/img]

 

It's all my fault for keeping my gear in strange places.

 

Dude... Blame your wife! If you do that, you can get out of cleaning the gutters and all sorts of other crap that you don't want to do for at least a week!

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Dude... Blame your wife!

I say don't. Just be cool and tell her not to worry about it.

Then 3 - 5 years from now when you break something' date=' bring it up. "Honey, remember the time you broke my Les Paul..."

 

A friend of mine has a long driveway. One winter a few year ago, my car got stuck in his driveway and the wife and I had to walk up to his house. She jokingly still brings it up. [i']"You gonna make me walk again like that time you did in Dave's driveway?"[/i]

 

Do the same...

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