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I took possession of this neck as-is. Looks like a lost cause to me. I'm wondering if I could just cut off the heel beneath the crack, glue a new stacked heel in place and then trim the new material to match the existing heel and tenon. I can visualize the maple shaft accented with a dark heel and headstock veneers. Might be kind of dramatic. Think it would hold up? Or should I just toss the whole thing?

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George :-)

Repair it , sounds like a good idea to me . Besides all you have to lose is a little time.

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That looks unfortunate... presummably, you took possession for free. I guess it depends on how much you want to mess with it. Seems like a shame to waste it...

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Steve Sollod (pronounced sorta like "Solid")
www.swiftcreekguitars.com

Thanks for the replies. I'll give it a try and see if I can salvage something out of it.

Sadly, no, it wasn't exactly free. I bought a few things in a package deal and this was one of the items that showed up.

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George :-)

I bet you could fix that.

To me it looks like the insert did sort of a wedge cracking thing. You might be able to remove the insert and open the crack enough to wick some glue in there.

Your stacked heel idea is a good one too. I suppose it depends on how much you want to mess with it.

It probably would be a good idea to put a dowel in there to add a little structural integrity to the stack when you are done.

If the truss rod comes out easily, I'd be tempted to cut a scarf joint on the neck shaft.
You could slant it either way, and it might look better than a stacked heel.

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A man hears what he wants to hear, and disreguards the rest. Paul Simon

Good ideas! Thanks.

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George :-)

If you get an Overriding desire to donate to a NonProfit Place , I will take it cause I aint makin no money here !

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The Shallower the depth of the stream , The Louder the Babble !
The Taking Of Offense Is the Life Course Of The Stupid One !
Wanna Leave a Better Planet for our Kids? How about Working on BETTER KIDS for our Planet !
Forgiveness is the ability to accept an apology that you will probably NEVER GET
The truth will set you free , But FIRST, it will probably Piss you Off !
Creativity is allowing yourself to make Mistakes, Art is knowing which ones to Keep !
The Saddest thing anyone can do , is push a Loyal Person to the point that they Dont Care Anymore
Never met a STRONG person who had an EASY past !
http://wiksnwudwerks.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/groups/GatewayA ... rAssembly/

Don't see why you couldn't do exactly that.
Looks like someone already tried to wick some CA into the cracks, so that effectively rules out any chance of a glued crack repair.

Thanks, Wud. I'll keep that in mind!

You are correct, Tim. It looks like the crack continued to spread after the previous repair effort. Or maybe they they just ran out of glue?

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George :-)

Hard to be completely sure from photos but if the cracks can be closed and glued then I would consider pulling the inserts and truss rod then installing a maple spline maybe 1/4" or so wide with the grain angling up through the heel into the neck. That should take care of the structural part. When reinstalling the inserts I would oversize the holes a bit because of the maple and to be sure I don't get any more cracking then would epoxy them in. I have done something similar to add a tenon to a flush cut neck and it works fine. Just me thinking out loud.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Thanks, Steve. I'm not sure if it's old glue from the earlier attempted repair or what, but something seems to be holding off the cracks from fully closing together. I'm also a little wary of adding glue to glue, so to speak. If it were hide glue I wouldn't worry, but I've not worked with CA much.

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George :-)