Official Luthiers Forum!

I liked the 2nd comment in the post(Thanks Chris!), not only was it the first response, but it was the glue that I would use too. There may be people out there that can give you their scientific analysis of the breakdown of thermal viscosity during elemental fluctuations and show data analysis to point out why they are right and YOU are wrong, but I have a good friend who swears by (Original) Tightbond and has been building/repairing guitars for 28 years now. I'm not here to convince anyone that is what you should use - my theory has always been to try different things and see what works best for YOU. It's part of the journey, right? I mean really, what would you have used if you didn't have internet? I been running all sorts of tests in my "lab" and Tightbond has been kicking everyone's arse.

They'll take my Original Tightbond from me when they won't be able to pull it out of my cold, dead fingers.
I coined the above phrase at 12:14 am Thursday, Dec. 1st, 2011


Carry on.

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"Talking about music is like dancing over architecture".
See the most insane first guitar build: http://www.virgilguitar.com
http://www.youtube.com/VirgilGuitar

It's an import copy...it could well have a double action rod in there and a drop of glue on the threads will ruin it.

I've glued hundreds of cracks down to the truss rod, many of them cheap imports with double rods.

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Old growth, shmold growth!

You get glue on the threads and it's OK? You don't worry about it at all and take it into consideration? The original post I responded to talked about hooking up a vacuum to try and suck glue into through the truss rod channel.

Not arguing with you. It's a serious question. I'm always concerned about gluing the threads, especially with epoxy.

Aren't the threads at the end of the truss rod?
I don't think the glue would affect the truss rod at all where the break is.
Glue that baby and let us know how it went!

Just to clarify -
I was thinking about applying vacuum to the truss rod access at the headstock to help pull glue into the crack that's down at the heel.

My experience with truss rods is extremely limited. I've only built/worked on 2 guitars which were acoustics with Martin style truss rods that are adjusted through the sound hole.

On this guitar, there is a socket head allen adjuster at the headstock so there must be some sort of nut buried down somewhere near the heel? I pulled the pickup & there is nothing to see.

I suspect that if I get some glue on the threads, Titebond would be less of an issue than epoxy.

Kevin Looker

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I'm not a luthier.
I'm just a guy who builds guitars in his basement.
It's better than playing golf.

So I took Chris's advice & used Titebond - felt dumb to go against 30 years of experience. Cleaning up the squeeze out was incredibly easy compared to if I had used epoxy not to mention what epoxy would do if it came in contact with the lacquer.

I haven't strung it up yet because the owner (my cousin) took off the bridge & tail piece before he dropped it off. I did stress the joint & it feels sound. Only time will tell.

Here it is


And here's a shot of the front. I do think it is a nice looking fake.


Thanks for all the input.

Kevin Looker

_________________
I'm not a luthier.
I'm just a guy who builds guitars in his basement.
It's better than playing golf.

Looks like a nice tight glue joint!
If there were gaps I'd be worried but there appears to be none.

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Old growth, shmold growth!

Actually, when I first started building my own necks, I used to actually fill the truss rod slot with glue (Titebond though, not epoxy) and set the double rod in it before gluing on the fretboard, to cut down on rattles, threads and all. I never had any trouble adjusting the neck. Slight cracking sound as the glue let go of the metal, but that was all. I hear that on new factory guitars all the time the first time I adjust the necks. I stopped doing that after a luthier who had more experience than I at the time told me that the rod would fail in a few years due to corrosion from the moisture in the glue. I still have one of my early guitars that I did that with, so far so good after almost 15 years (i think), no truss rod failure, still adjusts properly.

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Old growth, shmold growth!

I would have to agree with GW here - especially since the threads DON't need to move - it's the nut that moves and as for rust.... well, even if it was exposed to the elements (which it isn't) it would take 50+ years for it to rot all the way through and I don't think this thread will last that long! 15 years? That settles that - especially on an inexpensive import.

_________________
"Talking about music is like dancing over architecture".
See the most insane first guitar build: http://www.virgilguitar.com
http://www.youtube.com/VirgilGuitar

Hi - first post here; long time lurker.

This crack seems to be in a location and at an angle that seems like it would have been tough to get a good clamping on. IOW, it looks like it needed to be compressed from headstock to tail to get a tight fit. Can you describe how you did it?

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Mike Hoenerhoff
Elderly Instruments

The neck was broken but the fingerboard was not and the two were still glued together.

I pushed the neck forward to open the crack a little and work some glue in.

I then strapped the guitar to the bench (top side up) and hung a weight off the headstock to close the joint so there really wasn't any clamping.

Kevin Looker

_________________
I'm not a luthier.
I'm just a guy who builds guitars in his basement.
It's better than playing golf.

Nice work, Kevin. Looks like you got it right.

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David Morris

Because of the way the fretboard hinges the pieces together, that would direct the force in the right direction. I do something very similar with broken headstocks that are still held on by the veneer face after clamping to get that last bit of squeeze.

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Old growth, shmold growth!