Spent the afternoon sanding the neck and noticed towards the end what appears to be a crack in the heel area. It may have been there all along or may have appeared as a result of my working on it. The neck was largely built last year and has sat since then in the house, it was trimmed and fitted to the neck pocket on the body last week. I'm a bit concerned that it may weaken the neck once its glued in and string tension is acting on it. You can see the crack as a thin white line on the end of the heel and continuing into the bottom of the heel in the photo. I'd appreciate any advice on how to deal with this - Try to stabilise the crack, carry on regardless or use it as firewood!!?
Any and all answers gratefully received!! 🙂
Brian.
Hard to tell from a photo if its a crack or not.
I'd clamp the heel in a vice and give it a good bend and look to see if it opens up at all.
If it breaks, then glue it back together and I reckon it'll be fine. If it doesn't break then I reckon it'll be fine.
Can’t tell from a photo. You could try gluing and clamping it, see what happens. If it doesn’t work, don’t forget to salvage the truss rod before you burn it.
Make guitars, not war 🌍✌️🎸
Brian Walker Topic starter
15/09/2024 5:12 pm
@boo Thanks to you and @robin for your replies. I put it in the vice and gave it a bit of a wiggle, couldn’t see any evidence of the crack opening up, so I’m going to leave it for now. I’ll see if there’s any changes before I glue it in (probably later this week). If there’s any sign of the crack opening up either before the neck is glued in or once there’s string tension on it, then I’ll strengthen the area with dowels or screws then cover up my fix with a veneer over the protruding part of the heel. It would be a shame to have to discard the neck after so much effort and outlay. If I do go down the firewood path I’ll certainly save the truss rod and have a go at saving the fretboard. Waste not want not🤣🤣👍😃🎸