Rough repair of a broken neck

[StefanoGhirardo]

Hi everyone,
I've never posted here, but I read and sometimes post on Guitar, Amps & Gizmos.
I found this guitar for sale with a broken neck. I know nothing about luthiery, and I don't have the skill or the means to do a proper job, but I was wondering (and asking you) if it could be fixed with a good glue and two wood screws starting from the base and going through the entire part that connects the neck to the body.
Thanks for the reply.
Stefano

[AllanAllen]

Get some woodwork clamps and use wood glue. The bond of wood glue is stronger than natural wood, no screws needed. Don’t over clamp it, just make things snug. Get clamps like this that won’t damage wood, metal clamps will absolutely mar the guitar, these will just likely mar the guitar. No offense, but if you don’t know what you’re doing the most common error will be over tightening the clamps.


Amazon.com

If it’s a Gibson, pay a luthier, if it’s a Godin or some other $1,000 or less guitar. Send more pictures and ask more questions.

[Sam Sherry]

I found this guitar for sale with a broken neck. I know nothing about luthiery, and I don't have the skill or the means to do a proper job, but I was wondering (and asking you) if it could be fixed with a good glue and two wood screws starting from the base and going through the entire part that connects the neck to the body.

Could. Sure.
Also, could be "fixed" badly resulting in a much more screwed-up and less-fixable Guitar Shaped Object.

Mark Twain once said this: "Good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgment."

[nevershouldhavesoldit]

That’s one strange “break”. It looks more like a cut. Is the neck still firmly attached to the body? Is what’s left of the heel still firmly attached? It’s impossible to understand what we’re looking at without this info and pics of it from all angles.

Is it playable the way it is? From the pic, it looks like the neck is seated against the top. If it is and the rest of the heel is still attached to the rim, you can’t close that gap unless you fill it with a well made fitted wood shim or remove and reposition the heel fragment.

Proper repair would probably require neck removal if it’s not already loose. What kind of neck joint is it - full dovetail, mortise & tenon, other?

[SOLR]

Hi everyone,
I've never posted here, but I read and sometimes post on Guitar, Amps & Gizmos.
I found this guitar for sale with a broken neck. I know nothing about luthiery, and I don't have the skill or the means to do a proper job, but I was wondering (and asking you) if it could be fixed with a good glue and two wood screws starting from the base and going through the entire part that connects the neck to the body.
Thanks for the reply.
Stefano

Not a luthier but from this one pic it's hard to tell what's going on here , but, I would leave out the screws....

For the neck to separate like that there might be some other damage that we can't see, is the top sunken in or is the fingerboard lifted from the top ? I may be wrong but that looks like a failed neck heel dovetail/ tenon assembly, the break seems too clean for anything else I can think of or a wedge was cut in there and that is now absent .
If you want to try this out get the proper glue and some clamps and maybe look at this restoration around the 17 minute mark (neck repair no screws!).

And there's this one at 15.00 min in, also quite interesting.

Also of note , instead of the screw a dowel like here at 23 min.

Of course all this is moot if there's a wedge missing of if this is a sawed off slit in the heel.

S

[AllanAllen]

Is it playable the way it is? From the pic, it looks like the neck is seated against the top. If it is and the rest of the heel is still attached to the rim, you can’t close that gap unless you fill it with a well made fitted wood shim or remove and reposition the heel fragment.

Why would you even entertain this? There is no way it’s playable with a 1/4” gap in the heel. Do you think a wedge of the heel fell out?

I’m genuinely interested how someone can look at that picture and come up with such an outlier assessment. Or, is it my ignorance?

[nevershouldhavesoldit]

Why would you even entertain this? There is no way it’s playable with a 1/4” gap in the heel. Do you think a wedge of the heel fell out?

I’m genuinely interested how someone can look at that picture and come up with such an outlier assessment. Or, is it my ignorance?

I don’t know how much lutherie or repair you’ve done, but this is really weird and may well not be what you think it is. That has to be one of the strangest injuries I’ve ever seen. If it’s truly a break, it’s the cleanest, sharpest break in history. How do you think such a break could have occurred - dropping an anvil on the first few frets with the body secured to a table? Whacking the back of the neck with a sledgehammer at the 12th fret?

The pic is not high res, so it’s not possible to see if the fingerboard is in contact with the top (which it appears to be if you zoom in on that area - but it’s very fuzzy when magnified). If the top is now separated from the neck, why is the heel still attached to the rim? It couldn’t be a full dovetail joint to leave that heel attached like that - the whole thing should have come loose if a full dovetail broke out. It could even be a bolt on with bolts beneath the fingerboard and the “heel” a cosmetic appendage.

It’s so hard to imagine how that could have happened if it’s a traumatic break that I think another explanation is far more likely. It sure would help evaluate it to know if the neck is off the body and what kind of joint it is.

Since that wedge shaped space tapers, it’s possible that this was an attempt to reset the neck or fit a replacement, too.

[StefanoGhirardo]

Thanks everyone for the replies (and the video: I'm overwhelmed by the complexity of the work he did ;-).
I requested more photos of the crack, but he hasn't sent them to me yet. If and as soon as I get them, I'll post them here, try to answer Never's helpful questions, and decide whether to accept the challenge. I'm a little less confident now...

[AllanAllen]

I don’t know how much lutherie or repair you’ve done, but this is really weird and may well not be what you think it is. That has to be one of the strangest injuries I’ve ever seen. If it’s truly a break, it’s the cleanest, sharpest break in history. How do you think such a break could have occurred - dropping an anvil on the first few frets with the body secured to a table? Whacking the back of the neck with a sledgehammer at the 12th fret?

The pic is not high res, so it’s not possible to see if the fingerboard is in contact with the top (which it appears to be if you zoom in on that area - but it’s very fuzzy when magnified). If the top is now separated from the neck, why is the heel still attached to the rim? It couldn’t be a full dovetail joint to leave that heel attached like that - the whole thing should have come loose if a full dovetail broke out. It could even be a bolt on with bolts beneath the fingerboard and the “heel” a cosmetic appendage.

It’s so hard to imagine how that could have happened if it’s a traumatic break that I think another explanation is far more likely. It sure would help evaluate it to know if the neck is off the body and what kind of joint it is.

Since that wedge shaped space tapers, it’s possible that this was an attempt to reset the neck or fit a replacement, too.

Here’s a grainy shot of my Broadway neck heel. You see a line at the same place OP has a break where 2 pieces of wood were joined. So I wouldn’t expect the heel and neck to be one piece. If OP is looking at a budget guitar.

As to how it possibly happened, only one way really. The drummer did it.

Shared album - Allan A - Google Photos

[nevershouldhavesoldit]

Thanks everyone for the replies (and the video: I'm overwhelmed by the complexity of the work he did ;-).
I requested more photos of the crack, but he hasn't sent them to me yet. If and as soon as I get them, I'll post them here, try to answer Never's helpful questions, and decide whether to accept the challenge. I'm a little less confident now...

What is the make and model?

Is the neck currently attached to the body?

If so, is it playable?

[nevershouldhavesoldit]

Since that wedge shaped space tapers, it’s possible that this was an attempt to reset the neck or fit a replacement, too.

This is exactly what’s pictured in the last 2 videos added by SOLR. It’s quite possible that the heel was divided while removing the neck, and it wouldn’t go all the way back into the dovetail (assuming that’s what the joint is). It could also be a replacement neck on which the heel was cut short, so it would fit in above the tip that’s stuck in the joint. If that’s what happened and the neck is all the way in the joint, the heel was cut off too high, leaving that gap.