How bad is this?

[DawgBone]

Dawgbone you stick it right there in your ass. You happen to be one.

I hope you are a better luthier than you are a deacon.

[AllanAllen]

I hope you are a better luthier than you are a deacon.

What are you talking about? He's my favorite deacon now. LOL

[Woody Sound]

[DawgBone]

What are you talking about? He's my favorite deacon now. LOL

His Christ like love for those who disagree with him is noteworthy.

[AllanAllen]

His Christ like love for those who disagree with him is noteworthy.

You're the one who provoked him. Jesus didn't say you had to be a little bitch and let people walk all over you.

[deacon Mark]

I hope you are a better luthier than you are a deacon.

Sad to say being a deacon is challenging and we can hide behind many things rather than grow. My luthier skills are ok for some things however compared to a Mark Campellone by skills would come up hugely short of anything. Dawgbone as far as I am concerned this is petty stuff I assume we both play the guitar the common ground. I won't be fixing any of your guitars I am pretty sure, and you are not even in the Diocese where I function.

In the end I am passed it I shake hands over the net and keep playing guitars. We should stick to arguing about if a Gibson 175 or a Tal is a better option.

[John A.]

You're the one who provoked him. Jesus didn't say you had to be a little bitch and let people walk all over you.

You'd be amazed by how often (like, 100% of the time!) people don't realize "turn the other cheek" means "don't be a little bitch" and think it means "don't respond in kind to insult or aggression". Then there's the Sermon in the Bar after the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus said "mocketh not excessively the meek who are immune to sarcasm."

Oh, and $125 strikes me as a fair price for a heel-crack repair. It'd probably be at least $150 in my neck of the woods.

[AllanAllen]

What about the Sermon at next daybreak "Oh my dad, I don't even remember last night.... who's got the tylenol?"

[Bobby Timmons]

Mad at theory, mad at tonewood, mad at JC.

[nyc chaz]

Yes I see and easy. Glue and clamp it will be almost invisible I would take at syringe and push glue. 2 properly placed clamps and let dry 24 hours. In my shop $125 no finish worked needed.

$125! Please come to New York,a charge of $125 is just saying hello here.

[deacon Mark]

$125! Please come to New York,a charge of $125 is just saying hello here.

This is not New York or west coast and prices adjusted for this, it even works when pricing a guitar to sell locally. In the midwest we do have Chicago 2 hours away but, in the cornfields, we cannot charge the same. I do many repairs on guitars that are worth very little money. Someone has a peghead break on a $200-300 value guitar I adjust things. The goal for these things is what can make in playable for least money? This quite a different approach than Mark C is doing on the L5 repair thread. It is apples to apples, but one apple is worth 30 times more money.

[nevershouldhavesoldit]

You charge $125 for what amounts to about ten or fifteen minutes of work?

Without a doubt and more. The strings need to be removed and the whole guitar set back up to play. This requires much more time than 15 minutes. Obviously you have not repaired guitars. Call a plumber to come and install a new shutoff value. just to change the valve takes 10-15 minutes. However there is much more involves. That will cost at least $150.

Here's a classic story you might find handy in the future, Mark.

There was once a world famous milliner in New York whose hats were worn by wealthy women around the world. An uppity matron from the upper East side went to her shop seeking a very simple hat. The hatmaker brought out a beautiful little cap that was everything the buyer wanted. She stepped up to pay for it and was told it would cost her $1000. She screamed "That's outrageous! It's just a piece of felt!". The hatmaker asked her to wait for a minute and went into the back of her shop.

She came back with a piece of the felt from which the hat had been made. "Here's the felt. That'll be $20."

[MCampellone]

Is that a factory fitted strap button or an afterthought? Could it be causing the back to separate from the heel block?

It appears that the strap button is screwed into the neck block, not the heel cap, so unlikely that it's part of the problem.

[MCampellone]

I've got a D'Angelico Excel Deluxe that I foolishly left out of its case in a stand over the winter. I never dropped it or bumped it, but I looked at it recently and found a crack right at the neck joint. I immediately slacked the strings and put it in its case. What I'm wondering is, how bad is this exactly? Is it just the lining separating from the body, and basically cosmetic, or is it a structural problem? Any diagnoses/advice appreciated!

Kind of an unusual place for a fracture - typically, a neck joint failure will cause a noticeable increase in string height - if your action hasn't changed, then the neck joint is probably stable.

Depending on how the neck/body joint is done, it could be that the bottom portion of the heel (towards the heel cap) is not secured in the neck block - this would leave it free to move should any wood shrinkage occur - looks like that might be the case here - if conditions were really dry over the Winter, the bottom of the heel may have shrunk, pulling it away from the heel cap and creating this fracture.

[unclejam79]

That's a really helpful diagnosis, thank you. I think that must be exactly what happened.

[Woody Sound]

What I don't get is, how does leaving the guitar out of its case cause this? All of my guitars are out on a rack all year round for easy access, but covered by a sheet, only for dust cover.

ps - It helps that I keep my humidity pretty stable, usually around 45%. Humidify in winter, dehumidify in summer.

[nevershouldhavesoldit]

That's a really helpful diagnosis, thank you. I think that must be exactly what happened.

I’d let a luthier take a look at it because there are a few odd twists. First, the black lines in the binding are misaligned across the joint between the heel cap and the body, and the cap binding is lower. So unless it was made that way, it looks like at least the very bottom wood on the heel has been displaced downward. Second, it looks like the strap button screw was inserted crooked, because the base is not parallel to the wood surface. Third, there are cracks extending up the heel parallel to the dovetail joint (or whatever kind of joint was used). Fourth, the bottom of the heel is still in what looks like proper contact with the cap. It has not pulled away, unless it also splintered and left just the periphera attached to the cap. But dryness typically causes the wood to shrink away from the binding, which is why loose binding is a common hallmark of dehydration.

I agree that the neck joint is probably fine if there’s no change in action, no looseness, and no buzzing or other change in acoustic sound. But this looks like a break in the wood, not separation of the heel from the cap. I’d be surprised if the strap button screw was long enough to have reached the heel, but it is crooked. It’s probably not related, but it could be if it’s both long enough and sufficiently off axis to have crossed the joint and put outward pressure on the inner part of the heel rather than self-threading into it.

If both the neck and the wood that appears broken off are not at all mobile, this one’s a puzzle.