Guitar refinishing/repair

[zoiberg17]

Hello all new member here.

I am re-finishing a BC Rich and i was wondering if anyone knew what is the best stuff to use to finish the back of the neck?

I also have a couple of guitars that have cracked necks from being dropped. Anyone have a good solution to fix these? What kind of glue to use?

Thanks:confused:

[crazyderek]

lol you're a big help guru

ok for finishing the back of the neck's (i'm going to assume you don't have the equipment to re apply 3 or 4 coats of industrial polyurathane) the simplest thing is to get all the old stuff off of there, then sand the neck with 220, 400, and finaly 600 grid paper, next go to any walmart and buy a small bottle of double boiled linseed oil (about $4). With an old CLEAN rag or paper towl apply a coat by rubbing it in thoughouly (should take about 15 minutes) anything that hasn't seeped into the wood after that remove with another cloth or peice of paper towl and let dry for about a day. I put about 3 coats on but i think i over did it, cause the back of my neck was a litle sticky for over a month, so maybe you should only do 2 coats, after the second coat, let the neck dry for about a week ( i know i know a long time) then sand it lightly with 400, and then vigirously with 600 to get a nice smooth (almost satin) finish. I've done this to one neck that i had to refinsh, i wasn't crazy about it at frist cause it was sticky but after about a month the linseed oil reallly dried and MAAAAAAAAANNNNNN it plays sooooooo nice now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok second fixng that old neck, you're going to have to be a bit more specific on where exactly the crack is on the neck before i blab on about that

[zoiberg17]

Derek,

Thanks for the info!

The neck is craked at the headstock and the fretboard is actually coming away from the neck. it aslo has some cracks running horizontally with the neck. I am going to take some digital pictures

[crazyderek]

np dude,

ya pictures would really help, sounds like you're in for quite the repair project there.

[crazyderek]

ok here's the link to the pics,
http://www.accesswave.ca/~derekn/brokenneck.jpg]

alrighty then,
based on the pics i saw i'm thinking that you should be able to use some wood glue, clamp the neck, then sand off the excess glue and refinish the neck as mentioned above
now, some of you out there might think i'm just a punk kid that's full of wind, but take a look at how ibanez RG neck's are made, the nead stock it glued at an angle onto the back of the neck, similiar to how this neck has cracked.

ok, here's what i would do.
1. remove the nut, and the black triangle plate covering the access whole to the truss rod.

2. if possible completely crack off the top part of the neck, but take care not to lose to much in the form of chips that don't stay on either peice. if the truss rod get in the way (under the nut) then then try cracking the bottom of the broken off peice off from the neck and then it should slide right off over the top of the truss rod (i think) lol

i know some of you may think this is making a bad thing even worse but i think it's neccesary to be able to apply the adequate glue on both surfaces

3. go out and buy some wood glue, as far as i know it's all pretty much the same, you might want to get the stuff that dries clear though, for asthetic purposes, also pick up some 120 grid sand paper, and 3 or 4 "Quick Grip" 2 inch clamps, (the yellow ones) for 4$ they're actually really good, and the rubber clamping "teeth" won't damage the wood. these are available at any walmart store

4. next, apply the glue to both sides, you'll probably want to use some paper towl or a good paint brush to do this, try and get the glue in ever little nook and crany, on both peices of wood, BUT!!!!! except for in the truss rod compartment, and on the neck under the finger board above the truss rod. wood glue takes about half an hour to setup so don't go to slow applying the glue to the peices but, no rush either, should take about 5 mins to get a good layer of blue on either peice.

5. fit the peices together exactly as they were, this shouldn't be to hard, if you're having trouble just slide the peices together until they seem to "lock" together so to speak.

6. using you're 3 or 4 quick clamps clamp the 2 peices together so that the clamp is applying pressure to the fingerboard, and the back of the neck, judging by the anlge of the crack you shouldn't have to worry about the 2 peices sliding away from each other once you start to clamp them. Make sure you squeeze those clamps nice and tight, you should be seeing beed's of excess wood glue coming out from the sides of the crack, this is good, you should probably wipe it away once you're done clamping.

most wood glues say they only need to be clamped for 25-30 mins, but i always leave the clamps on for about an hour just to be safe. read the directions on the bottle if there are any.

7. after and hour or so, remove the clamps and sand down the crack joint so that's it's smooth.

give the neck a day or 2 for all the glue to completely harden inside the joint and then replace it on the guitar, hopefully it should work fine :)

[UGB]

If you don't have clamps, lots of rubber bands work well too, but ya gotta get 'em tight. You can even fashion a tournequet (sp?) and clamp that way.

That's the worst cracked neck I've ever seen. If it's a bolt on, I'd really just get a new one; set neck too.