Neck Joint stress cracks

[fretman]

I've had a few guitar where a crack would develop at the neck joint over time, musicman included. It never seemed to affect anything, playability, tone etc... but if I can prevent it I'd rather not have it. My Axis has it, I'd like to keep my jp6 from getting it.

Anyone have any idea why/how these cracks develop? how to prevent?

TIA
-Kory

 

[Headstock]

I've had a few guitar where a crack would develop at the neck joint over time, musicman included. It never seemed to affect anything, playability, tone etc... but if I can prevent it I'd rather not have it. My Axis has it, I'd like to keep my jp6 from getting it.

Anyone have any idea why/how these cracks develop? how to prevent?

TIA
-Kory

You should be out of the woods. It's my understanding that these usually happen if you drop guitar suddenly or when in the case during shipping and it gets slung around or "bumped" hard.

I suspect the only way it would just occur naturally without a jolt is if the neck pocket was created initially extremely tight and then you had expansion due to warmth / humidity.

I know that the JP I sent you has already been subjected to numerous climates and has not been affected and survived the gauntlet of shipment, that is why I think your fine.

But for the record, I have had numerous guitars of this quality with tight fitting pockets and this defect, I has never been an issue. I always try to tell folks when I am selling a guitar that has them, but I have never let it stop me from buying a guitar. Of the guitars I have currently probably 50% have this.

There is not really a solution to this engineering problem presently...
There are alternatives such as,

• not painting the body
• neck through, set neck
• having a loose pocket shifty neck

 

[MusicManJP6]

I've been lucky so far in this respect. So have all my friends. I've only heard of them on here oddly enough. Let's hope my luck extends to the BFR I have coming in 2 months!

 

[guitarman23]

my blue morse has two cracks on each side of the heel and the on at the top witch is bigger big now, but thats because it dropped, nothing else has effected it.

 

[Sub1 Zero]

Every bolt-neck guitar I've ever owned has had stress cracks, except for the Sub, and that's only because the thing is near bullet-proof.

 

[fogman]

Stress crack are no big deal.
They do not affect the guitar. It's just a paint thing.
EBMM had found that the problem was mostly from an overly perfectly fitted guitar case.
They have changed the cases and the problem is now gone.
So if you have one, it's most likely an older guitar with an older case.
Again, no biggie!

 

[Dizzy]

Stress crack are no big deal.
They do not affect the guitar. It's just a paint thing.
EBMM had found that the problem was mostly from an overly perfectly fitted guitar case.
They have changed the cases and the problem is now gone.
So if you have one, it's most likely an older guitar with an older case.
Again, no biggie!

My Axis (sold), and my Silver JP have the loose SKB cases and both have stress cracks.
(Both are mint and have never been dropped or mishandled)

No biggie ?

Do you honestly think you'd be as happy if that 1 of 4 Dargie got a stress crack ?

 

[PeteDuBaldo]

Here's my take on the neck joint cracks.

Less than 1% (one percent) of all the EBs that have come through here have had stress cracks upon arrival. Less than 1% (one percent) of all the EBs that I have shipped out have had stress cracks upon customer delivery. That means that less than 1 in 100 guitars has had a stress crack. In the past two years I have not had a single EB show up with a stress crack.

If it happens, the bottom line is that it's from rough handling. The crack is purely cosmetic and does not affect the playability of the guitar at all. I have an old Kramer with 2 gigantic cracks, and the guitar plays very well, and tuning stability is fantastic.

It's certainly not a problem any more.

 

[fretman]

Thanks for all the replies, don't think I got a definitive answer that I was hoping for. It never used to bother me until I got my first Musicman. Maybe more balls will help with this newly developed anal retentiveness.

Wonder if hanging the guitars by the head or resting the guitar on the neck on a guitar stand contribute to the cracks.... Has neck through Musicmans been discussed? Ofcourse not only to prevent the cracks.. anyway, going off topic now. Thanks again for your input.

 

[DrKev]

Wonder if hanging the guitars by the head or resting the guitar on the neck on a guitar stand contribute to the cracks

This has been answered before (possibly by before by Big Poppa, if memory serves me correctly). Hanging guitars by the head is perfectly safe (or on any guitar stand) and has absolutely no negative effects on the guitar whatsoever.

 

[steveh]

If it's of any interest, I have a new Shur Pro (superb guitar) which also has a neck pocket finish crack. I've also had at least two Axis guitars with cracks. I have been talking to John Suhr about this recently and his take on it is was also that it almost always happens during shipping, and that it's due to very rough handling - the guitar stops abruptly (when it's thrown and then lands!), the neck shifts, and the finish cracks. The cracks are almost always tangential away from the pocket (ie at an angle), which is a reasonable way of telling that the underlying wood isn't involved. The body wood grain is parallel with the neck socket so a crack that runs straight back could be into the wood; very unusual.

If you don't want it to happen, don't throw your guitar around! Easy.

Cheers,
Steve

 

[Spudmurphy]

Cracks will also happen AFTER shipping - so it's not 100% down to that.

A buddy of mine is a Luthier and he sees it happen on lots of different make guitars.

Good points made by Steveh.