Jump to content

Crap, I cracked my Am Dlx Strat!


kmarsh

Recommended Posts

  • Members

Heh, I'll admit I'm pissed about it, but not suicidal yet! ;) I'll take the luthier's suggestion above and check the neck bolts with a torque wrench... and just try to avoid looking at the crack from now on (hmmm... words to live by?).

 

"Come down off the ledge!"




:wave:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Thanks for the advice. I didn't buy it new, so I'm fairly certain Fender won't do anything for me. I'll take your advice, though, and set those neck bolts with a torque wrench. I assume you mean 9 ft/lbs and not 9 psi (?).

 

 

You should contact Fender your close enough to date time where they may take care of it-"May" do not get your hopes up-PM me your area and I will send you your reps contact info-If your honest they may take care of it for you or offer a very low discounted repair rate-Lastly that has a very tight neck pocket and the bolts are overtorked to the tilt ajustment pin IE: there is where most people get the crack and think it is common-It is only common when you crank the screws down over the pin and do not use a tork wrench to make them all the same and equil and with a soft tip not to scratch the screws to keep all bolts at equil PSI-Equil PSI at a lower tork is just as strong as if you crank the bolts down-When you crank the bolts down it spreads the neck heal causing expantion and even pulling at different directions and when no tork wrench is used is causes a twist effect against the pin-Very bad and it does cause pressure at the body heel inset outer points-A fender authorised repair shop with a spraybooth and buffers should do the repair(if you break it down and only send the body) and only send the body for about $200 max if it bugs you-If it dont bug you take a thin film of system 3 sealer and go over it then hit it with a hairdryer so it will not expand or chip off later-the system 3 will blend in but will not hide the damadge but back those bolts off to 9lbs PSI and make them all exactly the same tork.That is what caused the problem-Over tightened uneven torking of the neck bolts against the pin-That is not a common problem it is however a common problem for those who crank bolts down with a screwdriver

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I love to hear what Fender says about this? I doubt very much they will cover the Stress Crack. Basically it happens from neglect. I wouldn't sweat it though, it not going o effect playing. Be carefull to handle Fender necks at an angle. Really no reason for it?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

BTW, I believe it important to tighten the Bolt-On neck bolts evenly an in a X pattern. But I never heard of using a Torque Wrench on wood screws? Thats a new one to me. I have to check a couple of my Strats for the Hell of it to see where they are at with Torque? I have been hand tightening these forever in a X pattern. I don't like to tighten anything on a Strat to the point of putting impressions in the paint. From past experience.......if you are tightening ANYTHING on a wood electric? You just don't need it THAT tight. I've seen Tuning Machines tightened SO-TIGHT, that there were minor cracks in the Clear Finish! WTF? Why would you tighten it like that? Snug is all the 4-Bolts need to be. Not to the point of hearing the wood splinter under your pressure? I don't I guess these are all mistakes we all make at some point? You learn by your mistakes. Not the easiest way to learn, but effective!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Moderators

It's quite interesting that the luthier above mentions using a torque wrench of some kind to tighten the neck screws. Some of you will remember recently a video of the Fender Custom Shop where they dismantled and assembled Claptons guitar with a drill driver.

 

Plus it also occurs to me that this Deluxe would have had its neck bolts tightened last by....yup The FMIC:thu:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Hell, my Telecaster was like that at the shop before I even bought it. To me it's a non issue. I did get a few bucks off for scratch's, dings, and finish cracks though ;) Rock on, it's likely not structual and in no way effects the integrity of the guitar. It might hurt your resale value slightly if you get an uptight buyer.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Good point. That's quite possible. No sense worrying about it any more.

 

I think I'll shoot Fender an e-mail and just get their input on how those neck bolts should be tightened... and then just forget about the finish crack.

 

 

I seriously doubt there is any connection between the "creak" you heard and the finish crack.Probably just caused you to take a close look at the finish near the neck.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I'm not inclined to trust a "luthier" who can't spell torque. Maybe I have a different idea of what a torque wrench looks like, but as far as I know they don't tighten wood screws.

 

I think the original poster would be silly to send it in to Fender for a tiny finish crack - trust me, there are more finish cracks on their way :D It would be much better to consider this "mojo" and move on! :cool:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

never happened to me and I have had tons of strats. were you lifting it forcefully? I always grab the bottom of the guitar to lift it, not doing it by the neck. Anyway, I have seen some strats that had stress cracks but really never hurt their playability.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I had an Aria 335 clone (bolt on at that) that had cracks on both sides like this. On mine, turns out it was more serious. It was a semi-hollow, but more hollow than anything. The center block of the body was no more than 3/4" thick. The bolt on area for the neck wasn't really reinforced well so the tension of the strings ended up cracking the body all the way through after a few years. But on a strat, I wouldn't worry.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...