strat neck issue

[Foamoi_refreshe]

ive had this strat for a couple of years now, and over the past 6 ish months or so the rear of the neck has had some strange marks coming through, almost like cracks on the back of the neck.

 

the guitar was setup by my local guitar tech about 18 months ago, only used the same guage strings since then, and have not made anymore adjustments to the setup as its been perfect for me ever since, the neck relief seems fine, the guitars is setup how i want it.

 

but these cracks seem to be getting longer, and more of them, i dont keep the guitar in its case, but sits on a rack. it lives im my band practice studio and gets played everyday. one thing i was thinking was maybe the change in temp?? as its gets warm in the room during the summer, and cold during the nights.

 

anyway. here are some crappy pics trying to show what the marks look like

 

 

what should i do?? take it back to the tech and get it re-setup??

[59humbucker]

looks like laquer cracking to me which is usually down to temperature.

 

Is it a nitro finish, they are more prone to it and I'm quite suprised to see it on what I assume is a poly finished guitar.

 

If it is what it looks like, it should not effect playability. If you're really concerned, contact fender

[Foamoi_refreshe]

im pretty sure its poly, its an '04 50th aniv strat

 

it has not affected any of the setup or playablility, i was just a little concerned as ive never seen this on any of my otyher giutars before that get pretty much the same treatment . . .

[Les Paul Lover]

Can you feel the cracks?

[Foamoi_refreshe]

i can feel them with my fingernails and it does feel like its just the laquer/finish on the neck, especially on the cracks on the back of the headstock, but the ones on the neck its self feel a little different, but i think they also look darker because of dirt/sweat etc going into them from me playing it so much

[Orange Jackson]

If it ends up really bugging you, you could carefully sand it down and then wipe tru oil onto it to refinish it.

[Bro Blue]

It looks like finish cracks, and big temperature changes quickly is usually the culprit.

 

If the neck is straight and there are no other issues then I wouldn't worry about it. You can sand it down a little or strip it and refinish.

[headless]

 

Perhaps whatever it is about your body chemistry that so cruded-up those tuning-machine, also has produced those finish cracks.

 

But seriously, I'm surprised to see that in a poly finish, but stuff happens and it might have been flawed in some way at the factory, and over time the cracks resulted.

 

It really doesn't seem like a tech/set-up issue. You could just very, very fine sand the back of the neck--not neccessarily removing the entire finish, but just leveling things out. The finish after sanding won't be glossy, but will be smoother and you may end-up liking it's "feel" more than the factory gloss.

[WRGKMC]

Poly doesnt crack like that, nor does it look dull like that. Poly is applied in independant coats, and each coat is a seperate layer. (like tree rings). because of this layering, cracks like that dont occur unless the instrument has taken a shock that cracks through all the layers.

 

Its likely nitro laquer. Each fresh coat of laquer melts into the previous layers to become one single coat. The cracks are perfect evidence because they're a crack in a single layer of thick coating.

 

 

Good thing is with laquer is those cracks can be fixed without having to refinishing the entire neck. It should be done by someone who knows how to do it. Basically Laquer thinner is applied to melt the cracks back together and then additional laquer is oversprayed to cap the repair.

 

The two possible issues here though could be rapid temp and humidity changes which could crack the finish. In that case you may want to rethink keeping it in a case. It could have taken a shock, someone knocked it over when you werent aware. That requires some ass kicking.

 

Third and fairly common, the base coat before the laquer was applied was garbage, I've seen alot of junk coming out of the orient lately and whatever they're using is gargage for laquer adhesion. It appears to have a poly base. Any idiot knows you cannot apply laquer which is alcohol based over poly which is a plastic finish and have it stick perminantly or not separate with temp changes. What they should use is a shelac sealer.