ever hear of binding separating from temp shifts?

[elasticman]

I just shipped a Guild jumbo up to Canada (from Mass) and the buyer says the binding is separating and the heel cap fell off after unboxing.

Ever hear of this? Could this happen if he did not acclimate the box long enough?

It left my home like this:



and here is a pic he just sent me:

[Glennwillow]

I've not heard of this exact problem, but binding adhesive can fracture under the strain of expansion or shrinkage due to temperature and humidity changes.

My Rickenbacker 360-12 electric had the binding come loose from the body some years ago. It was just sitting in my studio not being subjected to anything unusual. I took it to my longtime technician who re-glued the binding. He had to add an additional piece of binding to actually make it work because the binding had shrunk so badly. He did this quite artistically so that it ended up looking decorative, so it was a very cool repair by a very talented repair guy. The repair costs were quite reasonable.

It doesn't look to me like the repair costs of the Guild in your OP will be very expensive. Stuff happens.

Best of luck with this!

- Glenn

[Wade Hampton]

Glenn wrote:

Originally Posted by Glennwillow

I've not heard of this exact problem, but binding adhesive can fracture under the strain of expansion or shrinkage due to temperature and humidity changes.

My thoughts exactly. The wood of the vibrating plates of the guitar probably contracted in transit, which could easily been enough to pull open the glue joint loose between the binding and the guitar and the heel cap and the neck. Both problems are easily and almost certainly inexpensive to correct.

Originally Posted by Glennwillow

It doesn't look to me like the repair costs of the Guild in your OP will be very expensive. Stuff happens.

I agree. It's also not your fault as the seller - that's just something that the guitar decided to do when exposed to the temperatures and humidity levels it encountered along the way from your house to the buyer.

It would be gracious of you to offer to pay 50% of the repair costs. I don't think it's your responsibility to pay for all of it.

It's not quite "Act of God" circumstances, but close. If anyone's ultimately, actually responsible for the damage it's the shipping company, but good luck collecting from them.

Hope this helps.


Wade Hampton Miller

[The Bard Rocks]

If asked to, I would pay ALL of it to keep someone happy and avoid losing the sale. Well worth it - after all, if it wasn't the customer's fault, then it "has" to be yours. Or the shipping company - but to try to get something out of them might be a lesson in futility.

[hermithollow]

How old is the guitar? Some glues dry out and fail after they get old. It may not be anyone's "fault".
Plastics are affected by temperature and wood is affected by humidity. In a hot dry situation the plastic will expand and the wood will shrink, in a cold wet environment the plastic will shrink and the wood will expand. Both situations create stress on the joint. Most glues are somewhat brittle when dry and either they give up or the material gives up.
Hopefully your buyer isn't someone who freaks out about a minor repair. Since you sold the guitar as being in good condition and had control over how it was shipped you should make it right. A reasonable course of action would be to pay for the repair, which again, hopefully the buyer will be O.K. with.

[brianlcox]

This brings up a question that has been on my mind for a little while now. When exactly does the buyer take responsibility of the guitar? Is the buyer buying the guitar from the sellers home, and then figuring out how to get the guitar to their location, or is the buyer buying a guitar delivered to their doorstep?

In a recent deal, I bought the guitar from the seller, at his doorstep. He packaged the guitar for shipping, but I arranged a shipping company to pick the guitar up from his house. In this case, any damages during shipping would have been paid by me - and any payment from the shipping company for insurance would have been my risk/ reward as well.

If I had bought a guitar for xxx Dollars, shipped, I would expect that the seller would look after shipping - including dealing with any issues caused by shipping. However, if the seller was just offerring a guitar and I asked about shipping, I would also assume that all shipping risks were on me.

If this wasn't discussed for this specific transaction, I suppose a 50% split between buyer and seller would be quite fair.

[kkrell]

Materials shrink/expand at different rates. Adhesives also can become brittle and separate - again particularly with dissimilar materials. It is unfortunate, but not unusual for this to have happened. If I were the seller, I would pay 100% of the costs, either to repair, or to accept/accomplish a return.

[collingsd2]

Had this sort of thing happen to my D-18 late last year. Still in the shop.....

I'm not sure if was from any temperature change or humidity change but due to a manufacturers defect.
Hopefully I'll get it back soon.
Best of luck!