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  #1  
Old 07-13-2019, 01:34 PM
jpricewood jpricewood is offline
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Default Do you think this is a scratch or crack?

This is on the back of my new, used Eastman E8D (solid rosewood/nitro finish). It looks like a scratch but it’s hard to tell. I don’t see any crack inside the guitar.

[IMG]CBCBADBE-BE8B-4ECF-B299-8EF2FB54AAC4 by Jared Wood, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG]01C63BAE-97F2-481D-AECB-038E7B8DA9D9 by Jared Wood, on Flickr[/IMG]

Thanks for looking.
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Eastman: AC630 Super Jumbo (2019)
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Last edited by jpricewood; 07-13-2019 at 02:21 PM.
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  #2  
Old 07-13-2019, 01:42 PM
H165 H165 is offline
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Photos not visible to me.
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  #3  
Old 07-13-2019, 03:41 PM
jpricewood jpricewood is offline
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Whoops, I think you can see them now.
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Eastman: AC630 Super Jumbo (2019)
Gibson: Eric Church Hummingbird Dark (2016), J-45 Standard (2013), Gibson L-00 (1930s)
Guild: D-55 (1998)
Martin: D-41 Reimagined (2019), 000-15SM (2018), OM-28 VTS Custom (2016), D-18 Golden Era (2014)
Taylor: K24ce Builder’s Edition (2020), K14c Cedar (1999)
Yamaha: CSF3M Parlor (2019)

Last edited by jpricewood; 07-13-2019 at 03:47 PM.
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  #4  
Old 07-13-2019, 03:56 PM
phavriluk phavriluk is offline
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Default sure way to tell

get some lighter fluid and a flashlight and put a goodly squirt on the outside of the disturbance, let it sit for a little bit, and go peer inside the guitar. If a dark (wet) line is evident, it's a crack. A scratch won't cause the inside to show wet from the outside application.
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Old 07-13-2019, 04:15 PM
John Arnold John Arnold is offline
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I suspect crack, since it follows the grain, more or less.
Cracks are less visible inside a guitar, which leads to the mistaken notion that a crack 'does not go all the way through'. That is nearly impossible on a solid wood guitar, considering how thin and brittle the wood is.
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  #6  
Old 07-13-2019, 06:15 PM
jpricewood jpricewood is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by phavriluk View Post
get some lighter fluid and a flashlight and put a goodly squirt on the outside of the disturbance, let it sit for a little bit, and go peer inside the guitar. If a dark (wet) line is evident, it's a crack. A scratch won't cause the inside to show wet from the outside application.
If I may ask, why lighter fluid? It won’t hurt the nitro finish?
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Eastman: AC630 Super Jumbo (2019)
Gibson: Eric Church Hummingbird Dark (2016), J-45 Standard (2013), Gibson L-00 (1930s)
Guild: D-55 (1998)
Martin: D-41 Reimagined (2019), 000-15SM (2018), OM-28 VTS Custom (2016), D-18 Golden Era (2014)
Taylor: K24ce Builder’s Edition (2020), K14c Cedar (1999)
Yamaha: CSF3M Parlor (2019)
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  #7  
Old 07-13-2019, 06:20 PM
maxtheaxe maxtheaxe is offline
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It looks like a crack to me, but it could just be in the finish. Try to "candle" it...put a light source inside the guitar in a dark room, try to see if it shows through the top.
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  #8  
Old 07-13-2019, 08:30 PM
phavriluk phavriluk is offline
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Default A thought

fluid is not-so-pure naphtha. Testing to make sure that a finish will be unaffected is always a safe way to go with solvents.
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Old 07-13-2019, 09:01 PM
Quickstep192 Quickstep192 is offline
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It’s always been my understanding that Naphtha will not harm any fully cured finish.
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  #10  
Old 07-15-2019, 02:33 PM
jpricewood jpricewood is offline
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I tried the naphtha, and yep, it’s a crack . This is my first ever crack. Hopefully, it doesn’t cost much to stabilize. Thanks for all the advice.
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Eastman: AC630 Super Jumbo (2019)
Gibson: Eric Church Hummingbird Dark (2016), J-45 Standard (2013), Gibson L-00 (1930s)
Guild: D-55 (1998)
Martin: D-41 Reimagined (2019), 000-15SM (2018), OM-28 VTS Custom (2016), D-18 Golden Era (2014)
Taylor: K24ce Builder’s Edition (2020), K14c Cedar (1999)
Yamaha: CSF3M Parlor (2019)
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  #11  
Old 07-16-2019, 08:22 AM
John Arnold John Arnold is offline
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Simple fix with thin CA, provided it is not stepped.
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  #12  
Old 07-16-2019, 08:32 AM
rmp rmp is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jpricewood View Post
I tried the naphtha, and yep, it’s a crack . This is my first ever crack. Hopefully, it doesn’t cost much to stabilize. Thanks for all the advice.
when you say new, is it "new enough" for an exchange, or has that horse left the stable?
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  #13  
Old 07-16-2019, 05:24 PM
jpricewood jpricewood is offline
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So there might be a slim chance I can return it or get my money back. Here's the story.

I bought the guitar from Reverb and received it last Monday. It seemed to be packaged quite well, and there was no sign of shipping damages. I pulled the guitar out and looked it over. It had a lot of wear that wasn’t shown in the pictures, but it sounded good, so I looked past the wear. Later that night my wife found the crack, which looked like a scratch at the time, but I reported it to the seller anyway. The next day I changed the strings and noticed that the 10th fret was dead, which was also upsetting. I took the guitar to my luthier to have it looked over. He said that the crack looked like a scratch and that it needed a complete fret dress/leveling due to wolf tones and severe buzz. I asked the seller to split the cost of the fret dress with me because dead frets weren’t mentioned in the listing. He said no, which I accepted because it sounded good otherwise and paid the setup and fret dress cost. Since I already had it set up late last week, I tossed the box away. Well, the same scratch was still bothering me, so I posted on here. I took it back to the luthier today. He examined it more thoroughly and determined it would need two to three cleats. He estimated the cost would be between $100 and $200 depending on how much finish work I wanted him to do. In his opinion, the damage wasn’t caused by shipping. He said it was probably there before but was overlooked by the seller.

So at this point, I have a lot of money in this guitar, which was advertised as "very good,” but is actually only “good” or “fair" at best. Another $100+ will put me at the price of a new Eastman E8D. The box is long gone, so I have no way to prove it was damaged in shipping. I reported everything to Reverb. The seller is trying to get the repair cost of the crack covered but I don't have high hopes.

I purchase a lot of used gear from Reverb, but I think this will go down as my first real goof up. I may have to use this as a learning opportunity and find solace in the fact that the guitar sounds really good.
__________________
Eastman: AC630 Super Jumbo (2019)
Gibson: Eric Church Hummingbird Dark (2016), J-45 Standard (2013), Gibson L-00 (1930s)
Guild: D-55 (1998)
Martin: D-41 Reimagined (2019), 000-15SM (2018), OM-28 VTS Custom (2016), D-18 Golden Era (2014)
Taylor: K24ce Builder’s Edition (2020), K14c Cedar (1999)
Yamaha: CSF3M Parlor (2019)

Last edited by jpricewood; 07-16-2019 at 05:41 PM.
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  #14  
Old 07-16-2019, 06:22 PM
mirwa mirwa is offline
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I would not think its warranty.

I assess maybe 15 guitars a week for warranty purposes, if it has impact damage down the lower bout area, then maybe yes the previous owner was aware of it.

If the body is good and shows no evidence of physical damage, then it is likely the guitar has cracked acclimatising itself to your location.

Steve
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  #15  
Old 07-16-2019, 06:28 PM
jpricewood jpricewood is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mirwa View Post
I would not think its warranty.

I assess maybe 15 guitars a week for warranty purposes, if it has impact damage down the lower bout area, then maybe yes the previous owner was aware of it.

If the body is good and shows no evidence of physical damage, then it is likely the guitar has cracked acclimatising itself to your location.

Steve
Could be. I asked my luthier if it looked like a crack caused by environmental issues and he said no. He thought it looked like a crack caused by impact. All I know is that the crack was there when I opened the box, but I doubt I’ll be able to recoup my losses.
__________________
Eastman: AC630 Super Jumbo (2019)
Gibson: Eric Church Hummingbird Dark (2016), J-45 Standard (2013), Gibson L-00 (1930s)
Guild: D-55 (1998)
Martin: D-41 Reimagined (2019), 000-15SM (2018), OM-28 VTS Custom (2016), D-18 Golden Era (2014)
Taylor: K24ce Builder’s Edition (2020), K14c Cedar (1999)
Yamaha: CSF3M Parlor (2019)
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