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Old 03-05-2019, 03:28 AM
Procrastinator Procrastinator is offline
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Default Used Epiphone Archtop - lacquer cracks in the neck?

A used Epiphone that I’m interested in buying has lacquer cracks on both sides of the neck - from what you can see from the pics, do you think this is something that’s going to cause me problems further down the line?

Any input would be much appreciated, thanks!

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Old 03-05-2019, 06:26 AM
WordMan WordMan is offline
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Either there is a crack in the wood, or, more likely, the neck was subjected to stress at one point and got those. A weather change causing a neck bow at some point in its life?

Clearly you need to have a tech check it out, confirm there's no risk with the wood itself, and that the cause was something like I made up above.

Good luck.
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Old 03-05-2019, 09:17 AM
kayakman kayakman is offline
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That does not look like a lacquer crack..
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Old 03-05-2019, 09:20 AM
Procrastinator Procrastinator is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by WordMan View Post
Either there is a crack in the wood, or, more likely, the neck was subjected to stress at one point and got those. A weather change causing a neck bow at some point in its life?



Clearly you need to have a tech check it out, confirm there's no risk with the wood itself, and that the cause was something like I made up above.



Good luck.


I was told that it happened when the headstock got “whacked” - I agree with you, I feel quite reluctant to take a deal without having it professionally looked at first.
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Old 03-05-2019, 09:38 AM
rmp rmp is offline
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That's a headstock crack. Walk away, and look for another one.
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Old 03-05-2019, 10:59 AM
Steve DeRosa Steve DeRosa is offline
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In case you're not aware, many low-end import (particularly Chinese/Indonesian) guitars employ a scarf-jointed headstock - a separate piece of wood glued into the main neck structure in the interest of lowering production costs versus a traditional one-piece/multi-piece (longitudinal) neck...

I can't tell from the photos, but the orientation of the cracks appears to be almost exactly where a headstock would be attached with a scarf joint...

This one's bad news - IME cost you more in the long run to get it properly repaired than it would to buy a new one with warranty - and I wouldn't touch it at any price...
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Old 03-05-2019, 11:49 AM
Procrastinator Procrastinator is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rmp View Post
That's a headstock crack. Walk away, and look for another one.
Quote:
In case you're not aware, many low-end import (particularly Chinese/Indonesian) guitars employ a scarf-jointed headstock - a separate piece of wood glued into the main neck structure in the interest of lowering production costs versus a traditional one-piece/multi-piece (longitudinal) neck...

I can't tell from the photos, but the orientation of the cracks appears to be almost exactly where a headstock would be attached with a scarf joint...

This one's bad news - IME cost you more in the long run to get it properly repaired than it would to buy a new one with warranty - and I wouldn't touch it at any price...
Duly noted - thank you both for your advice and letting me know what I should look out for in future purchases!
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