Tops cracked at neck block!!!

[LHawes]

Originally Posted by sgabalski

The neck blocks are rift sawn. Close to quarter and run kind of like the grain on the top.

Wood wants to shrink cross grain and is pretty stable along the grain. If both the neck block grain and top grain are running parallel then any shrinkage will occur cross grain on both, amplifying any shrinkage due to humidity and probably showing up through the top.

If the grain in the neck block is running perpendicular to the top grain and parallel to the sides it will tend to shrink cross grain front to back and not side to side. Might help when the humidity drops?

[sgabalski]

Thank you all for your experience. Looks like I made fancy firewood. I learned a lot this go around.

[JonWint]

Originally Posted by sgabalski

Thank you all for your experience. Looks like I made fancy firewood. I learned a lot this go around.

Control the humidity in your shop, humidify the bodies, glue cracks, and continue building.

[LHawes]

Originally Posted by sgabalski

Thank you all for your experience. Looks like I made fancy firewood. I learned a lot this go around.

It's not difficult to rehydrate the bodies and see what changes. Sponges in perforated plastic bags, drop those in the bodies and put the bodies in a large trash bag, and other methods. If the cracks begin to close or close completely it might at least narrow down the cause?

I've rehydrated a guitar that was close to destroyed by an Arizona summer and it came back surprisingly well. Worth a shot?

[Mark Hatcher]

It's good practice to not have the edges of the heel block run inline to the grain of the top. If you taper the heal block so the edge is crossing top grain lines it takes a lot more to start a crack,