Jon's 3rd build: DTL-1

[jonwhitear]

Well, I've made some good progress but also had a couple of setbacks.

I dowelled the neck bolt holes because they were in the wrong place and drilled at an angle far from perpendicular to the body, which went well. I then re-drilled them and fitted the neck OK.

I also dowelled the bridge screw holes, because they were also in the wrong place and drilled at strange angles. I suspect that this may have all fitted together with the original neck, but I had to get a replacement because the first one I received had all the frets on the bass side between the 1st and 9th fret filed back way too far. Anyway, I re-drilled the bridge screw holes, and now the bridge and neck fit OK and the strings run reasonably nicely down the neck.

In the meantime, I had also given the body a coat of ebony timber mate, and sanded back. I ended up sanding pretty much all of it off to get rid of all the scratches and machining marks, but I'm pretty happy with it now.



At this point (i.e. after sanding, but before re-drilling holes) I gave it another coat of timbermate, and left it for a few days to let the filler shrink. Unfortunately, when I came back to it, I found that the body has split along the join.



I'm pretty unhappy about that. I'm guessing I can just fill that crack, but how can I be confident that it's not going to reoccur?

I must admit, given that this is supposed to the the "premium" TL kit, I'm pretty disappointed at the moment.

I also started to drill the holes for the string ferrules, and completely failed to get them in a straight line, so I'm going to have to dowel them and start again. I drilled the two end holes through from the front, and then used the bridge as a template for the holes on the back. I just really struggle to get hole position mm perfect with my drill press - the holes for the ferrules are 8mm, so the slightest variation in line or spacing os very obvious. I think I'll dowel them, and then try again with a hand drill.

[jonwhitear]

Right, ferrule holes fixed. Not perfect, but I'm happy with them. I've filled the crack, so we'll see how that goes.

[Ricky]

Wow!
That should not happen under any circumstances.
The fact that it has split for a couple of inches, calls into question the integrity of the entire join and therefore filling would just be hiding it and not fixing the issue. There is not a fix that I would consider permanent. Wood glue would not penetrate (the whole point of Aliphatic). Cyano would wick in but may not bond to the glue already in there etc.

I would contact Adam if I were you.

Sorry.
Cheers
Ricky

[jonwhitear]

Thanks Ricky. I'll drop the PBG guys a line tomorrow

[jonwhitear]

PBG's advice is to glue and clamp the body. As I've filled it, I think I have a problem - I can't get the filler out. Given where the split is, it doesn't really seem feasible to clamp it anyway.

They did offer to replace the body. If I do that, do I also need to replace the neck, given that I've already drilled the holes for it? If not, would I just need to dowel the neck holes and re-drill them? I wouldn't have thought that would be as strong.

[Freakystyley]

I have the same issue with my TL body. I bought it a good few months ago and never really looked at it much until this week so probably too late to get replaced. I shall be having a go at gluing and clamping.


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[Simon Barden]

They did offer to replace the body. If I do that, do I also need to replace the neck, given that I've already drilled the holes for it? If not, would I just need to dowel the neck holes and re-drill them? I wouldn't have thought that would be as strong.

There's a good chance that the holes will end up in the same place so no need to do anything. Otherwise, as long as you use hardwood dowel, plugging and redrilling will be plenty strong enough. I have three guitars with plugged/redrilled neck holes and they are all fine.

[jonwhitear]

Thanks Guys.

Freakystyley, I'd be interested to see how you go with clamping yours. I would have thought that if you clamp across the body of the guitar, most of the pressure would go through the body where it isn't cracked. I wouldn't have though there would be enough leverage to close the gap, as you can't really clamp exactly where the crack is. I'm regretting going at mine with the filler so hastily now, as I haven't addressed the cause of the problem - just papered over the cracks ;-)

Simon, thanks, now I'm more comfortable on the neck front.

I'm leaning towards just getting the body replaced. I've put quite a few hours of work into this one, but I'd rather start over than have the possibility of this crack reappearing playing on my mind.

[Freakystyley]

If I hadn’t have left mine so long I would have gotten a replacement too. It’s the safest option.
My plan for clamping is to trace the shape of the lower body io to mdf and cut out the shape, keeping the outside ends of the mdf straight. If I slightly shorten the inside edges then I can clamp the straight edges applying pressure directly to the crack. As you can see from this very detailed scientific diagram of the cutout I should hopefully be able to put pressure on the crack. Probably need to line the inside of the cutout with cloth or something to prevent marking the body. That’s my plan but if anyone can think of anything better. My last option is to fill and solid colour



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[JimC]

That's, FWLIW, certainly what I would do. Leather might well be better than cloth for the padding. Old guitar strap?