Am I screwed...

[funkysurfer]

About a week ago I posted about my Carvin LB75's cracked neck. I've repaired it twice since. First with a water putty that dries rock hard, second with a 2 part Epoxy.

Before glueing, I backed off on the truss as suggested and clamped a 2ft level down the neck to keep it straight with just the A string removed. After 48 hours removed the level & clamps and the amount of forward bow came back immediately. Both times I tried to adjust the truss to eliminate the forward bow & the neck split under where the fingerboard meets it up at the 1st fret. Twice!

The bass is a neck thru so I don't think I have many options, right?

I wanted to change out the electronics so that leaves me with 5 Sperzel locking tuners & a Wilkinson bridge and a big chunk of Mahagony.

What can I do?

[steveb98]

I would say now is the time to talk to a real repairman or luthier about fixing this. Also consider calling Carvin and talking to them about repair. Bottom line is how much do you like the bass and how much money do you want to spend on it.

[Diego]

From what you describe I believe is not a very easy repair and may be quite costly also. As stated by steveb98, put your priorituies in the balance...it might be worth geeting a whole new carvin for what that repair is going to be.

[guy n. cognito]

+1 to getting an estimate from an experienced luthier. This doesn't sound like damage that should be repaired by an amateur.

[funkysurfer]

It's really not worth shelling out $$ over. I have been at battle with the neck on this thing for years. That's why I initially opted to fix it myself.

[62bass]

Originally Posted by funkysurfer

About a week ago I posted about my Carvin LB75's cracked neck. I've repaired it twice since. First with a water putty that dries rock hard, second with a 2 part Epoxy.

Before glueing, I backed off on the truss as suggested and clamped a 2ft level down the neck to keep it straight with just the A string removed. After 48 hours removed the level & clamps and the amount of forward bow came back immediately. Both times I tried to adjust the truss to eliminate the forward bow & the neck split under where the fingerboard meets it up at the 1st fret. Twice!

The bass is a neck thru so I don't think I have many options, right?

I wanted to change out the electronics so that leaves me with 5 Sperzel locking tuners & a Wilkinson bridge and a big chunk of Mahagony.

What can I do?

The water putty was a mistake. And I'd never use epoxy for that type of repair. The water putty, unless it was 100% removed, will prevent the epoxy from sticking. The same is true with any glue. You need a very clean joint to get anything to bond.

Epoxy is good when you need a reasonably strong glue that will fill large gaps. It's not so good in tight fitting joints because too much gets squeezed out when you clamp it. For tight fitting joints I use a marine glue, a urea-formaldehyde glue called UF109. It's a 2 part glue as is epoxy, but is thin so it will really get in there; and it's very strong. Another good glue is called Resorcinal. These glues have to be used in warm rooms and clamped for 24 hours. I've never had them fail on a clean joint repairing cracked off headstocks.

However the damage is done and maybe there were issues already that a simple repair like this won't handle. It's hard to tell without seeing the instrument up close, so a good tech needs to look at it. As mentioned, it may be worth it price wise to get a new bass, unless Carvin will do the work cheap.

[funkysurfer]

Originally Posted by 62bass

The water putty was a mistake. And I'd never use epoxy for that type of repair. The water putty, unless it was 100% removed, will prevent the epoxy from sticking. The same is true with any glue. You need a very clean joint to get anything to bond.

Epoxy is good when you need a reasonably strong glue that will fill large gaps. It's not so good in tight fitting joints because too much gets squeezed out when you clamp it. For tight fitting joints I use a marine glue, a urea-formaldehyde glue called UF109. It's a 2 part glue as is epoxy, but is thin so it will really get in there; and it's very strong. Another good glue is called Resorcinal. These glues have to be used in warm rooms and clamped for 24 hours. I've never had them fail on a clean joint repairing cracked off headstocks.

However the damage is done and maybe there were issues already that a simple repair like this won't handle. It's hard to tell without seeing the instrument up close, so a good tech needs to look at it. As mentioned, it may be worth it price wise to get a new bass, unless Carvin will do the work cheap.

The putty was thoroughly removed. It actually never bonded well in the first place.

The epoxy was round 2. It is still bonded and didn't shift from the initial cracks. A whole new crack resulted afterwords when trying to re-adjust the truss.

Could my truss rod be badly bent?

[62bass]

Originally Posted by funkysurfer

The putty was thoroughly removed. It actually never bonded well in the first place.

The epoxy was round 2. It is still bonded and didn't shift from the initial cracks. A whole new crack resulted afterwords when trying to re-adjust the truss.

Could my truss rod be badly bent?

Well, there is something going on that isn't right for sure. It does sound like the truss rod is malfuntioning in some way. It would have to be looked at by a good tech. I think in order to remove that truss rod, the fingerboard would have to be removed. Then you'd get a chance to look inside and see what's going on.

You might want to ask Michael Dolan on the Dude Pit. He may have run into this before.

[gottawalk]

"hmmmm......Luthier....."

[Son of Magni]

Originally Posted by funkysurfer

The putty was thoroughly removed. It actually never bonded well in the first place.

The epoxy was round 2. It is still bonded and didn't shift from the initial cracks. A whole new crack resulted afterwords when trying to re-adjust the truss.

Could my truss rod be badly bent?

Trouble is, most luthiers probably wouldn't go near this thing after what you've already done with the putty and Epoxy. Also I would guess that your new crack was there, undetected, all along. The reason I say that is that adjusting your truss rod won't crack any neck unless you're adjusting it with a crowbar.

So, your thread title is "Am I screwed". It sounds like you've had trouble with this neck for some time. And it's only gotten worse. I would guess that at this point the best thing for the bass is a new neck, which would probably cost in the range of $600 to $1000 installed. So you have to ask yourself if the body is worth that kind of investment.

All imho of course...