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How to fix a crack in a bass neck?

T

thomasD3

Apr 11, 2020
19
12
#1
First, a couple pictures to illustrate the problem:

SlWvM.jpg

HkuV9.jpg


I posted this on stack exchange and was told to use epoxy glue, but since we're now in lockdown, the ONLY things I have with me are:

- the bass :)
- crazy glue
- a metal file
- some knives, cutting tools, etc
- towels, cotton, etc
- some screwdrivers and basic tools

the crack seems too small for crazy glue to seep inside, yet, it is large enough to catch the skin when sliding the hand on the neck.

the options are:

- I try to fix it myself
- I wait until the shops re-open
- I just play stuff that doesn't require low notes :D

this is an old cheap bass (like $200 new), so am not looking for a cosmetically perfect fix, but something that prevents the crack from growing and doesn't catch my skin when I play, so I'm trying to go for the first option and I have a few questions:

- Is the whole neck held together by the truss rod at this point? it looks like the neck has fully separated; no cracks on the fretboard, but I can't imagine it holding the tension.
- Would it be safe to exacerbate the crack to be able to put glue in it?
- Is cheap crazy glue strong enough to make a difference?

any advice / idea / whatever would be very appreciated.
 
#2
I would suggest that you wait until you can get proper glue.
The fretboard is doing the hard work of keeping the bass together at the moment, so, first off (if you haven't already) - loosen the strings!
You'd be amazed how often people come to my shop with damaged basses that are still up to pitch.

The term "Crazy glue" includes a wide range of CA (cyanoacrylate) glues. Some of the higher end formulations *might* be adequate for this job, but it's pretty unlikely that what you have on hand would be one of them. Most hardware-store superglues are not appropriate.
They're generally quite thin/watery, which means they would soak into the material, leaving insufficient glue in the joint itself.
The "gel" types are also hard to handle and get into such a narrow crack.

I would probably recommend epoxy - and even there, some choices are better than others. The "5-minute" syringe type epoxies are often too gooey to properly get into small cracks. I uses West System resin which mixes to a loose, syrupy consistency. This allows the resin to flow in, but prevents it from just getting absorbed into the maple end grain.

If you like the bass, and don't absolutely need it fixed today - wait, and do it correctly.
Doing it with cheap superglue will not only likely fail, but it will make the subsequent re-repair more likely to fail as well, since the superglue-soaked will be less willing to adhere to other types of glue in the future.

Cheers,
Martin
 
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#3
Thanks for the info. The crazy glue I have is like one step up from the dollar store, so it's most likely not the greatest thing.

The bass is an old Ibanez GSR 200, they're worth roughly $200 new, I bought it $60 used years ago. I'm not a great bass player: I'm a guitarist that decided one day it would be nice to have a bass and practice now and then and I started to like it more and more.. just when it broke :) so the instrument itself doesn't have a great value, but I would like to have a bass to practice while in lockdown. Is it more economical to get it fixed (having to wait until shops reopen after lockdown) ? or would buying a neck/fretboard replacement online be a viable option?
 
#4
thomasD3 said:
Is it more economical to get it fixed (having to wait until shops reopen after lockdown) ? or would buying a neck/fretboard replacement online be a viable option?
Click to expand...
it depends on the price of the neck replacement you choose --- lots of variety in both quality and pricing (not necessarily related variables!).

mighty mite necks are good and affordable. also: check eden guitars. i've purchased very nice fretless necks from them and they're cheap, too! good luck with your ax! :thumbsup:
 
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#8
thanks for the info, I will look into that because I realized that a new neck is like 70% of the price of the bass, so might as well try a ghetto fix and, if it fails, I'll get another one. I'm not sure how much a local shop would charge since they're all closed (and I'm stuck in Berlin and don't speak German :))
 
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#9
I just found that Gorilla products do not exist on the German amazon. They have some big names: UHU and Pattex; I haven't heard of the other brands they have. The other option I have is the UK Amazon, they have some gorilla products ([Invalid or Expired Link Removed]) as well as JB, Araldite and Loctite. The other brands are unkown to me as well.

Among these brands, are there some favored / commonly used for instrument repairs?
 
#10
Gluing into failed glue doesn't seem like a likely recipe for success.

The neck doesn't look like a standard Fender clone, so sourcing a replacement could be problematic.

If I were doing it with epoxy I would want to use a specialist wood formulation, the stuff that comes in tubes is typically heavily filled with silica or otherwise compromised for wood. It looks like an awkward job to do properly. On the other hand you might figure what have you got to lose. A decent repair to my mind would involve removing the failed piece from the fingerboard as well, since I would want to clean up the entire contact surface, If you bodge it and it works, great. If you bodge it and it doesn't work, well, need to do that anyway. And if you've ever fancied getting into making kit guitars then you could buy a cheap kit minus fittings and install the parts off this one, which are probably a bit superior to those in the budget kits.
 
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#11
thomasD3 said:
First, a couple pictures to illustrate the problem:

View attachment 3782191
View attachment 3782192

I posted this on stack exchange and was told to use epoxy glue, but since we're now in lockdown, the ONLY things I have with me are:

- the bass :)
- crazy glue
- a metal file
- some knives, cutting tools, etc
- towels, cotton, etc
- some screwdrivers and basic tools

the crack seems too small for crazy glue to seep inside, yet, it is large enough to catch the skin when sliding the hand on the neck.

the options are:

- I try to fix it myself
- I wait until the shops re-open
- I just play stuff that doesn't require low notes :D

this is an old cheap bass (like $200 new), so am not looking for a cosmetically perfect fix, but something that prevents the crack from growing and doesn't catch my skin when I play, so I'm trying to go for the first option and I have a few questions:

- Is the whole neck held together by the truss rod at this point? it looks like the neck has fully separated; no cracks on the fretboard, but I can't imagine it holding the tension.
- Would it be safe to exacerbate the crack to be able to put glue in it?
- Is cheap crazy glue strong enough to make a difference?

any advice / idea / whatever would be very appreciated.
Click to expand...
Get a new neck. Warmoth is about 300 bucks. But, stewmac also sells good necks.
 
#13
That's not really a crack. The scarf joint just got separated. I'm guessing the bass sustained a hit on the neck and separated cleanly at the scarf joint - as long as the fretboard didn't suffer as a result, it's not hard to fix. Better that than a real crack which is uneven and much harder to repair. In our case, there was more of a gap so it was easier to get the glue to seep in there.
As advised, don't use cheap super glue! Get the right stuff. My son and I used Gorilla glue and clamped it. The clamp is pretty important to ensure proper adhesion and contact. wipe the excess adhesive or you may have to sand the joint with fine grit sandpaper to remove any raised areas or dried glue that seeped out. Done properly, you can't even tell it was fixed. Just did this to an Ibanez SR200 a few months ago. Works perfectly, you can look as close as you want and won't be able to tell it had even been fixed. we gave the bass to my son's friend, an aspiring bassist.
 
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#14
JeezyMcNuggles said:
Get a new neck. Warmoth is about 300 bucks. But, stewmac also sells good necks.
Click to expand...
Warmoth sells Ibanez GSR necks? They're so far out on orders, it may take two months to get a neck if they did sell them. Plus the OP is in Germany, seems a bit useless to pay Warmoth prices for a $200 bass he got for $60.

OP (original poster), cut your losses and buy a new used bass.
 
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#16
bassstrangler said:
Warmoth sells Ibanez GSR necks? They're so far out on orders, it may take two months to get a neck if they did sell them. Plus the OP is in Germany, seems a bit useless to pay Warmoth prices for a $200 bass he got for $60.

OP (original poster), cut your losses and buy a new used bass.
Click to expand...
Didn't notice it was an ibanez. OP should just go get another one for less than a neck. Not to mention that Ibanez does not and will not sell you a neck. I've tried. They told me that.
 
#18
There was, at one point, glue in that joint. That glue failed somewhere - separated from one or the other (*or maybe both pieces of wood. Let's say for argument it's still attached to the headstock piece. If you go in there, add glue, and clamp it, you now have that same glue holding the new glue to the neck piece. ext time it gets an impact, that joint will fail. The way to fix this and not have it fail again is to take it apart, clean the glue that failed off all the parts, and start over - with good glue. Crazy glue is not the answer.
 
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#20
Tthanks guys for all the feedback. Considering it's worth $200 new and I got it for $60 (and enjoyed it for like 5 years), I think I will try to get some epoxy from Amazon and see what happens. Worst case, I'll get another bass :)

The price of a replacement neck is not worth it and I'm not sure paying someone to fix it is worth it either. It is still a very cheap instrument, out of which I had a good use and for which I don't have a special sentimental value.

The main reason I'm trying to find how to do a quick fix is to be able to use it during the lockdown, since I'm in a temporary place in a country where I don't even speak the language :)

To answer a reply above: the joint separated, it's not a wood crack and I should have worded it properly in the title.
 
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