Stress Crack on my 8670

kennydoe · #1 08-26-2005, 12:07 PM

I was at my gig last night and for whatever reason i happened to look at the neck joint on my well-taken care-of RG8670.

It's got 2 stress cracks by the heel, just like the old neck-joint used to get. One in each pocket of the horns.

i know it's just a finish crack (i hope), but it really bums me out, as i've taken extra good care of this guitar. I'm not sure how it happened or what precipitated it. I thought the ANJs didn't get that...i had a trumpet player who knocked it over a few months ago...there was no visible damage at the time. Is it possible it happened then as a small little crack and a few months later it's long (like a windshield crack)?

anybody have stress cracks on the their AANJs?

I'm sad.

~K

PS: I'm not giving the guitar to you, so don't ask

sniperfrommars1 · #2 08-26-2005, 12:28 PM

They do get stress cracks, usually from drops, but they almost never affect tone or playability. Just look at it as a character mark and live with it, it really is alot better than you think

> nice guitar by the way.

fuze · #3 08-26-2005, 12:47 PM

I wouldn't worry about it. It's just because wood flexes more than paint does. This is really common.

-Fuze

Knightmeir · #4 08-26-2005, 01:59 PM

I had an RG320 sitting on it's stand for months without being touched or moved do that. One day I looked at it and praise the Lord, stress cracks in both pockets. Pissed me off... so far none on the Jem... but I'm just waiting for it. The probability of it happening is about equal to knowing you'll have spaghetti if you stick your arm in a wood chipper. Can't be avoided, unless you're super lucky and crap.

fettouhi · #5 08-26-2005, 03:50 PM

My Jem 555 has two stress cracks, but I've been rather hard on that thing in last 10 years.

Regards

André

kennydoe · #6 08-26-2005, 04:18 PM

For some reason, I thought they'd fixed that problem when they changed to AANJ.
~K

JJEMMER777 · #7 08-26-2005, 04:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kennydoe

For some reason, I thought they'd fixed that problem when they changed to AANJ.
~K

So did I....I've never had any stress cracks on any of my AANJ's. On the other hand, it seems almost unavoidable on the old heel joint.

Bluestreak · #8 08-26-2005, 04:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JJEMMER777

So did I....I've never had any stress cracks on any of my AANJ's. On the other hand, it seems almost unavoidable on the old heel joint.

I've never had a stress crack on any Ibanez I've owned. I know people get them, but maybe I either baby my guitars just right or I lead a charmed life... but I've had about a dozen RG's with both neck heels pass through my hands and I've never had one that had or developed a stress crack, AANJ or the old heel.

-R

JJEMMER777 · #9 08-26-2005, 04:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bluestreak

I've never had a stress crack on any Ibanez I've owned. I know people get them, but maybe I either baby my guitars just right or I lead a charmed life... but I've had about a dozen RG's with both neck heels pass through my hands and I've never had one that had or developed a stress crack, AANJ or the old heel.

-R

Maybe your lucky. I baby my guitars and have had a lot of stress cracks in the past. From Ibanez to Kramer to ESP...they all got um. I own 3 Jems dated from 1988-1992 all with the old heel of course.....Thankfully, none of them has any stress cracks. (I wont say yet as I don't want to jinx myself.
Babying your guitar does definetly help though.

**jim777** · #10 08-26-2005, 04:53 PM

I think it's more a basswood problem; isn't that 8670 Mahogany backed and maple topped?

Ferrous Lepidoptera · #11 08-26-2005, 05:20 PM

Yeah the 8670 is mahogany/maple. The AANJ on the 8670 is also not the usual AANJ, but has more wood cut out of it to make it even thinner. I'll be running home to look and see if mine has such problems.

Eddie88 · #12 08-27-2005, 09:29 AM

What's stress cracks? And what is "the pockets"? Is it where the neck meets the body?

kennydoe · #13 08-27-2005, 12:20 PM

Here are pics. the brown spot on the neck is just a part of the wood...and that little circle is just a piece of something that came off after i shot the pic.

My UV (Basswood) with the AANJ has been far more used and abused. It's got very light, hardly noticable 1" cracks in pretty much the same spots. I never even noticed until i just checked as i wrote this post.

still sad

~K

damo7v · #14 08-27-2005, 01:04 PM

ouch!

ScottB · #15 08-27-2005, 02:08 PM

Look at this from a scientific point of view. This is just my theory, based on observations. I believe that most of the stress cracks (the ones not caused by physical abuse) are caused by climatic changes in temperature and humidity.

Kenny, your 8670 crack appears to have been caused by the tumble and it probably became larger and broke the surface during the hot spell we had in the Northeast this year. Your UV crack is most likely the result of the climate changes alone.

Bluestreak, since the temperature and humidity in Florida are fairly constant (within a 30 degree spread of 60 - 90F on average as opposed to the 25 - 85F average in NY) most of the year, it would prove my theory even more, since just about every original neck joint seems to have a crack, yet yours never have.

My '94 AANJ RG550EG has a small crack on the treble and bass side of the neck pocket. My RG550BK Custom has a 1999 AANJ body and a RG3120 prestige neck. It now has a small crack on the treble side that wasn't there when I bought the body on the Bay last year. The 2002 Jem7VSBL has none yet. This winter has been predicted to be colder than last year, so who knows.

I'm not stating this as fact, it's just an observation from my point of view.

Scott