[BigBazz]

So we were playing an outdoor festival stage gig today, the guitar got knocked over onto its front when we were setting down and the neck split at the nut.

I've given generic advice to people before about this sort of thing but it's a different kettle of fish when it's your own guitar, I feel absolutely gutted, I've been playing this guitar for 15 years (it's a 1994 model) and it's the reason I joined Jemsite. Does anyone have experience with these breaks to have an idea how well this could be fixed and how much should I be expected to fork out in terms of labour hours? I know we have a few guys who specialise in this sort of thing on here, I'd like to get some opinions before I move forward.

Other angles -

http://imgur.com/nX0rsDQ

 

[peromucho7]

Shoul be easy fix. Check Ibanezrules.com. There is step by step tutorial with pictures.

 

[jono]

I've had a couple of these things happen, I've had a replacement neck ordered through a guitar shop and I've had them fixed.

Rich Atkin at Stormshadow Guitarworks in Sheffield would be my current go to if you're anywhere nearby. I honestly can't remember how much he charges, but it wasn't enough to make me even remember how much!

On the RG he did for me, the finish on the back of the neck after the repair was better than the finish before the repair.

 

[BigBazz]

I've had a couple of these things happen, I've had a replacement neck ordered through a guitar shop and I've had them fixed.

Rich Atkin at Stormshadow Guitarworks in Sheffield would be my current go to if you're anywhere nearby. I honestly can't remember how much he charges, but it wasn't enough to make me even remember how much!

On the RG he did for me, the finish on the back of the neck after the repair was better than the finish before the repair.

Sheffield is a bit of a trek from South Wales, but thanks I'll keep that in mind. My bassist was going to phone is luthier mate for me today, apparently the guy does work for a lot of people and is pretty good so I will see what he says, if he doesn't take the job on he might have some leads for me to someone closer. A new neck would be a last resort option, because I really like the current neck and the guitar holds a lot of sentimental value, wouldn't be the same with a new neck.

 

[jono]

South Wales is a bit out of my neck of the woods!

Jaden Rose ended up in Llandovery if I'm not mistaken, but I'm not sure he even "does guitars" anymore?

The other Welsh Wonder is Rob Williams (no not Robbie Williams) https://robwilliamsguitars.co.uk/repairs/ but he's in proper mid Wales, so a fair drive from anyone I've never had him do repair work, but I've tried his custom builds and they're amazing!

 

[Rich]

That is the best break you could have hoped for, if it's going to be broke. Easy fix.

IBANEZ RULES!! tech - setup

 

[BigBazz]

Thanks guys, I'll post an update on this when I get it done. Feeling a bit better about the situation now, the guitar has had a few knocks before but I've always been lucky and the guitar has been rock solid.

I actually only noticed something was wrong when the guitar was out of tune when I pulled it out of its case, we were in a rush packing away at the festival (another band on after us) and I didn't actually see the damage until we arrived at our next gig in the night. Guitar tuning kept going slightly sharp but I managed to get it in tune and it held up alright for the gig but I was cringing all the way through, give or take 2 hours of playing with a split neck. I've loosened off the strings now and locked the bridge (tremol-no) to relieve some pressure, I've left the truss-rod as is though, any recommendations on that front?

 

[BigBazz]

Small update on this :

I got in contact with Rob Williams and he agreed to do the job, drove up to Mid Wales last week and dropped off the guitar. He's going to fix the neck and give it a re-fret. It might be a few weeks but I'll take some pictures with an update when it's done. His first reaction on seeing the guitar seemed to be that it was an easy fix due to the clean break so I'm feeling pretty optimistic.

 

[BigBazz]

So I picked up my guitar yesterday, repair work and refret finished. It turned out pretty good, though the crack is still very visible on the bottom side, Rob said he thinks there was some dirt in there which caused that. The top side of the crack is almost invisible, though you can just about see the hairline if you inspect closely, turned out really nice.

It's nice to have the guitar back in business, the refret was done very nicely so the guitar plays pretty much as good as it ever did though it does have a slightly different feel with the new stainless steel frets.