Truss rod broke through the rear of neck.

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Mike Perez
Posts: 56
Joined: Sat Feb 19, 2022 1:24 am
Location: Southern Ca

Truss rod broke through the rear of neck.

Post by Mike Perez »

My first guitar I built in 1982. Rickenbacker 320 style. All hand tools.
As it was drying, hanging from the rafters, the rope was caught and when I shook it loose, it slipped and bounced off of the hook at the end of the rope. It landed on its tail end, bounced and landed again on the fingerboard face.
The fingerboard came loose at the fist three frets so I glued it up and when I used clamps, I over-tightened one and caused the read of the neck to give way over the truss rod and it broke though.
It's been this way for 40 years. Now I want to fix it.
My plan is to route/chisel away some of the neck on both sides of the truss rod at the first three frets, cut a piece of maple, slot it to go over the truss rod, gluing it to the neck. I'll need to take away some wood to give the piece some new surface, so I'll widen the new glue area. It will end up having a hump to beef up that part of the rear of the neck.
Anyone have this repair before?
Thank you for any help,
Mike
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Barry Daniels
Posts: 3186
Joined: Thu Jan 05, 2012 10:58 am
Location: The Woodlands, Texas

Re: Truss rod broke through the rear of neck.

Post by Barry Daniels »

Never done that one before. Can you post a photo of the problem area?
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Mike Perez
Posts: 56
Joined: Sat Feb 19, 2022 1:24 am
Location: Southern Ca

Re: Truss rod broke through the rear of neck.

Post by Mike Perez »

Hello.
I just got back to working on this guitar.
Lots and lots of distractions (and a horrible case of the shingles), but I'm back ready to get to work.
The black dot is the area that the truss rod breaks through if there is any pressure on the rod.
The wood is less than 1/16" thick there.
What happened was, when I was painting the guitar, it fell from the support.
The fingerboard separated at the first fret so I re-glued it.
In the re-glue, I put too much clamping pressure, and caved in the rear of the neck.
I played it like that for 42 years!
Now, I decided to finally fix it.
And my wife says I procrastinate? Ha!

Thank you,
Mike



Neck; back.jpg
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