Hi Bruce,
I would have to see it to advise on that. You can take a digital photo or scan a photo and email it to me so I can get a good look at it. Then I can probably tell you what is happening and what to do about it.

I was able to see the bad crack on one side. I would try the wood glue in the crack idea first on both sides and clamp it. That should work if you get plenty glue in the cracks and clamp it well for about 24 hours.

The finish will still show the crack lines but the guitar should be OK. You will have to open the crack a little wider to get the glue in but be careful it may completely break through if you open it to wide. It sounds to me like the wood was not good wood. The foreign builders use extremely cheap wood in their local and it is usually very easy to break.

Sometimes it cracks while it is still curing out meaning it was not dried out properly. It could be the bull won on this one. You can repair it though. If the glue repair works then you might want to repair the finish too if that is something you want to learn about. It is a good one to practice on. Let me know if you need more help any time.

The pics are a little fuzzy but it looks to me like someone got cracked pver the head with this thing. I remember when I was a young lad climbing a fence and crossing a field. I had my old Truetone solid body electric guitar in my hand as I was crossing the field.

That was the first guitar I ever refinished. A bull chased me across that field. I was ready and more than willing to lay that guitar across his head. I had it up like a ball bat and ready to swing. The bull stopped and looked at me. It was a True test of Truetone and a bull.

The bull thought about it and decided the guitar had a slight length advantage and the boy's arms added to that too so he finally turned and went away looking back with the funniest look in his face. He didn;t reall know just how scared I was. I was shaking scared but I would have whupped up on his head though if I had to.

I have loved solid body electrics ever since. Is the neck stripped loose from the body? In the pic it is hard to tell but it looks like it got hammered pretty hard. The best thing would be for a good repairman to see it in person and do some pulling on the crack to see if it is cracked thru the wood or if only the finish is cracked. You may arlready know that.

It can be repaired. If the wood is cracked I would pull the crack open very carefully just enought to get glue in the cracke really well then pull it back and clamp it with a lot of pressure wiping off the squeeze out of the excess glue.

24 hours out of the clamp and repair the bolt holes if needed. The main thing here is to decide if the guitar is worth the repairs or not. It could be of more cost than it would be to buy another one and keep that one for spare parts. What is the price of that guitar now days?
Rick Andrews
Andrews Guitar

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