OSdave Posted February 14, 2007 Report Share Posted February 14, 2007 (edited) I just bought an Epi LP Studio (Wine Red) a couple days ago from American Musical. Pretty nice guitar, in general (it could use some upgrades, but what can't ). Anyway, I set the guitar up to my liking (including having to adjust the relief quite a bit, they had way too much). Then, today I noticed what appear to be a couple small finish cracks along both sides of the neck (along with a tiny chip on one side) starting right below the nut, and ending at around the first fret. When I run my fingers over the cracks I can feel them 'stick out' a tiny bit. I don't really know if they were there when I got it, or if they appeared after I received it: As far as I can tell, it's just the finish. However, it's a fairly dark red, so I can't be sure. However, the neck does seems quite stable. I held the neck about halfway down, and applied fairly firm pressure to the front of the headstock. There was very little, if any, give (seemed like normal), and the only thing I noticed was the cracks seemed to separate ever so slightly (barely noticeable), but returned to normal when I released the pressure. I'm assuming that if the wood were actually cracked, the firm pressure would have caused the cracks to enlarge, and/or possibly hear some kind of 'sound' (be it wood cracking or separating or something)? If these are merely finish cracks, I'm not that concerned, because I am otherwise happy with the guitar. And if that is the case, should I take any measures to prevent further cracking, or just leave it be? Thank you in advance for any help/info/tips! I greatly appreciate it! Edited February 14, 2007 by OSdave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mickguard Posted February 14, 2007 Report Share Posted February 14, 2007 Well, if you're willing to live with it, that's up to you. Although for the price of the guitar it might not be worth the hassle shipping it back. I'm guessing the guitar went through an extreme temperature change --I'm assuming it's real cold where you are, and maybe when you brought it in, the uitar got shocked by the heat in the house? Just conjecture. That's something that would happen with a nitro finish, but I'm assuming a guitar in this price range is covered in polyester (again, just conjecture), which isn't supposed to be prone to checking. But maybe tweaking the truss rod before the guitar had a chance to settle in its new home helped add more stress... The sucky part is the chip out of the finish on your new guitar. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OSdave Posted February 15, 2007 Author Report Share Posted February 15, 2007 Well, if you're willing to live with it, that's up to you. Although for the price of the guitar it might not be worth the hassle shipping it back. I'm guessing the guitar went through an extreme temperature change --I'm assuming it's real cold where you are, and maybe when you brought it in, the uitar got shocked by the heat in the house? Just conjecture. That's something that would happen with a nitro finish, but I'm assuming a guitar in this price range is covered in polyester (again, just conjecture), which isn't supposed to be prone to checking. But maybe tweaking the truss rod before the guitar had a chance to settle in its new home helped add more stress... The sucky part is the chip out of the finish on your new guitar. Thanks for the response. That was one of my thoughts too (temperature change). But the thought that maybe it was there the whole time and possibly damaged in shipping, it kind of concerned me. So, since I JUST bought the guitar, I decided to send it back and not take any chances. They gave me no hassle at all, so I'll just keep my fingers crossed that the next one is okay. Thanks again for the response, I appreciate the info! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tim_ado Posted February 16, 2007 Report Share Posted February 16, 2007 I'm guessing the guitar went through an extreme temperature change --I'm assuming it's real cold where you are, and maybe when you brought it in, the uitar got shocked by the heat in the house? i doubt that i just bought a guitar in china were it was -10 degrees C and within a day it was in australia in the middle of summer nothin changed but the tunning i cant really see any cracks but im sure their there another guess is that when u adjusted the relief somthing happened there Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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