Bizman62

If you can press it flat between one finger and the thumb there shouldn't be a problem

If you can't find a locking nut, a more slippery one might help. Graphtec make unfinished Tusq nut blanks which you can cut and shape to fit.

That looks like a very good plane for the price! A longer one might also be good especially for leveling necks and fretboards.

Tru dat. Last night I was thinking about an Ibanez Talon acoustic whose neck was way too flexible for my liking. Remembering that I wondered if you suffered from the same but obviously not.

Modern glues are surprisingly strong! I suppose regular Titebond would do the trick nicely. Just remove the hardware, apply glue to the crack so that the inside is totally covered and clamp properly. You should see squeezeout all around the crack, that's a sign that there's glue everywhere. Wipe the excess off with a damp rag, tighten and wipe again. For clamping make a mirror image of curved side of the headstock and use a slat wrapped in cling film on the crack side. After the glue has properly dried for overnight, redrill the screw holes and open the tuner hole with a reamer or round file so it's snug but not too tight.

They have them in all varieties. If you want to adjust it from the headstock, the hex nut version is what you'd need.

Wow! That would have been nice to catch on video, or at least a handful of pictures as a tutorial!

Exactly that. There's single piece bodies and two piece bodies but three piece bodies aren't an exception. Or four. Or 50...:

That's plenty. Solid stuff for other woodworking as well.

That's a common issue with LesPauls, often caused by falling. The main reason is that the wood fibres are pretty short in the headstock angle. Good news for you is that it's fixable! There's lots of videos about fixing that, both by professionals and hobbyists. On the pro videos they often show how it has already been "fixed" before... I recommend you to take it to a known repair luthier. As the headstock plate is still in one piece and the crack looks clean the fix should be quite straightforward and pretty much invisible. Replacing the neck would be overkill, also isn't that a set neck glued in place? That would be a difficult task to change!

It would be interesting to know how "junk" is determined in a whole series of guitars! In my opinion a neck is "junk" if the frets are off and/or the actual neck is warped or otherwise out of shape. Most likely Fender know where to put the frets so that should be no issue. If the neck is straight sideways, let's continue. Most often "junk" means that the fret job is poorly done. At the very worst the frets aren't properly seated but that's rare. Most likely they're also leveled but not always and years of playing may have worn gaps into some of them. The most common issue is that the fret ends haven't been rounded or even leveled, or if something has been done the fretboard has been moist while doing that and has shrunk sideways so the fret ends stick out. Also the nut can be too high and the overall action not perfect. There's quite a lot of fine tuning that good guitar shops may do before handing the guitar over to the customer. Just a few strokes with a file or sanding beam along the fret ends can do wonders to the playability if the wood has shrunk. Shaping each individual fret is the next step towards perfection. Leveling the frets allows for lower action and even worn frets can often be saved by leveling. A new set of quality strings is a must. Adjusting the nut and potentially changing a cheap plastic one to bone or tusq is another key to low action and effortless playing. A tad of relief from the truss rod adds the required space for the strings to vibrate when you're chording. And finally adjusting the bridge for the lowest action and perfect intonation. The above should make any guitar feel great. Of course there's a dozen of different neck shapes - V, C, D and all their variations - but a well set up guitar will "play by itself" regardless of the neck shape. And of course you can reshape the neck profile within the thickness. Especially a D can easily be shaped to a soft V if that's what you want. So don't change the neck until you're sure the old one really is junk instead of just in need of some fine tuning.

So it's always the next fret and you're sure that it's a fret... That would explain why the last fret rings cleanly. And you even have a fall away both on the fingerboard and the frets... On an acoustic I'd suspect the common neck joint hump but not on an electric guitar. One option that would explain the next fret until the last one issue might be that the neck break angle is too steep. That should be visible, though. One should see even without measuring if the string height on the first fret is equal or higher than that on the 12th or 16th fret before the fall away starts. Also, if the neck/fretboard was heavily S-shaped that might cause a similar issue but it would be easy to check with a straightedge which you've done. Have you tried eliminating all other potentially buzzing/rattling elements i.e. taken all the electronics out. Pickups, wiring, pots, switches, everything?

There's a ton of tools that can be used for building a guitar. The big question is what the essential ones are. Think what you are going to do. Then find out if you can do it with the tools you already have. If you find out you need something more, think if you can make it yourself (like a neck rest). If you find out that there's no tools in your rack to be able to do what you want to do, then and only then you'll have to get it. The essential tools are those that a) you can push to their limits and beyond and b) you have at hand. I've often referred to the Malawi Refugee Camp guitar builder. What are the tools he's got? A hand saw, a hand plane, pliers, a ruler, most likely a chisel, possibly a scraper, some rasps and files and some sort of a drill. And he can build electric guitars with those.

Double Ouch! You've pretty much checked for every culprit mentioned in the book. Loose tuning pegs? Although that shouldn't affect fretted notes. Bridge saddles leaning to each other rather than standing on the adjustment screws? Bridge being partially loose? Not likely, but what if there's a screw that is rather lifting the bridge than attaching it? That could be possible if the bridge screw holes are tight. Humidity and temperature? I believe you already know more about it than I'll ever learn. Ball ends not sitting tight in the bottom of the ferrules (in a string through)? Again, just trying to thing of any potential issues without actually knowing anything...

There is only one Shinto Saw Rasp so any place you can find them is good.

The spots where you've sanded through the top layer showing the cross laminated veneer are the weakest ones. They're not large, though. Quite some time ago I posted a couple of pictures of a classical guitar with a loose bridge. The top was made of some sort of plywood similarly to yours and the three layers were so damaged that there was no strength lengthwise at all. Yours looks much stronger.

@curtisa thanks for pointing that out. It was the first thing I saw but it slipped off my mind when I was looking for the truss rod image.

Ouch! You're obviously far more experienced than I'll ever be so take my pondering with some salt. That sounds like a fret buzz indeed. Have you tried lowering the last fret only? That's a PITA to check since there's no reference point for a fret rocker and even with a straight edge laid on the frets the height difference can bee too subtle to be seen as the polished metal reflects the light coming between the fingerboard and the frets. If lowering the very last fret doesn't help, other potential culprits are the pickups but you've most likely set them low enough already. If the leaving edge of the bridge saddles is off, it can cause buzz as well.

Lots of patience. View these two, they're about a bass but the idea is the same. There's many other ways as well but the facet method for shaping in Ep. 3 is a very good way to achieve a fine result.

If you get the Shinto Saw Rasp you won't need a spokeshave to remove material. It's one of the fastest hand tools for that purpose. For planing you need a plane. A long sharp hand plane would be ideal.

Am I seeing right, is there two metal rods visible? And a brass block where they peek through? If so, it's a dual action truss rod with a similar brass block at the other end as well and both of the rods are threaded into both blocks like shown in the tutorial: As there's glue and potentially a round bottom you simply can't pull the square ended rod out. So you'll have to take the fretboard off. Before doing that take a very sharp knife and cut the paint along the glue line. That will prevent chipping, allowing you to hide the fix easier. I don't know your skill level but for those who don't know heat usually breaks glue joints. An old clothes iron might be a good tool for that. Starting at the body end (protect the body from heating with cardboard or similar) try to pry a heated palette knife into the glue joint and slowly work your way up to the nut. As the clothes iron is wider than the fretboard you can heat the knife during heating the fingerboard. There may be other ways that I don't know of and I'd be as happy as you to learn a less destructive way.

The damaged area in the neck pocket is so small that I'd just use some epoxy putty to fill and level it. It'll be invisible in any case and won't affect the tone.

That's genius!

Gotoh z??? They were the cheapest of that ilk I could find: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32844056399.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.29644c4dmXUqbT But yes, they seem to be smooth.

Well... During the weekend the Covid situation worsened a tad in our town and they strongly suggested people to be more alert than before. Masks and hand wash when there's other people around etc. I'm an IT techie doing mostly house calls and whaddayaknow the business completely died yesterday morning. So today as my calendar was empty I took the guitar and played a little while waiting for the phone to ring. And it rang! So while I was talking with the customer I hung the guitar back on the cabin door knob from the end hook (yes, still no strap buttons but I play sitting so it doesn't matter). I managed to return to my desk and sit down when CRASH! the guitar fell off the knob. Good news: The only visible damages are on the edges and are easy to fix by sanding and re-oiling. No deep dents, more like scratches. Funnily the neck has no damage despite the guitar was (and still is) hanging neck down. Bad news: The bridge pickup stopped working. The 3-way switch gives the neck PU sound in the neck and both positions. Does that mean that the pickup is dead or is there just a wire loose, I don't know.