Shipping Damage or Foul Play?

[Sarge]

Well I finally received a really nice Esquire from a Relic Builder. It's has the Don Mare sting Ray pickup which really sounds great.
It is one of the nicest sounding Telecasters I have had the chance to play.

The neck is a fine 21 Fret USACG neck with a rosewood fretboard.
What is upsetting to me is that when I opened up the case (it's the New Fender USA case with Airport Latches) I saw this









I am going to give the guy the benefit of the doubt and hope that he did not ship it knowing that it had a cracked headstock.

But.. it looks fishy to me because

1. The placement- How many times have you seen someone screw in the upper tuner and have the wood split? It's a common mistake when you didn't drill a big enough hole.

2. It looks like the crack is "Dirty" inside. Like that when he reliced it.. some of the black relic pixie dust went in there.

What do you guys think?

[Sarge]

maybe this guy is taking relicing to a whole new level and breaking it?

[Sarge]

it looks really fishy to me..

[Sarge]

I would like to add that it is not "repaired" That is not glue in there.

[kwame k]

I am a drummer so, obviously my opinion doesn't count but........no fucking way was that done during shipping.....

[GAR]

Since 83 I've never seen any factory-shipped damage like this, where the finish was applied after the damage.

The shipper will deny the claim if they see the crack saturated with the lacquer like that.

[GAR]

The finish would have to be awfully soft to have spanned that gap.

Although the value of that neck has been virtually flushed down the shitter, it will function perfectly well as a club to beat the fucker down who split that headstock on you!

Leave the tuners in it when you do the pulverizing, they'll serve as meat tenderizing spikes when he winds up in emergency he'll have hundreds of these purple and yellow whelts on his back like a leopard for them to stitch shut.

Enjoy one fine-playing fucked up Tele neck Sarge!

[GAR]

The thing to look at here, is the shine from the flared Phillips grooves as the telltale overforced driving by some type of drill driver.

You may get away with driving fresh screws into bare wood when assembling tuners, alot of people escape unharmed. It may be this guy didn't predrill.

Predrilling for tuners is easy but some people don't do it because they're afraid they'll go completely thru the headstock while the drill goes uncontrollable.

This is avoided with a small strip of masking tape wrapped to a stopping point on the bit. You hold up the screw to the drill upside down with the head at the end, then you tape off the length the tip of the screw reaches up the bit.

Then, when you drill thru the hole you see the masking tape and stop the trigger before drilling down to the tape.

I've never ever split a keyhole if I pre-drilled the retaining screws before hand. I know I've seen this type damage before, and it's mostly been from the Schaller Mini's replacement fad where people don't ream the stock Kluson holes larger to accept the bigger bushings from the Schaller, Grover or Gotoh mini's. They force the key from behind, or overtighten the bushing nut from above.

Your key is the classic Kluson-type (Fender classic, Gibson classic) so there's no bushing to get wrong.

With that all said, I'm going to go out on a limb and say the guy did not predrill holes for his retaining screws, he just rammed 'em in with the cordless drill driver.

[GAR]

Dupe!

[chefcraig]

Perhaps my glasses are fogged, yet to me the screw head appears jacked somewhat, as if the screw is boring into the would at an angle. This obviously points to the bore not being pre-routed. Could this have occured during shipping? The answer is yes, providing the wood was stressed enough and the guitar was dropped squarely upon the headstock. Yet the fact that residue has found it's way into the crack makes it unlikely, unless the UPS driver decided to:
(A) Open the package
(B) Determine that he was dissatisfied with the finish
(C) Decided to relic the guitar himself
(D) Repackage everything

That any of the above would have occured at the side of the road or in an office block parking lot points to the notion the headstock was damaged well before the item was shipped. However, proving the seller's awareness of this may prove to be a dodgy untertaking.

My advice to you in the future with issues like this is to hold off any reporting of things until the situation has been handled. By doing so, merely mentioning potential exposure via the internet to the seller works in your favor, as no one likes adverse publicity. In acting before resolution, it let's the cat out of the bag (so to speak), and removes any advantage you would hold over the fellow in the court of public opinion. I feel for you man, as you made the purchase in good faith. Let us know how this shakes out.

[indeedido]

No way that is from shipping. Like you said, too dirty. That has been there a while.

[kentuckyklira]

Since 83 I've never seen any factory-shipped damage like this, where the finish was applied after the damage.

The shipper will deny the claim if they see the crack saturated with the lacquer like that.

Agreed!

That is a typical crack from drilling too small a hole!

[sadaist]

It looks like the crack is "Dirty" inside.

Binnie would still hit it.

[Sarge]

here is some picutres of the crack near the tuner
I wrote the Builder a email
I am a US Army soldier stationed in Italy so it's a little expensive for me to pick up the phone and call the guy.
It looks like the top has some filler in it, but the part near the tuners does not. You can see and feel a pretty good gap in there.

[Sarge]

With that all said, I'm going to go out on a limb and say the guy did not predrill holes for his retaining screws, he just rammed 'em in with the cordless drill driver.

Gar,
I was hoping that you would comment in this thread.
I don't think the guy drilled any holes, and if he did they were too small.
This is the same guy who did the Stellar job on the Bound Bigsby guitar. That one should come in tomorrow. I am scared to se what the fuck I am going to get with that one!