DISASTER!!!

[Tony_in_NYC]

So....I was sanding away on my neck trying to get the shape to be pleasing. Well...I finally got it to where it felt nice in my hand. But, when I put my thumb in a playing position something felt wrong. I took a closer look:


The wood was paper thin and crumbled when I poked it. AHHHH!!!! What will I do? Strangely, I was barely bothered by this stupid mess I had created. I figured I would get upset if I couldn't fix it. But what would I do? A patch would stand out like a sore thumb, so that was out of the question. I emailed Ken Cierp and he suggested that I needed to make the repair look like a design element. Great. Now I have to come up with a design that wont look out of place. Well...after one night of staring at this gaping hole in the back of my neck, I went to set it on a shelf for the night. As I did so, I spotted my 12th fret marker. You guys remember this, no?


Eureka!! I would make a larger "12th fret marker" to fill the gaping wound!! And so....


I need to fill the gaps a bit, but I think it came out pretty good. I have to say I am not crazy about having this thing here, but it matches other design elements of the guitar so its not entirely out of place. I have a little time to decide if I want another neck or not. Maybe this will grow on me in the next week or so.
I didnt want to hide this goof up and pretend like it didnt happen, but I was not in a rush to post pics until I had fixed it. I just scraped it flush about 2 minutes before I started this post, so I did rush to get it up after it was fixed. Anyway, mistakes happen, but I wanted to show anyone interested that you can walk away from a disaster like this relatively unscathed.
Thanks for looking!

Tony

[David L]

Nice save Tony!

David L

[tippie53]

mistakes are opportunities for design enhansment , and I would say you dun good

[Bruce Dow]

"There can be no miracle recoveries without first screwing up"

(that paraphrases the sig line of one of my fellow moderators on a boat building forum)

For me, guitar building is just a series of screw-ups, linked by head scratching and recovery.

Nice recovery.

I love the treatment on your fingerboard. (and the new "thumb rest")

Thanks for sharing your story.

[johnnparchem]

Tony,

I agree with the rest of the posts - nice recovery. I also go from one "learning opportunity" to the next when working on my guitars. Thanks for posting.
John

[Darryl Young]

That is a creative fix Tony.......good job.

[Kevin Sjostrand]

Okay Tony, I too think your fix is great. What a bummer thing to have happen.
No one asked, maybe assumed, but is that the truss rod you exposed? Why was it laid so deep into the neck shaft?
A standard thickness neck at the upper frets should not have gotten into the truss rod, or, what is that I'm seeing?

Kevin

[Bruce Dow]

Tony... was that back strip inlaid? or was it a solid lamination on the neck. (sorry if the story is out there somewhere and I missed it)

[enalnitram]

Awesome job, Tony.

I too am curious about the neck. what is in there that takes up so much room? not on attack on the maker, just curious.

[Ken Hundley]

Nice save, Tony. I'd a pitched it, but I just learned something. Good Job!