This Baby Needs a Better Joint

[Alan Peterson]

I've frequently thought about picking up an inexpensive guitar from the "fetish" people; especially since the company seems to have a nice lineup of hollow bodies including some resembling the old Guild 500s. But I've always hemmed and hawed, waiting for the right time.

I'm afraid that time wont be coming along soon.

The company maintains a "Luthier's Page" where you can buy instruments damaged in shipment at a decent discount, and if you knew your way around a glue bottle, you could probably come away with a practical and playable guitar. I've noticed a quantity of ES335 copies ending up on that page, all with cracked neck joints. One had the neck completely broken away and I was appalled at the shallow, feeble neck joint they built in.

For as long as the picture link is available, here it is: http://www.guitarfetish.com/assets/images/P1010881.JPG

This company IMO is doing a decent service by providing inexpensive and playable instruments with a fair sound to value-minded folks -- reminds me of Hondo back in the late '70s -- but how'd you like to be the poor soul tasked with repairing that neck for a customer? They really need to rethink that joint.

[Dan Smith]

That little pocket is a neck joint?
Pretty embarrassing!

[Eric Baack]

wow, don't think I'll pick one of those up anytime soon.

I'd get one of their kits first. At least then you know what the neck joint looks like!

[Bob Orr]

Looks like it was stuck on with bondo! Look at the thickness of that pink gunk!

Bob

[Eric Baack]

I've had good luck with their pickups and other hardware. I've used their tuners, bridges, crunchy pat pickups, dream 180 pickups, electronics. I had issue with one of the tuners but they sent a replacement no questions asked. Their quick release strap buttons are nice as well. Not a fan of the strings that they sell though.

[Barry Daniels]

But it looks good on the outside which is all that counts, right?

[Clay Schaeffer]

The beauty of a poorly made joint is that it is not difficult to improve on it. Almost anything would make it "better than new!"

[David Hutson]

This looks like a repair attempt gone terribly wrong. I would set it up and mill another improved joint in the body, then mill away the existing joint from the neck and splice new material to machine a matching joint to the body.

[David King]

My thoughts exactly David. If the price was right it could be a nice way to equip a school or what have you.

[Alan Peterson]

I would set it up and mill another improved joint in the body, then mill away the existing joint from the neck and splice new material to machine a matching joint to the body.

There's not much to mill and splice, David. I've seen more substantial joints on a Harmony Stella.

For as long as this picture is available, here's the male end of the joint:
http://www.guitarfetish.com/assets/images/P1010884.JPG

That's an awful lot of work to make a playable guitar.

[Eric Baack]

it wouldn't be a whole lot of work if you have a mill or 3 axis router setup.

[David Hutson]

Alan I've been a tool and die maker for 35 yrs and have become fairly good at applying the old if there is a will there's a a way concept. one thought that just came to me would be to set it up and drill and ream a light press fit for matching dowel pin hole/holes in both the neck and body and use hollow steel dowels in the joint.That would allow for a simple joint and would assure that if it broke again it would be something other than the neck joint.

[Alan Peterson]

Eric, David --

Of course you both are completely correct. What I suppose I should have said was, "...that's an awful lot of work to make this a playable guitar." If I had access to a milling machine -- even an overhead pin router -- I'd be applying the same techniques. Practice on lesser instruments always pays off later down the line.

I live to read entries and comments from highly skilled people such as yourselves; it makes us all better at what we do and I hope you keep posting more good stuff. Its just that these are valid techniques that make sense on a 100-year-old original Washburn parlor guitar or a mid-1940s Epiphone jazzbox and its hard to justify firing up the 3-axis machine or lining up those pilot holes for a $159 import that couldn't survive a trip across the ocean.

[Eric Baack]

but it's fun :p

[David Hutson]

Access to machine tools and the knowledge to use them is the vital component in the dowel repair. I may in the future offer such services, I an approaching retirement and I am not likely to loose my desire to design fabricate and fix or the tools to do it with.

[Jerome Hess]

I havent bought anything from GFS's luthier page, but I have bought MANY items from their factory clearence and have been very pleased with my results

I get to experiment a lot and very cheaply as well!

[Dan Smith]

Hard to imagine why they would show busted guitars on their site.
After seeing that neck joint I would strongly advise not buying one of their guitars.