Broken bass necks

[dan-horro]

     Hi everyone,

I have one Fender jazz neck and one Warwick RockBass neck, both with different problems. My question is, they are fixable? What are your thoughts?

Thank you very much,

 

Dan.

[Hellzero]

Nope and nope if you want to make it for peanuts, otherwise it's always fixable at great expense.

Edited September 27, 2024 by Hellzero

[Mediocre Polymath]

I can't even work out what happened to that Rock bass neck. Was it a crack that someone tried to widen out and fill with a plug or something?

 

The g-clamp-pad shaped dents in the neck suggest someone (you?) has already tried to glue it and clamp it. I'm sorry to say that you only really get one shot at repairs like that. Once you've saturated the pores of the wood around a break with glue there's nothing for a subsequent glue-up to grab onto. If it isn't stable after the first attempt, it's not going to become so with the second. No unless you do some pretty drastic routing.

[dan-horro]

13 hours ago, Hellzero said:

Nope and nope if you want to make it for peanuts, otherwise it's always fixable at great expense.

I'll say, yes, I do want them fixed,somewhere between peanuts and great expense.

[dan-horro]

12 hours ago, Mediocre Polymath said:

I can't even work out what happened to that Rock bass neck. Was it a crack that someone tried to widen out and fill with a plug or something?

 

The g-clamp-pad shaped dents in the neck suggest someone (you?) has already tried to glue it and clamp it. I'm sorry to say that you only really get one shot at repairs like that. Once you've saturated the pores of the wood around a break with glue there's nothing for a subsequent glue-up to grab onto. If it isn't stable after the first attempt, it's not going to become so with the second. No unless you do some pretty drastic routing.

To be honest, I don't really know what happened to both necks, I got them 10+ years ago. I'm not in a rush with them, more curious if are fixable, and the cost for that, of course.

[Hellzero]

What happened is simply the truss rod that went through and some stupid attempt to fix the issue.

[Mediocre Polymath]

4 hours ago, dan-horro said:

To be honest, I don't really know what happened to both necks, I got them 10+ years ago. I'm not in a rush with them, more curious if are fixable, and the cost for that, of course.

The great Canadian luthier Ted Woodford does a lot of headstock break repairs, so his videos would be a good starting point if you want to see what the process of repairing a break like this involves. People with that level of skill don't come cheap, but doing it yourself would involve not just a lot of expensive tools but also the manufacture of a bunch of specialised, carefully measured jigs and guides.

[dan-horro]

Thank you very much for all info, I'll have a look at that link. Much appreciated mate.

[3below]

On 27/09/2024 at 20:43, Hellzero said:

Nope and nope if you want to make it for peanuts, otherwise it's always fixable at great expense.

^ This, even when my G&l suffered a truss rod related fingerboard breakage the price of repair vs get a new neck made was marginal. Jon Shuker did an absolutely first rate job at a very fair price.  Would it be worthwhile in your case? 

[NancyJohnson]

There's a lot of videos on You Tube covering repairs way worse than these.

 

Pretty certain you could plough out the damage with a router and glue in new wood and clamp.  It should give you a serviceable repair.