RIP 1999-2011, any fixes?

[Maz]

My first guitar I got around 99 when I was 4, although I didn't start actually playing till 2006, I decided to take it out of the closet tonight and found this...

Anyone know what kind of strings I need to get for it? The strings seem to be looped around the bridge.

Oh and of course, I do I reattach the body and neck?

[JOLLY]

oops.......

[Diego]

Those look like regular nylon strings.

You loop them around the bridge like you said, there's many websites that cover the best techniques so the tuning's stable.

That does look really bad though. Is it an expensive instrument or a budget one?

[Maz]

Those look like regular nylon strings.

You loop them around the bridge like you said, there's many websites that cover the best techniques so the tuning's stable.

That does look really bad though. Is it an expensive instrument or a budget one?

I don't even know, when I showed it to my mom she started crying, and I tried to comfort her by telling her carpenter's glue would fix it, and then I asked her how much she and my dad paid for it and she said "It doesn't matter" In my mom's language that means it was a lot.

The fingerboard is either really nice, blackened rosewood or ebony. It feels incredibly smooth. And after 12 years of poor care it still is very smooth.


I thought they were nylon, just didn't want to spend an extra 5 dollars I need for my Strat.

[Diego]

What a shame man. I still keep my first nylon guitar around.
It's in one piece, it was very cheap. But I snapped the neck in half once.
Got it fixed, somehow I managed to get it fixed for free.

Good business skills.

Hope you can do something about your acoustic as well.

[o.p-i.v]

your mom payed a lot for a guitar for a four year old that didnt play?

[Maz]

your mom payed a lot for a guitar for a four year old that didnt play?

That's what happens when you come from a rather rich family. Of course, now 12 years later I can't say being spoiled didn't effect my general attitude towards life...(As I play minor 7 chords of the low E string while I write this)

I need to see better pictures, bclearer and more detailed, of both the body break and the neck break.

ANYTHING can be repaired (Ever replaced a neck on a neckthru guitar? It´s possible ), the question is just how much are you willing to pay for it, how good it´s supposed to be, and whether those 2 criteria can be brought to a junction point that is in the instrument´s best interest.

Some clean breaks can be easily reset by someone with woodworking knowledge and patience, but as soon as you get anywhere near the neck the chance that the instrument needs professional care rises exponentially.

Now, if after reading all of that you just run over, douse it in titebond and clamp it, I will make every effort to convince your PC mouse to kill you at the next possible opportunity.

Post better pics and I can say something more tangible than: "Please don´t attempt it yourself without properly informing and preparing yourself"... if it´s clean enough I may be even to walk you through the repair.

I'll try to get some pics of later. Thanks for the help. That picture is just a lazy picture I took from the webcam built into my laptop about 5 minutes before I made this thread. I might even be able to post a video if that would be easier.

I'm thinking some Elmo's Wood Glue, a couple of judiciously placed C clamps, and a righteous amount of patience, and this can be remedied.

Let's don't panic yet.

Thanks! I figured as much glue would work. The easiest play to go to get guitars worked on is guitar center, and their prices are a little too high to be going into my "Get a new Guitar" fund at this point. The only part I might be missing is the patience part....

Don't spend a ****load of money to fix it, but fix it. It means a lot to your folks and thus, should mean a lot to you. If it wasn't that great, it wasn't that great, but show your mom you care and get it back up to speed. Research what it is-solid top/back/sides? It might have been expensive, or maybe a handmedown from a family member you don't know, though I wouldn't have given that to a 4 yr old. If you find out it wasn't that expensive, I'm with Ace: glue, clamp, restring.

The way my mom looked at me when I showed it to her, it brought 2 things to my mind. A) It's expensive. B) It's a cheapie. Backing up A is the fact that the fretboard after 12 years of sitting in a bag and bad care is smooth as a marble top. There's no wood grain in it like my other guitars which have Rosewood fretboards, which show wood grain. I know one of the features of an Ebony Fretboard is it's constant smoothness. Backing up B is the fact that there is no company listed anywhere on the case, or headstock, or guitar at all. There isn't a serial number anywhere either. And as I'm writing this I just found that the inlays are stickers. Although, my dad didn't care at all. His reaction was "Are you sure you didn't have a Pete Townsend moment?"

It seems like the people who posted this thread generally agree on the method to fix this. Judging by the way the guitar itself(except for my tiny issue here ) has held itself together I think it might be a little on the expensive side. Sadly, neither of my parents will say anything about it.

[Bass_Medic_05]

That stinks

[Markk]

I wish I still had my first guitar. $5 garage sale p.o.s.
A cousin borrowed it to start learning guitar and dropped it down a flight of stairs. Would have been a cool thing to have now. I recommend piecing yours back together and hanging it on a wall

[CTN]

In all seriousness, it looks like a clean break - which is good. that means it is reparable.

clean up the glue residue on the body and the neck, and re-glue it using hide glue.

or give it to a local luthier to do if this is something you're not sure about doing properly.

[Zerberus]

I need to see better pictures, bclearer and more detailed, of both the body break and the neck break.

ANYTHING can be repaired (Ever replaced a neck on a neckthru guitar? It´s possible ), the question is just how much are you willing to pay for it, how good it´s supposed to be, and whether those 2 criteria can be brought to a junction point that is in the instrument´s best interest.

Some clean breaks can be easily reset by someone with woodworking knowledge and patience, but as soon as you get anywhere near the neck the chance that the instrument needs professional care rises exponentially.

Now, if after reading all of that you just run over, douse it in titebond and clamp it, I will make every effort to convince your PC mouse to kill you at the next possible opportunity.

Post better pics and I can say something more tangible than: "Please don´t attempt it yourself without properly informing and preparing yourself"... if it´s clean enough I may be even to walk you through the repair.

[Coma]

ANYTHING can be repaired (Ever replaced a neck on a neckthru guitar? It´s possible )

Do tell!

[Zerberus]

Do tell!

No biggie, just steam the wings off just like you do any other glue joint, clean up all the residue, carve a new neck, glue the whole thing back together, and refinish.

You rarely hear about it because most people don´t realize that glue joints can be loosened, or they flat out don´t care, or don´t want to pay a fair price for a craftsman that has the skills to pull it off

[Aceman]

I'm thinking some Elmo's Wood Glue, a couple of judiciously placed C clamps, and a righteous amount of patience, and this can be remedied.

Let's don't panic yet.

[formula73]

Don't spend a ****load of money to fix it, but fix it. It means a lot to your folks and thus, should mean a lot to you. If it wasn't that great, it wasn't that great, but show your mom you care and get it back up to speed. Research what it is-solid top/back/sides? It might have been expensive, or maybe a handmedown from a family member you don't know, though I wouldn't have given that to a 4 yr old. If you find out it wasn't that expensive, I'm with Ace: glue, clamp, restring.

[ratherdashing]

You were 4 in 1999?

God damn I feel really old now.

[Maz]

You were 4 in 1999?

God damn I feel really old now.

Gonna be 16 in december(now I don't have to bug my parents to go to guitar center or game stop )

I only wish my parents started me when I was 4 instead of when I was 11. I could have been one of those 8 year old shredders!

come on people.
Reality check!
Your mom bought you a guitar when you were four.
From that low rez pic it even looks cheap and nasty.
whats more, the neck fell off.
Dude - blackened rosewood? means its crappy wood thats been painted or stained to look better. Scratchplate on a classical? lol. Its a seriously crap guitar. I would not even recommend one of those to a beginning student.
Parents always think its a lot of money - even 100 bucks they consider to be a lot right?
Its a crapper ok? She probably got it at the supermarket.

Take a deep breath.

now your mom was crying cos she put love and care into buying her baby a guitar as a gift, and now its broken right?
She did not buy you a ramirez.
She probably did not even buy you a valencia.
Fix the thing with hardware epoxy. BUy the cheapest strings you can find. Tune it, play a few chords on it. Make your mom happy again. then leave it in the closet until you have kids of your own.
Guitars like that are built for kids who will break them.

Makes sense. In my mind I wanted to make myself feel like I actually had a guitar worth a little money compared to my 600 dollar LTD in the corner over there. Which, of course, 600 is a lot, but compared to what some of my friends have, that's nothing..


Maybe I'll take what my dad said to heart and pull a Pete Townsend.



Or I could have my Chem teacher blow it up.

[gibson175]

come on people.
Reality check!
Your mom bought you a guitar when you were four.
From that low rez pic it even looks cheap and nasty.
whats more, the neck fell off.
Dude - blackened rosewood? means its crappy wood thats been painted or stained to look better. Scratchplate on a classical? lol. Its a seriously crap guitar. I would not even recommend one of those to a beginning student.
Parents always think its a lot of money - even 100 bucks they consider to be a lot right?
Its a crapper ok? She probably got it at the supermarket.

Take a deep breath.

now your mom was crying cos she put love and care into buying her baby a guitar as a gift, and now its broken right?
She did not buy you a ramirez.
She probably did not even buy you a valencia.
Fix the thing with hardware epoxy. BUy the cheapest strings you can find. Tune it, play a few chords on it. Make your mom happy again. then leave it in the closet until you have kids of your own.
Guitars like that are built for kids who will break them.

[BrianS.]

Looks like a very inexpensive guitar that simply has a butt joint (maybe a couple dowels, too?) where the neck attaches to the body. On real classicals, the neck block is part of the neck, and the sides are inserted into slots cut into the block. You can see this here:

http://ultimate-guitar-building.com/...ssical-guitar/

I believe this joint is called a Spanish heel or something like that.

gibson175 already mentioned other indicators that this is an inexpensive guitar. "Ebonized" maple can be very smooth and look like real ebony to the untrained eye.

Anyway, like others have said, slather it with glue and clamp it up. See what happens...

Good luck.

[j9fd3s]

i had the same thing happen! i left the guitar out in the sun, and bang!

dad had some kind of special glue, and we glued and clamped it, and it was fine.

since its the neck, making sure its STRAIGHT is the really important part.

mike