I spent a few hours going over some guitars that have been in their cases over a year as I cant play them. I changed the strings and gave each one a good yearly polishing which I do every summer. Upstairs I had 5 in my bedroom closet and six in the adjacent room closet. Everything was perfect with the 5 in the BR but 2 of the 6 in the other room developed cracks in the neck pocket which has me feeling a bit sick because I cant figure out for the life of me what happened.

I have stored my guitars like this for years in there cases standing up and tuned down a half step and never had a problem. One was a Strat that is 8 years old but still mint that had a faint crack that you really have to look to see and the other is my 85 62 reissue Tele which is 25 years old and had them on both sides. The Tele has a million miles on it but it hurt just the same. I know it will not affect playability but I never have seen this happen on Fenders where on some other guitars it is common place.

Anyone ever have this happen to there Fender or have an idea what could of caused it as now I am freaking out thinking it is going to happen to another guitar.

It sucks that you cant play man, but I had a scan through another thread and it said you were having surgery of some kind, well good luck with that and hope it turns out well

It couldv'e been cause you polished em after so long without not doing it, my strat has cracks in the neck pocket too.

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riley

Personaly I detune my stored guitars to D. I was given the advice by someone I just wouldnt question on the subject. I dont really understand the principles behind it as the trussrod/neck should be providing all the counter pressure.
I dont see how that could affect the neck pocket anyway, the neck yes.

Is it possible that you just didnt notice the cracks the last time the guitars were out of the cases. Perhaps they were like it when they went in, from a knock whilst playing???
Perhaps the crack wasnt even visible when the guitar was put away, but has become so over time?
Are the guitars cellulose finished?
Is the crack a structural thing or just a paint crack?

Could someone have been playing around with em? Do you have any rascals, that may have dreams of rockstar glory?

Thats the series of questions my investigation would start with.

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No no and no

As crazy as this sounds, the woods on a guitar need to have resonance going through them periodically or such things can (and obviously, do) happen.

When I was apprenticing, the master told me that it is not enough to merely season and utilize whatever woods for making a superior guitar. Resonances have to be felt by and through the wood to sweeten them or they dry out and crack. I was kind of skeptical about this until I tucked away a classical guitar he had built for me. After one year of upright storage behind a dresser in my bedroom (in its hardshell case, I may add), the back of the body split fully and cleanly.

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You dig?

Adding a humidifier to the room during winter months is something I started doing last year after my Gretsch 5120 came into the picture. Just running it over night kept all of us comfortable.

Cheers,
John.E

Tuning down puts less stress on the neck meaning when you tune it back up you still have a strong neck.also it allows the guitar to freely alter to temperature changes.

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A painter paints pictures on canvas. But musicians paint their pictures on silence. ~Leopold Stokowski~

Then why are almost all "closet classics" which have not been played in sometimes, decades, NOT self-destructed?

Because there is no guarantee that something bad will happen, only higher odds. And we likely don't hear about the guitars that are found in bad shape, only the ones which weathered the years.

A friend had problems with guitars he stored in the closet of his spare room. We came to the conclusion (not sure if it is why, but our best bet,) that they dried out because there was a chimney behind/beside the closet wall, and we think they accidentally got dosed with ambient heat all winter long.

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I'm not an expert, but I play one on the internet.

Niki to be honest the room that had the two guitars that cracked is my little guys bedroom who plays but he uses my Beck Strat which he favors but also puzzles me as it is the chunkiest neck I have on any guitar until I noticed his hands are just about the same size as mine and he is only 12. I asked him if he had taken any guitars out and he said no and that is good for me as he does not lie and if he wants to play a guitar he will just ask. Besides there would of been smudge marks and prints on the body. Both are Poly finishes with the Strat being my Olympic White EC but it is just a thin faint line in the finish and the other my 85 62 reissue MIJ Tele that had them on both sides running down the finish, but because there is such a thick amount of clear finish on those it looks like if you smacked a candy apple against the wall, but again just in the finish nothing to the wood. That one I dont care about since I have logged more hours on that guitar than any other in my life and it is what a guitar that has really been played should look like. I just want to make sure it does not happen to any others. I had my 95 Blue Burst Strat Ultra sandwhiched between the both of them and if it happened to that I would have been sick, because it is something that is not made anymore. To be honest I have been looking to sell my EC Strat as there is this dealer that sells NOS Custom Shop ECs for $2,100 that I know and I would like to upgrade. But since Fender cant keep a set price as they are going for $1,600 now I am waiting to see if they go back to $2,200. A difference between me selling it for $1,000-$1,100 or $1,500-$,1,600 and adding the difference for a CS.

[quote="Martian"]As crazy as this sounds, the woods on a guitar need to have resonance going through them periodically or such things can (and obviously, do) happen.

Martin how often should they be played? I play all my guitars, but sometimes it might be a month or two for some.
Thanks in advance,
filerj

Ideally, every day. In the context that he meant though, this was strictly concerning classical guitars and with a minimum of two to three hours at that.

I'd say for solid body electrics, every five days for about an hour or so should be sufficient. YMMV.

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You dig?

Do these regulations apply to Earth atmosphere as well?

Only when Brown Note emissions exceed 20% (+/- 1%) of the Half Life of Literary Diarrhea vaporization as equated to Infallible Web Dogma models.

YMMV.

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You dig?

Solar system jokes aside... This past winter was very dry in the east...I had some problems with my guitars that hang uncased on wall hangers in my practice room until I got a humidifier. It ran constantly for months until the weather improved but I had no more problems.
The problem with the neck pocket is probably related to the neck pulling away from the pocket as the wood shrinks.
Hope you can get them fixed Straycat otherwise just consider it mojo added to mix...

I'm so glad my guitar just does blue notes.