Do you see anything wrong with this picture?

Look close.

I'll zoom it in a bit.

How about now?

OH NOOOOOOOO!

Looks like my last repair didn't last too long.

The glue didn't hold at all.

The first time I broke the neck on this guitar was way back; about 11 years ago I think. I remember it so well because this guitar is like my child - before my real child came along. You'd remember if your child broke their neck.

I was heading back from a little jam session at our drummers house. We used to practice at my place but we were having some issues with my room mate, who owned the house, and we had to start jamming somewhere else. We had finished for the night and my drummer was giving me a ride back to my place. I remember the exact bump that probably broke it. Even though the guitar was packed safely away in it's hard case, the bump was so big, it surely gave the guitar some air in the trunk. Probably enough to bang it off the top of the trunk and then smash it back down again.

On top of that hit which probably broke the neck, by the time I got to my house I forgot to take the guitar out of the car before it left. So much for it being like a child. So the car most likely hit the same bump going the other way just to seal the deal if, at that point, the neck hadn't broke.

I got the call shortly after my drummer had returned home. When he opened up the case, the neck was snapped just the same way as these pictures.

It was enough to make me feel sick to my stomach when I first saw it. This certainly wasn't my first guitar to break. I've even smashed a few guitars on purpose, which I encourage every guitar player to do at least once. Maybe not your favourite guitar, though. This was the most expensive guitar to break on me and I still can't believe it happened, even after all this time.

I managed to get the guitar fixed at a guitar shop and it held for over 10 years until this past December. It still sounded great and I had no issues with it until last December.

I'm a little pissed at how it broke the second time. I had the guitar on a portable guitar stand by my computer and I was just downstairs cleaning up a little bit. My son was "helping" me a little bit and I was cleaning up the guitar cords and wires. I took some guitar cords into the other room where I keep the extras and I remember looking at the guitar as I walked away.

"I'll hang that back on the wall in a second," I thought.

As I was in the other room, I heard a SMASH. I came back out and my guitar was laying face down on the floor and my son was standing there looking a little guilty. I picked the guitar up and sure enough the neck had snapped again. I was pretty pissed. If I had just put the guitar away before the cords, this could have been avoided. I know it's not my son's fault. He just bumped the stand and it fell forward. It was my fault for not having it hanging on the wall where it couldn't be bumped.

I used some Gorilla Wood Glue to glue it back together. I clamped it down nice and tight and left it there for a good two weeks before I had the nerve to unclamp it and hang it on the wall. I left it unstringed and hung it on the wall while I we travelled to Nova Scotia for the holidays. When I got back, I restrung it but I still didn't have the nerve to tighten the strings all the way and test it out.

It wasn't until almost the end of January that I finally decided to try it out. I tuned the guitar up the rest of the way and gave it a shot. Everything seemed to be holding and the guitar still sounded great, every string stayed tuned, and nothing was buzzing. It seemed pretty solid and didn't seem to wiggle or flex as I tightened the strings up.

Then last night I guess it let go. I went downstairs to play a little bit. It's kind of funny because I didn't notice it right away. I picked the guitar up, put the strap on, turned my distortion pedal on, sat at the computer with it in my lap, and opened up Reaper. I was giving my last bit of recordings a listen to see where I left off and I instinctively tried to just noodle on the guitar while I listened. I thought it was weird when I noticed the E string was super loose, but I first just thought it was the humidity because it's been really warm here compared to what it normally is. That's until I looked down and saw the neck snapped again.

It's super disappointing. I'm not sure how many more times I'm going to be able to glue this back together. You can see in the last picture that some of the glue held and it cracked in a different spot on the right side. I'm not sure why the glue didn't hold. It might have been the humidity after all, and it's just in one of those spots that are very vulnerable to the stress of the string tension.

So now I've really got my work cut out for me. I have to get that glue out of there as much as I can before trying it again. I know the Gorilla Glue doesn't want to hold, so what should I use? I'm thinking some Epoxy, but if that doesn't hold, I'll never be able to clean it out. On the other hand, as long as it soaks in a little bit, the Epoxy should hold it so it will never break there again. I'll have to make sure I really get the glue out of there before trying it, though.

This guitar sounds so nice compared to the rest of my guitars. I won't be giving up on it just yet, that's for sure. I don't even care about the look of it, it's that sound of it that matters. It's getting up there in years so it's got some noticeable wear and tear showing up now. The paint is worn off where my forearm rests on the body, the gold plating is turned silver where my hand rests on the bridge and pickups, there are numerous dents and chips in the head stock from hitting cymbals and stands, and there's a nice little chunk taken out where my old bass player dropped it right on the latch of it's case. Add all that to the cracked neck and this guitar has a ton of character. I hope I can keep it going for another few years yet and maybe add a little more character along the way.

Whish me luck and I welcome any advice anyone else might have had doing this kind of repair.