Epiphone 12 String Neck Joint Problem

[Dan Pennington]

I picked up an inexpensive Epiphone 12 string model FT-102 with a bolt on electric guitar style neck to fix up for my brother in law.  Needed a neck reset to lower the action.  Easy, I thought.  Not very, it turns out.

I took off the neck and added a shim under the bridge end of the neck.  At first it put the action at a nice height, but over a few days, it reverted to high again.  Flexing the neck joint results in movement of the neck block.  I've decided that I don't want to completely rebuild the upper end of the body to cure the movement, so I'll probably dump it back on Craigs List.

Or should I keep it?  Is this a moderate effort fix?  I've built a handful of acoustics and a ton of banjos.  

It seems that there are a lot of these Epiphone 12's around with the same problem.

[Greg Mirken]

Those are awful guitars with a serious design flaw. Give it to someone who needs a hobby.

[Russell Vance]

I think we have all done one of these at some time or other with much the same results - I used cast graphite fibre to stabilize the neck area (after trying every other trick I knew) in the one I did........however, wood is a renewable resource and a vital source of heat in winter...do you have an open fire handy?  Rusty.

[Dan Pennington]

Unstringing and restringing it half a dozen times was hobby enough for me.

It's back on Craigs List for $85.  That's what I paid for it and the guy I bought it from said he had a lot of interest in it from other people.  Let's hope they all haven't sobered up by now.  

I learned a lot from it.  Mostly not to do it again.

[FRANK]

just fix it how bad can it be right guys

[Mark Pollock]

Well, it can be really bad. Gawdawful bad. Never wanna touch a guitar again bad. Sharpen your axe kinda bad. Crucify yourself on a neck jig kinda bad. 40 hours of labor and nothing to show for it except bad tone bad. Sit on a side bender bad.Glue your eyelids shut with hide glue so you never have to see it again bad.

 

So, I'm saying it can be pretty bad, and then, even if you succeed, it will still be a hunk of junk, although it might now be worth $95.

[charley erck]

Bravo!  Artfully stated .