Now, consider that a single span of lacquer crosses from the maple laminate body to the solid mahogany neck and you got two different kinds of woods moving with the heat and humidity and the lacquer having to stay intact. So the wood moves and the lacquer doesn’t. Once the lacquer has completely cured (and an extra 40 or 50 years for good measure), it isn’t terribly elastic but the wood underneath still “breathes”. Perhaps even more likely since there is some “give” at any glue joint. The truth is that the lacquer across those seams is just as likely to check as anywhere else on the guitar. It’s funny, most folks accept lacquer checking all over the guitar without batting an eye but if the lacquer is cracked along the seams at the heel, many buyers balk. By perfect I mean, no lacquer break at the join. But a perfect neck join on any vintage ES is not so easy to find. Ideally, when seeking out a vintage 335, you want to minimize structural issues. But there are still questions regarding the heel, so I’ll try to address them. The long tenon design of the neck join has proven itself over more than 60 years. This is not a weak point on an ES-335 and is rarely an issue (like it is on most SGs). I’m going to concentrate on one area here. Any breaks, cracks or repairs? It’s the right question to ask and it’s also a hard question to answer. You can see that the lacquer is broken right at the heel join but does that mean the structural integrity is compromised?Įverybody who is considering the purchase of an expensive vintage guitar asks the same question.
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