Skunk stripe issues.

musicalstash

Recently bought this Mexican jazz Bass and noticed at the top of the skunk stripe" stress marks " in the maple  and slight ridges around the walnut stripe.  

Is it anything to worry about?  


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BillDL

You get that occasionally.  Woods dry out and shrink at different rates and one of the woods may have been drier than the other when the strip was glued in place and then sanded level.  It is possible that the gap might increase and leave sharp edges of lacquer that might start chipping away over time, or that the strip might either become lower than the neck wood or be left raised.

Is the bass used or new?

If it is used, how old is it?

If it's a reasonably old instrument the wood has probably settled down and that's as bad as it will be, and you could possibly fill in the gaps with a fine bead of lacquer.  If it is new, then I wouldn't be terribly happy about the separation.

musicalstash

BillDL said:

You get that occasionally.  Woods dry out and shrink at different rates and one of the woods may have been drier than the other when the strip was glued in place and then sanded level.  It is possible that the gap might increase and leave sharp edges of lacquer that might start chipping away over time, or that the strip might either become lower than the neck wood or be left raised.

Is the bass used or new?

If it is used, how old is it?

If it's a reasonably old instrument the wood has probably settled down and that's as bad as it will be, and you could possibly fill in the gaps with a fine bead of lacquer.  If it is new, then I wouldn't be terribly happy about the separation.

thanks , it  was bought used - the serial number dates it to 2019 so not too old . It is the stress "cracks " in the maple at the top of the stripe which is the worry - hopefully as you said it has settled now and wont move anymore . 

BillDL

Oh yes, I see what you mean.  I thought they were just dark grain lines that had been interrupted by the groove for the skunk stripe.

It has the appearance of having been a partial "chip-out" caused by inserting and then removing the tight-fitting fillet of hardwood and it catching on the edge of the maple while being removed.

You can completely discount the possibility of this being the result of overtightening a 2-way (Bi-Flex) truss rod in the reverse direction to try and force an up-bow into the neck for relief, because Fender only incorporated them in some bass necks from 1982-84 and 1989-1995 and only in American made instruments.  You would also only expect to see evidence of this around the 7th fret where the rod acts the most, and in any case it very rare not to be able to achieve an up-bow on a bass neck with normal string tension.

What I would be inclined to do, to test whether the cracks open again, is try to carefully drop-fill them with suitable lacquer and sand it flush with very fine wet & dry paper once the lacquer dries.  You should then be able to see from the edges of the lacquer whether the wood around the cracks is contracting.