farewell to my Yamaha EG 112C -- we had only just begun!

For guitars of the straight waisted variety (or reverse offset).
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bah humbuck
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farewell to my Yamaha EG 112C -- we had only just begun!

Post by bah humbuck » Sat Jun 29, 2019 11:43 am

Image

Picked up this little wonder for $70 used at my local guitar emporium a couple months ago as a more cost effective means of scratching my burning itch for an Ibanez Blazer... and boy howdy was I surprised. She played better than any Strat I have had the pleasure of laying my hands on, and that includes American Fenders. I know, I know -- I hear the naysayers already, using words like "starter guitar" and "piece of shit" -- but naysayers, I rebuke you! The fact is, the vibrato actually... gasp!... functioned properly and allowed me to put in my time worshiping certain shoegaze pioneers that are named after useful tools for staying alive in the heat of battle, without knocking the whole situation out of tune. The stock pickups were surprisingly articulate. The whole thing just felt "right" to me. I have played my fair share of sub-par cheap guitars and let me tell you, it was a relief to play an instrument that worked with me rather than against me!

Unfortunately, as you can see in the picture above, the Angels of the Strings decided it was time for her to go home. Around 4:00 this morning, when I was much too tired to be standing up let alone making the ungodly racket I like to inflict upon the graveyard-shift janitor of the soccer store under my studio space, I relied just a tad too much on the integrity of the strap and she went flying onto her head...stock. CR-R-R-ack! Time for some well-deserved rest while I track down a new neck, because unless I am very much mistaken I don't think there's any coming back from this one.

Just wanted to post this here to acknowledge a beautiful 3 months together.

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andy
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Re: farewell to my Yamaha EG 112C -- we had only just begun!

Post by andy » Sat Jun 29, 2019 11:48 am

That was a nice read. I enjoyed your storytelling. The FRAGILE sticker is a little ironic now, eh?
Send me western swing vids

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bah humbuck
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Re: farewell to my Yamaha EG 112C -- we had only just begun!

Post by bah humbuck » Sat Jun 29, 2019 12:02 pm

I'm glad you appreciate the order in which I string words together. I spend most of my time writing about genderless ghouls and their struggles with the healthcare marketplace (afterlife insurance?!), so this is a nice change of pace.

You could say that I maybe -- just maybe -- asked for a bit of a hex from the universe by putting that sticker on. This seems a little bit more severe than your average battle scar, otherwise I would say something about "growing pains"... oh well.

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jthomas
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Re: farewell to my Yamaha EG 112C -- we had only just begun!

Post by jthomas » Sat Jun 29, 2019 12:19 pm

Heck. You can just glue that baby back together. Fragile my a$$.

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Danley
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Re: farewell to my Yamaha EG 112C -- we had only just begun!

Post by Danley » Sat Jun 29, 2019 12:52 pm

Repairable. Looks a lot like the RGZ112P (I just sold.) was a great guitar, but somehow I do seem to have neck issues with a lot of Yamahas- mine did a backflip, then after it became my knockaround guitar blew its fretboard off on a camping trip - was good after a re-glue.

Was a good playing guitar till those events- better than just about any Squier, especially for the $40 cost. Didn’t make it into my top roster though, so I sold it.
King Buzzo: I love when people come up to me and say “Your guitar sound was better on Stoner Witch, when you used a Les Paul. “...I used a Fender Mustang reissue on that, dumbass!

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jvin248
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Re: farewell to my Yamaha EG 112C -- we had only just begun!

Post by jvin248 » Sat Jun 29, 2019 4:29 pm

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I really like that "Fragile" sticker you put on there. Ironic as anything :)

That headstock break is fixable.

Remove the neck from the guitar.

Get tightbond "I" wood glue at the hardware store (II and III are specialized). Get a few clamps if you have none. some scrap wood pieces to use between the clamps and the neck/headstock. Have a mallet or block of wood to use as a mallet.

Have a bright desk lamp and a razor blade knife to carefully go over both pieces and remove any wood fibers that are loose and/or bent.

Clamp the heel of the neck to a table/bench using wood under the clamp.

Do a test fit of the headstock to the neck, can you get it back together easily, can you get the blocks and clamps on without problems of everything falling apart? Practice if you have any problems.

Use masking tape to tape off the truss rod end so no glue gets into the truss rod. Create a dam so no glue follows down the truss rod channel.

Liberally coat the neck and the headstock break with glue.

Put the headstock in place and use the mallet to firmly seat the headstock.

Wet paper towel to wipe off squeeze-out glue.

Clamp up, wipe off any new glue squeeze-out, and let sit for two days (glue directions will be 24 hours but you only want to do this once).

Scrape and sand the joint smooth. Consider drop-fill with CA adhesive (super glue) any open spots.

String it up and play it again. The Gibson LP guys will tell you a headstock is stronger after a repair than original from the factory....

.

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mgeek
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Re: farewell to my Yamaha EG 112C -- we had only just begun!

Post by mgeek » Tue Jul 02, 2019 12:14 am

bah humbuck wrote:
Sat Jun 29, 2019 11:43 am
because unless I am very much mistaken I don't think there's any coming back from this one.
you are! ;D

Headstock repairs are only tricky if there are large splinters of wood missing or the break is straight across the grain so there's not enough surface area to do anything with. Weird term for it, but this looks like an 'ideal' sort of break.

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øøøøøøø
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Re: farewell to my Yamaha EG 112C -- we had only just begun!

Post by øøøøøøø » Tue Jul 02, 2019 3:49 pm

Agreed, this is the "best" sort of headstock break to have

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M. Barcadero
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Re: farewell to my Yamaha EG 112C -- we had only just begun!

Post by M. Barcadero » Wed Sep 18, 2019 9:55 am

I have a Yamaha bolt-on Neck in pretty good shape. I never got around to doing the project I had planned. let me know if you want it

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somanytoys
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Re: farewell to my Yamaha EG 112C -- we had only just begun!

Post by somanytoys » Wed Sep 18, 2019 7:31 pm

That’s a really nice offer - very cool, M. This site has such great people.

BH - I hope you can get it all working again. Enjoyable guitars can be hard to come by, especially inexpensive ones. Hopefully that fragile sticker becomes an inside joke.
-David

It's a boost booster, to boost your boost - it makes your tone much muchier.

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