Floyd Post Broke through Schecter! / NGD

State of Epicicity

State of Epicicity

Fractal Fanatic
Tonight, I noticed the post on the treble side of my Floyd was butted up against the pickguard of my Schecter Sun Valley Super Shredder Exotic FR Black Limba, so I took a deeper look and saw that the post has broken through the body of the guitar itself! I have two questions:

Does anyone have any good advice for how to fix this?

Does anyone have any good contacts at Schecter who might be able to help?

I bought this guitar in May of 2021, and the one odd thing I noticed was that the body wood, the black limba, is extremely soft. Many of the screws for the pickguard, the floyd spring claw in the back, and the strap buttons have all gotten loose with no threading in the wood over time. My remedy was to put toothpicks in those holes to give the screws something to grip onto. But this? This is a different level. I play in E standard, and I could maybe understand if I was using ridiculously heavy strings that a Floyd couldn't handle, but here are the only strings I've ever used with the guitar:

D'Addario EXL125 (9-46)
D'Addario NYXL1046 (10-46)
D'Addario EXL120BT (9-40)
D'Addario EXL110BT (10-46)

I've been using the EXL110BT (balanced tension) set for the past month or so. The guitar comes from the factory with the Ernie Ball Hybrid Slinky #2222 (.009-.046) set, so using balanced tension 10s shouldn't be a big deal. I think the wood they used for this is just too damn soft.

Schecter Sun Valley Super Shredder Floyd Post Break 1.jpg
Schecter Sun Valley Super Shredder Floyd Post Break 2.jpg
Schecter Sun Valley Super Shredder Floyd Post Break 3.jpg
 
My guess is you might be able to remove the stud and bushing (insert), then inject some wood glue into the cracks and clamp it all together IF you can get the pieces shifted all back into place.

Otherwise you'd probably have to perform a semi major surgery by replacing a chunk of the body and re-routing and drilling.

I'm sure Andy will let you know...
 
Is it my imagination or does it look like it was glued or some sort of repair was done prior? Like at the factory. Also it looks like the wood had a knot or some sort of natural irregularity in that spot and was destined to be a weakness.

My point is you may have a warranty repair issue. Probably have to fight for that. As @unix-guy says try to glue what’s there and see how it lasts. Although getting into the possibility that there is a natural flaw in the wood in that specific area routing out that area and glueing a new piece of something like maple to fit perfectly in that spot is going to be the permanent fix. Then again as good as the photos are It’s hard to tell what is going on 100%. Sorry for your trouble.

I have a Schecter from the same time period with a FR. It’s Mahogany, but I’m going to have a look to see how that area is holding up.
 
I had many many guitars from various brands, broken like that on my workbench.
It’s not that difficult to repair but in your case, from what I can see at your photos, I would probably rout a new piece of harder wood and and glue that in.
I would not guarantee that if you glue that together that it would not break again.
But yea, maybe @Andy Eagle can chime in with some other ideas/opinions.
 
Thanks very much @unix-guy, @GitGuy513, and @Sashman for the recommendations, and thanks to all for the sympathies. I am not a woodworker at all, although my wife knows a ton, but we have no tools for this sort of thing. When I showed her the break she got pissed. I did see that knot, and I do think there's something going on from the factory, but I was also in a state of shock and just couldn't stomach ripping out the shielding too (kind of an irrational response haha). I could peel back more of the shielding I installed to see further later, but in the meantime I went ahead and sent these pictures to the main Schecter email anyway. I'm just hoping they're cool people. You never know. I mean, unintentional stuff happens at factories, but it's how you treat your customers that realty matters.

I usually only own one guitar at a time, but right now I'm preparing to wire up my long neglected Washburn Parallaxe Trevor Rabin again to get back to playing.

I'll post updates, but truly, thanks again everyone! It's a weirdly emotional thing to happen. Kind of feels like you can't talk for a little bit.
 
I would get a piece of 90° angle steel with the periodic screw holes from Lowes or Home Despot, and reinforce the wood on the pickup cavity side, so that thin bit of wood the post anchors into doesn't support the tension alone. Mush the wood back in place with some glue to make it solid again, and add the steel reinforcement so it's stronger....
 
State of Epicicity said:
Tonight, I noticed the post on the treble side of my Floyd was butted up against the pickguard of my Schecter Sun Valley Super Shredder Exotic FR Black Limba, so I took a deeper look and saw that the post has broken through the body of the guitar itself! I have two questions:

Does anyone have any good advice for how to fix this?

Does anyone have any good contacts at Schecter who might be able to help?

I bought this guitar in May of 2021, and the one odd thing I noticed was that the body wood, the black limba, is extremely soft. Many of the screws for the pickguard, the floyd spring claw in the back, and the strap buttons have all gotten loose with no threading in the wood over time. My remedy was to put toothpicks in those holes to give the screws something to grip onto. But this? This is a different level. I play in E standard, and I could maybe understand if I was using ridiculously heavy strings that a Floyd couldn't handle, but here are the only strings I've ever used with the guitar:

D'Addario EXL125 (9-46)
D'Addario NYXL1046 (10-46)
D'Addario EXL120BT (9-40)
D'Addario EXL110BT (10-46)

I've been using the EXL110BT (balanced tension) set for the past month or so. The guitar comes from the factory with the Ernie Ball Hybrid Slinky #2222 (.009-.046) set, so using balanced tension 10s shouldn't be a big deal. I think the wood they used for this is just too damn soft.

View attachment 134681
View attachment 134682
View attachment 134683
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Did you buy the guitar used? It almost looks like it had been repaired previously & cracked apart from a failed repair.
Unfortunately, there's not much to work with in these Floyd cavities. They're pretty tight.
I'd fix it for you if you were in my zip code. ;)
 
Joe Bfstplk said:
I would get a piece of 90° angle steel with the periodic screw holes from Lowes or Home Despot, and reinforce the wood on the pickup cavity side, so that thin bit of wood the post anchors into doesn't support the tension alone. Mush the wood back in place with some glue to make it solid again, and add the steel reinforcement so it's stronger....
Click to expand...

Dude, this seems doable. Thanks very much for the idea!
 
Planta Fantasma said:
Did you buy the guitar used? It almost looks like it had been repaired previously & cracked apart from a failed repair.
Unfortunately, there's not much to work with in these Floyd cavities. They're pretty tight.
I'd fix it for you if you were in my zip code. ;)
Click to expand...

Thank you so very much for the very kind thought! I actually bought it brand new from Guitar Center. The salesman said it had been unpacked from the factory box the day before, and it actually felt that way. It really seemed like I was the first customer to touch the thing, and I bought it on the spot. I do think this is from an ill advised repair at the factory.
 
State of Epicicity said:
Thank you so very much for the very kind thought! I actually bought it brand new from Guitar Center. The salesman said it had been unpacked from the factory box the day before, and it actually felt that way. It really seemed like I was the first customer to touch the thing, and I bought it on the spot. I do think this is from an ill advised repair at the factory.
Click to expand...
A confident luthier should be able to fix that in a few hrs.
With a little TLC she'll live to play another gig.
 
Bummer - has me looking at my Charvel made of sassafrass which also seems quite soft.

The Schecter website says lifetime warranty but only referring to "diamond series". Not sure of what series your guitar is classed as but I think I'd be pushing for warranty coverage on it.
 
sprint said:
Bummer - has me looking at my Charvel made of sassafrass which also seems quite soft.

The Schecter website says lifetime warranty but only referring to "diamond series". Not sure of what series your guitar is classed as but I think I'd be pushing for warranty coverage on it.
Click to expand...

Dude, best of luck with yours! I'm not sure if I've ever heard you talk about a Floyd on your guitars, so this might not be something to worry about for you. It's just this thin area in mine that apparently couldn't handle the tension. Even with a wraparound tun-o-matic, there's so much wood surrounding the posts I just don't think it would cause this kind of thing. OBB top of that, I think they just should have rejected the piece they used for mine because of the knot right at the think post area.

Well just have to see what they say about the warranty. I'm sure the people who work for Schecter can put themselves in a customer's shoes and would not want a guitar that had a structural problem like this.
 
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