Improperly installed truss rod?

[gearHed289]

So the truss rod on my '94 Les Paul has always been a little tight. And at one point, I had to take the nut off and put a couple of washers over the threads. A while ago I noticed a small crack, maybe 3/4'' long, right behind the truss rod cavity. Didn't think much of it until the last time I had to tighten the rod to flatten out the neck some. The crack started getting worse, so I backed off. I took it to my local guy, and he seems to think the rod was installed improperly. I've had this bass for about 8-9 years, played it a lot, and never had any real issues. What do you guys think? Seen anything like this? Potential cures???

[uwe]

Lamentably, I've seen that on a very few Gibsons (old and new). Possibly not so much a truss rod issue than of a less than an optimal truss rod channel in the neck. That said, it might also not have been anchored properly or the wood where it is anchored has given way (had that with an SG-Z whose maho neck was just too soft), but the crack behind the cavity doesn't necessarily speak for that.

At worst, you might need the board to be taken off, the anchoring corrected or the channel redrilled, the cavity glued ... It can be repaired (had that with my SG-Z), but it wasn't cheap, it's major surgery. Do you love that bass? 

[gearHed289]

Well, I DO love it. Just how much, I guess will depend on the repair estimate.

[gearHed289]

Wow, 7 years! Jumping ahead to the present - I gave this bass to a neighbor who is an older (70-ish) gentleman who works on and customizes guitars and electronic gear. He's actually a fretless guitar player and puts mirrored glass fingerboards on his guitars! Anyway, it was a low priority thing for him, and it was in his hands for over a year and 8 months. It finally came home on Tuesday in completely playable condition. Ran it through a 2 hour set with a band I'm doing some summer shows with last night. Stays in tune, etc. VERY long story short - the wood was compressing behind the backing plate for the truss rod nut. As that plate sank in, it was forcing the wood to split. I'd had the split fixed once by someone else, but it came back fairly quickly. Jack fixed the split, and used some kind of metal-impregnated epoxy to fill the compromised area. Rod is perfectly functional now, and action is where it should be. Couple of pics below...

[BTL]

Nice!

A buddy of mine repaired a leaky cylinder head on my parent's Evinrude 90 outboard engine using JB Weld back in the mid-'90s. That engine lasted quite a few more years afterwards.

I've never had another use for it, but your neighbor sounds like he is cut from the same cloth.