72 Thinline body in bad shape

[steveblues]

I picked up a 72 thinline 2000 model with some issues:

Bottom of neck pocket has fell out
Crack running into f hole (not all the way through)
Cracks on back of the body.

I was going to take it on as a project but looking at the damage I dont think i have time or skills. So I'm gonna part it out.

I got some photos which I can upload later.

Is it worth repairing the body first, or putting on ebay for someone else to do the work?

It looks like it has had a hard life!

[jwells393]

Is it worth repairing the body first, or putting on ebay for someone else to do the work?

A question like that cannot be answered without seeing pictures of the damage.

[steveblues]

Understood, pics havent really turned out well, and they were before I took off the pickguard so I dont have any shots of the internal damage to the neck pocket.

But basically the peice of wood that sits between the neck and the neck humbucker cavity has completely come away.

Rest of the pics below, I think I need to strip it back to bare wood in order to confidently see all the damage.

[GilmourD]

Ouch...

There's an fairly priced thinline body in the classifieds here. Buy that and put everything else you have on it.

[Cleeve]

Put the damaged body on ebay and be amazed, there is some kind of trend where the more damaged a telecaster body is, the more it's worth. Scrape those stickers off with a screwdriver and the value will probably double!

[steveblues]

Originally Posted by GilmourD

Ouch...

There's an fairly priced thinline body in the classifieds here. Buy that and put everything else you have on it.

Everything else has been suitably reliced as well, its not my cup of tea really, honest wear is fair enough but someone has deliberately ruined this guitar!

Originally Posted by Cleeve

Put the damaged body on ebay and be amazed, there is some kind of trend where the more damaged a telecaster body is, the more it's worth. Scrape those stickers off with a screwdriver and the value will probably double!

It probably will go on Ebay, just wondering how many of the 'issues' to address first!

[rob2]

I'd like to see a photo of the neck pocket damage.While there's less wood there than on a normally routed body,I'm still figuring how it could happen-drop the guitar vertically neck first?It may be a good warning to other Thinline owners though! Should be easy to fix if you decide to and hidden by the scratchplate I'd assume?
You got good close ups of the cracks,sorry I can't match them but heres one of a 29yr old Lead that came to me about 10 years ago as a write off-it has similar cracks but they are only in the thick polyester.The cracks fill with dirt and look more serious than they are.Note that most of yours cross the grain of the wood so are unlikely to be actual wood damage,they are probably stress cracks in the thick poly finish.Try to slip the edge of some printer paper into the crack and see how far it goes-a lot easier than stripping back.I had a (non Fender)once and you could see right through a crack in the body!
Q10 001.jpg
Interesting to see how the neck colour seems to have darkened to match the body,you feel this guitar was "reliced" rather than abused? I'm with you on preferring honest wear....
And don't tell me these are starting to be worth more dead than alive,like the originals?Yet I've only seen the re-issue pickups for sale as spares through one source in Europe and they are more expensive than most Gibson items-in fact a pair would come to not much under half what I paid for my Thinline a few months ago!
Rob

[Octave Doctor]

I'd repair the neck block then reinforce the body cracks, nothing here that's going to fold up.