were are my wood experts??

I've had that happen to me too on Floyd installations. There isn't enough dense wood in front of the post to support the tension of all the strings. I'm not sure if using the old style Floyd screws instead of inserts would fix it, but I think that the only way to avoid it is to put the bridge humbucker more forward. The last body I did that it happened to was poplar

Les Paul juniors were notorious for tilted inserts and screws too.

I wonder if your drill bit was just one size too small and the wood cracked when you tapped in the insert.... It wouldn't take much to do that with basswood.

 

Basswood is incredibly soft. If you look at hardwoods, it is harder than balsa, but I can easily dent it without even trying. That is why I built one body of it and never again and why it is so popular with carvers. The softest I will go is poplar. I suppose Pauwalonia could be softer, but I have never used it. More than likely the bit was ever so slightly too small like guitarbuilder said. If you pull the stud, you can reset the piece, and put in some super glue to help strengthen the area.

 

Yep, Ideally the hole should be a tad small to allow the splines of the insert to bite into the wood, but I think in this case it tends to break the wood unless there is sufficient wood in front of it, or dense enough to absorb the compression.

 

From what I can find out, basswood doesn't seem like a good choice for a high-tension application like a Floyd. Yes, it's easy to work with, but according to most sources, doesn't have good nail or screw holding capabilities. I don't claim to be a wood expert, but I worked with wood as a framing carpenter and I have an interest in wood stuff. There is always a bit of range between samples of wood characteristics - not every piece of the same species is exactly alike, but measurements can provide useful trends.

One comparison to make is the ratio of a wood's hardness to average dried weight - sort of a comparison of bang for the buck, so to speak. Here's some data. This is not to suggest that a ratio is the only story; the contrast in hardness between growth rings and heartwood probably provides a better indicator of holding capability.

Ratio of Janka Hardness to Average Dried Weight
http://www.wood-database.com/lumber-identification/hardwoods/basswood/

wood/ADW #'s per cuft/janka hardness/Hardness to wt ratio
Brazilian Rosewood 52/ 2790/ 53.65
White Ash 42/ 1320/ 31.43
Koa 38/ 1170/ 30.79
African Mahogany 40/ 1070/ 26.75
Honduran Mahogany 41/ 900/ 21.95
Longleaf Pine 41/ 870/ 21.22
Red Alder 28/ 590/ 21.07
Yellow Poplar 29/ 540/ 18.62
Redwood 26/ 450/ 17.31
Basswood (linden) 26/ 410/ 15.77
Sugar Pine 25/ 380/ 15.20
Workability of Basswood(according to the Wood Database):
Easy to work, being very soft and light. Perhaps one of the most suitable wood species for hand carving . Basswood also glues and finishes well, but has poor steam bending and nail holding characteristics. (emphasis added)
Janka Hardness
The actual number listed in the wood profile is the amount of pounds-force (lbf) or newtons (N) required to imbed a .444″ (11.28 mm) diameter steel ball into the wood to half the ball’s diameter. This number is given for wood that has been dried to a 12% moisture content, unless otherwise noted. This number is incredibly useful in directly determining how well a wood will withstand dents, dings, and wear—as well as indirectly predicting the difficulty in nailing, screwing, sanding, or sawing a given wood species.
Hope this helps; couldn't get the table to set up legibly, but it's just a relative comparison for illustration.
...and my unexpert conclusion: I'd go with alder or ash.

 

I've always though MDF smells moldy when you cut it. Maybe your basswood blank was moldy, and weakened from the mold? Long-shot speculation, and from the other responses above, sounds like it may have been the drill bit size, and the nature of basswood.

 

Woods vary from piece to piece. Have you verified that your stud to pickup spacing is not smaller than normal? Sometimes crap like this just happens with wood. It is most likely that you are not going to find someone to pin this on other than mother nature and Murphey.

 

I would route out the entire bridge area and inset a block of maple or something nice and solid.
Then paint a muscle car style stripe down the middle to cover it up.

Or make a new body out of better wood.

 

You're in Florida, so I would guess Ochoo aka Possumwood, Assacu, Monkey-No-Climb(I didn't make that up). Scientific name Hura crepitans L.

Real soft stuff and the color and grain is similar enough to Basswood that the mistake could be made.

 

I've used that same trem on basswood bodies, I've always worried about that happening. Last time I left more meat in the post area, but it still seamed like a high stress area.

Nice looking guitar though, certainly worth fixing!


Sent from my iPhone using TDPRI

 

+1

 

Basswood is soft, but like all woods the density is partially determined by the environment. If it grows under very long cold winters where the growth rings are densely packed, it tends to have greater strength and durability. I have seen very soft basswood, but I have also bought some that came from Iowa that was much stronger and denser. You cannot easily dent it with a fingernail.

 

Beautiful color scheme, worth fixing, keep it simple.

 

10 gazillion guitar bodies sporting necks with pointy pegheads and locking nuts were built with floyds installed during the 1980's and 1990's.

 

This here is most likely the case. The swamp ash we're all so fond of isn't really a different species, it's just the environment. Warmer wetter climates will result in faster growth which results in less dense wood. Good if you are looking for lighter weight, but lighter wood is generally weaker. The fact that it happened on those two bodies, which could likely have been from the same batch of wood and not on the other ones is not surprising as they probably came from different batches of wood. That's not to say there's anything "wrong" with the ones you got. A different bridge set up and it might have worked just fine.

Basswood is incredibly soft, which is why it is used so frequently for carvers. I've used it without issue, but when using something that soft, I try to minimize the opportunity for disaster by using a setup that doesn't overly stress any specific spot - for example going string-through vs top loader. Basswood and Western Red Cedar which is also very lightweight are the only ones I'm overly careful with.

I know how you feel - it's so dang frustrating when something like this happens! Hope you are able to fix it one way or another.

 

In boat building when dealing with fasteners in a soft wood I always use a technique called "drill-fill-drill". Basically you drill an oversized hole a bit deeper than necessary for the fastener. Then you fill the hole with thickened epoxy. Once the epoxy has set you then drill the hole size required for the fastener in the center of the epoxy and insert the fastener. Never had a problem.

 

I doubt the seller slipped you counterfeit basswood.
In several decades of obsessive compulsive woodworking I've found it to be very difficult to find two identical pieces of wood, even two ends of the same board can have significantly different hardness and density. (and color and grain)

Is your love of basswood purely the pound you save over a nice light piece of swamp ash or alder?
Or price also figures?
Or you really like the softer tone?

I always assumed basswood was used because it was cheap, light, and very easy to work for mass production.

 

A little bit of the track maybe, but master builder John Suhr once said that his holy grale of sound probably would be basswood with a maple top. So the idea of getting better grip by inserting a maple block as mentioned earlier in the tread or maybe a maple top will be a positive action in any ways Don't know how these builders get that rock solid grip in the basswood, but I would ask one of those builders with experience. Can't image why they wouldn't give you a decent answer or some good advice.