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So how did this happen? There are no signs of impact anywhere. The top seems to have sunk quite a bit and the bridge is lifting a little bit, which suggests the guitar has dried out. The truss rod was very tight but it didn't seem suspiciously so, although after backing it off the gap closed up. After loosening the strings and backing the truss rod off completely, I measured the relief of the actual board and there is quite a bit of relief, more than .035" (my biggest feeler gauge.) Some of that relief is likely due to the compromised glue joint, but not enough to dismiss the enormous amount of relief.

Is it reasonable to think that perhaps the neck had developed a warp causing too much relief, someone tried addressing that by tightening the truss rod (ultimately all the way), the guitar dried out causing the top to sink and wood to shrink, which in turn stressed the glue joint where it ultimately separated?

The proper fix would be removing the fret board, planing the neck flat, re-seat the truss rod, glue fret board, touch up finish, dress frets and set up, oh and remove and re-glue the bridge?

This guitar is a Blueridge D-45 clone, probably in the $7-$800 range.

Connor is the dovetail solid. Looks from here like the neck has risen a tad out of the locked position for the dovetail.

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Ann Arbor Guitars

Hey Hesh, yes it seems solid. The finish is completely undisturbed around the perimeter of the heel, and the neck is level with the top of the guitar.

The separation goes from about the 11th fret to the 16th, and is worse on the treble side.

I've attached a better picture. I cranked the truss rod back up to open it up again. But without tension on the rod the gap almost closes.

Seems the truss rod was over cranked for some reason and the end blew out the FB glue joint at the body join. If the gap almost closes with tension off the truss rod, will it close tightly with a little clamping pressure from the bottom of the heel to the top of the FB? When clamped, but no truss rod tension, how does the relief look in that condition? It is hard to assess relief and neck position without the FB where it is supposed to be.

Knowing that info you can decide if a neck reset is necessary. If not, maybe you can clean out enough glue from the failed joint, reglue the FB and readjust the truss rod.

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Brian R, Wood Mechanic
N8ZED

I'll bet that you're right including how it happened. Good call.

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Ann Arbor Guitars