Neck/body seam - cosmetic or structural?

[tronathan]

I pulled the trigger and acquired an ‘04 mojo - came in today. Excitement. It’s def out of my reasonable spending range, but I went for it.

The prelim inspection has a ways to go (thanks to this forum for the wealth of knowledge on what to look for!), but one glaring concern is the finish is delaminating at the seam where the neck meets the body. I’ve read a few references to this in the fly clone pages - but the delaminating seems a bit more prominent than other cases that have often been seen as cosmetic. It wasn’t disclosed in the sale which was classified as “excellent” and described as “perfect”.

I of course have to make a final call soon on whether to take issue with this defect- if it’s cosmetic I can live with it but am worried about structural- a couple guitar tech types I know aren’t really familiar with fly construction so I lay my fate before you. I welcome your thoughts and recommendations for further investigation.

[mmmguitar]

@tronathan, can you feel any seams with your finger, or detect whether the area is raised? It almost looks more like the start of the (purely cosmetic) hazing that afflicts many natural finish Mojos once moisture settles under the poly, rather than a structural issue - But it's not one I've personally had to deal with; so hopefully we get more opinions in here.

GIven how many of these guitars were built 20+ years ago, you almost have to take any "excellent" listing condition with a grain of salt. Anyway, congrats on feeding the Fly addiction! Hope everything works out.

[BMA_USA]

What is the fretting surface like? Does it buzz or choke out anywhere? What about string alignment, neck relief, action, string gauge, spring gauge? I'd be looking especially close at those things.

[tronathan]

Update to this - I've examined the de-lam extensively and even tensioned parts of the guitar gently, adjusted action and other things and it very much seems like a cosmetic degradation after a couple decades. I recall from doing fiberglass lamination and coating on a number of (non-musical instrument) projects that those kinds of 90-degree turns can see this kind of relief from the surface.

also the guitar simply plays and feels exceptional...

next consideration is: anyone have perspective or experience on micro resin applications under the surface of the clear-coat to fix those voids? a thinned resin injected into a tiny drilled hole could do the trick. I'm interested, however extremely cautious... it's not like I have a spare Parker fly to test it out on.