Opinions on neck of Westone Thunder 1A (UK Ebay)

In the photo of the back of the neck of this guitar, is there anything to worry about?

There's a line on the side of the neck that does look to me just like a surface scratch/mark. But, the line of the scarf joint looks a bit too distinct. Could there be any chance that it's starting to crack there?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Westone-Thunder-1-A-/230519660597?pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV

Difficult to say, the photo isn't very clear. The seller refers to it as a "scratch" in his blurb.

Might be worth asking him to put another photo up?

Just had another look at the ad. It's in Coventry, anyone local who could have a look at it?

It looks like a neck split to me. There is probably another one on the other side. When a guitar takes a knock you sometimes get this happening rather than the neck breaking. It can remain stable for many years but if it takes another big knock it will break in that place.

Can be easliy fixed if it becomes unstable but should be priced accordingly.

Could be wrong, but that's what it looks like to me.

Graham

Good idea Norfolkngood. I've sent a request for an extra photo. If it gets emailed to me, I'll post it here. Thanks guys.

Coventry is close enough to me for me to do a pickup only (I got my V100 that way). But a bit far to go look at something on the off-chance.

Definitely looks like the headstock has been knocked backwards, the corner of the slot for the nut is always a stress point on back angled headstocks. It can't be a scarf joint, as far as I'm aware, Thunder I's don't have them.

DAN.

DuoFuzz wrote:Definitely looks like the headstock has been knocked backwards, the corner of the slot for the nut is always a stress point on back angled headstocks. It can't be a scarf joint, as far as I'm aware, Thunder I's don't have them.

DAN.

The seller has said to me that s/he originally thought it was a crack, but it is a scratch. My Cimar bass has a similar mark on it. When I first saw it I panicked a bit, but on looking at it really closely it is just a scratch in the finish. I think it's been hung up by a wire at some point.

There will be no bidding by me on the Thunder 1A in this thread unless I get a fairly conclusive photograph.

As Dan says, there's no scarf joint on a Thunder.
What I am seeing is a light scratch(?) below the headstock running a right angles to the neck, and a rather lengthy dark scratch/crack(?) running with the grain. No hard fast rules, but the light mark is likely a scratch since a surface finish stress crack usually will follow the grain and would likely be multiple cracks.
The darker mark is a toss up without better pix. Could be a fracture, might just be a dirty scuff mark.

If it had been on a guitar with a thicker glass like poly finish I would have said it might be just a stress crack in the lacquer itself, but these earlier Westones tend have a really thin finish on the necks.

I hope it's in good shape this one, it's looks nice apart from the neck worries!

DAN.

The seller has put new photos up. Now I REALLY don't want to buy it. Look at that big cracklike mark in the neck.