# Put away the impact drivers please...



## tomee2 (Feb 27, 2017)

From a kijiji ad.. at first I thought it was camera lens distortion but looking closely you can see the neck plate is bent and its dug into the body! Ouch!
I'm assuming an impact driver or power drill was used as I'm not sure you could bend that plate like using hand torque?


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## Wardo (Feb 5, 2010)

Yeah, some wingsuit tweeker probably off his methadone..lol


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## Acoustic Tom (Apr 6, 2020)

Some people shouldn't use power tools. That's why we have professionals .


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## Always12AM (Sep 2, 2018)

Not to mention what’s happening to the neck. Probably stripped to shit. Looks like an Am-Orig too…


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## tomee2 (Feb 27, 2017)

Always12AM said:


> Not to mention what’s happening to the neck. Probably stripped to shit. Looks like an Am-Orig too…


It is.....


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## Thunderboy1975 (Sep 12, 2013)

Wardo said:


> Yeah, some wingsuit tweeker probably off his methadone..lol


Too twitchy for manual tools i would wager.


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## moleng1 (Mar 25, 2017)

Nobody should use power tools on a guitar!!


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## Mark Brown (Jan 4, 2022)

moleng1 said:


> Nobody should use power tools on a guitar!!


I use power drivers for everything, but there is a reason they have a torque adjustment.


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## Always12AM (Sep 2, 2018)

Brunz said:


> I use power drivers for everything, but there is a reason they have a torque adjustment.


I’ll fasten bolts with a low torque gun. But I usually do finishing by hand. I like to know how much tension necks and guards and amp bits are under.

We all made rookie mistakes.. just not on $3000+ guitars I’d hope.


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## Mark Brown (Jan 4, 2022)

If you know how to use your tools, it isn't a mistake. 

I don't walk to work, it takes too long. Same as driving screws, I have tools for that. You can hand turn a drill past the break on the torque as well. That is how you seat that last bit.


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## Powdered Toast Man (Apr 6, 2006)

I'll sometimes use the driver to remove screws on a guitar. Putting them back on I strictly hand fasten them. I always reverse turn the screws to find the existing thread and then turn forward to avoid cross threading.


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## Lincoln (Jun 2, 2008)

I've seen that happen on bodies made of softer wood. Think Chinese.


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## player99 (Sep 5, 2019)

I did that to my first guitar when I was just a a baby with a manual screwdriver.


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## Mark Brown (Jan 4, 2022)

player99 said:


> I did that to my first guitar when I was just a a baby with a manual screwdriver.


That's a lot of spinach


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## player99 (Sep 5, 2019)

Brunz said:


> That's a lot of spinach


I amsk what I amsk.


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## tomee2 (Feb 27, 2017)

Brunz said:


> I use power drivers for everything, but there is a reason they have a torque adjustment.


Exactly. But, what should it be here? How do you know that even the minimum setting won't crunch the body wood? I think gentle hand tightening here is best here, especially on a body finished in nitro.


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## Mark Brown (Jan 4, 2022)

tomee2 said:


> Exactly. But, what should it be here? How do you know that even the minimum setting won't crunch the body wood? I think gentle hand tightening here is best here, especially on a body finished in nitro.


I am not saying you should learn to use your tools on your expensive guitars, that would be foolish. I can also tell you that I can hand torque tighter than my 3/8 chuck electric driver. Either way, the tools are not what make for the stupid people.


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## Wardo (Feb 5, 2010)

Something like that I'd maybe spin them in part way if the drill was handy and then tighten each screw to torque by hand a little at a time going from screw to screw until it felt right. Sort like with lug nuts.


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## Always12AM (Sep 2, 2018)

Brunz said:


> If you know how to use your tools, it isn't a mistake.
> 
> I don't walk to work, it takes too long. Same as driving screws, I have tools for that. You can hand turn a drill past the break on the torque as well. That is how you seat that last bit.


I personally have never made rookie mistakes. I am lucky enough to have above average dexterity and motor skills for no reason. I simply shared that anecdote to make the mullin’s on here feel less self conscious about making common mistakes

Personally, I like to fasten neck bolts by hand as well as finish fastening pickguards after using a drill to get 90% there. Simply because the lightweight swamp ash body took 1.2 years and $850 to get to my front door.

Ask me to build you a fence or deck and I’ll build it sloppier than a hooker eats a plate of nachos and faster than a monkey can fuck a football.

Mine over matter….
If it ain’t mine.. it don’t matter lol.


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## Mark Brown (Jan 4, 2022)

Always12AM said:


> I personally have never made rookie mistakes.


I personally have made _*every *_rookie mistake.
It is how I know what to do, I have literally done everything else and it was wrong


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## Eric Reesor (Jan 26, 2020)

Who ever did that most likely worked at Canadian Tire as a mechanic, couldn't play a lick and didn't even suspect that large philips screws need large armstrong screw drivers. Good luck correcting the neck angle with paper shims and perhaps a necessary truss rod tweak.
Love the bent plate effect, someone should apply for a patent, who knows it might make millions these days with everybody and their dog getting them on just design features.

If that is a good serial number on the plate then I suggest you email the pic to the original manufacturer with an explanation of the problem, It would make a great how not to poster in a factory training manual somewhere on the planet I am certain.

Hope you manage to get the back bow relief in order and the guitar plays to someone's Satisfaction again in the future. Even though it obviously never played for someone with it in the past, who knows some young gun might revive it eventually.


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## Eric Reesor (Jan 26, 2020)

Brunz said:


> If you know how to use your tools, it isn't a mistake.
> 
> I don't walk to work, it takes too long. Same as driving screws, I have tools for that. You can hand turn a drill past the break on the torque as well. That is how you seat that last bit.


True.. but here is where things can get a little cloudy.

Most likely someone thought that the neck angle and relief could be corrected with with just torqueing the attachment screws. Sometimes walking while you work is the only answer. IMHO 🤓🧐


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## Latole (Aug 11, 2020)

Impact driver ! No

Wood screws will strip body wood. Steel plate will not bend.


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## Rollin Hand (Jul 12, 2012)

Someone should tell this guy that a powered screwdriver, and NOT a Milwaukee impact gun, is the way to go here.

And that you stop before the bottom and finish tightening by hand.


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## Paul Running (Apr 12, 2020)

The lad probably has one hell of a wrist shot.


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## Wardo (Feb 5, 2010)

This is my peg winder.


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## tomee2 (Feb 27, 2017)

Latole said:


> Impact driver ! No
> 
> Wood screws will strip body wood. Steel plate will not bend.


If you see the picture, the plate is bent. And the screws should not engage in the body, only the neck. 
That size of screw into hard maple has about 300 or more pounds of holding force. If the body is soft, that force will indent the plate into the wood, and by the looks of it here bend the plate.


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## Roots-Picker (Dec 29, 2017)

Yeah, it’s really too bad the guy got carried away and deformed his guitar. 
I could be wrong here, but I noticed that the serial number on the neck plate begins with a capital ‘V’…could dude possibly have done this to a Fender American Vintage series axe?! 😬


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## sjp (11 mo ago)

Just had to buy a reverse removing bit to get a rounded neck screw out of an incomplete build I bought. The other three were in super-tight but I managed to get them out by hand. The last one needed the speedout treatment.

Everything on the build was done up impossibly tight, it took me an age to carefully disassemble. 

Thankfully nothing stripped.


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## tomee2 (Feb 27, 2017)

Roots-Picker said:


> Yeah, it’s really too bad the guy got carried away and deformed his guitar.
> I could be wrong here, but I noticed that the serial number on the neck plate begins with a capital ‘V’…could dude possibly have done this to a Fender American Vintage series axe?! 😬


Yes! It's an AVRI, or whatever they're called now. Still for sale $2k, Ottawa region.


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## tomee2 (Feb 27, 2017)

sjp said:


> Just had to buy a reverse removing bit to get a rounded neck screw out of an incomplete build I bought. The other three were in super-tight but I managed to get them out by hand. The last one needed the speedout treatment.
> 
> Everything on the build was done up impossibly tight, it took me an age to carefully disassemble.
> 
> ...


That's insane. Looks like the wrong screw type, and it got stripped.
It's a guitar, not a cylinder head bolt!


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