The short version: my neck is buggered, anyone know who would be best to fix it? And what needs fixing? Preferrably UK-based, but based on the problem, might have to go further away for the right fix. And quite what may or may not need doing I could do with some advice from anyone here who has had anything similar...
Here's the history...
I had a Mojo Flame I bought new in 2004. Great. Played the hell out of it. It's still great. Then got a few ~2000 Niteflies. Lovely. Then when Parker went bust and closed down about the end of 2016 I thought I should try acquire another good mojo. Bought a gorgeous looking 2nd hand black 2014 Mojo Flame... here's where the problems started...
I bought it from World Guitars who are reputable and specialise in high-end intruments. When it turned up (I bought it online) I thought the set-up was crap and was surprised they'd have sent it as-is as I had a load of fret buzz down the bottom end. It was this point where I should have sent it straight back, I guess as something happened to it in transport. Not returning it was one of the worst decisions I've ever made. Doesn't appear to have been mistreated in the post and was in a hard case, but since I got a load of fret buzz and I presumed it was ok I thought maybe I could just fix it myself and save the trouble.
So I then tried to get rid of the buzz and had to adjust the truss rod a good bit. This made it better but wasn't quite right still. Unfortunately due to having the other Mojo I was playing most of the time this ended up not being a priority and I didn't do anything to proactively get it fixed so sat in the case a good while. Later when I came to look at it again I noticed a couple of small looking grooves in the back of the neck!
I'll jump ahead a year or 2 (or 3) of it mostly laying in the case to when I next looked at fixing it. At this point I noticed the frets were too high near the nut. So I came to the conclusion that since this is the latest revision neck (from after when it went from conical section to flatter radius) I think it has a dual action truss rod. Does this mean rather than just tension you can put tension in both directions? My presumtion is that I tried to correct for these high frets by putting too much reverse tension on the neck. That's where the small grooves I can see on the back of the neck parallel with it came from. I think it was too much reverse tension and it tried to start to split it!
So I quickly backed off the truss rod tension so I wouldn't do it any more bad. I did also speak to World Guitars but because I'd buggered about with it and it was a couple of years after I bought it they weren't much help and me suggesting they sold me a faulty guitar only resulted in them seeming quite incensed at the suggestion they would have sent it with a problem before it left and otherwise they couldn't really help. (Thought for the day: if ever you buy a guitar and it turns up with a problem send it back immediately. Don't try fix it yourself and definitely don't leave it ages to actually be proactive about it)More lack of funds to do anything serious about it and another 2 or 3 years has gone of playing the others while that collects dust in it's case (even though that guitar has been my iPhone background wallpaper for years!!!). So after a weekend of playing lots of my blue mojo (I tend to usually play my customised Niteflies more these days), I'm thinking about that wasted great other Mojo sat there again in need of fixing...
So, to fixing:
If it seems the issue is it should have been ok with the truss rod at the original setting when it arrived and the lower frets are too high, to just make it playable, in theory, I guess it could just have the bottom frets levelled? Then reasonable truss rod setting and voila! Sorted. But how did this happen? I *presume* it left World Guitars ok. So I presume the lower frets raised during transport? How could that happen?
This was around the time some horror stories were coming out about fretboard de-laminating from certain later era flies. So would/could this be the fingerboard lifting at the bottom end? I can't feel anything though. And I can't see anything visibly wrong at the bottom end. Should I be looking for anything in particular? If it starts lifting I'd have thought I'd get cracks around the edges of the fingerboard paint or I'd feel it being "squishy" or something? Just getting the frets levelled is pointless if it may then make the fingerboard come away from the guitar later and this seems to be addressing a symptom of the problem, not the original issue that caused the symptom.
So should the fingerboard be lifted and re-glued, then check/level frets? Or what? If I'm gonna shell out a big load of cash to fix it I don't want it to just re-occur again 6 months or a couple of years later. I certainly don't want these (basically irreplaceable) frets filed down, only to have the fingerboard reglued later and them then be too low.
So I guess as well the marks/cracks in the back of the neck should be addressed too. Is it likely these are cracks from over-tensioning the truss rod in the wrong direction? What would be the suggestion for that? Just fill and paint? Or should they have glue injected into them or something? Or would this be a serious structural damage issue and the whole neck may be a write-off (although doesn't seem completely so)?
So basically anyone seen similar with a Fly neck? Anyone got ideas of what should be done to fix this properly. And who would be a good place to fix it (preferrably UK, but obvs this may not be simple). It may be that it's not the hardest to lift, inject a bit of glue, glue back down the fingerboard, level frets, and it's back and quite a few luthiers would do it. Or it might be a massive amount of work and need sourcing of an entirely new fingerboard, maybe carbon repairs all the way up the back of the neck and would need serious specialist work no-one would take on to get a Parker fingerboard off/on.
Or in a dream world someone might just tell me 2014 Mojos had a habit of being completely stable for about 2.5 years, then the frets move overnight in a delivery van, then they're completely stable forevermore and I just need frets levelled and maybe the little grooves in the back of the neck filled. But I'm guessing that's sheer fantasy and I need to address the issue properly!
(Random other note: I also bought a never finished MaxxFly body/neck in a sell-off of old factory bits years ago too. This guitar has never been built-up as I figure there was something wrong with it. Not only does it have a few paint blemishes but it actually seems to have a similar thing where the lower frets seem a bit high. That guitar is a whole other story though...)
) I'll post some pics and more info soon when I get a chance.