kinda cool guitar,

[RR05xx]

The checking shouldnt scare you youd be amazed at how quickly that can happen from just ONE bad temperature change or WAX applied at the wrong time....Trust me I made the mistake 2 times and watched the whole fucking thing check right infront of me. It was like watching dye run through someones veins.

Right. I have owed some of mine since back in the day and they have been thru a lot (not just sitting in a case at least in the 80s anyway LOL!). As a general rule, finish checking like that is not a good sign for the guitar. I can only go by my own experience and that scares me so I would want to lay hands on one like that before buying. YMMV I guees.

[Axewielder]

That stringlock to locknut conversion was done half-assed. I wouldn't go near this thing, especially considering the "luthier" bottom-drilled it.

[Flatpicker]

That stringlock to locknut conversion was done half-assed. I wouldn't go near this thing, especially considering the "luthier" bottom-drilled it.

I suppose.
But you would think that it would have crapped out in the intervening 30 years.
Making the assumption that the locknut was added by the 1st owner.

[Axewielder]

I suppose.
But you would think that it would have crapped out in the intervening 30 years.
Making the assumption that the locknut was added by the 1st owner.

They don't necessarily fail catastrophically like neck repairs, my man. I've picked up a few done like this. They can be spaced wrong and create subtle intonation issues. Or, worse, they can shift around slightly and cause minor tuning stability issues. Or they CAN fail catastrophically. I had one where the locknut was glued down, and it just snapped off during a pull-up one day. Bad scene.

[Flatpicker]

They don't necessarily fail catastrophically like neck repairs, my man. I've picked up a few done like this. They can be spaced wrong and create subtle intonation issues. Or, worse, they can shift around slightly and cause minor tuning stability issues. Or they CAN fail catastrophically. I had one where the locknut was glued down, and it just snapped off during a pull-up one day. Bad scene.

Ahh.
Gotcha.
All I could think about was a break at the lock-nut.