Broken bird inlay

I have something very similar on mine. Noticed it after having the guitar for a few days. The guitar hasn't or hadn't been dropped or mistreated as far as I know. I bought it brand new. At first I thought it was a crack or something, then I tried to tell myself that it's just how the pieces were cut and made. It bothered me for a while, but not so much now. As long as it doesn't affect playability (I can't feel it at all) or it doesn't fall out I can live with it.

2jjzGt2.jpg
 
I can't see the picture.
Same for me.
It seems to be hosted on a different site from the usual suspects. kephost . net

Since the forum allows it, I guess it is a reasonably white-listed site? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

It is also a very "tall" image, maybe your browser is rejecting it for that reason.

It is a photo of the third fret bird inlay, and there is a visible crack (actually two cracks, one splits off from the other) across the neck of the bird, and also a crack across each of the front points of the wings, roughly level with the bird-neck cracks. I would suspect the crack(s) was/were there from day one, at least subsurface, as a result of the install process, but wasn't visible until the player played enough to make it fully visible.
 
It seems to be hosted on a different site from the usual suspects. kephost . net

Since the forum allows it, I guess it is a reasonably white-listed site? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

It is also a very "tall" image, maybe your browser is rejecting it for that reason.

It is a photo of the third fret bird inlay, and there is a visible crack (actually two cracks, one splits off from the other) across the neck of the bird, and also a crack across each of the front points of the wings, roughly level with the bird-neck cracks. I would suspect the crack(s) was/were there from day one, at least subsurface, as a result of the install process, but wasn't visible until the player played enough to make it fully visible.

I couldn‘t see it on my desktop PC, but could on my iPhone.
 
Not sure if anything changed but I can see it now. I agree with the others, call the PTC and get it fixed. Short term pain (while the guitar is gone), long term satisfaction.
 
I was not criticising, its great to see a guitar that is obviously being played a LOT, enough to cause that wear in a relatively short time. However, that does make it look as if that guitar has had a 'hard' life thus far - a 'workman's' tool which is superb - but from another perspective, you could argue that its become 'damaged' due to that, not necessarily a fault of manufacture which is what is covered by warranty.

(...)

A gig? LOL. I cannot even properly play an F chord.

A understand your perspective and tend to agree. I don't have the urge to be compensated for the broken bird neck, I was just wondering if in such cases warranty is worth anything.

On the other side, I have always dealt the guitar with the highest caution. Never tossed into the wall or any other furniture, never dropped it, treated with much care. I regularly maintain her, clean the body, the frets. I keep it on a guitar stand. I always use it at home. I am not an ignorant player. What is a 100 percent sure that the damage is not the result of ignorant use or an accident.

There is one thing (among many other :-D ) I need to work on when it comes to posture is to try to loosen my grip. A tighter grip however will never be able to inflict such pressure on the guitar neck that makes the bird's neck snap.

As I said, I am a novice player. Started to play the guitar barely a year ago. This is my first decent guitar. What I do with it is what all beginners do: learn and play the open chords, play scales, mainly chromatic and pentatonic, and riffs from my favorite music, mainly Iron Maiden and Metallica. I don't even have the knowledge to damage the guitar by "hard play", as you say. I wish I had!

In some cases I find myself pressing the strings against the frets harder then I should, but this is again typical beginners fault. Frets wear out by time, but again, in my opinion, it has nothing to do with the inlay.

Having said that, my assumption is that the damage may be due to material fatigue of some sort.

I can live with it, no question as it is barely visible by plain sight.

I'll keep you posted once I got the feedback from the seller.
 
UPDATE:

The seller contacted me and said that she had reached out to the technicians who suggested that the guitar should be taken to their service specialist. When I asked her what exactly they plan to do with the guitar she was unable to provide a clear answer. I asked her to investigate it before I let my guitar out of my hands.

In the meantime, I took a more magnified shot of the inlay.

1997_4d3599a73066.jpg


It is clearly visible that it is broken. I also contacted my country's biggest PRS retailer having a 40 years experience with guitars. In his opinion, the inlay could have been broken during the manufacturing (Indonesia). The reason why it is not loose, and has a smooth finish is that the person who inserted the inlay into the guitar could have glued it and polished afterwards. No way he said that this guitar was going to pass the quality check in the USA.

He also agreed that it was no way a person's hand could inflict such a force that it smashes the bird.

Here I am now, waiting for the seller to confirm the planned procedure with the guitar.
 
UPDATE:

The seller contacted me and said that she had reached out to the technicians who suggested that the guitar should be taken to their service specialist. When I asked her what exactly they plan to do with the guitar she was unable to provide a clear answer. I asked her to investigate it before I let my guitar out of my hands.

In the meantime, I took a more magnified shot of the inlay.

1997_4d3599a73066.jpg


It is clearly visible that it is broken. I also contacted my country's biggest PRS retailer having a 40 years experience with guitars. In his opinion, the inlay could have been broken during the manufacturing (Indonesia). The reason why it is not loose, and has a smooth finish is that the person who inserted the inlay into the guitar could have glued it and polished afterwards. No way he said that this guitar was going to pass the quality check in the USA.

He also agreed that it was no way a person's hand could inflict such a force that it smashes the bird.

Here I am now, waiting for the seller to confirm the planned procedure with the guitar.

It’s a weird break, because it’s two shoulders and a neck.

My comment was (not) meant to be negative. Just realistic.

Edit: Aggghhhh!
 
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I have something very similar on mine. Noticed it after having the guitar for a few days. The guitar hasn't or hadn't been dropped or mistreated as far as I know. I bought it brand new. At first I thought it was a crack or something, then I tried to tell myself that it's just how the pieces were cut and made. It bothered me for a while, but not so much now. As long as it doesn't affect playability (I can't feel it at all) or it doesn't fall out I can live with it.
Just seen this, sorry. Thanks for the post.

Very interesting. Did you put a sticker on the inlay or it is as it was manufactured?
 
If it were mine, I would put thin superglue in it and sand/polish/finish as needed, I suspect it would become nearly invisible......but I can understand not wanting to do this yourself if you have not ventured into superglue finish repairs.
 
If it were mine, I would put thin superglue in it and sand/polish/finish as needed, I suspect it would become nearly invisible......but I can understand not wanting to do this yourself if you have not ventured into superglue finish repairs.
I am not a DIY person, unfortunately.
 
UPDATE:

The vendor offered to take the guitar to the service and provide a solution for the damage. As they were unable to specify what the solution is going to be, I finally decided to abandon this and keep the guitar as is.

If I compare the potential gain and risks, the comparison is a no brainer: there's much more risk and unknown factor in the process versus the benefit of the disappearance of the minor cracks. As the guitar is functionally intact, I decided to withdraw my claim.

From now on, I'll see this flaw as the sex appeal of my PRS, that makes her unique.

Thanks for your comments.
 
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