I'm finally wanting to rebuild my first Strat('94 Am Std.), if possible.
I retired it when I noticed this.





In the first pic, you can barely see a hairline crack the runs down to the bottom of the p.u. cavity...

What are my options?
Is there some sort of epoxy that will wick into the crack? I'm trying to avoid major surgery.

Not a luthier but I wonder if you could cut slots horizontally across the crack and insert a reinforcement? A small steel bar? Very dense piece of wood?

Or maybe a gunstock style repair with small brass pins used.

Get this:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Guitar-Player-Repair-Guide/dp/0879309210

And come join the party in my journey to learning guitar repair/refinishing. Watch me make fun and exciting mistakes, so you can learn from them too.
http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_1_148/1673402_Adventures_in_refinishing__a_pictorial__56k_or_dialup_go_home_.html

If it's not unstable, some appropriate glue like Tite Bond might do the trick. I used DAP Plastic Wood for the worst cracks in my basket case Ibanez. The definitive repair would involve removing the trem stud insert, regluing or reconstructing the damaged wood with a fitted block, and re-drilling for the insert.

That will be my next guitar learning project, an old koa Carvin body I butchered some 20 years ago. I mangled it installing oversized trem stud inserts and trying to drill, then gluing, then splitting the body. It's so bad that I'm going to be embarrassed to show pics.

Your thread is what prompted me to get her done.  
I'll probably bite the bullet and do a plug repair; seems the proper thing to do.
Will glue be enough to hold a square shaped block or should I try to do a round plug to help lock it in?
I assume, I'll want to use the same wood...
Where to find a little block of alder?

That's a good question on block vs drilling, and outside my knowledge base.

My understanding is that a well-glued joint should be stronger than the surrounding wood, so a block is probably ok. Most guitars are made of a couple slabs of wood glued together. You could even do a hybrid of both, and drill the area with a forstner bit. Glue a round plug, then chisel or otherwise shape the sides of the plug flush with the cavity edges.

As far as where to find alder? Good question. I suppose you could even look at cutting up an unused fish-cooking plank. My first stop would be a local cabinet maker to inquire about scrap. We had our kitchen redone with knotty alder cabinet doors, for example. If I happen to see a scrap piece lying around, I'll PM you. If you're going for an opaque finish, you might even get away with a different hardwood in that small area.

Do you have a Rockler or Woodcraft (think I spelled Rockler wrong... ) nearby?  They are both higher end woodworking stores and they tend to stock a very wide array of unusual woods.

They sell little slabs intended for turning into knife scales and pens... Bet you could find a good chunk of alder pretty easily and likely for only a couple bucks.

http://www.woodworkerssource.com/samples-alder-p-Alder.html

Awesome. Thanks for finding that and the book recommendation.
I'm leaning towards doing a block instead of a plug. I'm thinking it should be easier to fit the two. However, I will be doing a plug on the strap horn.
I wasn't going to bother with refinishing; the bridge and pickguard should hide most of it. I'll probably just slap some Tru-oil on the patch area.

I think I can pull this off.
http://fingerlakesguitarrepair.com/fender-strat-body-crack-at-trem-stud/

Go for it, and please post pics.

Those macro pics initially made me think he was hogging out a 3" chunk of wood. I used a hand drill 20 years ago to hamfist my build. Before even trying to fix it, I'm either going to get a small drill press or mini mill. That will be entertaining to learn.


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