Finish Crack in 2014 ASAT

[emgeesea]

I just purchased from Reverb a mint condition 2014 USA ASAT! This is my first G&L, and have 2 questions:

First, the guitar traveled from Chicago to Portland via UPS for 7 days - 7 cold days - and arrived pretty cold. Although I know I should have let it acclimate in the box for 24 hours, I could not resist the temptation to see it. So, I opened it, salivated, then returned it to its case for a couple of hours. I then took it out - and it still felt a bit cold - and proceeded to tighten the loosened strings to tune it and play it. As I was tightening the strings, I heard some faint creaking sounds. I thought that odd, but assumed it was nothing terrible. After I got it in tune, I noticed the crack in the attached pic, at the neck joint.

Putting 2 and 2 together, I am wondering whether the sounds I heard while tightening the strings were the poly finish cracking! As I said, the guitar was still fairly cold, and my living room was a warm 70 degrees. If this is the case, is it likely just a finish crack, or more than that? (I'm asking for opinion, I know, but am hoping some have had similar experience to draw from.)

Also, I noticed the tuning pegs are not all straight on this guitar. Not a big deal, but I had heard so much about the high quality of USA G&Ls that I am surprised by this. Have others seen this?

Thanks,
Marc

Pics here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sp=sharing

[FZTNT]

Nice looking guitar.
Just my opinion but that looks like a typical finish crack from doing perhaps exactly what you did. The wood and finish contract and expand at different rates. So, putting pressure on the cold wood would likely not cause it to crack, but the pressure on the finish is likely to crack first. Bummer.
This happens also at times when removing the neck without allowing the tension between the two pieces to slowly and naturally resolve.

Tom