When asked about why it never is played I get very ambiguous answers.

Thanks for the responses, I kinda figured it would be a tedious process of just working the glue in there and clamping it. I didn't know you could thin wood glue though. That would seem to be a huge help. Is the bond just as secure thinned down as it would be "full strength"?

my hunch is, deep down inside he really doesn't like playing guitar, and he probably had a tantrum and smashed it. i assure you anyone who loves playing guitars would A)be trying to fix it ASAP and B)wouldn't lie about why it is broken!

The neck plate thing is common, the soft body wood often compresses a bit when the neck plate was installed. It might not be the lug nut of a 18 wheeler but if the neck doesn't sit level in its pocket weird problems will result. Just tightening to the required tightness often compresses the wood. I've seen it on many Fender solidbody guitars. Some manufacturers will put a piece of rubber under the neck plate to mitigate this problem.

I know I'm a little late in the game but IO've repaired a ton of those. If the break is as bad as that one looks, you migh have considered removing the piece entirely and using the glue full strength. You really can't dilute titebond more than 10% per the directions and I'm not convince that's really fluid enough, although the clamping pressure will hydraulically force some glue further in.

I had considered doing just that, removing the section altogether, but that seemed like... I donno, going backwards? Although, there are smaller cracks that got no glue at all, just the worst of it, I opted for the "less is more" approach. Regardless, I'd rather experiment on a buddys guitar (who doesn't seem to be missing it too much as it was) than someone who was expecting it to be done a certain way in exchange for compensation.

Sometimes you gotta make it worse before you can make it better. I just repaired a crack in the side of a mahogany Taylor, it was about 3 inches long to begin with. I was having trouble with the dry run getting the edges to mate cleanly due to tension in the wood. I actually popped the crack to 5 inches, and was able to spread the work the glue in better, position the edges together, and clamp it better, so that no sanding was necessary, the edges mated perfectly flush along the whole crack. The finish touch up was easier as a result as well.

If I hadn't opened the crack the way I did then I wouldn't have been able to fix it correctly.

All the little cracks in your guitar that didn't get glue are now weak spots in the wood, not good for a tremelo, IMHO.

I'd hang it back up on the wall.