NGD: 1959 Gibson DC Junior

IvisonGuitars

Chaps, many thanks for the kind words on the Junior, it's much appreciated. I literally havent put it down since I got it, simplistic genius.

Regarding the tuners, THEY ARE GOING. I bloody HATE the look of the things so don't fear. I have some conversion bushes coming in the next few days and an aged set of Kluson's here waiting to fit to the guitar, I'm also bidding on some aged Grovers on the bay from an old LP so I should hopefully have those next week and will be able to make a proper comparison on tone loss/gain etc. I'll post my findings.

Moving On....

One thing that I knew I was going to have to address when the guitar arrived was a headstock break with quite a messy repair:



Now the crack was stable and, even though the crack had partially opened, the tuning was stable and it still rang and vibrated like a bell. The sustain was/still is incredible, I really can't get over it. I could have left it as it was but I wanted to try and tidy up the crack for my own piece of mind.

There were also 2 small filler pieces of mahogany each side of the headstock that were buried under the clear coat refinish which set alarm bells ringing. 

So, Christmas eve, not really knowing what to expect, what glue was holding it all together, I set out with a hairdrier on a low heat and warmed the crack. With a little bit of pressure, the crack began to open up in no time:



Bit more......and what's this starting to appear?:



Ah, the classic 70's homebrew repair job.....2 nails!



Turns out these two little fellas had been the only thing holding the headstock on for I dont know how many years! A couple of guitar playing pals i've shown this pic to have both said "Who does that to a '59 Les Paul?!" but lets bear in mind that it was probably done when this guitar was worth no more than £50 and not considered 'vintage' yet.

So, I was left with this:



After 4 days in bed, starting on Christmas Day and courtesy of the Flu, I spent most of the day heating and scraping every bit of old glue I could out of the fibres of the wood to ensure a solid joint then I got the Titebond and clamps out and started piecing it all back together:



Left it clamped up for 48 hours....then strung it up and left it for another 24 hours. No movement, i'm happy!

It currently looks like this:



It was never going to be an invisible fix but with some filler and some sanding I should be able to get it looking a lot prettier than it currently is. My main concern was that it is stable - which it is. 

So here's the thing. The resonance. Unchanged. I was bowled over by it when I first played it and thought that a headstock fix might add a bit extra but, you know what, after the repair, it's the same. The headstock was originally held on with 2 nails and now is fully glued up and there is no discernible difference. Isn't that interesting.....

More progress to follow....including the Great Tuner Swap of 2015! ;-)

bigfuzz

that series of photos gave me a mild heart attack, unbelievable hatchet job in the past on that neck break. i hope you didn't pay over the odds thinking it hadn't seen a break?

hobbio

bigfuzz said:

that series of photos gave me a mild heart attack

Me too! Glad it went back together ok and it's holding up

IvisonGuitars

bigfuzz said:

that series of photos gave me a mild heart attack, unbelievable hatchet job in the past on that neck break. i hope you didn't pay over the odds thinking it hadn't seen a break?

Oh no, I knew EXACTLY what I was getting, don't worry :-)

By the look of it, this guitar has seen a lot worse things than a headstock break in it's life!! ;-)

underdog

Is it rude to ask how much this set you back?

IvisonGuitars

underdog said:

Is it rude to ask how much this set you back?

No, not at all, I paid current market value for a vintage LP Junior in this condition :-)

marantz1300

That terrible break has rendered the JR as useless and not worth a single shilling.

As It is the festive season and baby Jesus birth  has been celebrated ,I as a kind and generous soul will take it off your hands in a straight trade for my 78 Tele.

Skipped

Oh Jesus!
You must have balls of steel! I am hiding behind the sofa just looking at the pictures.


Nice to see a lovely guitar starting a new chapter in it's long and eventful life.

Blacksheep

Ive got a 59 TV and a 60 Junior. They are monster guitars. My 59 had grovers when I bought it. I replaced them with reproduction tuners for the look . . . but found they didn't hold tuning so well.so I put the grovers back. As was mentioned above, someone may have put those schallers on for a good reason.

Philly_Q

I did once buy a set of Kluson copies from Allparts (I think) which I must admit were terrible, but the vintage repro tuners made nowadays by Gotoh or TonePros work really well.

Brave man removing that headstock!  I can hardly bear to look at those pictures.

WezV

i restored one once that had a solidly repaired break - but a hell of a lot of  obvious filler that needed sorting out

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e31/WezV/LPJ/headstockfix.jpg

after carefully removing the white filler I filled the gaps with  mahogany dust and epoxy. Rather than leave the epoxy to dry on the surface i wiped it down with thinners before dry - that gave a 95% fill as seen below.   i then did the final fill grainfiller before finishing

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e31/WezV/LPJ/nopaint4.jpg

the front also had some bits that needed filling

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e31/WezV/LPJ/nopaint5.jpg

honestly resprayed, break still visible - but not highlighted by a bad repair

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e31/WezV/LPJ/ajnr3.jpg

marantz1300

Hows the front look now?

WezV

i don't have a clear pic of the headstock front but since it was filled and sprayed black it was not an issue hiding the repair

here is the full thing, I wanted to lightly relic the finish to give it a bit of age but the owner  (quite rightly) pointed out he would rather have an honest refin than a finish that is trying to fake originality

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e31/WezV/LPJ/ajnr2.jpg

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e31/WezV/LPJ/ajnr1.jpg

you may also notice it changed from yellow to red - it was cherry red originally and the filler had started to bleed through the yellow

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e31/WezV/LPJ/hardwaregone.jpg

marantz1300

That's great work. You guys have talent.

stonevibe

In regards to tuners. 

I found on my SG that when I took the old Gibson Elusions off and added a set of Grovers it became less lively. SO a few years down the line I put a set of TonePro Klusons on and the whole guitar sounded a hell of a lot better.

So I'd agree that tuners have an affect on the sound of electrics as well as acoustics.

Nice work on that break by the way. Looks much neater now.

WezV

headstock wobble is something I have thought a lot about.   A lot of vintage designs really do flap about a lot.... this is all  string energy  that is  getting wasted.   although "wasted" suggests its a bad thing, which isn't necessarily true, also that flappy headstock also feeds energy back into the strings and affects the way the note develops and degrades.   changing the weight of the headstock will affect this, sometimes positively, sometimes not.

I have made quite a few guitars with smaller, thicker,  stiffer headstocks and I feel it really does change the envelope of attack and sustain of a note.   its generally a purer more consistent note - but honestly, that's not what we always want from guitars

Duppy03

Drool! If you ever decide to move it on let me know, but it looks like i'll have to get in line.

ICBM

WezV said:

headstock wobble is something I have thought a lot about.   A lot of vintage designs really do flap about a lot.... this is all  string energy  that is  getting wasted.   although "wasted" suggests its a bad thing, which isn't necessarily true, also that flappy headstock also feeds energy back into the strings and affects the way the note develops and degrades.   changing the weight of the headstock will affect this, sometimes positively, sometimes not.

I have made quite a few guitars with smaller, thicker,  stiffer headstocks and I feel it really does change the envelope of attack and sustain of a note.   its generally a purer more consistent note - but honestly, that's not what we always want from guitars

I have begun to think this is a major factor in the sounds of some guitars where it isn't usually mentioned - eg the Telecaster, as in the other thread. It has a very small, quite thick (proportionately) and very stiff headstock, even compared to a Strat.

It started when I realised there was a possible common factor in why I find big-headstock Strats sound different from small-headstock ones, and why I now like the big headstock despite originally disliking it visually.

ThePrettyDamned

Lots of really interesting info in this thread. 

Great work on the guitar, bloomin' fantastic.  

Congratulations on acquiring a proper piece of musical history. If a guitar is in that condition, it's because it's fantastic and people have played the shite out of it.  A mint condition one might be in mint condition because it's as dead as a dodo...

IvisonGuitars

Update for all you fellow Schaller haters out there.... ;-)





If anyone is interested, I've just posted a thread about the whole headstock repair here: http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/31259/1959-gibson-dc-tv-junior-headstock-repair