1959 Gibson DC TV Junior Headstock Repair.

IvisonGuitars

Thought i'd document this for anyone who might be interested.

I picked up a 'player' '59 Gibson DC TV Model just before Christmas which had had a very messy headstock repair years ago.

I decided to attempt to tidy up the break and make it more stable.

It began as this:





The break was stable but a mess. So, taking a hairdrier and applying some heat and pressure, the old glue melted and the break soon started to pull apart:



But something else was revealing itself as the crack opened...



....the previous repair, complete with 2 nails!



After pulling out the nails, I was left with this:



So after a few hours cleaning scraping off all the old glue, the crack was re-glued with Titebond and clamped for 24 hours.



After 24 hours I re-installed the tuners, re-strung and tuned to pitch and left it overnight. The fix held, i'm happy!

I was left with this:

IvisonGuitars

Next job was to tidy up the repair.

The face was sanded flat:



At this point, I decided to removed the washer indents left by the Schaller tuners. I wanted to preserve the original Gibson logo (N.B. as I think this was a '59/60 transitional model, they were often shipped without the Les Paul TV Model/Junior silkscreen). I could have plugged the holes and re-drilled but at this point I was still unsure whether I was going to keep the Klusson buttons or go with some aged Grovers.

So Mahogany filler was applied...looking a little like a casualty from the Great War....


 
Left overnight to harden then sanded back:



I also sanded the back of the headstock and the repair:



Next, I blacked the headstock face with Black nitro, then clear coat and finally some tinted clear on the back and front of the headstock. Then I aged the face slightly to blend it in with the rest of the guitar :







And now we're done! :-)





(Just need a couple of truss rod cover screws....)

jd0272

I may give my LP headstock re-brake (thank you little 6 yr old boy.....) a go meself then. Mine's not as bad as yours was as the headstock is still on. Thankfully  

Arktik83

Wow a mighty fine job you've done there!  Nice work!!

Philly_Q

Excellent work, well done!

It's fascinating seeing the pictures of the stripped-down headstock, it looks about 100 years old.  More like something from the Antiques Roadshow than a playable instrument, in a way.

John_P

Very impressive work - especially the front - it can't have been easy refinishing it to match that well. 

WezV

looks good

stimpsonslostson

Nice job! 

The sixth photo (the half headstock) made me feel a bit ill!

ChrisMusic

Thanks for posting this, extremely interesting and educational set of photographs, well done on rescuing a great guitar.

IvisonGuitars

Many thanks chaps, much appreciated!

stimpsonslostson said:

Nice job! 

The sixth photo (the half headstock) made me feel a bit ill!

I have to admit, it's the 5th one with the nails, that turns my stomach....it looks like a poor amputee.

Evilmags

Nice job. Now all you need are some mountain backing tracks.

ICBM

Brilliant work. I really like that you've done just the right amount of blending in to make it look good and like an old repair, but left most of the history of it showing.

IvisonGuitars

ICBM said:

Brilliant work. I really like that you've done just the right amount of blending in to make it look good and like an old repair, but left most of the history of it showing.

Many thanks! There was no way of hiding the repair completely - and not that I'd want to really - as the rest of the guitar is so well used but I feel much happier about the current repair and its stability. 

I'm unraveling some REALLY interesting history on this guitar, (which is still ongoing so I don't want to say too much yet) so it might be that keeping the rest of the guitar as it is currently will be imperative to the value...

ICBM

miserneil said:

I'm unraveling some REALLY interesting history on this guitar, (which is still ongoing so I don't want to say too much yet) so it might be that keeping the rest of the guitar as it is currently will be imperative to the value…

Many years ago I made a "major" mistake like that…

I bought an old and very early Marshall Major amp in very poor condition, blown-up and having been modified quite extensively. I restored it to the original circuit and condition, kept it a few years and eventually sold it when it needed re-valving - in those days the only KT88s you could get were the original GEC Gold Lions, and a set cost about the same as the amp was worth.

Some time later I came across a schematic detailing the modifications Marshall did to a few early Majors on behalf of a certain Ritchie Blackmore of well-known beat combo Deep Purple. I'll give you one guess what my amp probably was!

The only saving grace is that I had sold it (via an intermediary, I never got to meet him unfortunately) to Gary Moore, who used it on the BBM album apparently.

IvisonGuitars

ICBM;473510" said:

miserneil said:I'm unraveling some REALLY interesting history on this guitar, (which is still ongoing so I don't want to say too much yet) so it might be that keeping the rest of the guitar as it is currently will be imperative to the value…





Many years ago I made a "major" mistake like that…

I bought an old and very early Marshall Major amp in very poor condition, blown-up and having been modified quite extensively. I restored it to the original circuit and condition, kept it a few years and eventually sold it when it needed re-valving - in those days the only KT88s you could get were the original GEC Gold Lions, and a set cost about the same as the amp was worth.

Some time later I came across a schematic detailing the modifications Marshall did to a few early Majors on behalf of a certain Ritchie Blackmore of well-known beat combo Deep Purple. I'll give you one guess what my amp probably was!

The only saving grace is that I had sold it (via an intermediary, I never got to meet him unfortunately) to Gary Moore, who used it on the BBM album apparently.

Ah.....bugger!

I could possibly be in a similar sort of situation....waiting on a few transatlantic emails though... :-)

ThePrettyDamned

Great work. Looking forward to hearing some stories!

usedtobe

Wow! Great job!

Fatfingers

Absolutely brilliant work. Just the right blend of restoration and repair, while keeping the original vibe of the guitar - and what a sweet guitar it is too.

Please update us when you've found the history trail.

thermionic

I suspect a certain American punk rocker...

Iamnobody

Great stuff. I enjoyed reading through all that. Can't wait for the history to surface!