Epi LP headstock repair.

DeeTee

Rox said:

ICBM said:

DeeTee said:

So would that be a matter of gluing it, letting it dry, then drilling carefully either side of the truss rod to insert a sort of dowel with glue in there?

No, like this - you need the splints along the length of the neck:

http://massresonator.com/2012/11/repair-shop-spot-broken-headstocks-repaired/

I doubt dowels through at right angles to the neck would strengthen it enough.

What brilliant work.  I know if I took a router to a neck, I'd end up with a lot of sawdust and very little guitar!

Not. Helping.

JookyChap

I think Gaffa tape is very much underrated in these sort of repairs...

DeeTee

( ) <- How much I can chew.

(                               ) <- How much I have bitten off.

I do like a challenge!

jonnyburgo

Seeing as it was £20 I'd glue it, wait until it sets, counter sink 2 holes, 2 screws,  fill the holes and spray. Solid as a rock

DeeTee

@ICBM has kindly answered a couple of questions for me. My initial thought is get some gorilla glue, clamps and scrap wood. Use the gorilla glue, clamp it was tight as I can with the scrap wood in between clamp and guitar, and let it set. Then put some tuners and strings on it and muck about with it for a bit to see how it holds. If it starts to go again, it'll be time to do something serious like the splints.

Rox

DeeTee said:

( ) <- How much I can chew.

(                               ) <- How much I have bitten off.

I do like a challenge!

I'll be honest with you - for £20 it's a brilliant little project.  If I'd had that opportunity, I'd have bought it too - no matter how hamfisted and well-meaning but rubbish I am.    It's a great way to learn.

Just don't do what I do.  I tend to look at a problem, and barrel ahead trying to fix it quickly because I'm impatient without planning it out.  Rule no.1 - don't do what Rox does. 

DeeTee

Sadly @Rox, that's exactly what I did and am continuing to do! It was £20 and will be a fun project.

DeeTee

Chap here uses a Dremel freehand to do the splines. That's interesting.

http://www.mylespaul.com/forums/luthiers-corner/262047-jig-routing-headstock-splines.html

Rox

I know my skill would end up with a rout that looks like a giant wood worm needed a snackeroo.

Mind you, the biscuit jointer idea isn't a bad one at all.  Saves the need to perfectly shape the wood as the biscuits are the size of the hole.

GuitarMonkey

I made a jig

DeeTee

To give you an idea of my level of expertise, I just had to look up "biscuit jointer."

DeeTee

So, I've had a bit of a look around at what happens if the first repair doesn't take. It seems that if it breaks again, I'm going to be picking away tiny bits of glue with a small metal pick. I'm actually OK with that, so that's probably the plan. I'll risk just gluing it, on the understanding that @ICBM will shortly be able to say he told me so when it breaks again. If and when that happens, I'll clean away the glue, buy a dremel and try to freehand a spline. I don't own any woodworking stuff, so anything I use, like a proper router, would have to be bought.

Rox

DeeTee said:

To give you an idea of my level of expertise, I just had to look up "biscuit jointer."

Before I bought one, it was only a creamy vanilla filling that jointed my biscuits.

DeeTee

This is what the body looks like, as @Rox asked. You might be able to see there's a ding between the pickup routs, one on the very bottom, and some marks around the rout for one of the pots. Not major at all though.

ICBM

The big risk with gluing it and hoping it will hold is that if it doesn't, you never will get it clean enough to re-glue again. At that point your only hope is to cut out the damaged area entirely and splice in a new section with two scarf joints.

I had to do that with a '76 Gibson Thunderbird I bought for £100 many years ago. Someone had already tried, and really messed it up.

Or replace the neck completely. But if you're going to do that, have a look at the neck tenon before you get something you think will fit!

DeeTee

Ah. I was reading something that suggested otherwise. Hmm. It might be time to see if Santa wants to bring me a Dremel then.

WezV

its £20 investment... you can't really go wrong

i used to look for stuff like this just for the practice so i would have been very happy at £20

even if it goes terribly wrong and you destroy the neck you still have options.  for instance you could steam of the old neck and fit a new one, or just saw it off and route for a new neck.  you could then use the left over as practice for fretting, inlay, fretboard removal, binding, finishing work.  all whilst the body gets a re-neck to teach you a million other things

you can get a hell of a lot of mileage out of a broken guitar if you want to learn a few repair and building techniques... and you can still get a working guitar at the end if you really want

ICBM

WezV said:

you can get a hell of a lot of mileage out of a broken guitar if you want to learn a few repair and building techniques...

I did that. I bought a badly messed up late-50s Hofner President for £5 - some genius had fitted Dimarzio pickups, which meant cutting away those pesky wooden bits under the top that were in the way. Oops… they were the top braces! So then because the top collapsed he mounted the bridge on a wooden block on the outside, and removed all the frets above the 12th to stop the strings hitting them. And then the top collapsed some more . He had also drilled a hole for a Gibson-style switch through the top and lost the original rectangular control plate. It was an unplayable wreck with the top virtually dished inside out when I got it, and in rough condition as well.

I rebuilt it properly, had to refret it about two and a half times before I was completely happy, and fitted it with some old Antoria pickups (the first thing I'd done was sell the Dimarzios, since they were worth ten times what I paid for the guitar), new control plate, better electrics etc, tidied up the finish… and eventually sold it for £250 through a local shop I had just started working for. That was in 1986.

Last year I saw it again - on stage, with a young local band at a big radio-promo gig. It had been repainted (by hand, rather artistically) but I recognised the pickups and the control plate I'd made straight away, even from the back of the room. I managed to speak to the player as he came off stage (explaining that I was quite harmless, and not crazy!) and asked him where he got it - turned out it was his dad's guitar, which he'd bought before the lad was born! I told him the story - his dad was almost certainly the only owner since me. It sounded fantastic on stage too. His mum came over and talked to me afterwards .

How's that for mileage?

DeeTee

WezV;109567" said:

its £20 investment... you can't really go wrong

i used to look for stuff like this just for the practice so i would have been very happy at £20

even if it goes terribly wrong and you destroy the neck you still have options.  for instance you could steam of the old neck and fit a new one, or just saw it off and route for a new neck.  you could then use the left over as practice for fretting, inlay, fretboard removal, binding, finishing work.  all whilst the body gets a re-neck to teach you a million other things

you can get a hell of a lot of mileage out of a broken guitar if you want to learn a few repair and building techniques... and you can still get a working guitar at the end if you really want

That is absolutely the plan. For twenty quid you can't go wrong as something to muck about with. If I cock it up entirely, I'll be back for suggestions.

ThePrettyDamned

Great story ICBM!

For 20 quid, you won't go wrong. Nice looking body, too! (the guitar's not bad either... No? I'll go).

I'd probably (fuck it up) use a drill and 'route' with a few holes each side very carefully, then use a cheap hand held routey thing I saw in b and q a few weeks ago to smooth it out, before fitting a couple of bits of wood to increase gluing surface area. Then sand smooth and finish.

Seriously, bargain that was. I'm jealous!