Broken Guitar

Will_S

My son has just dropped his guitar (Gibson Les Paul) and snapped the neck.  I know nothing here - is this terminal or is there a cost effective fix?  And if so where do we go to do so - SW London based?

Handsome_Chris

You could do well by speaking to Jon at Feline Guitars in Croydon.  He fixed Ritchie Faulkner's (Judas Priest) Les Paul after a bit of neck damage. 

@FelineGuitars ;

Strangefan

When you say dropped do you mean accidently coughed in the vague direction of the headstock?

Only jokin  it's common  and depending on the break quite fixable, post a pic here so the pros can give you some real advice. 

DrBob

Pics of the way in which it has broken would help the many talented luthiers who contribute here to assess whether the fix is viable.
But as this does happen a lot with LPs a lot of people have had a lot of practice at putting them back together !

Will_S

Thank you guys - he is away at the moment so as soon as I have a photo I will post.

ICBM

The bad news is that it won't be that cheap to fix. The good news is that it will be less than a new Les Paul (even one of the cheapest ones).

This is unfortunately one of the 'design features' of Gibson guitars...

Will_S

Will_S

Not sure that that worked - here is a link: https://flic.kr/p/222fivs

WezV

Cant be sure from the angle, but it looks like a fairly easy one from what we can see there.  Not ideal, but not a total rebuild.  

Tell him him to get the strings off and save every splinter 

FelineGuitars

Come and see me over in Croydon if you like 
Slacken the strings a bit and take care not to lose any splinters or bits of the wood 
Should be an ok one to fix up

www.felineguitars.com

richardhomer

Wez and Feline really know their stuff - so if they say it’s fixable - it’s fixable.

The good news is, once done, the guitar will be good as new. I own a vintage Gibson which had a headstock repair before I bought it 15 years ago. It’s solid as a rock - so really nothing to worry about, or in any way spoil your son’s enjoyment of the guitar.

Bridgehouse

The good news is also that it's less likely to go pop again once fixed up...

Will_S

Thanks guys.... And maybe he'll be a bit more careful with it in the future...

Jimbro66

Will_S said:

Thanks guys.... And maybe he'll be a bit more careful with it in the future...

To be honest it doesn't take much to break the head off a Gibson. Heartbreaking when it happens. He must have been gutted.

p90fool

ICBM said:

The bad news is that it won't be that cheap to fix. The good news is that it will be less than a new Les Paul (even one of the cheapest ones).

This is unfortunately one of the 'design features' of Gibson guitars...

It's one of the 'design features' of cellos, harpsichords and saxophones too.

Being childproof is NOT how you measure the quality of a £2,000 musical instrument, it's unfair, irrelevant and boring, frankly. 

I've banged rawl plugs in with my Telecaster, but not with my baroque lute or my Les Paul.  

ICBM

p90fool said:

It's one of the 'design features' of cellos, harpsichords and saxophones too.

Being childproof is NOT how you measure the quality of a £2,000 musical instrument, it's unfair, irrelevant and boring, frankly. 

I've banged rawl plugs in with my Telecaster, but not with my baroque lute or my Les Paul.  

This is just silly. No-one is saying that you should throw a £2000 musical instrument around - but it doesn't take that to break a Gibson. Some of them have been known to snap just from the case falling from resting on its side to lying on its front with the guitar inside, from a combination of the string tension and the inertia of the headstock.

Very few other guitars suffer from it as badly, let alone other instruments - in my experience as a repairer, Gibsons are not just the most commonly broken, it's more common than *all other brands put together*. The reason for that is that there is something seriously wrong with the design - it's simply shockingly poor from a woodwork point of view, and in my opinion isn't acceptable on a high quality musical instrument.

JD50

With a clean break is it not just a case of a b it of PVA  and cramp it up for a day or so?

guitars4you

how are you fixed on insurance - Was it at home and chances are if it was you could/should be covered on many home policies for accidental insurance 

ICBM

JD50 said:

With a clean break is it not just a case of a b it of PVA  and cramp it up for a day or so?

No. Never use PVA for this job - it creeps under load and the joint will open up again sooner or later. I learnt that the hard way like many people who believed the 'stronger than the wood itself' claim - it is only under certain conditions, and this is not one of them.

You need to use an aliphatic resin glue (eg Titebond Original), hide glue or in some cases (badly splintered joints where you need to fill some missing spaces as well) I would use heated high-strength epoxy.

With a bad break where the wood is more shattered than simply split along the grain lines it may need properly splinting too.

earwighoney

Will_S said:

My son has just dropped his guitar (Gibson Les Paul) and snapped the neck.  I know nothing here - is this terminal or is there a cost effective fix?  And if so where do we go to do so - SW London based?

SW London is a pretty large area, and I don't know where you are but in addition to Feline if you're closer to Putney the guys at Guitar Aid have been excellent for my repairs

http://www.guitaraid.co.uk/

impmann

ICBM said:

p90fool said:

It's one of the 'design features' of cellos, harpsichords and saxophones too.

Being childproof is NOT how you measure the quality of a £2,000 musical instrument, it's unfair, irrelevant and boring, frankly. 

I've banged rawl plugs in with my Telecaster, but not with my baroque lute or my Les Paul.  

This is just silly. No-one is saying that you should throw a £2000 musical instrument around - but it doesn't take that to break a Gibson. Some of them have been known to snap just from the case falling from resting on its side to lying on its front with the guitar inside, from a combination of the string tension and the inertia of the headstock.

Very few other guitars suffer from it as badly, let alone other instruments - in my experience as a repairer, Gibsons are not just the most commonly broken, it's more common than *all other brands put together*. The reason for that is that there is something seriously wrong with the design - it's simply shockingly poor from a woodwork point of view, and in my opinion isn't acceptable on a high quality musical instrument.

You and I are never going to agree on this. 

Having had a Les Paul bounce off it’s headstock and into a mosh pit at a festival thanks to a broken strap, and survive, intact and with only a bent machine head, I call BS on that being a ‘fact’ that they just somehow fall off. I’m sure you have seen lots of them break - but not all do or will, which is what you insinuate. Accidents happen and as a guitar tech, that’s what pays the mortgage - n’est pas?

I gigged Les Pauls and SGs for 15 years without a single break of the headstocks. I’m not know for being fastidious about caring for them (I even ran my LP custom over in the van once - thankfully the flight case saved it). There are plenty of vintage guitars that haven’t somehow snapped themselves - including some famous well-gigged guitars that have travelled the globe. They can even fall out of a burning aircraft and survive without headstock detachment (refer Frampton’s Phoenix).

Its not a ‘design fault’ it’s a design. Is it weaker than a scarf - probably but having worked in the new instrument industry and seen those get broken in transit due to ape-like couriers etc, they aren’t perfect either. There are a lot more Gibsons being gigged regularly (and have been historically) than other brands - perhaps that has something to do with the numbers, too. Folks talk about nothing sounding like a Gibson... well, part of that will be the design and the way the headstock interacts with the neck and the body (somebody gag 3TS for me please).

The only headstock I’ve ever broken is a vintage Fender Telecaster one - and I was mortified. I’m sure the OP’s son is and having a bunch of ‘experts’ arguing about a design is ‘poor’ or not doesn’t help him. It’s only poor in your opinion John, the rest of us that play the guitars would say it’s just part of the sound, feel and look of a Gibson guitar. 

To the OP - I hope you get it fixed ok, it doesn’t look that bad. As suggested Feline guitars have a good reputation or there are other guys like Charlie Chandler (Kew?) who can help out too. LA Guitars in Barnet used to be pretty good too.