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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! ;-)
(formerly miserneil)
electric proddy probe machine
My trading feedback thread
By the look of it, this guitar has seen a lot worse things than a headstock break in it's life!! ;-)
(formerly miserneil)
(formerly miserneil)
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.
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.
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"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
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
(formerly miserneil)