First, let's look at our poor headstock. As far as Gibson head breaks go this is a good one – a nice clean break with no splintering, and it hasn't gone through to the headstock veneer. The first thing to do is to get the tuners, the truss rod cover and the nut off. Use a properly-fitting spanner – not an adjustable – to undo the locking nuts on the tuners: a badly-fitting spanner will round off the corners. When you undo the screws on the tuners and the truss rod cover, especially on a vintage Gibson, put your fingers around the bottom of the screwdriver. This way, if the screwdriver slips it will hit your finger and not the finish on the guitar. Undoing the truss rod nut may pull the two parts apart, depending on where the split is. We now have two flat surfaces that we can clamp together.

You can see from picture 6 that I've made up a backing piece to go around the volute on the Gibson neck. This is important, for if you just try and clamp it together without the backing piece you won't apply an even pressure to the break, and this will result in a bad repair. I've lined the contour with some cork to help distribute the clamping pressure more evenly. Here comes the scary part, as to make sure the glue goes all the way into the break we need to open it up as far as possible without making it worse. I've laid the guitar face down, put a clamp over the top of the head and very gently tightened it up. This way I'll be able to work the glue into the break.

With the joint open, now is a goodtime to clean it out. I'm using compressed air to blow out any dust or debris that may be left in the join, though a brush will suffice. We'll first work the glue in using a brush, then fingers. You'll know when it's full of glue when you rub glue in on one side and it comes out the other side. Remove the clamp and wipe any excess glue off with a damp but not wet cloth.

We can now put our backing pieces on and clamp it all together. Make sure the backing piece on the top is lined with something so it doesn't mark the headstock; it's also a good idea to cover both packing pieces with Sellotape or to put a couple of layers of paper between them and the guitar, as glue can squeeze out from unexpected places. If you're not careful you'll end up with a headstock that has packing pieces stuck to it! I'm only using two clamps, so now we'll tighten them up, wipe off any glue, and leave to dry for 24 hours.

Once it's all stuck back together you can decide if the neck needs respraying or not. Feelings about this are changing. Many people don't want to see refinished guitars or parts of guitars, as it can devalue them. Also, the idea of refinishing any part of a guitar is to hide a repair, but if the repair is done really well it should be invisible to all but the trained eye. The problem with this is that some people, knowingly or unknowingly, are selling guitars as totally original when they are not, and this makes a big difference to the value of a vintage guitar. I've seen many guitars that people have paid over the odds for because they were led to believe they were just as they left the factory. When I've pointed out a resprayed top or anew fingerboard it generally leads to a very big frown.... so beware!

You can see from the photo that the repair has turned out looking pretty good; it's visible, but the edges are all smooth so it can't be felt. Further along the neck some lacquer has worn off over years of playing, but rather than respraying this I'm going to carefully blend in the edges with the neck. This will stop it from chipping any more, and save refinishing the neck.

Next, we'll tackle the frets. Gibson generally used quite a wide fret wire, and on this guitar they're over 2.5mm wide. Wide frets feel comfortable but can cause tuning problems, as after a year or two's playing the strings wear flat grooves into the top of the frets which change the point at which the string leaves the fret. Rather than coming off the fret over the centre, the groove pushes it closer to the front of the fret. This makes the distance between the fret and the saddle shorter, and this in turn completely messes up the intonation on each string.

With this in mind, we need to level the frets and reprofile the tops. First we'll make sure the neck is straight and then use a flat oil-stone to level the tops of the frets, using circular movements with the stone and slowly working our way up and down the fretboard (if you just go up and down you'll make the low frets lower and leave the high ones high). You'll see when you've hit the tops of all the frets.

Now we've got level frets we can profile them using a fret file with a hollow face to suit the frets' radius. I find my file's surface a little rough, so I start by wrapping 600 grit wet and dry paper around the file to reshape the fret before moving on to 1200 grit to polish it. I've also used a fretboard protector, as the frets are quite low. Once they have all been reprofiled, some 0000-grade wire wool and lemon oil will clean the board and add a final polish to the frets.

To add to our tuning and general playing problems we've got a nut with the slots cut far too deeply, which will choke the strings. The slots only need to be deep enough to grab half the diameter of the string (though slightly more on the plain strings), as this will keep them in place yet still allow them to ring clearly. I've sanded down the nut using a sanding board then polished it with some 600 grit wet and dry.

The bridge, I'm afraid, is beyond repair. The saddles have either corroded or just worn out. I couldn't find a set of replacement saddles so I've decided to replace the whole bridge. The original should be kept, of course, just to make sure you have all the original parts!

Before replacing the tuners it's a good idea to let some thin oil to run into the gears; this should keep them working for another 20 years. Don't forget, a spanner that fits will not round over the corners of the nuts, and your fingers at the bottom of the screwdriver will, stop it from slipping and scratching the guitar.

I've always found .009" strings a little light, so I've selected a set of 10 to 46. Heavier strings vibrate in a smaller circle than lighter ones due to the fact they have more tension on them, so although they're heavier a slightly lower action should be possible. Actually, the action on this guitar does not need changing. Initially it was a little low, but by simply leveling the frets we've in effect made the action a little higher.

Before adjusting the bridge we need to get the truss rod set up properly. The neck should be slightly concave, which is normally what happens with the strings pulling on it; we just need to counter act this a little with the truss rod. With the E string fretted at the 1st and 19th fret you should be looking for a gap of no more than about .5mm between the string and the 7th fret. The bridge can be now be adjusted up or down until the action suits your playing. You should be listening for a clean note with no rattles or buzzes (of course, heavy players will generally need a higher action).

We've gone through all the trouble of reprofiling the frets, reshaping the nut and replacing, the bridge, so now we can get the intonation set up. Because of the inherent problems with tuning on fretted instruments the best we can do is to get it right at the 12th fret, so long as the fretting is correct and we're working from the centre of the frets and to a good slot in the saddle and a bridge with a clean edge. In fact, we should be right within a few cents up and down the fretboard. So tune the bass E to pitch and fret it at the 12th fret. You should have the same note but an octave higher: if it's sharp you'll need to move the saddle on the bridge away from the 12th fret, and if it's flat it should go towards the neck. You should now have a Gibson that plays pretty much in tune. Congratulations!