Hello everybody, Currently I'm looking for opinions on a guitar I'm thinking of purchasing as a project. The neck was broken, and I believe it was poorly repaired. Any luthiers want to tell me if this break is fixable? My tech isn't confident this is a good project for me to attempt as my first time repairing a headstock break. What do you guys think?
As a first time project it may be a challenge but I have seen some repairs that I would have said were impossible......... I am not a luthier but it provably comes down to your confidence. From your post, it sounds like a second go around for this guitar. Be sure you have a good enough starting place to begin with. If they do too much to it on the last repair there may not be enough to work with.................??
If it will line up dry it should line up with glue on it. The last headstock repair I did I switched from Super T to LocTite control gel and it turned out as strong as new without doweling it, and that was a very thin Jackson neck. This looks like it may need a dowel job, which may prove very difficult due to the angle of the fracture and possible previous repairs...
[quote author=Voxman link=topic=19988.msg242167#msg242167 date=1259014049] BruceWayne131 laughs at such breaks! But he's a gifted luthier Ask him and he'll advise you :) [/quote] + 1 O0
Thanks! Well, I took the chance--took it home today. All original parts (except the bridge and the Bigsby) so I can probably part it out and maybe even make a little money on it if I have to scrap the project. The first break seems to have been filled with some sort of black epoxy stuff, and was applied kind of sloppily. It wasn't clamped down hard enough, and there's a nice hard edge that needs to be knocked down. The fretboard seems to be bending, too, probably if the epoxy expanded when it was fresh. Honestly, though, it seems pretty solid. Just messy. There's another break, though, probably caused by the guitar banging around inside a bass case for the last 20 years. Just a simple line fracture on the back of the headstock, really thin, my Dan Erlewine book says that this is the simplest kind of break to fix. I'm waiting for my tech (and teacher) to come back from vacation. In the meantime, I'll get some more pictures. Other than the breaks, it's in great shape.
It's hard to tell from looking at the quality of the pictures but what I can tell you is...........whoever slapped epoxy on there in hopes that it will work is / was out of his mind. The pores/grain of the wood needs to be open so the glue can be absorbed into it. By coating the break with epoxy they just filled up those pores with plastic making another repair with glue almost impossible. yeah it may hold for a while but i can promise you it will come apart again. I'm not a fan of Epxoy, Crazy Glue, etc, etc. and hate it even more for a headstock break. The only proper way of fixing that break is removing all of the wood thats now soaked up with epoxy and rebuilding it properly with Hide Glue. I have to agree with your Tech who said: He isn't confident this is a good project for me to attempt as my first time repairing a headstock break.
