I'm an idiot... hooray for headstock ...

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Author Message Benito1300 Username: Benito1300 Registered: 09-2005 Posted on Wednesday, September 13, 2006 - 11:02 am:    so, a few weeks ago, my church was participating in a little something called 'the sounds of summer,' which included a number of concerts from crappy regional cover bands and all the usual stuff that many here in the midwestern states call musical entertainment, but also included an outdoor community wide church service. at this service, i played my beloved as73 with a great group of fellow musicians and all went wonderfully... until pack up time came. for some reason, i neglected to purchase a hard case for this guitar (first mistake), so i've been hauling it around for close to a year in a flimsy gig bag with a shoulder strap which is very convenient when carrying larger amounts of gear in both hands is called for. because of the perceived 'extra room' in this gig bag, i usually end up packing a few more things such as cables, music, and, as was the case on this bloody sunday, a boom mic stand (BIG MISTAKE!). so there i was, carrying my hot rod deluxe amp in my right hand, my effects box type thing in my left, and my slightly overstuffed gig bag o'er my shoulder when one of the plastic buckles on the strap snapped, sending the bag and all of its contents crashing to the ground in a hideously hard fashion. fearing for the worst, i immediately unzipped the bag in question to survey the damage to find my fears to be ever so evident. the strings were slacked against the fingerboard as the headstock was at an angle much closer to parallel with the fingerboard than i'd ever seen. as you can see, the break didn't go all the way through, so i was able to line up the grain quite easily and the way it broke left quite a bit of surface area for glue, so i took it upon myself to do a bit o' research and get on top of repairing this thing ASAP. seeing that it was only a $300 guitar and professional repairs of this nature run $150 and up, i figured that it wasn't really worth the cost. i've no plans of selling the thing anytime soon, so cosmetics were of little to no concern and this gave me the chance to flex my highly underdeveloped craftsmanship muscle, for beter or for worse. so here's what my low tech fix looks like 'tis nothing pretty, but she plays just as wonderfully as she ever did and i've read that the glue bond is quite a bit stronger than the wood itself ever could be. were the screws a little overkill? possibly. all i know is this headstock isn't goin' anywhere anytime soon. that is unless i send it tumblin' to the ground again. oh, and i've got a hard case ordered from the local dealer from which i bought the guitar in case anyone's wondering. Brentm Username: Brentm Registered: 03-2005 Posted on Wednesday, September 13, 2006 - 4:08 pm:    How long did you let it set in the clamp? Typically, glued joints are stronger than the surrounding wood. What type of glue did you use? With that said, the string tension is working against you on this particular crack. Any plans on refinishing it? Here's some work my buddy and I did on a Gibson LP Studio. I wish I'd taken some shots of it before, but in this case, the string tension is actually working to keep the joint together. You can see the outline of the crack in the 'during' picture. It has been sanded and epoxy was applied to smooth out the area. Dave_g Username: Dave_g Registered: 01-2002 Posted on Wednesday, September 13, 2006 - 4:27 pm:    If you really want those repairs to be lifetime, you have to use a spline to hold the pcs together. Between the angle of the headstock & the route for the truss rod, there is not enough wood surface area for the glue to set up properly and stay together long term under tension.. Those repairs will last a long time, but the addition of a spline will make them permanent. Jchester Username: Jchester Registered: 05-2006 Posted on Wednesday, September 13, 2006 - 6:43 pm:    Brent... what clamp? The 4 SCREWS were/are/and will remain... his "clamp"... maybe even "splines", Dave. Very resourceful, Benito! UGLY, but resourceful & effective. They're even located where they won't affect play at all! Although, any trade-sale-collectable value is gone, you're back in business! btw... LOVE the "MADE IN KENYA" sticker! & I haven't seen a "Chiquita" in a while, but they were pretty common, "back in the olden days". Brentm Username: Brentm Registered: 03-2005 Posted on Wednesday, September 13, 2006 - 8:32 pm:    Dave, what is a spline? Jazzzbo Username: Jazzzbo Registered: 09-2005 Posted on Wednesday, September 13, 2006 - 10:11 pm:    There is also a very permanent, very thin glue that luthiers use, i believe made by the Satelite co, not sure of the address , but works and quck and mucho expensive, jazzz Dave_g Username: Dave_g Registered: 01-2002 Posted on Thursday, September 14, 2006 - 12:37 am:    Brent, I spline is a thinn piece of wood that is used to both bridge the two pcs being put back together, but provides more surface area for the glue (remember at the top of the nec near the nut there isnt much meat due to the internal route for the trussrod and the angled headstock. What you do is:-dry fit the two pcs together and then-isnig a dremel-cut a 3/16 " groove across the split starting around an inch from the top and ending around an inch from th ebottom. Make the groove at least 3/4 deep. Then cut a piece of wood to fill that groove, carving the pc to fit the groove snug with glue. Let the top of the spline stick up a bit cause your then going to sand it flush, prime & paint....I have fixed several decapitations in this manner with great success, especially with black guitars because-as ling as you sand flush, leaves an invisible repair. Gemberbier Username: Gemberbier Registered: 05-2006 Posted on Thursday, September 14, 2006 - 6:36 am:    Jazzzbo, I found it on a website. http://www.woodworkersshop.com/Hot_Stuff_Glue.htm It is an instant glue (cyanacrylate) so you have very little time to correct. Most luthiers use tite bond wood glue which can be ordered at _adhesives.html,http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Glues,_adhesives.html But as you can see they sell "super glues" too, which is basically the same (cyanacrylate). They use it in the cosmetic business also to glue acrylic nails on or to do nail repairs. That's a tip for fingerpickers when they have an ugly deep nail tear. DON'T PUT IT ON YOUR SKIN! You can use an acrylic nail as reinforcement until the tear has moved far enough beyond the nail bed. One famous example: Doyle Dykes (Taylor endorser) uses acryl nails which he gets applied by a professional by means of cyanacrylate. (no second hand story, this is what he showed and told me face to face). BTW He gave me the special thumb pick he played with. Just look him up on the web, the man's a genius, a mix of Chet Atkins and Merle Travis. Ginger Benito1300 Username: Benito1300 Registered: 09-2005 Posted on Thursday, September 14, 2006 - 9:30 am:    brent, here's a few of the particular details of my repair- i used original titebond wood glue and left it clamped for 48 hours. i then sanded the area down with pretty fine grit sandpaper (sorry for the lack of an actual rating) to smooth out that sweet cowboy chord region. i noticed that the string tension would be working against keeping the break together, and you probably can't see it in the picture, but i tried to put the screws in at an angle perpendicular to the crack to hold it together as best as possible with the resources i had available. judging by the final product of you and your friends' work, you're obviously on another level of this delicate craft than i am... i plan on refinishing it sometime in the near future, but i'm not sure of what would be the best way to go about it. do you have any suggestions as to what preparation, materials, and application procedures would be best in this situation? dave, it sounds like that spline stuff is a little over my head at the moment, but perhaps i'll need to look into that in the future. to my surprise, the truss rod cavity wasn't a factor in this break, so two solid surface areas were there to be glued together. does that mean it'll stay forever? who knows... obviously time will tell, but for now i'm quite happy with the fact that i'm able to play it again. oh, and thanks for your compliments on my stickers, jchester. you wouldn't believe the number of folks who actually drop the question, "they make guitars in kenya!?!" i think it's a lot more fun than china, anyways. thanks for having faith in my down-home 'glue n' screws' method too. no questioning she's ugly now, but maybe we each gained some character through this whole thing... let's hope there was SOME gain. -ben Brentm Username: Brentm Registered: 03-2005 Posted on Thursday, September 14, 2006 - 9:35 am:    Dave - ah, I see. Similar to what Jim Donahue recommends in his eBook. It was a fun project, but I hope I don't have to do it again soon.

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