1970s Martin headstock repair

[Trent Norgart]

Hello Frank & the Frets.com community,

I've recently been handed this piece of work.  Thoughts, comments, advice?

Basically somebody's grandpa is rolling over in his grave over this one.  After some initial research this is the plan I've devised 2 plans to have it
back in playing condition again: 

First off will be the tuners, they will be removed for the entirety of the repair.
    1.) Align all splinters to "book-match" headstock & neck pieces to
each other, apply carpenter's wood glue, clamp headstock & neck
pieces together, clean out any "squeeze-out", and let dry for 2 days.

If after drying the headstock doesn't seem sound then:
     2.)  Route out 2 channels in the back of the headstock/back of the neck that are then filled with solid mahogany braces.  This wouldn't be
pretty, but would add structural integrity and is a recommended
technique I've seen demonstrated before in Dan Erelwine's Guitar Repair
book.

  

Then comes the finish touch-up.

All in all this is going to be a fun learning experience; I can't wait to begin :-).

Thanks,
Trent

[Trent Norgart]

Larry,

Thanks for the compliment on my process :-)

As for your question I had an MDF caul clamped to the front of the headstock and utilized a drill press instead of my "steady" hand.  The sides held pretty strong due to the hide glue I chose to use (that stuff is awesome, normally the wood surrounding the glue joint is more likely to break than where the glue is).