Another expert neck repair :-)

[Grahame Myers]

Got this in today. The new owner (a good friend of mine), bought it for a song from a bass player who tried to repair it the quick and dirty way. Now he wants me to do it properly. I've already explained that it won't look pretty, due to the damage caused by the dry wall screws, but I'll be able to make it strong and playeable again.

My battle plan is to straighten the wood fibres enough to get it to clamp up tightly, and then glue it with hide glue for maximum strength. And then drill and plug the screw holes with grain-orientated maple plugs. Good plan? Any thoughts welcome

[RETROROD]

Really Nice!....I wannabe a Loofier too.......BwahaHaHa

At any rate...."sounds like a plan"...

[Mark Pollock]

Words - I need more words.

I have a fellow teacher who teaches guitar at a middle school, and who brings me guitars that need some "help" once in a while. Yesterday's beauties were a $50 gut string guitar that someone had put steel strings on, ripping the heel of the neck out of the block. The other was a cheap dreadnaught that someone has re-done the bridge on, and it cracked completely across the middle. I refused to fix the steel, and said just put a huge screw in the neck of the nylon guitar and call it a day. I"m slowly learning to value my time...

[Eric Steven Johansen]

Grahame, I call this the "Cheap and Cheerful" repair. T'were it something of value I'd try my darnedest to make it disappear but in this case, as I see no glue in the joint yet, your plan sounds great to me.

[Joshua Levin-Epstein]

I hate to see boogered screw heads. Doesn't anyone use the right screwdriver anymore?

[Bob H Abernathy III]

Oh man....work cut out for ya! But you got it! I say the plan is a solid one. The reward of getting it back in working order should be a large one! Give us a finished shot for sure! so we can all breath a sigh of relief! 

Just out of curiosity, Will you use HG for the plugs as well? or something else?

Have a good one bud! Thanks for the post!

[Grahame Myers]

I actually ended up using Titebond as I clamped it up today: I was worried about being able to get it lined up quick enough, as I had to push it together, and not just lay the two halves on top of one another. I guess I'll be using Titebond for the plugs too. I use Titebond for most of the jobs I do because of the longer open time, but I do love HG because the cleanup is so easy, and the better initial tack compared to Titebond. I've never had a Titebond repair let go, and it's the industry standard, so it can't be bad :-) You can see how it's coming on here: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.188084424706138.107374185...

[Grahame Myers]

After a good LOL moment after reading Joshuas reply (nice one :-) ), I got back to work, and here's the result. It ain't purty, but it works. It must've exploded like a bomb going off when it broke, because as it was glued back together again there was a lot of wood missing at the back of the neck. I drop-filled with CA to get it smooth again, I know optically it's F grade, but it's smooth to the touch, and it plays well.

As I was putting it back together I noticed that, sometime in the past, some clown had fitted a nut that was about 4 mm too narrow for the neck, so I did my buddy a favour and made a new bone nut for the job. Looks much better