Severed Head!

[Mario Cardenas]

Hey Folks!

Any thoughts on this? I've repaired a break like this before without any reinforcement, but it was a repair on a nylon string guitar. I called my customer to check it's still glued. It is!

But recently, i've been reading some posts about end grain gluing and how weak this joints are. So, now i have some doubts. 

This guitar i'm supposed to glue is a steel string (a cheap one).

Have any of you done this kind of repair without splines or overlays with good results? Do you think it will hold on a steel string?

Thanks

[Jeff Highland]

No the spline did not lift, but the  abrupt grain discontinuity at the end of the spline was inherently a weak point which allowed a new break to develop.

[Jeff Highland]

Here's prepped for backstrap

The previous break is clearly visible in the middle of the splint

The new break started at the end of the splint, I suspect that if a simple glue repair had been done without the splint, the second break would not have occurred

[Andrew]

That spline looks awfully short to me. Also I think splines are generally better if the ends are scarfed in, rather than leaving the end grain butt jointed which can result in a new weak area or exacerbate an exisiting one, as in this case.

[John]

You could say both. I've done it with a solid piece too. It depends on the break.

[Mario Cardenas]

At the moment my beltsander doesn't have an edge that big. I guess i'd have to use the luthiers friend sanding station. I think your method would also be a more practical approach touch up wise. A back strap is a lot of refinishing i think. A very tough repair thou. 

[John]

Here's a couple more, one is a combination backstrap and veneer build the other is a solid piece curved on the bottom and carved as a volute on top.

[Mario Cardenas]

That's a really nice repair John. Thank's for sharing. I just finishing a jig for broken pegheads

[Mario Cardenas]

Well, i finally decided on gluing the thing. Here the results. So what do you think. Should i use a backstrap? This would be a first, so i don't know when is enough. Please let me know what you think. Cheers!

Here's the finished product. 

[John]

Looks good, nice job.

[Mario Cardenas]

Thank you John!

[Allan Bacon]

I like the strap better than the usual splines. This will do a better job of distributing the loads back to the neck.

[Mario Cardenas]

Thank you Allan. I decided i'm going to do the backstrap. Its gonna be a good practice. Harder to touch up thou.