Quality work.

[Russell Vance]

Hi All, its winter time down under and we could all use a good laugh:    every now and again our repair section get something that make you go, hmmmmmm.

This one was what the horse racing world would call a trifecta.   Tech Screws,  cooking skewers and plastic cleats all stuck  together with expanding poly, some aliphatic, a bit of car bog and a cladding of poly.  

The instrument  was of considerable sentimental value and the client was very upset at the state of the instrument which had been attacked by a series of wannabe repair-persons.   

We did a full replacement/reconstruction of the area which was a good fun repair due to the challenging nature of this thing.  Multi laminate, crossbanded backstrap with full length backplate and frontplate with a new headstock spliced in.  Covered a little new ground here so allow a minor brag book look at how we go about this stuff where we are.  

Challenging job, good fun, customer very happy, got well paid - luthier Nirvana.

Regards,

Rusty.

  

[Glen H]

I commend you on your bravery! Home run on that job too!

[Randall Curtis Bowman]

Most impressive and well done.

[Mark McLean]

Yes, a bit chilly here in Sydney at the moment also, but you have it a lot worse in Canberra!

Nice job on the broken headstock Russell.  I am sure the owner was well pleased, and is hopefully talking up your talents all over the district.  

[Paul Breen]

That was an ugly mess! I can see the drips of sweat from your labors in the second image. Nice work on the repair.

[Walter W Wright]

"This one was what the horse racing world would call a trifecta.   Tech Screws,  cooking skewers and plastic cleats all stuck  together with expanding poly, some aliphatic, a bit of car bog and a cladding of poly."

translate for us poor yanks: by "expanding poly" do you mean what gets sold as "gorilla glue" here in the states, that nasty foaming stuff that isn't even all that strong on wood? what is "car bog"?

anyway yeah, i always say i'd rather try and fix a guitar that had been dragged down the street behind a truck than one that had been subject to home "repair"

[Russell Vance]

Hi Walter, 

Expanding Polyurethane Glue - probably related to Gorrilla Glue, which now make a range of products but best bet is poly.   Car bog is two pack filler use to smooth out the bumps in car repairs and also cover up all sorts of nasty things that happen.  Its a cover up/sizing material and does not provide any strength to the repair.

We do use a auto product to "size"  really bad  shattered and "bits missing"  repairs  which is chopped fiberglass mixed with one part of two part epoxy which fills gaps and  provides some structural strength.   Better than mat or tape for getting into the tight spots.

Anyway,  a couple more tech shots of how to build a cross banded splint platform to "wedge the new peghead.  The principle with this process is to get one series of laminates in compression (peghead plate) and one series in tension  (backstrap laminates) against the action of the strings.  We would not use cross banding in ordinary backstrap repairs but this one required stability in both planes due to the small tang left to work with.  I like this process better than scarf jointing in a new peghead because it provides an extended tongue down the neck to take the tension with a tightly shaped and glued surface.   Always looking for better ways so please remark and reply.

Rusty

 

[peter meyer]

Excellent work there Russel!!