Broken headstock re-reglue.

[R.J. Fulton]

     I recently repaired this headstock and I used titebond with which I have always had great results. The join was as perfect as you could ask for. As you'll see from the pictures the headstock was totally detached from the body so there was little surface area for reglueing. I made a quick little jig to pull the pieces together, and it worked great. The customer wanted to keep costs down so I didn't do a spline job to avoid the refinishing touch up and so forth. The join fit together so great I had full confidence in it.

     Well it came back this week the join failed due to day of playing the guitar outside and leaving it in the hot sun. So now that all the little wood fingers in the joint are coated with glue should I heat up the mating pieces and reglue?  Should I epoxy it back together?  The customer wants to avoid the more costly and proper way of doing it and time is of the essence. He has a gig on Saturday.

 I plan on adding some wooden dowels through the joint internally irregardless. The joint luckily still fit together like a puzzle piece.

 

Prethanking all.

[STGuitarworks]

Question for Howard Klepper, Grahame and Billy: how long before my 'paddle' or 'backstrap' break repair fails?

[Mike Kolb]

I can't speak for anyone, but I read Klepper's comments as referring to your particular backstrap as applied to the type of disastrous break that R.J. presented.  Your backstrap should last a good long time, but it wouldn't do much for R.J.'s particular unfortunate situation.

[Howard Klepper]

I don't think anyone predicted that it would.

 

Do you see that only the narrow last 1/2" or so of that backstrap  would be supporting the end grain rupture on the OP's job?

[William F.Eden]

Well STG;;; I would rather you not includ me in the ones that think your repair will fail..I have done a good number of this type of repairs and I have yet  to get one back so far. P.S  but I also do a little work on the top end as well .Thanks  Bill.'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''

[STGuitarworks]

Here is the repair from 2 other angles.

I am of the mind that this type of neck (thin, mahoghany, with big cavity for truss rod adjustment at the headstock, able to 'adjust' string pitch by over 10 cents by applying a little bit hand pressure) is weak and prone to having issues.

Although I feel that a reinforcement backstrap is close to the best that can be done (other than installing a new, more stable neck) it still has the potential to fail.

It is my opinion that RJ's client's break and my client's break are fairly similar and that the same solutions would have a similar stability.

So... in your opinions, one will likely fail and the other likely not?

Cheers!

Sean

[FRANK]

stg with the head cap is in dire need of replacement also I d do both head cap and back cap I like the insert you put between the tuners and the neck to support end grain although I am under the impression a head cap would hold more stress that a back cap after tuners nut and strings are installed just my personal opinion from some experience I am No Pro but when thinking conceptual physics this is where my mind takes me

[STGuitarworks]

Thanks Frank!

 

This one left the shop over a year ago, sealed with shellac. The customer telling me that he was going shoot black nitro and that he was experienced with it. A faceplate would have pushed the repair out of his price range.