Rickenbacker Lap Steel Broken Headstock

[Justin]

Hello,

I just got in an old Rickenbacker lap steel and the headstock has split. I'm going to attempt to repair it, but have a few questions I hope you all can help me with. First off, what glue would you recommend to fix the break. I'm a little unfamiliar with bakelite, so I hope someone can answer that for me. There are also some machine screws and nuts imbedded in the headstock. (see photos). Were these original to the design?? It does not appear to have been repaired before.. Any info you can give me would help a lot.

Thanks

Justin

[Mark Pollock]

No idea what glue you should use, but those screw and nuts are not in mine. (I have a pre-war, spelled Richenbacher on the headstock). Yours might have been set up as an 8 string originally, and then changed over? Or, perhaps it has suffered a break in the past? 

Whatever you choose to do, and I'm thinking perhaps a carbon fiber inlay down the whole headstock, or perhaps even as a veneer, you can always just paint it black afterwards - it looks like someone has already done that to yours, and, given that your lap is busted and pretty beat looking, you can probably just go ahead and paint it to make it look nice again. The originality police won't hunt you down. (I am jealous of your metal parts for the white pieces. My plastic ones have shrunk badly.)