SteveH

Right well Ive been playing guitar for a few years now and bought myself a twelve string as a treat on my 20th birthday! Regrettably, it soon got cast aside in favour of my delicious Takamine 6 string NEX body and was rarely used, never had a new set of strings in 5 years! Thought it was about time to change them, seeing as some had snapped and it was now a seven string

So last week I did the deed, and spent 4 hours stripping, cleaning and restringing it, lemon oiled the fretboard, polished the body and it played like new! I was blown away!

So last week I was playing away on it and heard a crack.... hmm, cant be the guitar, so I carried on...

Next time I went to pick it up I saw this



Whoops!

So Ive had a bit of spare time today to begin, and after consulting a few Luthier types it seemed the best way to finish the break off, to give me the best chance of getting a good bond back together.

Todays progress:

Strings off:


Machine heads out:


Shameless arty pic


So I was down to this


The next step was to finish the break
Scared me shitless doing it, but it went very cleanly, and at such an angle it give me a huge surface area to reset





Close up


And as it sits now < real!


I'll hopefully get it set and clamped up later this afternoon, and update with more pics soon!

PS I know its not a car, thought this would be the best place to put this thread, and I have another Guitar build project in the pipeline, so I'll get a thread sorted for that one too if you want to see?

Steve

Twins

iTrader: (18)

interesting read

Smartdj.

iTrader: (2)

quality m8 get it done

muz

I broke the headstock on my 1970 Gibson SG standard. Broke my heart "finishing the break" before re setting it

COCHYN

now THIS IS A REAL THREAD!!! Wicked! Keep the updates coming. I did something similar to a very old genuine Gibson acoustic

fezzajsy

iTrader: (9)

nice

Lee Ivatt

iTrader: (1)

Nice one steve, i thought youd be posting this today

So how are you going to repair it, straight glue or are you gna put some sort of biscuit in there as well.

Dont use gripfill......it all lies!!!!!!

My 6 string acoustic has a cracked bow inside the body under the bridge. Been meaning to do it for a while but cant figure out a way in there

SteveH

Cheers all for the comments!

Lee: As the break is on a nice angle through the wood Im just using powdered wood glue and relying on the large surface area of the break and a good join from the glue (fingers crossed). If it were a more perpendicular break then i would probably use biscuits, or even 2 small biscuits at the sides and a steel dowel through the middle

Will update with pics tomorrow if I get 5 minutes

Steve

Lee Ivatt

iTrader: (1)

Hope your going to be wearing saftey goggles when you string it up

Looking foward to the result.

how are you going to finish it, leave it with "battle scars" or try and blend it in and re-laquer?

johnboy19

Nice thread good look with your rest, have not played my for ages

SteveH

Yeah safety goggles and a hardhat i think

Not sure on finishing, I have some beeswax that I was thinking of melting into the cracks in the laquer so I'll try that and see how it goes. theres a slight ridge where the two pieces meet though so it'll never be perfect. Might leave it battle scarred rather that messing up the finish

Lee Ivatt

iTrader: (1)

I say battle scared, true rock and roll style

As much as i love shiny guitars theres nothing sexier than seeing something like an old strat battered and worn through

Escow-Van

My mate did this to a Les Paul somehow... its got a bolt through the headstock now luckily the truss-rod plate covers it up from the front
TBH, it still plays and sounds like a Ł1600 guitar!
Good luck with this job though

COCHYN

Unfortunately with wood, there's no real way of doing it except using very strong industrial type glue.

Benni

As this is not a V10 Lada, I ain't interested.

Benni.

muz

It don`t take much on old Gibsons. I was gigging and getting a bit carried away caught the corner of the headstock on my amp head. Split it right through the tuner holes . My Tokai Telecaster though I used to throw about like no ones buisness and it never let me down.

SteveH

It was V8 Benni
But that engine is sold

Anyhoo.....

Its back together

A few pics....

Clamp removed:


Built back up:


Rear of neck:


Closer..


Battle Scars:


Nice and straight





Overall im pleased with the result as its back on and straight, will string it later

I did want to refinish over the cracks in the laquer, but its tinted and I wasnt sure what colour to buy, and I didnt have anything close in stock. Id rather have subtle cracks than a bodged looking refinishing job. That plus I would have to take a sander to the head and blend it perfectly into the neck.... and that could ruin it if I drop the ball!
I think it adds to the guitars character too, theres a story I could tell should someone notice the repair.... and thats if they notice it

I'll get a final pic up when the strings are on, but its basically there! Cheers everyone for the nice comments!

As for the next one, I have classical guitar here which I was given by a friend, as the action (the distance the strings are from the fretboard) was huge, so it was try to repair it or bin it! To be honest I dont think it'll play all that well even if I can fix the action, as it means cutting the dovetail off the neck joint to remove and reset the neck, and it played like crap before anyway.
I was thinking of doing more of a "showpeice" guitar, (maybe Reyland colours if Martin doesnt mind?) and then giving it away as a raffle prize at central day or something (all money to charity of course)

What do you think?

Steve