Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Worst D.I.Y. headstock repair ever?

Since I've moved back north I see a lot more electric guitars from rock n' rollers which means I see a lot more headstock breaks. This Dot Epiphone was repaired not so well by the owner with epoxy and then carelessly doused with wood glue. I'll keep his name confidential, but he really loves his guitar and wanted me to make sure the headstock would not break again.

Before.

After.New veneer added for cosmetic and structural purposes.

A structurally sound memory.

I steamed the old glue joint apart and cleaned everything up. Obviously it was a mess but I glued everything back w/ epoxy (used for it's gap filling properties) and reinforced the break with my splint routing jig. I made a new veneer, sanded all the contours, sealed everything up and showed it to the owner. He was very happy with the repair and insisted that I not refinish the area exclaiming, "It looks like it's been in a fire!"

Said owner plays in a "noise rock" band.

3 comments:

  1. Wow, you did a superlative repair job on this one!

    ReplyDelete
  2. What is going on in the middle of the back of the headstock? Looks like a veneer or inlay. Or is it just showing the 'wings' of the original headstock construction?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Those are "splints" that I added for extra reinforcement. I always add those when repairing a headstock that has broken twice.

    ReplyDelete