A not-so-good headstock repair

[dhoenisch]

Well, here was an attempt of mine to repair the headstock of a Lyon guitar. Now, the guitars cost $100 new at Target with gig bag, tuner, and other extras, so I didn't want to spend too much money on this guitar. When I was working on this guitar, I didn't have all of the finish dyes and whatnot, and since I picked this up at $5 via CraigsList, and knew that I couldn't sell it for anything, I didn't want to buy the stuff, so I did the best with what I had. Again, I am bad at taking "before" and "during" pictures, but you'll get the idea.

___________________________________

 

This guitar came to me with not only a broken headstock, but a chunk of wood missing from the headstock. I figured my best attempt to glue this would be using epoxy, since there wasn't too much wood for hot hide glue to stick to. The down side of using epoxy for this repair is that it acted like that slime that was so popular in the 80's. The headstock kept sliding off. So, I had to get creative and thread some string through the tuning post holes, and tie it around the body, than clamp it all down. It seemed to work, but as you will notice on the very last picture, it was a little cockeyed.

 

As you see, the chunk of wood missing was a bit major.

 

Well, now my task was to cut a section of the headstock away, and put a piece of wood in it's place. So, to the drill press it went. I drilled out as much of the wood as I could, and chisseled out the rest, to get a nice square area to add wood to. I left the back in tact for two reasons. First, it would help to strengthen the area a bit more, and so I had a guideline in which to shape that area.

 

Now went on a piece of mahogany in it's place. I left it oversized so I would have plenty of room for error. Again, I just used epoxy to glue it in, than on went a bunch of clamps.

 

Now to roughly shape the area. I used my band saw to cut out the rough shape. I used a really small plane to level the top.

 

Than, the final shape comes out, and I drill the proper sized hole for the tuning machines.

 

I added some stain to the area. The mahogany took it very well, but the rest of the wood didn't. I think the neck is whitewood, which will not accept anything. I even tried ebonizer on whitewood once (different project) and that wouldn't even discolor it. That is some weird stuff. Anyhow, I also used some mahogany colored wood filler for certain parts of the headstock that had any kind of gap. Like I said, it was a $5 guitar, and I didn't want to spend too much money on a guitar that costs $100 with extras, new. I toyed around with adding a headstock overlay, but I decided against it since douplicating the Lyon logo would be more trouble than it's worth.

 

Well, this guitar was the third Lyon I've played, and it sounded as good as the other two I've played. A guy at work saw these images (about a year ago) and actually liked the way it looked, so basically, he reimbursed me for all the money I spent on the guitar (which didn't amount to much) and he got the guitar. One year later, and the repair is still solid.

 

Dan

[Stackabones]

Very cool!

[Sisyphus2]

Phew - first it was horrible like a nasty amputation / road accident - then slowly it got better!

[totamus]

I love this stuff! keep it coming!

[denvertrakker]

Looks reasonably decent to me...certainly better than I'd do with it!

[Samilyn]

I love this stuff! keep it coming!

 

+1000

[happy-man]

Good job. I kept cringing until I saw the last picture. I kept thinking, "maybe you should have offered $4." I was amazed as that last picture scrolled on my screen. Nice to hear that its holding up. Thanks for sharing this.

 

Scott O

[T.B.]

I love this stuff! keep it coming!

 

 

+1

 

Trina

[jd-drafter]

good stuff-

 

i'll call it dhoenisch's home for wayward, broken or unloved guitar's-

 

my dad does much the same- he has old git's hanging around his house- one day one catches his eye- and he proceeds to revive it's mojo-

 

new spruce sound board, new back- neck reset- and it's back to boogie for the old soul of the git-

 

http://jdowling.googlepages.com/rebuiltparlorguitar

 

i own this one now- he has already made another- took an old ladder braced 'western' guitar and zinged it up- it almost play's itself now-

[guitarcapo]

Epoxy can do wonders for headstock repairs

[babablowfish]

That was great. Thanks for sharing it with us.

[Terry Allan Hall]

I, too, take a lot of busted/cheap instruments and make 'em playable again for folks who can't afford better instruments...your's is an excellent example of "Quick and Dirty" repairwork (kinda like what they call on the old M.A.S.H. show - "meatball surgery")...

 

I particularily liked how you replaced the missing chunk...

[OldGuitarPlayer]

Amazing stuff...you truly have a knack for what you do. Please keep these little gems coming.

[JerseyGuy]

Whaddya mean, not so good repair? It's marvelous! Congratulations!

[MattSkibaIsGOD]

That is fantastic. Excellent job.

[dhoenisch]

Thanks, all, for your compliments. I've never been happy with this repair, but hey, she still lives. Anyhow, I am trying to get better at documenting repairs. I've done some other repairs but I either didn't take any pictures, or I started to, and forgot to take the rest. I'm taking pictures of the archtop I am working on, and will post it here when I finish with it.

 

Dan