A not very straightforward headstock repair

[Freeman Keller]

In the past week or two we've had a couple of discussions about headstock repairs - Billy Billy did a really nice job on his, but he also asked if he should do something to reinforce it. I did what I thought was going to be a very straightforward repair, but unfortunately it failed (and caused me to rethink which glue to use). So this thread is for both for BB and my recovery after getting thoroughly spanked. I'll add that this is an acoustic guitar to technically its OT but I'm going to post it here anyway.

 

This was a Guild 12 string that got knocked over and split from the base of the headstock to the first tuner holes. The headplate was still attached so everything was lined up, but that makes it hard to get into the break to clean it and apply the glue. I elected to use slow set epoxy which didn't harden - I'm still struggling with that. Anyway, the guitar came back and the owner gave me permission to be kind of invasive. First thing was to open the break and clean it up as best I could

 

 

It looked like I had pretty good wood to wood contact so I glued it with AR (which I should have used in the first place). I used both a pipette and a long thin probe to work it way back into the break. HHG might have been better but I needed the working time of AR

 

 

Clamped it up and cleaned up the squeeze out. Those white things are blocks of UHMW - glue won't stick to them

 

 

Its back together but I'm worried about it holding up so I used my Save-T-Planer to take 0.080 off the back (by the way, that is one of the coolest tools that I own)

 

 

next I chiseled a little recess where the break is - you can barely see the line right in the middle (which means my glue job was pretty good)

 

 

Inlayed a piece of 0.030 carbon fiber. This is kind of what is called a "spline" except that usually they are longer and standing on their edge. I did it this way because Guild 12's have two truss rods and they are just below the break

 

 

Anyway, glued the CF in with super glue, then added a little piece of mahogany across it to help with the transition. I also bent a piece of 0.080 mahogany to be a back strap

 

 

Feathered the back strap into the neck and headstock and drilled out the tuner holes

 

 

Mixed up some stain - 2 drops of brown, 1 of red and some alcohol.

 

 

A coat of shellac to seal and six coats of lacquer. Normally lacquer won't bind to the poly finish on the neck but I'm hoping the shellac will help. Color match isn't perfect (probably should have used 3 drops of brown...) but it will have to do

 

 

There you have it, Billy old boy.

[mrbrown49]

Wow. Outstanding work freeman. Really clever way to add strength, and you disguised it beautifully.

[badpenguin]

Beautiful work as always!

[sammyreynolds01]

Beautiful job Freeman

[AlamoJoe]

I'm always amazed at the caliber of craftsmanship you exhibit in your threads Mr. Freeman. Boggles the mind. You're true artist not only in the guitars you build, but the ones you save.

 

[Grant Harding]

Fantastic!

 

Have you contacted the place where you got the epoxy to let them know about the bad batch and PIA it caused?

[Freeman Keller]

No, it was StewMac. I have seen some comments in their feedback section that someone else had trouble with it. I also know that epoxy can be tricky to mix - we tend to just squeeze out two fairly equal looking blobs but I've heard of people actually weighing it (which I didn't do). I think I was lazy using epoxy - if I take my time in the future I think I can do it all with HHG or AR.