Broken headstock

[vandenboom]

Nephew showed me his broken SG tonight. Local guitar store glued it back. It held for couple of weeks then came apart again. Don't know what glue they used or method. No evidence of glue in the reopened break which surprises me.

Would appreciate yr advice.
With nothing to lose i would try to reglue it perhaps with epoxy instead of titebond. As he is more interested in functionality than resale value he was open to use of additonal hardware to help hold it together. I wondered about use of small chrome plates on both faces pulled togerher with a couple of fine nuts & bolts. Does that all sound rediculous?
Alternatively just replace the set neck. Is the neck/body join just a butt join or is there more to it?

20170924_213813.jpg

[rocket]

Looks very fixable Frank, plenty of surface to take some glue, is the truss rod anywhere to be seen? how about inserting a couple of strengthening fillets across the break either side of centre parallel to the truss rod?

Cheers

Rod.

[Crafty Fox]

I think 'Simso', (Steve) posted a tutorial recently on this type repair job.

[kiwigeo]

Might need a couple of reinforcing splines. Steve is the master and there's a headstock repair
tutorial on his website. http://www.mirwa.com.au/HTS_Headstock_Spline.html

[jeffhigh]

From the photo, It would be a repair I would do with Hot Hide Glue, no splines, after scrubbing out with hot water and a stiff brush to remove any glue residue.
HHG is more resistant to warm weather (guitar in car Boot)
Epoxy is not a cureall in this situation. in particular a starved joint due to absorbtion into endgrain needs to be avoided and don't even consider araldite or other hardware grade epoxies

BTW the neck to body joint is a tenon in open mortice not a butt joint.

[ozziebluesman]

I agree with Jeff use hhg.
A picture tells a thousand words see below how I made a gluing support from ply and glued up with hhg.
Cheers
Alan

[simso]

Good replies, my general theory with broken headstocks,is if it's a long grain break and I have at least 25mm of long grain then I just glue it up.

If it's a cross grain break or less than 25mm of long grain then I spline it.

Hide glue is the best, fish glue not bad, titebond my choice only because of its long working alignment time.

If it's been glued before, no guarantees as you just don't know what people have done, so I occasionally resort straight to splines

Steve

[vandenboom]

Thanks all. On holidays with nephews family near Lismore so no workshop. Will inspect more closely tonight to make spline/no spline decision and then try to gather necessary tools & try to buy some HHG in lismore. Nothing like a holiday project

[Pat.Hawkins]

Robbie O'Brien has a short video pretty close to this.
it's one of his Tips Du Jopur.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdjHboSPCzg

Cheers