Official Luthiers Forum!

Hey, guys. First post! (Long time lurker, though). So I received this guitar in the mail with a broken headstock (FYI - it’s a Firefly. About a $200 guitar, although honestly very nice except for the whole being in 2 parts thing). I’ve already received a full refund and thought - what the heck? I’ll see if I can make it playable again. Note: I’m not concerned with looks. I'll sand and smooth it out, but I could care less if the repair isn’t pretty. Here's a photo. I did some cleaning to make as much wood to wood contact as I could. And I feel ok with the contacted areas. The part I’m concerned with is this open gap, which obviously will weaken the repair. Would there be any benefit to just filling it with glue, or maybe some wood putty? Or is it just likely a lost cause? You can't tell from the pic but the pitch angle is perfect and the repair was a nice fit, like puzzle pieces. I used some Titebond and clamped it for about 20 hours. Haven’t put any tension on it yet.

Thanks!

If it were mine I’d fill it with epoxy and string it up. Like you say, there is not much to lose.

Don't use putty. Put more wood in there if you can, then fill the gaps with epoxy or superglue, sand flush, and play. At this point, there's no good way to complete the job, only ugly ones. Doesn't mean the instrument won't be fun to play and sound good.

Suggest you do a search for broken pegheads... LOTS of stuff on this forum.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

If OP has all the slivers, I suggest using them to fill the gaps - - - try to test fit them and epoxy them in.

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Peter Havriluk

No, unfortunately I do not. It was really strange. The extra splinters were nowhere to be found in the box and neither was the nut that had broken off. So either someone at the warehouse broke it BEFORE they boxed it or someone at UPS did something. The box was not taped very good. It could have easily been opened and re-taped. So IDk - but very strange.

Thanks, guys for the epoxy suggestion. I can find some wood shards and make that happen. Even if it doesn't help a whole lot, it'll likely help some and it sure can't hurt.

Much appreciated.

You don't care what it looks like so...

If this was mine, I'd glue and clamp the crack closed. Then I'd remove wood around the chip until there was a flat area to glue a new piece of wood onto. (perhaps bringing it up onto the headstock area, creating a type of backstrap/scarf joint type thing). Once that had set, I'd clean the patch up bringing the shape into line with the surrounding neck. Then it's just a matter of finishing. Not so simple and probably overkill, but it should be sound if done properly. And probably more then stuffing bits of wood and epoxy into the void..

I considered something like that. I thought about getting a router and routing out room for a dowel and have that little dude stretching across both halves and gluing that in. Then fill with epoxy and then sand it to just make it smooth and playable. But I thought it just might be overkill. Also ... I don't have a router, so I have to hunt one down. Although, I bet a good chisel would do .. hmm. We will see. Wheels are turning.

Thanks!

You are talking about a spline. Make is rectangular instead of a dowel, so it will have good contact with adjacent surfaces. Leave it proud of the surface and level it after the glue is set. Use two splines, one on either side of the truss rod. But if you have never used a router before this will be a huge challenge. The router has to be guided with a jig to make a straight cut.

OP: I think it's best to stay away from powered tools until you're proficient at using them. Power tools can make an unrecoverable mess in very few tenths of a second.

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Peter Havriluk

A jig like this works to cut in splines


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Man that looks great. As for using power tools, been a chemical plant/ construction guy for 20 years. I've used everything. That being said - I do NOT have any jigs like that so I'll be skipping that whole thing! I appreciate the picture and the warnings.

Thanks for all the info. I'm going to just go with the wood pieces/ epoxy option and hope for the best. I think it'll actually be fine. I may even tune it down a half step to ease the tension a bit, something not all that uncommon for me, anyhow.

If you are good with hand tools you could cut slots for splines by hand using small chisels. I did that once before I got tooled up. It would definitely strengthen the joint.

By the way, you can remove the glue squeeze-out with a warm damp rag and a lot of rubbing.

With a chunk that big I doubt splines would really repair it. Maybe shoot for a backstrap overlay since you can easily make it big enough and deep enough to cover the broken area.