Thought i'd document this for anyone who might be interested.
I picked up a 'player' '59 Gibson DC TV Model just before Christmas which had had a very messy headstock repair years ago.
I decided to attempt to tidy up the break and make it more stable.
It began as this:
The break was stable but a mess. So, taking a hairdrier and applying some heat and pressure, the old glue melted and the break soon started to pull apart:
But something else was revealing itself as the crack opened...
....the previous repair, complete with 2 nails!
After pulling out the nails, I was left with this:
So after a few hours cleaning scraping off all the old glue, the crack was re-glued with Titebond and clamped for 24 hours.
After 24 hours I re-installed the tuners, re-strung and tuned to pitch and left it overnight. The fix held, i'm happy!
I was left with this:
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The face was sanded flat:
At this point, I decided to removed the washer indents left by the Schaller tuners. I wanted to preserve the original Gibson logo (N.B. as I think this was a '59/60 transitional model, they were often shipped without the Les Paul TV Model/Junior silkscreen). I could have plugged the holes and re-drilled but at this point I was still unsure whether I was going to keep the Klusson buttons or go with some aged Grovers.
So Mahogany filler was applied...looking a little like a casualty from the Great War....
Left overnight to harden then sanded back:
I also sanded the back of the headstock and the repair:
Next, I blacked the headstock face with Black nitro, then clear coat and finally some tinted clear on the back and front of the headstock. Then I aged the face slightly to blend it in with the rest of the guitar :
And now we're done! :-)
(Just need a couple of truss rod cover screws....)
(formerly miserneil)
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I have to admit, it's the 5th one with the nails, that turns my stomach....it looks like a poor amputee.
(formerly miserneil)
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
(formerly miserneil)
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
I could possibly be in a similar sort of situation....waiting on a few transatlantic emails though... :-)
(formerly miserneil)