Official Luthiers Forum!

I have an Epiphone SG with a broken neck.

Woke up one morning and it was laying on the floor cracked at the headstock.
It was my first real guitar...

Anyways, its the second time its broken in that same exact area (Last
time I trust the local guitar center with my precious) and I couldn't bring
myself to fork over another heap of money to fix it.


Well, aside from my life story, I looked up the repair and I was thinking about
doing it myself this time around, having prior luthier experience. (Albit just a little)
I wanted to get some tips from real professionals for such a repair.

Things like what kind of glue to use and such would be useful, any tips on what not
to do and such.

Well, first of all: that just confirm, again and again, that the SG design is bad. They always break at the neck. Too thin (both neck and body), to small glueing surface.

You should post pictures to let us see it..

Francis

_________________
Francis Richer, Montréal
Les Guitares F&M Guitars

Well I can't post any pictures of the recent break due to my phone being dead and My charger
being missing, but I can post pictures of the last repair. As little as I'm sure it will help.





Edit: the recent break is literally right on top of the old one, by the way.
That might be a bit helpful to know.

im sure that this is not at all what you want to hear but my guess is that if it has broken there twice it is probably going to do it again, that is a notorious spot to get a break, especially on an sg. that said if you decide to go ahead and fix it loctite is pretty good stuff as far as glue is concerned, make sure you clean up all the old glue or its definately going to break again.

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~shad peters

http://www.flickr.com/photos/petersinstruments/
http://petersinstruments.blogspot.com/
http://petersinstruments.com/

Well, being my first real guitar I really can't just leave it in this condition or trash it, with the risk
of dieing a little inside everytime I look or think about it.


Thanks for the tips. I will try using loctite.

You need to clean out both sides of the crack well or it will break again as stated. You need to clamp it really well and leave it alone for a week or so. You should really put some kind of spline in between the crack if its possible. (furniture makers use biscuits) The glue wether its loctite, wood glue, or whatever needs time to cure. the next thing is not to hit it or drop that baby again! The other fix is to maybe get a replacement neck for it? Many manufacturers sell replacements that are better or just as good! Good luck!
Mark

How clean is the break? Do the pieces fit cleanly, without gaps, missing chunks, etc?

If so, I'd do a dry run, figuring out how to clamp it so that there's some consistent pressure on the connection, (don't need to go crazy here - very easy to clamp dents in the pieces - ends up looking very bad), and use a cawl or other padding to prevent dents, marks.

If it's a clean break, I'd use Titebond, and clamp it as described. Overnight is plenty of time to let the glue harden.

Good luck!

http://www.galloupguitars.com/broken-les-paul-peghead.htm To start.

No Titebond on a neck that's broken twice already, unless you want it to break 3 times, Epoxy or hide glue. And Biscuits are hot and cold as far as holding that little amount of material. As the design sucks you might want to reengineer the break. Buy the new edition of the Guitar Player repair Guide http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Books,_plans/Building_and_repair:_Guitar,_electric/Guitar_Player_Repair_Guide.html

and check out the repair of the PRS Headstock Repair there. Basically you need to do that and build up the neck/ headstock joint so there is enough material to hold the string tension with the trussrod cut out.

I've done a bunch of these guys, my first Epiphone SG-400 did it too.

Todd

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Todd Lunneborg
http://www.tlguitars.com/
http://www.fretboardjournal.com/