Official Luthiers Forum!

So someone asked about fixing a broken headstock and I’m thinking yea... probably no problem ....
Then they send the picture
I have no idea how THIS happened. How does one remedy this? Cut the headstock off in such a way that a new one can be made?
Thanks for any advise



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Impressive!

Ha that’s exactly what I thought
.... I’m gonna need to know how this occurred... !


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Plane the side smooth, glue on a new piece, redrill the tuner holes, and leave the divot in the middle as a badge of honor

Looking closer it looks like even the nut is broken on the high e side


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Were they able to find the G string tuner? I speculate that something grabbed that tuner and twisted it HARD toward the front of the guitar and down. Hence, the tuner-shaped divot in the front that angles down toward the body.

It must have been an interesting crime scene . . .

I saw that! I haven’t asked what happened because it’s fun to try and figure it out based the evidence ha


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Well I asked
.....
She said it accidentally got shot


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I don't know why, but when I saw the picture I thought "bullet hole."

It's probably not that bad of a repair once you clean the blood off the back of the peghead.

If that is the only damage, rout a fresh straight edge, glue on new wood, shape it, drill a new hole, and veneer the peghead.

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

Probably an alcohol related accident. Never seen anything like that. Trying to imagine how it happened.

Accidentally? I dunno. It hit the flame inlay, which is a nice little target. It was probably a well aimed shot. Is it stupid? Yep. But probably not an accident.

Wait a minute, from that entry and exit path, it appears someone was trying to put it out of its misery.

Ha... maybe you’re right, but we shall keep “accidental” in quotation marks ha


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Looks like a 45 caliber at least. They couldn't have been that drunk with that accuracy.

I’ll never play that song again.

I could do this repair ... it would be a first like this for me, but I don’t know if they know that’s a $300 guitar . Kinda in the .... is it worth it ? range


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“Accidentally shot?” I’ve repaired a bunch of busted headstocks, but haven’t got a story to beat that!


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The repair could be done quick and dirty or to a higher standard. The question is do you want your name on a somewhat shoddy job or do you want to invest the effort into a good repair on an instrument that people take pot shots at.

He was probably playing the William Tell Overture. You need to be careful with your song selection. The ballad of Bonnie and Clyde is another problematic tune.

As it happens, I have a classical guitar in my shop for repairs that has a bullet hole through the upper bout from front to back. So far, hindsight is the only good thing that's 2020.

Remember Seinfeld? “It was a million to one shot, Doc!”

Very different problem.

That looks like either "I hate this guitar" or "I'll never learn the Freebird solo" or "You love that guitar more than me" damage.
Bad juju - : )

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Measure Twice,

Karl Borum

Ha! I've seen this before, although on the guitar I saw the bullet went through the neck joint. It was a fairly expensive Yamaha 335 copy. The customer had the luthier doing the repair work inlay the 9mm casing where it went through the guitar.

The Yamaha 335 copy would have been worth the repair. Had one once - great guitar.

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