Learn To Repair Broken Guitar Neck

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Learn To
Repair
Broken
Guitar Neck
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Introduction

• How to fix a broken guitar neck and, depending on
  the extent of the damage, how to make minor
  cosmetic repairs. In this case, the guitar in
  question is an Epiphone Les Paul Studio.
• They're fantastic, inexpensive guitars in the
  instance of the Epiphone... and, depending on the
  extent of the break, these broken neck ones can
  be a terrific deal for someone with the time and
  tools to mend them. It's also possible to repair
  the top of your Gibson ES335 if it's broken.

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The Anatomy of a Broken Neck

• Gravity, headstock geometry, and thin wood can
  all combine to create a difficult predicament.
  The images demonstrate how a clean break can
  happen...

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2. Here Are The Tools Needed

• Only the headstock has to be glued back on to
  make the guitar fully playable again. You'll need
  the following items to do so

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• 1. Clamps - The clamp kind displayed attracts to
  me. Screw clamps, encourage users to really crank
  it down, perhaps damaging the finish. It doesn't
  have to be so tight. Several clamps of various
  sizes work nicely purchase a full set of these
  guitar parts online from FaberUSA or somewhere.
• 2. Glue - There will be no miracle glue. White
  glue is more powerful than wood. Use "wood" white
  glue because it doesn't seem to run as much as
  conventional white glue. In addition, the curing
  time suits my needs.
• 3. Water - for cleaning
• 4. A lot of paper towels
• 5. A little artist paintbrush (you may instead
  use a large brush). It doesn't matter how big you
  are in this game.
• 6. Something to keep the neck in place - A whole
  roll of paper towels will also enough.

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3. Damage Inspection

• Examine the nature of the break to see if it's
  worth mending to your satisfaction and ability.
• What interesting to note is that the previous fix
  held up just fine. The wood, not the old glue
  joint, failed (again). However, this also
  indicates that the wood on this neck is
  relatively weak and would split just as quickly
  and cleanly if it were dropped again.
• Depending on the guitar, the split paint and
  paint/wood interface may pose an issue. However,
  in this situation, wood glue worked perfectly.

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4. About Wood Strength and Stain Penetration

• Check the wood more attentively, the primary
  break seemed to occur along a plane that sucked
  up the dye quite deeply. This COULD suggest that
  the wood along this plane was drier and possibly
  weaker than the wood along nearby planes.
• The wood close to the truss rod aperture cracked
  on a separate plane. Maybe it was more powerful?
  If the break occurred as detailed in step 1, the
  truss rod area would have been the first to
  fracture... After all, you're not so strong! So
  microscopically studying the wood structure is
  probably not necessary in this case.

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5. Dry Fitting Glue Application

• This is a straightforward procedure. Simply put
  the parts together to see how they fit. This
  guitar was simple to play - just keep your
  fingers together and you'll be fine. On other
  guitars, you may need to place the part at an
  angle, bounce it around a bit, or clear up some
  bad wood spots.
• Glue application idea is to acquire enough glue
  that everything inside the repair is coated, but
  not so much that the exterior is a complete
  disaster to clean up.

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6. Clamping and Assembly

• Make sure you have your clamps, water, and paper
  towels on hand. This is not the time for
  interruptions this phase must be finished in one
  step.
• The following are the major components
• Hand assembly
• Clamping at the start
• Take care of the mess
• Clamping (additional/final)
• There will be further cleanup.

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7. Take Off the Clamps Wood Finish Work

• Theoretically, you could string up the guitar and
  start playing if you wanted! The joint is solid
  and will hold the tension. Everything after this
  is just cosmetic.
• Keep the wood finish work to a minimum. This can
  get extremely frustrating and take you down a
  long path of work that will just make things
  looking worse.

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8. Headstock Cleanup / Finishing

• The headstock was close, but not identical.
  Instead of wood, we were working with paint.
• 1. Get rid of the adhesive.
• 2. Use wet/dry sandpaper to try to clean it up
  and level it. Start with 320 and progressed to
  400, 600, then 800. Keep it wet and stay away
  from the logo.
• 3. Kiwi black shoe polish To achieve the same
  sheen, can apply shoe polish to the entire
  headstock.

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9. Check All Set-up and Play!

• Now this is the time to check all the guitar
  setup and tuning, whether it is working good or
  not.
• I hope now it is very clear to reader, how to
  repair broken guitar neck.