Headstock Repair

Broken guitar head
Repairing a head break with new parts

Although the materials used in an inexpensive guitar are not always poor quality, it is true that they are usually not well selected. The joint of the neck and head is the weakest part of the guitar. Especially, if a poor grain mahogany is used for the neck, once it breaks, repair work may be...

Broken guitar neck
Repairing a broken guitar neck

One of the most common requests at the guitar repair shop is for us to fix a broken guitar neck. Repairing this kind of damage with screws or a wood insert, or wrapping with fiberglass, was seen quite often in the 1960s and 1970s. But if it's a fresh break and the pieces to be...

image of headstock
Repairing a broken headstock with a new section

This is the ES175, one of the most popular full hollow-body guitars made by Gibson. The part where the neck meets the head is the weakest spot on the whole guitar. When a mahogany neck is broken, many invisible cracks will often occur deep inside the wood. Once such a complicated fracture happens, because it...

Old cracks on headstock
Repairing an old crack while keeping the original “Contour Body” decal

This kind of problem is very common. The crack was glued without clamping or finishing. That's why dust or sweat was rubbed into the cracks every time someone touched it. Even the glue was dirty. The crack was across the grain, so it wouldn't be an invisible repair even if the original parts were reused....