Learn To
Repair Broken
Guitar Neck
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.
1. 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...
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:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Hand assembly Clamping at the start Take care of the mess Clamping (additional/final) There will be further cleanup.
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.
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.
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.