![slight head stock crack slight head stock crack](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/cb/36/31/cb363152a7c759e0645218da6e674571.jpg)
I'd also stay away from white glue because if you close this crack with hide glue and it stays closed you're good to go. A crack like this can close up tight and not open again if you predrill the screw holes and make sure they are the correct length, Don't use screws that go more than 3/4ths of the way into the headstock. Again hide glue is better because it will expand the plug more in the hole due to the wood swelling. Not good because they can catch on and fray strings, but even worse keep cracking the headstock.Ĭarefully plug the existing screw holes with round toothpick sections or make some little splinters and glue then in. Obviously they are poking out of the wood on the inside. Here's the trouble, those screws penetrated the headstock and they look too long. If the crack goes all the way though that section of the headstock and you can work hot hide glue in from one side and have it ooze out the other side and then clamp it over night you'll likely fix it for good. I would try to use hide glue and get it all the way though the crack from one side of crack to the other. Yeah I would not bother with the graft at this point. Images are resized automatically to a maximum width of 800px P.S.: The tuner holes were filled because they were too big and misplaced, not because of the crack. Hide glue would have been just fine, but I'm just not a hide glue kind of guy. That said, if the cracks would have been fresh, I would probably tried to slide in titebond (not let it wick in, but rather push it in using a thin spatula, or some thick paper), close the crack with clamps and call it a day. So I had no choice but to do this (see picture), which is pretty similar to what Anders explained. In the case that is shown, the crack was not only old, but filled with wood putty (some bad repair attempt). (By the way, no wrong doing here whatsoever Tele.) Since the original picture was taken from an article I wrote, I feel I have to jump in.
#Slight head stock crack how to
It would also help to see the actual headstock you are talking about, diagnosing a problem from a stock picture is difficult because every crack is different and comes with a different set of surrounding conditions which determine how to go about a repair. I would try other kinds of grafts as well if it were me doing the work, but I always try to see if gluing the crack shut will accomplish the job before considering a graft.
#Slight head stock crack pro
The attempt to carry out those kinds of fairly advanced repairs by non pros is often what leads to guitars being taken to a pro to undo a bad repair. Grafting in a section of wood is much harder if you don't do that kind of thing every day. If you can get enough strong glue in there and clamp it tight it will be good. You can assist the glue by leading it in with a very thin metal blade like the thin tip of scalpel. Hot hide glue can seep deeply into those types of seams if you know how to work it in. You want to encourage the glue to 'wick' into the crack very deeply by if possible spreading the crack slightly without damaging the headstock. Titbond in that situation would not work. Would titebond do the job? And for filling the old holes, is the toothpick method fine? I´ve built wooden clinker (lapstrake) boats and the epoxy is most probably the strongest of the whole boat If you cant find thin epoxy resin to mix with wooden powder, then you can use a thick epoxy like ARALDIT.Įpoxy is extremely forgiving and strong. Epoxy has the advantage of being gapfilling and it actually gets stronger if your precission is not specially good. Keith´s ideas are good as well and you can also do the chisel thing and glue in the stick with epoxy if your presision is not as good as you wanted it to be. It sounds difficult, but its not so difficult. The old school repair would be to chisel a V channel going 2/3 down the wood on the headstock, from hole to hole with a 90 degree in the bottom of the V and then make a 90 degree square or triangular stick of cedar, glue it in and cut away the part that sticks out. RE: Headstock cracks from tuner scre. ( in reply to tele)