Official Luthiers Forum!

I've got someone asking me if I can do a repair on a guitar with a broken headstock. He says it is a clean break - I haven't seen it yet. I don't think I'll be doing any finish repairing because I'm not set up for it. How much would you charge for a job like that?

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"I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it."
Pablo Picasso

https://www.facebook.com/FenskeGuitars

PIX!

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

Well I haven't actually seen it myself yet. I'm just looking for a rough price to see if it's worth taking it on or not. I've never done any repair work before.

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"I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it."
Pablo Picasso

https://www.facebook.com/FenskeGuitars

Google Guitar repair price lists. Several out there.

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Audiences and dispensations on Thursdays ~ by appointment only.


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Pointless because you haven't seen the damage. It can be a lot more involved than 'it's a clean break'.
If you haven't done any repair work before. . . move on. Now is not the time to be experimenting on other people's guitars, that is unless they are perfectly happy with a repair novice working on their guitar.
You can gain repair experience by working on junk Guitars. Plenty on Ebay with all sorts of issues or advertise for broken Guitars.

Right. I used to get this call all the time when I did more repairs: "The head's broke; how much to fix it?" I'd patiently try to explain that I'd really need to see it in order to give an estimate, since even small differences in where the break is can make a big difference in how much work it will take. It's not like you can just weld it up, or go to the stock room and get one off the shelf to bolt in. Usually the reply would be: "Yeah, but how much....?" *sigh*

Yup. Or you might get the guy who wants you to build a guitar for him because it will be cheaper than a factory made one. Explaining the cost-effectiveness of mass manufacturing will be lost on him.

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

Ok thanks. I'll try and get some photos when I see it.

Sent from my GT-S5830 using Tapatalk 2

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"I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it."
Pablo Picasso

https://www.facebook.com/FenskeGuitars

Clean break, simple glue and clamp plus finish touch up, about $100 dollars, about 3 hrs. of work.

More complicated break, botched repairs, etc. can cost more than $300 dollars.

Nitro isn't the easiest finish to touch up out there... way too much shrinking to make a completely seamless repair. It's possible but it takes a LOT of waiting. Poly will never make a seamless repair.

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Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

Frets.net for repair folks

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Tai Fu - Luthie .

If the finish is thin, but like most factories they use very thick finish and it shrinks forever and ever. What was fine today shrank tomorrow, leaving lines where the damage was. But last time I used CA so I could have a shrink-free finish and for some reason wherever the CA touched the finish it kept shrinking no matter how I sand it.

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Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

We do clean breaks in under and hour with the assistance of our propritary head stock jig that David Collins, my business partner and someone else who used to post here too, engineered. It's a fantastic jig, brilliantly designed to address most all of the issues associated with clamping broken head stocks.

A typical clean break can be repaired and we do this all of the time, in under an hour and for a price of $160. More complex breaks can cost more to do and take longer of course and I'll post an example of one of these too for those of you who are interested.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6lzTM__Yrs

The "Collin's Head Stock Repair Jig" was demonstrated this past summer at the 2013 Northwoods Seminar that drew some of the best in the business including builders as well as repair folks.

Here are some shots of another repair that was a bit more complex:

nice looking headstock repair Hesh!

If I get more repair work I would for sure buy expensive jigs, but Taiwanese guitarists are really careful for sure...

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Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

Thanks Jack and nice to hear from you too my friend. Dave gets the credit, I assume the blame..

I have to tell ya though that not a day goes by in our shop that I am not amazed by David's talent and intelligence.

Here's another shot of the complex repair. Dave scored number punches that are historically accurate to various guitars and are used to restore the correct serial number as well as part of the repair.

When clients are willing to spring for complete finish touch-up as well it's usually impossible to spot the repair without the assistance of a UV light, which, by the way, reveals over spray.

Yes, if I get to refinish the headstock area it's very easy to hide things, at least until the nitro shrinks back and reveals the cracks. However those are really hard to photograph.

_________________
Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

Hi Tai Fu - hope that all is well with you as well.

All of our jigs have been designed and built here by David Collins. You won't find any commercial products as far as jigs like this are concerned so we all just make em ourselves.

We have many more too including a laser guided, vacuum clamped, PC-310 armed saddle slotting mill.... I miss the commercial availability of the PC-310's, the best lam trimmer I have ever used.

I'm really short on expensive jigs however. Having a milling machine/lathes/etc, would help because I would be able to make jigs easily but at the moment best I can do is whatever I can make with wood. It works but it doesn't last because it's held together with drywall screws and duck tapes. A lot of what I do is basically done carefully, such as routing saddle slots, etc. I do not even have heating blankets for repairs, instead I use a iron for removal, balancing them on the bridge carefully to avoid finish damage. Some bridges are hard to remove because it's way too contoured, making heat transfer difficult.

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Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

Tai Fu a really great method for removing bridges, fret board extensions, etc. is a 250 watt heat lamp and shop-made protective shields. This is how we do it. The cost of the lamp and fixture is minimal and some cardboard and aluminum foil and you are good to go.

Some caution needs to be taken too since heat lamps are fire risks and can bubble exposed finish until you get the hang of it.

After positioning the protective shield so that NO finish is exposed in the area to be heated I heat bridge until they start to stink, not kidding..., and I might see some smoke too. Then I turn off the lamp, remove the shield, and start working the pallet knives or bridge removal tools. I want to feel the glue soften up and if the glue is not giving way in a gummy manner it's time to heat the thing more.

Paying attention to runout direction is also a good idea and can save you extra work in repairing the gluing surface of the top. You want to work your removal tools in the direction that will lay down top fibers which is reversed of course for the other side of the top.

Hope this helps.

Irons work great with FB extensions by the way, it is large enough that the iron balances quite well. Bridges on the other hand is a bit of a fickle. I found shielding actually made things worse because the shield would conduct the heat and melt the finish anyways.

_________________
Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

White corrugated cardboard is all I ever use for that. I cut the hole about 1/8" smaller than the bridge all the way around.
Many of the wooden jigs I have made for various jobs have lasted for 25+ years. Stew Mac is great, but it does tend to promote the idea that you need to buy a lot of jigs. You don't.

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John

That is what I used, but what happens with irons is the shield itself got hot and melted the finish wherever it touched the guitar.

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Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

Just to be clear, the white cardboard is used with a heat lamp. I only use an iron for removing bridgeplates.

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John