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Hope someone can see this and realize they can fix their own "accident".

Picked up this Tribute + for $275 figuring that if the repair went South, I could part it out for what I had in it. It had a good clean break with a few small pieces missing. Made a caul for the neck to match the break. I was concerned that there may be some creep under the pressure of the clamps, so I made a quickie jig to keep the headstock in place.

The glue up went well. Good ole Titebond I, spread it with a stiff brush to make sure everything got coated. I apparently got a little too aggressive with the glue removal and left some voids at the break lines when it shrunk back.

I had pretty much given up on a glossy neck. Thought I'd do the wipe on poly/satin finish neck thing, and hope I could find a painter who shot poly for the next one. Decided to get an airbrush to put the paint on, just because I would have better control than with the wipe-on or a rattle can. Plus my pancake would power it. Guy at Hobby Town talked me out of an expensive airbrush when he found out what I wanted to do with it. Sold me a $27 Badger (I know, in the day they were junk, he assured me they were better).

Did tons of research and came up with a mix of poly and Naphtha being recommended repeatedly. Took the airbrush out to the garage and ran some water though it at a piece of cardboard, just to get the feel of it. Hmm, nice pattern, not too heavy, this looks good. But what will it do with real paint? So I filled the jar with my mix and shot it at the cardboard. Nice pattern, light coverage, looks like just what I'm after. And cleaned up the gun.

Wait a minute! You're ready to put some color on it, the wife is gone so there's only one car to move out of the garage. Let's shoot it! Bagged the body, set up sawhorses and filled the jar again. Wow, this is going on nicely. Ohhh, resist the temptation to go over it again. WOW! It sure looks nice when it's wet. Crap, there's a glue line that didn't get filled. So I'll have to fix that.

Check it at 30 minutes, still nice and glossy. Resist temptation to put my finger in it. Check it at 1 hour, still nice an glossy, resist temptation again. Check it at 1hour, 45 minutes and it's still glossy. What the heck, I'm going to have to fix that witness line anyway, let's touch it. OMG! It's dry! Not cured, and would take an impression, but dry to the touch. AND IT'S STILL GLOSSY!!!.

60 ml of Minwax Poly shades, 30ml of Naphtha, garage is probably at 85-90 degrees. If it didn't have that witness line, I'd figure on shooting it again at 6 hours and be done. Some pics for evidence.

http://s735.photobucket.com/user/bushite/library/

With poly finishes, you'll nearly always have a witness line.
I say for your first effort, ya done good.
So.... thumbs up from here.

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

Considering the break I think it looks good too.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

I typically re-finish the whole neck on poly jobs. Not really much more work and nicer looking end result. I use a 2 part urethane on most of them.

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Brian

You never know what you are capable of until you actually try.

https://www.howardguitarsdelaware.com/

I'm seriously considering redoing it and shooting the whole neck. As someone has said, there are many shades of black, and mine doesn't match the original. I'm not planning on trying to pass it off as not having the break, but it would look better if the whole back side of the neck matched.

Lot's of times the black will have a touch of violet added. I have two standard mixes of black here at the shop. one is pure black which is used on most vintage instruments and one with the violet added. I cxan usually tell by eye which to use but I do a fair bit of finish repair.

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Brian

You never know what you are capable of until you actually try.

https://www.howardguitarsdelaware.com/

Nicely done - what did you use for filler in the gaps at the repair?

Ed Minchj

Ruby - I used more Titebond mixed with mahogany dust for the big divot, and plain old ca for the small ones. The ca dries to a nice hard fill and is easy to sand. Takes color well.

Brian - It matches closer now that it's had a bit more time to cure. When I originally taped it off I was figuring on a satin sanded neck, so I didn't take it all the way to the body or the headstock. And I got impatient to get color on it so I could put it in the garage sale this weekend. I've nixed that idea. I'll let it cure and buff it to see how bad it looks. If I don't like it, I'll redo it and take it from the body to the tip of the headstock on the back side. That's what this one was all about. Making mistakes so I can learn from them. BTW Brian, if you don't mind, what brand of Poly do you use?