Chubbuck Guitars / Kevin Chubbuck, making & repairing guitars in an old building just north of Boston, Massachusetts.
Viewing entries tagged
broken neck
Here's the jackknifed Rickenbacker that showed up to the shop in this condition. After the glue up, I ended up filling in the missing finish and buffed it out so the repair wouldn't be detectable by feel. The player was not concerned with cosmetics, only playability.
A pretty gnarly heel break on a 1987 Rickenbacker 4001 stopped in this morning. The player admits he's pretty rough on his bass but has no idea how this happened. He just opened the case one day and ~!!!BAM!!!~ found this carnage.
He did mention he left it in a hot car once, so extreme heat could have helped pop the neck apart. It came in strung to pitch and when I went to slacken the strings the neck immediately fell backwards. The neck was only held to the body by a thin slice of wood. Yikes!
That thin slice of wood ran up the neck like a wave, so the trick was figuring out how to clamp this piece down. The heel itself was straight forward, but how to go about that piece running up into the neck ...
I ended up wrapping a large industrial rubber band around the crack running up the neck first and then the clamps. The rubber band worked out extremely well and saved me from fitting a time consuming caul. Rubber bands to the rescue!
A Tim Armstrong Hellcat Fender signature model acoustic in for a headstock repair. This head break closed up nice and tight.
A Fender acoustic in with a broken headstock. Part of the break follows the scarf joint and then on the bass side it goes vertical. Fortunately it was a nice clean break and hinged on the overlay (ie still attached).
My glue of choice on a clean headstock break is hot hide glue. It dries super hard and is not susceptible to creep like yellow or white glues. Creep is when the glue joint slowly deforms under load.
Check out the video below for the repair and subscribe to my Youtube channel.
Here's the end result of the most recent Les Paul neck break repair. It closed up really well and didn't require any sanding of the finish to make it smooth to the touch. I'm usually reluctant to post the final photos when the customer doesn't have the budget for the finish repairs. But this could be fairly easily touched up if he ever decides to do so in the future.
![Broken neck repair :: 1987 Rickenbacker 4001 [8.7 lbs]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53dfcee2e4b0c0da377c65c7/1471032376041-MKHF7P1WP7QHIWHGBC6X/20160718_1987_Rickenbacker_4001_heelrepair_01.jpg)
![Broken headstock :: Fender Tim Armstrong Hellcat [4.9 lbs]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53dfcee2e4b0c0da377c65c7/1466232940302-YG9HOPDC3148AKJKKFJ8/20160617_Fender_Tim_Armstrong_headfix.jpg)
![Broken neck :: 1996 Gibson Les Paul Studio [8.5 lbs]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53dfcee2e4b0c0da377c65c7/1450631017306-4P53TSMN833TOPXGV0L5/image-asset.jpeg)