Manchester Guitar Tech
Ozzy Lister – guitar and bass repair
Another week, another headstock repair!
This one was trickier than most as instead of a nice clean break, the wood had splintered which meant that putting it back again too some care. This guitar had also suffered some collateral damage to the front and back of the body when it was knocked off the stand.
The break was glued and clamped as usual and the lacquer finish repaired and oversprayed.
Nasty Gibson Les Paul headstock break
Nasty Gibson Les Paul headstock break fixed
The dings were steamed out, drop-filled with clear lacquer, flatted and polished.
Dings to rear of Gibson Les Paul
Dings to rear of Gibson Les Paul fixed
The one on the front still shows a scar because the colour coat was damaged.
Ding to front of Gibson Les Paul
Ding to front of Gibson Les Paul fixed
This really does demonstrate the way in which a lacquer finish allows repairs to be blended in.
When doing a general setup and fettle of this 70s Les Paul copy, I noticed that a couple of the inlays were standing proud of the fretboard.
Jedson Les Paul raised inlay
This is a common problem with these old guitars – the celluloid shrinks, warps and comes unstuck. You can see that they were never a good fit and were propped up by slivers of rosewood. Notice the grain on the fillets is going cross-ways.
Jedson Les Paul removed inlays
I scraped the rosewood off the back of the inlays and used a domestic iron to flatten them best I could. I then set them into the fretboard with some epoxy resin.
Once the epoxy had set, I filed, scraped and sanded the inlays flush with the fretboard which I oiled for a great finish.
Jedson Les Paul replaced inlays
Despite its age and humble origins the guitar was surprisingly well put together and played pretty well after the setup!
Stratocaster neck stripped and oiled
This Stratocaster was built by one of the UK’s best makers of relic guitars. The owner, who’d had it from new, complained that the back of the neck felt sticky and so it did.
I found that a good clean and polish helped matters a lot, but the owner wanted the neck de-glossed. Once I’d removed the gloss however the stickiness was back, due to the “pre-cat” finish that had been used on the neck.
The only solution then was to strip the back of the neck completely and seal with Tru-Oil which I did. The original finish is feathered in at the heel, so the transition cannot be felt.
The neck was now silky smooth and not at all sticky. It will however need periodically to be re-oiled to maintain its slick feel.