About: I'm just a compulsive DIYer that plays guitar and tries to fix just about everything around the house and garage. Sometimes I even succeed! More About fishpotpete »
This instructable will show you how to repair a broken guitar neck and, depending on how severe the damage, how to do some minor cosmetic repair. The guitar in question for this example is an Epiphone Les Paul Studio. I actually bought this guitar about a year ago for the very purpose of practicing neck repair - as it already had a broken neck. I fixed the neck about 9 months ago (and you can see the results of that fix in this series).
Fast forward to the arrival of a new puppy... long story short, another broken neck (the old fix held up though!!!) and a chance to create a new instructable.
Electric Guitar Neck Plate
In the case of the Epiphone, they are great, affordable guitars... And with these broken neck ones (depending on the nature of the break), these can be a great deal for someone with the time and tools to fix them. And if you happen to bust the top off your Gibson ES335, that can be fixed too!
1. Clamps - I like the clamp type shown. I think screw clamps encourage people to really crank it down and damage the finish. You don't need it THAT tight. Several clamps of different sizes works well - I bought an entire set of these cheap clamps at a $5 table at Harbor Freight or Ace or where ever.
2. Glue - No magic glue. White glue is stronger than the wood. I use the wood white glue because it seems to not run all over like the regular white type. Plus the curing time works for my purposes.
Diy Guide: Fixing A Hairline Crack In Your Guitar Neck
6. Something to hold the neck up - I have a little tripod thing that I won at a recent demonstration thing. A full roll of paper towels works very well also.
To determine if the break is worth fixing to your satisfaction and ability, inspect the nature of the break. As I said before, this break was about as clean as you can get. In the pics you can also see the line from my previous fix.
What interesting to note is that the previous fix held up just fine. The wood failed (again), not the old glue joint. But what that also tells me is that the wood on this neck is fairly weak and would split just as fast and clean if it gets dropped again.
Chrome Electric Guitar Neck Plate Fix Tl Electric Guitar Neck Joint Bo'hy
The split paint and paint/wood interface might present a challenge depending on the guitar. But it this case, it did just fine with wood glue.
When I looked closely at the wood, I noticed that the primary break seemed to occur along a plane that sucked up the stain rather deep. This MIGHT indicate that the wood was dryer and maybe weaker along this plane that the neighboring planes.
The wood next to the truss rod opening broke on a slightly different plane. Perhaps is was stronger? Assuming that the break happened how I described in step 1, the truss rod area would have split first... Not so strong after all! So micro-examining the wood structure is probably not worth worrying about for this.
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This is pretty simple. Just hold the pieces together and see how they will fit. This guitar was pretty straight forward - just hold it together and you're there. On other guitars you might need to insert part at an angle, jiggle it around a little or clean up some nasty spots on the wood.
You don't need gobs and gobs of glue. The key is to get good even distribution on both pieces. I like to use a small brush to get the glue in the cracks/crevices and get rid of excess glue.
The goal is to get enough glue that everything inside is coated within the repair - but not so much that it's a total mess to clean up the outside.
Diy Electric Guitar Neck Assembly Guide
This is always the part I hate when I do any kind of wood work - Make sure you have your clamps, water and paper towels ready to go. This is not a good time to be interrupted - this part must be completed in one operation.
I give these sorts of joints two solid days to dry and cure before I remove the clamps. But realistically, you only need to wait 12 hours or so (read the glue directions) if you're in a hurry.
Theoretically, you could string up the guitar and start playing if you wanted! The joint is solid and will hold the tension. Everything after this is just cosmetic.
Cheap Fix For A Painted Neck?
I suggest you keep the wood finish work to a minimum. This can get extremely frustrating and take you down a long path of work that will just make things looking worse.
For this repair, I just use a little crayon type scratch filler and buff it down. My goal is to make the repair smooth to the touch... not invisible to the eye.
For a point of reference, I tried to do the finish repair on the previous fix. That's why there's a band of light finish across the neck. It took me about a week to do and it ended up being very noticeable. To be fair, the previous break was missing some edge pieces when I bought it.
Chrome Electric Guitar Neck Plate Fix Tl Electric Guitar Neck Joint Boardtscr
2. I tried to get it cleaned up and leveled with wet/dry sandpaper. Started with 320 then 400, 600 and 800. Keep it wet and avoid the logo.
3. Black Kiwi shoe polish. I hit the entire headstock with the shoe polish to give it the same gleam. That was the first time I tried that - seemed to work good here!
Note about flash photography: For the majority of my pics, I used a flash. In virtually all of those pictures, the crack looks much worse that it does in real life. From a distance the fix is just not that noticeable.
Les Paul Style Guitar Neck Repair
The only adjustment I needed to do was a quarter turn of the truss rod to get the neck curvature where I wanted it!
This is one of those OMG what'll I do! accidents for most people. But if it looks like a clean break and can be pressed back together without to much work, you can probably fix it yourself.
Just don't get to worried about the final wood finish. Keep it simple and you'll be happier than if you try to make the crack totally invisible.
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To let you hear the results, I added two sound clips - both were recorded through a Tech 21 Trademark 10 using the effects send straight into the PC. So it's basically a Sans Amp direct.
The first is with a metalica type configuration on the bridge pickup. At the end of that one, I let the final open E ring out to give you an idea how well the sustain help up after the fix. Since it's direct with no-speaker to feedback on, it's probably a fair demonstration.Usually, a neck break occurs where the neck meets the head. This type of neck break, pictured here, is very rare. The mahogany of the neck was fractured, the ebony fretboard was broken, and the truss rod was bent—a first-class neck break.
When you repair a damaged guitar, you really have to inspect the damage carefully first to see if it can go back to the original position or not. If small wood chips are in the cracks or the fracture seems to be squished, you should never, ever, force it back to the original spot. Be patient! Every case is different, so you should be very flexible in choosing the method to fix it. If you use force to repair it, you may make the original damage worse.
Electric Guitar Neck Plate Neck Plate Fix Tl Electric Guitar Neck Board Guitar Accesso
I couldn’t inspect this damage well because it was such a complicated break. The damaged part didn’t move at all, since the truss rod was also bent. In order to inspect the damage, the first thing I had to do was remove the fretboard to remove the truss rod. In this kind of case, you really have to start the actual repair in order to make an estimate, so it’s very important to first come to a clear agreement with the owner.
When I had a close look with the fretboard and truss rod removed, the parts seemed to go back to their original position.
Glue had to go into every part of the fracture, and the neck had to be clamped well with a straight block.
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There isn’t always a guarantee, but the damaged part goes back well if there are no missing parts such as wood chips or finish chips in the way.
The two separated fretboards were glued individually, and then I put the frets back after sanding. You can’t tell clearly from this picture, but ebony is easier to make damage invisible compared to other types of wood. The damage was between the ninth and tenth frets.
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