This is a Stagg R500 I got for $50. It had a front bowed neck and the truss rod was busted. So i pulled the frets and got the fretboard off. When I got the fb off I noticed the neck wood was pretty soft and didn't seem very stable for a neck, But I ignored my findings. I got a nice macassar ebony fret board slotted for 25" scale and a 12" radius. Get that glued on all is going fine. Then I started to fret the thing. I got 5 frets in and the headstock snaps off at the scarf. oh well, I knew the wood was soft but I didn't want to put more money into this by building a new neck, so I got the headstock glued back on (it was a very clean break). So now the headstock is fine. This time I get about 8 frets in and the headstock snaps off again! in a different spot. This wood sucks. So now it's time to build a new neck for it and hope I can save the macassar board.
The plans for this now are maple neck, macassar board, GFS pickups, and I'm not sure on what tuners now. I've been able to keep the top nice through all of this (even though it's just a veneer), but not the sides or back, so they're goint to get painted black witht the black going up the neck and on the back of the headstock. The face of the headstock I'm going to get a veneer for and try to match the top. But from now on I'm going to try to get pictures of what I do.