Advice On Routing Spline For Broken Headstock

[guitcar]

i need advice on how to make a routing jig to rout splines on a broken LesPaul headstock

[iskim86]

please be more specific

[MiKro]

i need advice on how to make a routing jig to rout splines on a broken LesPaul headstock

if you are thinking of splining on a new head at the break over point of an LP don't . REmove the fretboard and scarf joint on a new headstock. as the spline will not take the load of the strings. What I mean is that if the break is at the nut or somewhere close. I hope that makes since?, BEEN THERE DONE THAT!!! Otherwise provide pics so we can see what your problem is and then someone can give you the best possilbe advice,

MK

[soapbarstrat]

I see nothing in his post that indicates he's going to replace part of the neck. I assume he's just regluing a break and wants reinforcement. I've never seen a router jig for it, but can imagine they've been done. Many pros use a drill press or milling machine . If I were you, I would ask on MIMF. Hopefully the few who still post over there know some good info about this problem.

I once did it on a mahogany neck import guitar many years ago, but can't remember how I did it. I think a Dremel was involved, plus I might have had the most steady hands in the world when I was in my early 20's.

Consider having some carbon fiber rods/bars hidden in there for better reinforcement.

[Setch]

I'd like to see a pic of the context before you go ahead and use a spline in your repair. There are much better ways to reinforced a nasty break, and in many cases a spline or dowel will actually be counter productive. I'd suggest a trawl through the mimf library, and a visit to www.frets.com to read up on best practice for head breaks.

[guitcar]

allright here's a picture of it,as you can see it broke before and they used splines at that point,but now i reglued the break and i would like to rout those old splines out and put new ones

Edited June 4, 2007 by guitcar

[Setch]

as you can see it broke before and they used splines at that point

So what does this tell us about the structural value of splines? :o

That's a nasty break, and due to the volute, not really a viable candidate for a backstrap repair. Maybe a more experienced repair person can chime in, but I'd probably be looking at scarfing on a new headstock. I'm kind of being a smartarse above, but this is a good example of why splines are not very helpful. You either have enough gluing surface, in which case splines aren't needed, or you don't in which case splines don't help.

[guitcar]

this is the picture of it before i glued it,now that it's glued it's verry solid but those old splines look like hell and i don't want to put a new headstock,the purpose of replacing the old splines is mainly estetic but still i think it will add a bit of strengh

[weaponepsilon]

Maybe you could either sand that sucker down? or I guess maybe lightly carve out a little wood and put in some kind of faux splines? As long as that glue joint holds up and you are just looking to cover up that gash.

[MartyM]

Well this is what I did on an SG-X with a busted headstock. I took a pc of wood about 4 inches wide and routed 2 parallel slots 1/2 in. wide and about 1 inch apart. The measurements are up to you, but you want to avoid the adjustment rod and washer in the center. I cut an angle on one end so that it would fit up against the peghead. I didn't have a volute, so that wasn't an issue. I used a 1/2" bit with the bearing on the shank in a laminate trimmer. I routed down into the mahogany and made the two slots with the bearing riding in the slots. I then inserted some new spline wood into the slots and glued/clamped/ trimmed/sanded/painted/etc. It wasn't a perfect solution, because it was hard to keep the slotted board from moving slightly( I used double sided tape and a couple small clamps) but it worked well enough to make a dumpster special into a player. The key was to remove the bad wood and get good wood in there. You could even do multiple splines to help matters out. From the looks of your picture, I'd say the splines were too short to begin with. I've even thought about using a router with a slot cutting bit to come in from the sides of the peghead ears to add to the rigidity. Obviously I just wanted to make this SG usable. I think having the original peghead makes the guitar more marketable than replacing it with a new peghead from new wood. This is assuming the splines hold it together. If not, a new peghead may be the only real solution. You can see examples of my "new peghead" replacements in other earlier posts a few months ago.

[guitcar]

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