5th-Tuner
Member
I am the owner/head luthier of TK Instruments and have been a professional builder since 1990.
I have not had any other job since the mid 1980s, so I am sort of designed for this kind of stuff...
Anyway, I have seen this issue on ALL types "one piece-tilt back" mahogany (and other open grain wood) necks.
I recently repaired a custom shop Martin acoustic where this had happened, but someone had tried to fix it with what seemed to be "rubber cement" <<( Yeah, that actually happened)..
So, I ended up making the lady a completely new head stock, and I did a "Spanish luthiers joint" (at the break) for the new head graft..
The cool part was; I was able to save the Martin head laminate, so in the end, it looked like it was done by Martin..
The (the owner) literally cried tears of joy when she saw it...
I even got a $50 tip!
One of my most proud repairs ever.
The flawed issue is called "short grain"...
It can be semi-okay to do this type of neck in hard maple, or multi laminate, but not the more open grained types of woods like Indian Rosewood, Limba (Korina), Spanish Cedar, and worst of all Mahogany...
The more the angle of a headstock tilt; the more short grain you end up with..
And of course the easier it will break..
Unfortunately, Les Pauls are usually heavy and they have up to a 17 degree head angle, so it's a disaster waiting to happen...
I spent a few years designing the ultimate "safe headstock" ( http://www.tkinstruments.com/id17_m.htm#head_stock_construction_1 ) but in the end, I believe -Headless- is the best way to go..
I know! I know! "They are ugly!"
What ever....
I love they way they look, and I love the balance of a headless design as well.
And my left thumb LOVES that it doesn't have to support 2lbs of tuners and extra headstock wood.
But yeah.. "Tradition" :-/
Anyway, as others have said here, it looks like a "clean break" so it should be a fairly inexpensive repair, but that said, it could happen again.. It just wont happen at the glue joint..
I have not had any other job since the mid 1980s, so I am sort of designed for this kind of stuff...
Anyway, I have seen this issue on ALL types "one piece-tilt back" mahogany (and other open grain wood) necks.
I recently repaired a custom shop Martin acoustic where this had happened, but someone had tried to fix it with what seemed to be "rubber cement" <<( Yeah, that actually happened)..
So, I ended up making the lady a completely new head stock, and I did a "Spanish luthiers joint" (at the break) for the new head graft..
The cool part was; I was able to save the Martin head laminate, so in the end, it looked like it was done by Martin..
The (the owner) literally cried tears of joy when she saw it...
I even got a $50 tip!
One of my most proud repairs ever.
The flawed issue is called "short grain"...
It can be semi-okay to do this type of neck in hard maple, or multi laminate, but not the more open grained types of woods like Indian Rosewood, Limba (Korina), Spanish Cedar, and worst of all Mahogany...
The more the angle of a headstock tilt; the more short grain you end up with..
And of course the easier it will break..
Unfortunately, Les Pauls are usually heavy and they have up to a 17 degree head angle, so it's a disaster waiting to happen...
I spent a few years designing the ultimate "safe headstock" ( http://www.tkinstruments.com/id17_m.htm#head_stock_construction_1 ) but in the end, I believe -Headless- is the best way to go..
I know! I know! "They are ugly!"
What ever....
I love they way they look, and I love the balance of a headless design as well.
And my left thumb LOVES that it doesn't have to support 2lbs of tuners and extra headstock wood.
But yeah.. "Tradition" :-/
Anyway, as others have said here, it looks like a "clean break" so it should be a fairly inexpensive repair, but that said, it could happen again.. It just wont happen at the glue joint..
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