Guitar Repair & Restoration

01/07/2026

Cool Story!

10/05/2024

Looking forward to rockin’ Lancaster Park Outdoor Resort tonight! Show starts at 8pm sharp!

05/05/2024

04/29/2024

Well this one took a lot longer than expected. Neck repair is still somewhat visible but it is all setup and is stable. Going to let this one sit around a bit with tension just to make sure the repair holds up well.

04/11/2024

Well I wasn’t happy with the strength of the repair despite the relatively clean break. I noticed the crack redevelop and some movement after sanding and finishing 😩. There really is not a lot of material there what with truss rod and truss rod opening. It is one of the real weakness of Gibson and Epiphone Les Pauls.

I decided to go with neck splints to reinforce the repair. It is my understanding that these splints will actually make the neck/headstock connection stronger than an unbroken neck. We will see. This was the first time that I attempted this procedure and I needed to build a jig to ensure correct placement of the splints.

I used scrap mahogany (same material as the neck) from an old scrap neck that I had as splint.

It is all glued up and we will see how well this improves the strength of the repair.

This one is turning out to be a lot more work than anticipated.

04/06/2024

Made some progress on the Les Paul today. The structural repair seems quite solid and very few areas to fill. I removed most of the fill used to hold the two nuts for the old screws. From what I can tell they used bondo.

Starting some of the cosmetic repairs with plugs on the back of the neck and on the fretboard. I’ll let that set up for a day or two and work on the final finishing.

03/31/2024

Structural repair underway with hide glue and surgical tubing. Cosmetic work to follow.

03/30/2024

I haven’t posted here in a while. While I am still doing work on guitars I have not done as many of interest. I thought this guitar might be one. It is a 2008 Epiphone Les Paul Standard with the notorious broken headstock syndrome.

In this case the owner says he had it repaired by a luthier, however the method used to make the repair is suspect (screws and imbedded nuts). Often poor and failed repairs make it more difficult to do quality repairs. In this case the break is still relatively clean with no signs of wood glue or epoxy which should make for a good solid repair.

The screw holes in the fretboard and headstock will need to be filled but that should be a relatively easy fix.

Other than the broken headstock and a ding in the body this guitar seems to be in pretty good shape.

I am looking forward to working on this one and seeing the end result.

06/12/2023

As the Lynyrd Skynyrd band sang “Ooh that smell. Can't you smell that smell.” Thankfully no I can’t.
The gig bag washed up well and the smell is gone.

I had a number of suggestions for the guitar which some of of which I tried. In the end left the guitar in the sunlight for a few hours. After that I took a chance and wiped the guitar down completely with some isopropyl alcohol which I think actually removed a thin layer of the finish (and the smoke smell as well). I finished it up with a light application of Tung oil to bring out the beautiful book matched wood grain on this guitar. I placed an active charcoal pouch inside the guitar for the duration.

The guitar looks and smells great.

06/10/2023

Here is a 1991 Seagull S6, also made in Quebec by Godin. This model has a spruce top with mahogany back and sides, rosewood fingerboard and bridge. Overall in very good condition less some light play wear.

Really the only issue with this guitar is one that I have yet to encounter; smell. This guitar came from a heavy smoking home and the guitar has ni****ne residue and a strong smell of ci******es. It also came with a soft case which has the same issue.

So I am looking for ideas on how to best get rid of the smell. Any tips or ideas would be appreciated.

Edit: So it looks like I got the wood species wrong on this one after a bit of research. The soundboard is solid cedar and the back and sides are cherry (laminated I believe). The neck is mahogany with a rosewood fingerboard and bridge. The nut, saddle and bridge pins are bone. The cherry on this guitar is much darker than the early Norman’s (also made by Godin) which is why I thought it might be mahogany. My bad!