Cracked Les Paul neck HELP

[jrbowen81]

I'm sure this has been posted 1,000 times before, but I wonder if anyone else has dealt with this particular issue before...

A few years ago, the neck on my Les Paul got slightly broken behind the headstock. By slightly, I mean that it didn't break all the way through to the front, but had a deep crack that would open slightly when pressure was applied/strings were tightened. That's how I noticed it because it suddenly would not stay in tune. Luckily, I noticed before I kept tightening the strings because I would have snapped it off like a dummy.

Anyway, a good friend of mine did a pretty solid repair on it because he was able to open it up just enough to use a glue syringe on it, clamp it down for a while, then everything was good for years.

Just about a week ago, it fell back on my carpet and got bumped just right so that it opened up that crack again. This time however, it's just barely enough to where I can feel the edge of it with my thumb and I can tell that it has a bit of "give" when I press on it. I don't think it could open enough for a .016" glue syringe to fit in there, and I really don't want to let someone try to do that and have it suddenly break. Not sure when that breaking point is.

Any positive advice is appreciated!


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[jrbowen81]

Re: Cracked Les Paul neck HELP

Man, I really wish I knew. Probably not hide glue. Most likely TiteBond, but I'm not sure.


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[Gearjoneser]

Re: Cracked Les Paul neck HELP

Open it as far as it will go, put some wood glue on a piece of paper and slide it into the crack, close the gap with a clamp, and wipe off the excess.

 

[jrbowen81]

Re: Cracked Les Paul neck HELP

Hmmm... good idea!


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[jrbowen81]

Re: Cracked Les Paul neck HELP

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[jrbowen81]

Re: Cracked Les Paul neck HELP

When I press as hard as I'm comfortable doing, I can see it barely opening. The outer sides of the crack are still pretty well glued. Not sure if I can open it enough to get anything in there without making it worse.


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[uOpt]

Re: Cracked Les Paul neck HELP

The glue on the first attempt was no good. Such a repair should be stronger than the wood around it. A new fall shouldn't have opened the same gap.

That doesn't mean the old glue necessarily has to be removed. Mostly likely it wasn't even or spread out enough anyway. Simply trying the same thing again, with good glue, with lots(!) of pressure during curing and trying to spread it more will do the trick.

Even if you end up with a repair of equal (lack of) quality, it would last to the next fall.

 

[jrbowen81]

Re: Cracked Les Paul neck HELP

The glue on the first attempt was no good. Such a repair should be stronger than the wood around it. A new fall shouldn't have opened the same gap.

That doesn't mean the old glue necessarily has to be removed. Mostly likely it wasn't even or spread out enough anyway. Simply trying the same thing again, with good glue, with lots(!) of pressure during curing and trying to spread it more will do the trick.

Even if you end up with a repair of equal (lack of) quality, it would last to the next fall.

You may be right.


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[jrbowen81]

Re: Cracked Les Paul neck HELP

Trying the sheet of paper/ carpenter's glue/ c-clamp thing. Leaving it for 24 hours.


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[Boogie Bill]

Re: Cracked Les Paul neck HELP

Pro repair and finish touch up.

Bill

 

[uOpt]

Re: Cracked Les Paul neck HELP

So since the first one let go of the glue in the middle and held on on the sides, I think it is very important that this time there is a very strong clamp in the middle. Because there obviously wasn't contact in the middle on the first attempt.

 

[jrbowen81]

Re: Cracked Les Paul neck HELP

So since the first one let go of the glue in the middle and held on on the sides, I think it is very important that this time there is a very strong clamp in the middle. Because there obviously wasn't contact in the middle on the first attempt.

Right. Hopefully I got enough glue in there (I barely had enough room for a sheet of paper), but I made sure that the clamp was dead center.


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[uOpt]

Re: Cracked Les Paul neck HELP

The amount of glue does not matter. Wood glue has no ability to build volume. If there's no hard pressure between two (parts of) surfaces it won't hold on to them.

 

[jrbowen81]

Re: Cracked Les Paul neck HELP

It's clamped pretty darn tight, so we will see.


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[Red_Label]

Re: Cracked Les Paul neck HELP

Looking forward to your update. I've currently got three Gibson LPs (and an Epi that my son's been playing) and have always wondered if/when the dreaded headstock break would happen to me. Just hope it doesn't happen to my beloved Standard!

 

[jrbowen81]

Cracked Les Paul neck HELP

Looking forward to your update. I've currently got three Gibson LPs (and an Epi that my son's been playing) and have always wondered if/when the dreaded headstock break would happen to me. Just hope it doesn't happen to my beloved Standard!

Just be careful! Mine got broken the first time because my dumb butt left it leaning up against the couch and my first son sat on the neck. He was only 2 years old at the time, so he didn't know better. He knocked it over a few times here and there when I was at work as well, but the couch incident was what did it. Now that he has a little brother, needless to say, my LP stays in the case when I'm not playing it. LOL


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[Edgecrusher]

Re: Cracked Les Paul neck HELP

If it was me... I would have been tempted to break it the rest of the way off and completely re-glue it... yes its a bigger job from a refinishing stand point but not so bad with lacquer. But done right you will NEVER have any issues with that crack again. Without good penetration by the glue you will wind up with the same issue all over again.

 

[jrbowen81]

Re: Cracked Les Paul neck HELP

If it was me... I would have been tempted to break it the rest of the way off and completely re-glue it... yes its a bigger job from a refinishing stand point but not so bad with lacquer. But done right you will NEVER have any issues with that crack again. Without good penetration by the glue you will wind up with the same issue all over again.

Yeah, you're right. I've had the same thought. It just freaks me out to think of doing that though. I really don't want to break through the veneer on the front and I don't have any money to spend on repairs or refinishing right now. This is my only electric, so I'm kinda desperate to make it safely playable again. If I had the cash, I'd just take it to a pro. Dangit, dangit, dangit.


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[jrbowen81]

Re: Cracked Les Paul neck HELP

No cigar. Took the clamp off after 24 hours, pushed kinda firmly on it, and it popped right back open. So I may have to resort to a pro repair.


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[BrianS.]

Re: Cracked Les Paul neck HELP

You could try flooding the crack with a good quality super glue (CA glue) and then reclamping it. The CA will hold on to the old glue that is already in there. The downside is that CA is much harder to clean up than the wood glue.

Rebreaking the crack probably won't be easy, and it is highly likely that it will break in new spots where the crack is solidly glued. Also, cleaning up old, dried wood glue is not easy and you may end up not getting it all off, which will cause new problems if you try to reglue with wood glue again.

Titebond makes some great CA glues specifically formulated for woodworking, and I've used them with great success for headstock repairs. IF you do rebreak the crack (not recommended), don't reglue it with woodglue, use CA glue.