GordoMusic.com



Gibson ES-125...

This guitar came into the shop in spectacular shape. Well, apart from the fact that the peghead was broken clean off the neck. The break was complex but the wood, for the most part, was still all there. No additional cracks or separations. The hardware, with the exception of the tuners, appeared to be stock. It was missing a knob but that was an easy replacement. The finish was gorgeous. The original cherry sunburst had faded over time to a light iced-tea and the lacquer had developed a very regal patina. The large Grover tuners are likely the culprit that lead to the neck problem. The holes had been redrilled from the original 3-on-a-slab Gibsons and very slightly undersized. I suspect it didn't take much trauma to make the peg head explode right in front of the 1st and 6th tuners.

After test fitting the pieces I stripped the tuners, nut, and truss rod hardware from the guitar and used white glue to glue up the break. This was a big decision. I was inclined to use epoxy but felt that there were so many surfaces and so much area available that having the thin white glue coat everything would do a nice job of crosslinking the mahogany fibers. The white glue also gave me lots of time to fool with clamps and ultimately gave me an out if this didn't line up as it did in my head.