We just wrapped up a headstock repair which ended up being a bit of a project. This 1953 Gibson EB-1 had a broken headstock which had been previously repaired. Our task was to repair it and make it look as close to original as possible, and of course retain the original headstock logo.
The first steps involved cleaning the repair area. As it had been repaired before, there was residual glue that needed to be removed. The previous repairer had also added a “stinger” – a black laquer covering, tapered to a point, which was used to cover up the repair area. The plan was to remove the stinger as well.
Here we have some in progress pictures. The headstock is patched and reattached. Later, we added splines (sorry, we don’t have pictures of the actual splines themselves) to strengthen the neck in the break area. Then, we prepped it for finish application.
Finally, the process of making it look as good as possible. On the front of the headstock we added a layer of black followed by clear nitrocellulose lacquer. On the rear of the headstock and neck, it was just clear lacquer.
Finally, all done!
