This is the Natural Mahogany Royal
X-plorer made in 1986.
She is owned by D.T. Giles who bought her
secondhand in 1992.
In 2002
D.T. had a bit of an
accident when the guitar
fell over, unfortunately, and cracked
her headstock very
hard on the floor..... The resulting damage
is what you
can see here in the pix that D.T.
recently sent.
She is his pride and joy
and he needs to have her back together again.
So, she has come home, and I'm going to use
her in this section to show one way of many to
repair a broken headstock - There are many ways
depending on the kind of break.....
If the Head is detached
or not, the position of the break, the type
of break
and the amount of damage,
the materials involved are all factors
in
working out how the repair is best attempted.
This shows the break
across the back..... from one side to the 'A'
machine-head and back up to
the head-face.
Essentially, the head-face which here is made of 'reinforced
fiberboard',
is the one part of the guitar structure that's holding
the headstock on
as the
Mahogany of the headstock has 'split' all the way
through.....
.....and the
good thing here is that the Head 'is' still
attached, which makes things a little easier
and also
makes it more likely that the repair will be successful.
In this case, as in many, using the 'reinforced fiberboard'
has prevented a possibly more serious
break
that might have occurred if there was no
head-face or even if there had been
a wooden head-face in some circumstances.
Here is DT,
mournfully looking over the damage.
This picture shows the additional
lacquer cracks caused by the impact.
With the hardware carefully removed the damage can be re-assessed, as two of the machines were covering part of the break.
I'll continue this section as soon as I can.....
Looking over the
Damage
I think DTs pictures above
cover this part quite well.
Assessing any other Damage
Repairing and Touching in the Finish
Replacing the Hardware
Checking Over
Stringing up and Tuning
Success - Hopefully !
I'll fill in
the blanks above in this section as soon as I can, but she is...
Looking Good So Far
As you can see - things are a bit different now. The
lacquer cracks have been repaired,
so from the Side & Front in this photo there is
no visible damage.
Additionally, there is a new 'Name Inlay' in
Mother-of-Pearl ... " DT.Giles ",
who bought her s/h
many years ago, now has his name there instead. Also, the head-face has been
tidied up.
More to come here as soon as possible.