Gibson SG Broken Headstock Repair

This Gibson SG came in to my shop in bad shape. It has the typical Gibson headstock break, but with added problems.

Someone before me tried to repair it, but were not successful. This added a complication that I had to work around.

As you can see, there is glue all over and around the truss rod. I was able to clean out the old glue, but with it being so contaminated, I decided to do a backstrap of mahogany across the break.

First step was to glue up the break. I used high strength epoxy. Usually all it takes is good wood glue, but with the previous repairs, I felt it was the safe bet.

After glue up, I sanded down the back of the neck nice and flat and across the break to accept a new piece of mahogany.

Fresh!

The new piece needed to be "bent" in a way that it would lay right down over the break. This is a crude wood bender I built from basic parts and pieces. It works very well.

Here it is being glued up.

Next was to carve the new piece of mahogany into the neck.

Here's the final carving and shaping. Now it needs to be re-finished.

This is part way through the finish process. Still needs lots of clear, and sanding and buffing.

Here I am doing some wet sanding.

And the final result! It turned out really good, and it's pretty hard to tell that it had ever been broken.

What a job! It took me lots of time, and lots of patience, but when I got the guitar back to shape and in it's owners hands, It was all worth it.