As a friend of mine noted, there are two types of Les Paul. Those that have had a broken headstock, and those that will have. I think that can go for a lot of angled headstocks.
In this case, the headstock belongs to a gorgeous green left handed Gretsch hollow body. Already, it’s something of a rarity.
Whether the guitar was left somewhere and knocked over, slid off a table or used as a weapon I wasn’t going to ask (or judge!), but these sorts of accidents are far too common.
Guitar neck breaks can happen in a variety of ways. Sometimes the two sides part ways cleanly – and sometimes not completely apart – and sometimes they result in the neighbouring edges crumbling away. In the case of the latter, there will be some gaps when the two parts are reassembled. This is what happened to this Gretsch, so some filling had to be done.
It’s always a good idea to strengthen the neck rather than just glue and clamp it back together. To do this, I routed two slots either side of the truss rod and made splints to fit tightly. After gluing and clamping, I rasped and sanded down the splints to make a smooth join.
At this point I had to ask the customer how he wanted it finished. I could have matched the paint finish, or painted the back of the neck solid black, but instead he chose to have it clear coated, leaving the scars of the repair visible.
I think he made the right decision! It ends up being a rather unique guitar, with a history and a story to tell.