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Tonight I was installing the tuners on a guitar I'm building for my daughter. The machines along the treble side went in without a hitch. Unfortunately, as I was putting in the final bass side machine, a crack opened up running vertically between the tuners and right up to the top of the headstock. A sad moment, as the guitar was turning out great. I guess I needed to use a slightly larger bit when pre-drilling the tuner screw holes. I don't know. Anyway, I'm not sure how to proceed. The crack is very tight and won't flex, so I'm not sure I can much glue to run in there. Anyone have any ideas? I'm disappointed.
Thanks,

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George :-)

Welcome to the I learned how club . You are not alone or the first to have this happen. I use CA for this repair . Next time don't make the holes so tight. If the tuner has to be forced you are running a risk.
Now on to the repair.
You can use CA ot Tite bond . I prefer CA if the crack is a tight on. Open the crack and let the CA wick in and clamp. Be careful as you will have some finish reword to do but CA will wetsand down and buff well . An over spray of finish and you may never see the repair
if you use tite bond just open the crack and work the tite bond into the crack with your fingers.

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John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

John,
Thanks for the reply. I suspected CA might be a viable option. Any tricks on how to safely get the crack to open? I tried flexing it with my hands last night and it wouldn't budge. I'm a little nervous about using too much force.
Thanks again,

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George :-)

The body shape may be irregular because of the lens angle but here are a few things that have me concerned , the width is not correct , the neck may be martin but the rest is not. I suspect a dupe in that the body isn't martin and the neck is. The pickguard is not correct for an OM so this would have to be a 000. Now it could be a prototype as martin did not always place a serial number but the CF Martin stamp is missing on the inside center seam so A it is a laminated body or B is ain't martin. Again I think this isn't a real deal.

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John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

I did a similar repair with super thin CA recently. I did some test gluing on scrap mahogany first, and the glue joint turned out to be stronger than the surrounding wood. What if you use a wedge through either side of the tuner hole? Worked fine for me. The super thin CA doesn't need much of an opening to fill the entire crack

LOL I posted somthing for UMGF sorry about that , To open the crack use just enough force as needed. It won't take much to get the CA to wick in the crack

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John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

Drill the screw hole out with a 1/8" bit almost as deep as the peghead. Be careful not to drill through. Then drill the same bit into a small piece of wood to use as a handle for the bit. Leave the shaft of the bit sticking out of the handle about half way of the bit. Fill the drilled out screw hole with Titebond using a pipette or eye dropper. Then, force the shaft of the 1/8" bit into the hole. The compression will force the glue into the crack. You should see the glue coming out of the crack, and then remove the bit. Clamp it and let it dry. Clean up the excess with a damp cloth. No touch up should be needed on the crack. You can dowel and inlay the 1/8' hole and redrill it for the tuner screw. Touch up the perimeter of the hole, and the tuner will hide anything that is left.

The other methods with CA glue will work, but it may require a lot of finish repair. CA glue attacks most finishes. Titebond can be wiped clean with water.

James

Thanks again for the replies. James, that's a clever idea for forcing open the crack. I saw your post after using CA but will remember it if I ever face this problem again.

For those keeping score at home, I slipped the shaft of a screw driver down through the hole for the middle tuning peg, leveraged the crack a touch and let the CA wick down into the cracks. Then I clamped everything together and let it sit. This afternoon I removed the clamp, lightly sanded the back of the peghead and wiped on a coat of Tru-oil, which is the finish I used on the neck. It looks pretty good, but the crack is definitely visible.

If the glue doesn't hold or if the aesthetics bother me too much, I've come up with a solution that I think might work quite nicely. Since the veneer of the headplate prevented the crack from spreading all the way through to the front of the headstock, I'm thinking an elegantly shaped veneer on the back would be an excellent way to strengthen the headstock and hide the split. Kind of like a wood/glue sandwich. Just an idea. We'll see what happens as I move forward.

Thanks again,

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George :-)

George, I would be suspicious that the crack you had was a crack waiting to happen, not so much caused by what you did as precipitated by it. It may be structurally sound now, with the CA bond, but if the glue line is quite visible, I would still be a little suspicious. Therefore, if it were me, I'd probably go ahead and do surgery on the back of the headstock - that is, put on a veneer or two as you suggest. I always put veneers on both sides of my headstocks anyway, as much for strengthening and avoiding problems like you've had as for decoration.

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Todd Rose
Ithaca, NY

https://www.dreamingrosesecobnb.com/todds-art-music

https://www.facebook.com/ToddRoseGuitars/

Todd,
I was quite careful about not stressing the wood too greatly, so I think you may be right about a structural weakness in this particular area of the headstock. Whatever the cause, my repair efforts are too unsightly for my eye and I've decided to add a veneer backplate. This is quite a handsome guitar and I just can't bring myself to launch it out into the world the way it is now.

Thanks for all the replies. My education continues...

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George :-)

As noted above, I decided to strengthen (and beautify) the split headstock by gluing a veneer to the back. I started on this last night and I think it's going to look pretty nice. I used a belt sander to remove the bulk of the material, then gave it a little flaired end by working carefully with an Exacto knife, chisel and files. I'm not quite finished, but this is what I have so far...

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George :-)