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My son knocked the headstock of my Ovation Balladeer (mahogany neck) into a doorway and a large chuck of the headstock cleanly broke off. The pieces fit back together really nicely though a thin crack/line is still visible between the two pieces when held in place. I have not started the repair yet as I wanted to ask a few questions first.

1. best way to clamp the part once glued .
2. is titebond ok for this


thanks,
Devin

You'll get some expert responses to this one for sure - so I'd better say my piece first...

I think Titebond is fine. As long as you wipe away any squeezeout you'll have a near invisible repair if the pieces fit as tightly as it sounds they do.

As for clamping - can't really tell from the picture, but I'd focus on clamping so that it's tight, although not so tight that you mar the wood that the clamp is contacting. Might be useful to use a caul of some sort to prevent that. It's easy to overclamp and leave marks.

You can use some type of tape or rubber inner tube as a clamp - test first to see if the glue you are using will stick to it. I would also go with Titebond. Although that is the only glue I use.

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It's this new idea from recent decades that everyone gets a participation award. - MUX

Devin-
Fish glue or (hot) hide glue would probably be the easiest for this type of job, but you are not likely to have them around the house.

Any good 'yellow glue' like Titebond should do fine for this as it isn't structural. You can just hold the pieces together until the glue 'tacks up' a bit (several minutes- get comfortable), and clean up the squeezeout well before you put on some tape to hold it while it cures.
Note: If you 'cover' the area with tape (or rubber bands) it will take a lot longer than normal for the glue to set up, so keep that in mind.
If you do a good neat job on the gluing, you shouldn't have to bother with touching up the finish. Messing with finish touchups can be a minefield for the inexperienced! (As a non-expert, I've made a bunch of 'little jobs' into 'big jobs' in the past..... )

I'd avoid CA for this, as it will likely leave a glue line visible. It also can 'eat' some finishes, though the Ovation is probably fairly 'bulletproof' in that department.

Cheers
John

When working with odd shaped pieces make sure you can clamp them together good before you put the glue on. DAMHIKT

_________________
Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Ditto to all the above.
MIMF showed a "tute" for finish repairs using superglue fill first, a razor blade with masking tape (each side of blade) to almost level it, them micromesh for final levelling and polish.
Might make it less visible at least.
I've used it only for filling gaps'n pores in binding/purfling and similar.
A medium tapestry sewing needle eye with the end ground off (shaped like a tuning fork) makes an excellent micro-spot applicator for the superglue.

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

Little pieces like that can be hard to clamp. A rubber band around the headstock may be sufficient. Or, you could just hold it in place with finger pressure for a couple of minutes and it would probably hold fine. Just don't disturb it after you take the pressure off for a couple of hours. If you get it tight enough a finish touchup might not be necessary.

Let's talk about what's really important here - what X-box game is that in the pic?

Hide glue would be the most invisible and would not need a lot of clamping. You can hold it tight a few minutes and then it will "pull" itself. If you need a little hide glue, here is a good trick from Frank Ford http://www.frets.com/FRETSPages/Luthier/TipsTricks/KitchenGlue/kitchenglue.html

lol, call of duty.

Thanks for the link Alain, gotta love frets.com.
I'm gonna glue this up tonight, I'll post pics of the repair when done.

It is amazing how much knowledge Frank Ford has put on his website!
This is one of the sites that got me started in lutherie.

thanks to everyones help here, the repair came out really well.


On the back of the headstock the repair is completely invisible, on the front you really have to look for it.
I couldnt figure out a good way to clamp it without it sliding around so I just held it for a few minutes and then hung it on the wall to dry.

Thanks to all who responded,

Devin

Devin-
Good job!

Good job Can't tell where it was from the picture!

Doesn't get much better than that! Nice work!

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Thanks guys, I was lucky it was such a clean break, it went back together really nicely/easily. The crack is even less visible now, after setting for a few days. My sons gigs with this guitar a lot so I dont have any hopes of it staying too nice but it was good to have a successful practice at repairing.

Devin