Repairing Broken Necks and Pegheads- Many neck and peghead breaks can be repaired. Look The method I use to repair broken or cracked pegheads depend on the length and location of the break. Some repairs will yield a solid repair after simply gluing them back together and then touching up the finish. Others may need a peghead veneer added to strengthen the vulnerable area. For those which suffer extensive or repeated damage inlaying splints, splicing on a new hand made peghead or replacing the neck all together may be required. I will be happy to examine your instrument and give you my opinion on the repair technique suitable for your instrument. And of course, should it require a technique which I can not provide (i.e. milling equipment) I will certainly tell you that also and hopefully directed you to someone who can.
First rule of thumb, remove the string tension.
Second rule, keep all the pieces.
Third rule, don't play with the pieces.
Why do so many necks break right at the peghead, behind or near the nut? There are a couple of factors that render this area most susceptible to fracture...
Grain run out Take a look at my pathetic drawing and elementary explanation.
Truss rod adjustment at peghead If you've looked at the aforementioned drawing then this will make more sense. When locating the truss rod nut at the peghead end of the neck wood must be removed and a pocket created for the truss rod nut. Removing mass here further thins this hot spot.
People Yup, we do it. We drop 'em, we smack 'em, we knock them into stationary objects, if you punish it enough it will break.
Neck Replacement
Replacing Broken Guitar NecksOn newer instruments or models that are still in production a complete replacement neck can often be purchased directly from the factory. I can purchase necks from factory's for whom I perform warranty services (Martin, Taylor, Fender etc.) . If you need to have a neck replaced you should contact an authorized service center as they will be the only shops authorized to purchase in most cases. Due to some construction methods you may be advised to ship the instrument back to the factory for a replacement. When choosing to have a service center replace the neck it is often cheapest to order a finished neck as these will come painted, fretted, bound and inlayed. Service charges generally consist of a neck reset and when necessary : a new nut, a fret level and dress and finish touch up. So the labor alone will run you a minimum of $300 on most acoustic dovetail neck replacements. The cost of neck will depend on how ornate it is. A call to the factory will give you some idea of what a replacement neck would cost.
Vintage Neck Replacements When the neck on a vintage or non-production instrument has been damaged beyond all hope of repair I figure you have 2 choices. Seek a donor instrument in which to use the neck from or have a luthier build a new one from scratch...a service I do not offer. And while finding another damaged instrument that is suitable for a parts donor is difficult enough you must bare in mind that older instruments still had a certain hand made quality about them. This means that even amongst the same year and model some parts require tweaking.
