Mike Forrester: Guitar Repair Pics

Pavel Bass Headstock Repair

Yup, another broken headstock. This time it's a $5,000 Pavel bass from Mississippi.
This high-end Pavel was victim to a shipping incident.
This is a rather clean break at the base/volute section of the headstock.
Glued, clamped, and left to cure for 24 hours.
The nasty cavity left in the headstock veneer will have to be filled and touched up.
After some artistic cosmetic repair, you can no longer see the cavity in the headstock veneer.
Finish is sprayed and the veneer repair is complete!
Can you pick out the touch-up?
The finish is sanded off in preparation of the reinforcement stringer installation.
Reinforcement stringers are cut from hard rock maple.
Deep cavities are routed to accept the maple stringers.
The maple stringers will bridge the repair and spread the torsional stress throughout a longer span of the neck-to-headstock transition.
Here, the stringers have been rough-shaped and epoxied into place.
After the epoxy has cured for 24 hours, final shaping is completed.
The repair is oversprayed with a custom mixed shader, and the faux graining technique is applied.
The serial number is restamped and topcoats are sprayed.
The gold text is retouched, and the final topcoats are applied. This custom bass is now sturdier than ever, and ready for service once again!