Shipping guitars

Valuable lesson here. If you're going to ship something like this make sure it's well padded and protected. I guess postal and shipping carriers around the world are about the same,grab it,toss it and forget it. Looks like quite a challenge to repair, lots of luck with it

It's so sad to see something like that happen. Don't shippers care at all?

Funny side note. I used to have to ship car parts via UPS and the driver hated me. I would have to fashion boxes to fit things like mufflers with tail pipes attached and he would cringe when he saw a very odd shaped oversized box. But really in the end how bad is it for him? He just throws it on the truck and off he goes.

I had my last guitar shipped to me from California, to the east coat. We both discussed the shipping proceedure before it went out. It was a high end Breedlove, and I would love to tell you how nervous I was the whole time in route. It arrived safe and sound. Never ship without doing some research first.

OK then, it was a long break down the neck and I guessed that gluing her would be sufficient. So she was glued and lightly clamped so as to not squeeze out all the adhesive and left for 48 hours to dry well. Then quite a lot of filling was needed to replace the splintered timber from the edges of the joint. Plenty of sanding down using ever finer glasspaper (1000 grit to finish) and then staining. The original timber did not take the stain too well although the filler coloured fine, and then several coats of lacquer later she looks like this:

The headstock had a black highly polished veneer finish and a large part of this was missing so a custom made truss rod nut cover was made to hide the damage:

She was restrung 24 hour ago and I am pleased to say she plays very well. The owner is coming in on Thursday and does not know that his written off guitar is back in one piece so I hope he will be pleasantly surprised and pleased with the result.

Roger

That's talent.  I'm impressed Roger. 

- Zurf

I've had two guitars shipped to me in the past and never a problem.  It is kind of scary though.  Nice work Roger.  I envy those of you who can not only do a good job, but attempt it in the first place.

Thanks Wayne, Zurf and Pete.

Scott, it was more a labour of love and an experiment to see if it would repair so I did not log the time spent. Also sourcing materials like woodstain can be very time and petrol consuming here in Portugal. However I estimate that the actual work hours stripping her, repairing and refinishing the neck then the rebuilding was about 5 hours.  Howard, who owns the shop I work part time in, took an hour and a half to make and fit the false truss rod nut cover. Of course there was an extra hour or so playing her to make sure she was OK which is not accounted for . It is very much a stop and start job waiting for materials to dry.

Roger

gotta say it really looks terrific nice work Roger

Roger, it looks like you've done a wonderful job with this repair.  Do let us know what the owner thinks of it when he comes in!

Zguitar, the neck was absolutley straight when restrung and tuned so no adjustment was required. The truss rod mounting is in the unbroken part of the neck so I am hopeful that it will be OK.

Amy, the owner, who has at least 5 other guitars that I know of, came in today to do some recording and we left his guitar on a stand in the studio and said nothing.  He noticed that there was a guitar similar to his and asked if he could play her. He started to play, looked and looked again and said "This cannot be my guitar but it is!". He was over the moon, so another satisfied customer.

Roger

Just look at is as a birthmark for a new life.  Great job.