Just bought my first ever acoustic guitar (a Taylor Big Baby) used on a local craiglist-equivalent for about 130$. It came in the original gigback which had only one back strap left. I decided to bike home and strap the guitar crosswise on my back… in hindsight I should have realised that the one strap could not be trusted. Anyway I biked for about 3m before the strao broke off completely and the guitar fell on the asphalt. Upon arriving home I found the damage you can see in the picture :( The tuning peg of the G string was very crooked, I pressed it back in shape and for the moment it seems relatively stable…
What do you think I should do? try to glue the piece together myself? get it done professionally? try to get a replacement headstock? thanks for any advice and condolences!
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Looks like an easy fix for a professional luthier. Depending on the price, you can choose if it is worth it, or if you can get another, better guitar instead.
thanks, that‘s very good to hear! these go for about 470$ where I live so I think I‘ll bring it to a shop and get a quote
People in the thread are telling you to use wood glue, and while this specific location would probably be fine, you should know that the rest of your guitar was assembled using hide glue for a very good reason.
Wood glue is very pliable and plastic in texture which is great for things like tables and chairs that are frequently being flexed as loads are applied and removed. The trade off is that the glue joints absorb vibration, which is VERY bad for an instrument.
Hide glue is more rigid and does less dampening. For this split on the headstock there won’t be a noticeable impact from using wood glue, but didn’t use it on other parts of the guitar.
Uh, have you ever built a guitar this century?
I don’t know where you got that, but the difference is marginal at best. The quantity of glue used is very small, if used correctly, in both cases. The amount of finish is at least an order of magnitude more and affects the sound dampening significantly more. And I don’t see companies stating how many layers they put on. Not to mention pore fillers and other stuff.
thanks, that‘s very interesting. I‘ll try it myself the using wood glue (which I have around anyway). Do do u think I should remove the pegs first? or try to glue around them?
Note also that wood glue gets everywhere. After you clamp it it’ll still seep out for awhile. Use wet paper towels to clean off the non-glued surface
good point, thanks
I’d remove the machine head/tuners on the bad side too. There will probably be a nut on the other side that you can undo and the tuners will just pull through. That will give you more working room and allow you to get the glue along the whole crack.
I’m less sure about this one but you could, very carefully slide something like a knife to open the crack out a little. The is might allow the glue to flow in better. If your glue is runny, it might not make that much of an improvement, so perhaps not worth risking cracking it off completely. (Although the glue will be plenty strong enough, if you take off the broken part it might not be easy to line it back up properly. If it’s still attached, you’ll be right.)
FWIW I once cycled 3 miles home with a new guitar too. It was in a heavy flight case and I thought it would be fine to carry it under one arm and wobble back one handed.