broken headstock help

[misterstomach]

hello all, i am new. i have a question. my bandmate has a gibson sg. as usual the headsstock is broken. it broke a few years ago and he got it proffessionally fixed. after a few years it kind of just came unglued, which i have never heard of. he reglued it with elmers wood glue which held for a few months until last night when the guitar fell over and split in the exact same spot. what i wonder is, could the original glue used be the problem here? is there a way to get the old glue out before i try reglueing it? it seems that someone must have used the improper glue, 'cause normally wood glue is stronger than wood and it seem sso strange that it can't stay glued. any help would be awesome from folks who know what they're talking about. thanks so much.

[Jeff-7]

De-Glue Goo might work, in a pinch you can try a vinegar soaked rag on the glue and let it sit for a while. Hard to tell for sure without knowing what glue was used. Scrape the glue off afterwards, some material may have to be removed in the process. I would reglue after with some Hide glue (the granules).

[misterstomach]

i was going to reglue with titebond. is that not as good of an idea as hide glue? hide glue, it seems doesn't always respond to moisture as well. not that i'm taking the guitar swimming or anything.

[Jeff-7]

Excessive heat and moisture will weaken it but I doubt you'll be taking it with you to the sauna. It's the choice of a lot of luthiers and builders like Gibson because of its strength and ease to work with. I've repaired a few guitars with it including my '64 Gibson and its rock solid. Nice thing with it is if you ever had to go back and repair it again Hide glue bonds to itself. I'm sure titebond will work just fine though.

[misterstomach]

thanks. i'll get a hold of some. or maybe just try and use the titebond. i appreciate the help.

[pinkjimiphoton]

i don't reccomend this, but when i had the same issue with my sg90 repeatedly, i used duro super glue to stick the sucker back on, it's been good for 16 years now. the super glue (i think) glued the glue to the glue.. (had it fixed the first time professionally, it failed. tried the elmer's wood glue trick. it failed. the crazy glue did the trick. kinda a guerilla guitar repair but it worked.

[AxAxSxS]

CA glue is good shit. Just make sure you have t ready to go back together precisely when you apply the glue. It cures FAST! Titebond is great. I've had no problems using it in the past

[The Wood Wizard]

you gotta get that glue off! denatured alcohol might help out a bit. also a dental pick and scrapper too. If its still on thre nasty youll have to peg it and epoxy that bitch. Titebond is great first time, but once you get jizz all over it like that you gotta get a mechanical hold in addition to the glue, its not super hard, all you need is a small drill bit and a bit of dowell. SGs are the bane of the luthier community hahaha

[lapsteel]

The best solvent for wood glue is vinegar. Yup vinegar. Clean out the old glue so you can get the Pva glue into the wood fibers. I would stay way from soaking the wood with alcohol... It will dry out the fibers too much. Wood glue is pretty fool proof as long as there is a clean joint and some pressure... If it fails it usually is the material adjancent to it.... Unless the glue was exposed to frozen temps at some point, it should really have held.... Either way you gotta remove it to relaminate it properly like the wood wizard suggests. I also like the spline or dowel for mechanical support. Just do it right, cause it might buzz if it is botched.

But at this point, at two attempts at repair, I would just take you hand plane and cut a nice flat surface for jointing, and laminate some new material. Of course scratch this if this is some kind of expensive vintage gem guitar.... Gibson and their outdated scarf joints...

Are we talking about the scarf joint? Or are we talking the tuners holes.... Pics would help.