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Thread: An F2 repair

  1. #1
    Registered User sunburst's Avatar
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    Default An F2 repair

    P J Doland bought this F2 in two pieces and had it sent to me to be put back together. It is now with it's owner, and he seemed to like the idea of some pictures being here, so here they are. There are a few pics of this mando in various stages of the repair in various threads, but I'll consolidate them into one thread.
    It came to my shop looking like this. The head stock was snapped tight off, fractured across the grain.
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    Last edited by sunburst; Apr-24-2012 at 7:45pm.

  2. #2
    Registered User sunburst's Avatar
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    Default Re: An F2 repair

    After first gluing the head back on, I decided the veneer overlays, front and back, should be replaced and splines added to reinforce the glue joint because the break exposes almost all end grain, and end grain wood does not glue with enough strength to be structural. I sanded away the black paint that Gibson used on these things and took a photo of the inlay so that I could print it out "life size" and cut replica pearl, then removed the overlays. You can see the tooth plane marks in the back of the peghead left by some worker at Gibson in the 20s.
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  3. #3
    Registered User sunburst's Avatar
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    Default Re: An F2 repair

    I had to work around the truss rod pocket, the tuner holes, and the curve of the back of the neck, so to make sure I could fit the splines in, I used a contour gauge to draw a cross section of the neck at the nut position and then drew in the 3/8" by 1/8" splines.
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  4. #4
    Registered User sunburst's Avatar
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    Default Re: An F2 repair

    Convinced that I had room to instal them, I set up a jig and routed slots for the two carbon fiber splines and epoxied them in place to reinforce the repair.
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  6. #5
    Registered User sunburst's Avatar
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    Default Re: An F2 repair

    I soaked some maple veneers in strong tea and then in vinegar and steel wool to "ebonize" them and made new overlays for the front and back of the peghead, cut new replica pearl "The Gibson" script from the photo taken earlier, glued the veneers in place and installed the inlay (no pictures of those processes). To replicate the black paint that Gibson used, I tried lamp black mixed with shellac, and got a pretty good match. I sprayed that on then scraped the black off of the inlay like they did at Gibson in those days, then added more blonde shellac by spraying and by French polishing to complete the finish touch up. It turned out like this:
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  8. #6
    Registered User sunburst's Avatar
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    Default Re: An F2 repair

    Thanks for looking!
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  10. #7
    Notary Sojac Paul Kotapish's Avatar
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    Default Re: An F2 repair

    Very impressive, John. Looks like the thing is as good as new again. Thanks for sharing the process.
    Just one guy's opinion
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  11. #8
    Notary Sojac Paul Kotapish's Avatar
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    Default Re: An F2 repair

    Did you also reinforce the peghead scroll while you were at it?
    Just one guy's opinion
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  12. #9
    Registered User sunburst's Avatar
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    Default Re: An F2 repair

    Ha! Maybe you missed that thread...
    Nope, that is Gibson's original "scroll strengthener" in there.

  13. #10

    Default Re: An F2 repair

    John, that's amazing craftsmanship. Now all you need is a jig to simulate 90 years of stringing dings.

    Bill

  14. #11

    Default Re: An F2 repair

    Congrats to both you and PJ for a masterfull job!

    Scott

  15. #12
    Registered User Tavy's Avatar
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    Default Re: An F2 repair

    That's a mighty fine repair there John - knowing how hard this stuff is to do, I have nothing but admiration for for the job you've done there!

  16. #13
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    Default Re: An F2 repair

    Nice job. Wow.
    A talent for trivializin' the momentous and complicatin' the obvious.

    The entire staff
    funny....

  17. #14

    Default Re: An F2 repair

    John, Very interesting repair. Nice, nice work.
    Thanks,
    Lee

  18. #15
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    Default Re: An F2 repair

    john.................you are majic....i kneel to your abilities and look for more of said majic ....we have all gained from your work
    kterry

  19. #16
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    Default Re: An F2 repair

    It arrived yesterday. It's really impossible to overstate just how invisible the repair is. I can't find it, and with those CF splints in there, I can't imagine it would ever break again.
    PJ Doland
    1923 Gibson Snakehead A

  20. #17
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    Default Re: An F2 repair

    Now listed in the classifieds. Hoping it finds a good home for the next 90 years.

    ..and on to the next project.
    PJ Doland
    1923 Gibson Snakehead A

  21. #18

    Default Re: An F2 repair

    Excellent work, for sure. And so accurate!!!

  22. #19
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    Default Re: An F2 repair

    Very impressive John. When I looked at the 'after' photos, I was hard pressed to tell where the repair is, or that there was even one. Excellent job

  23. #20
    In The Van Ben Milne's Avatar
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    Default Re: An F2 repair

    Thanks for sharing. Excellent work.
    Hereby & forthwith, any instrument with an odd number of strings shall be considered broken. With regard to mix levels, usually the best approach is treating the mandolin the same as a cowbell.

  24. #21
    Ursus Mandolinus Fretbear's Avatar
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    Default Re: An F2 repair

    Quote Originally Posted by sunburst View Post
    After first gluing the head back on....
    That's very casually put; how in blazes did you go about clamping that up?
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  25. #22
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    Default Re: An F2 repair

    sunburst

    You are the man...

  26. #23
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    Default Re: An F2 repair

    Very impressive repair and finish work, John.

    Very well done.

    Jamie
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  27. #24
    Registered User sunburst's Avatar
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    Default Re: An F2 repair

    Quote Originally Posted by Fretbear View Post
    That's very casually put; how in blazes did you go about clamping that up?
    Ya know... that's one of the reasons I take pictures of repair processes, so I can go back and look at the pictures and see how I did things. I don't have a picture of the glue process, and I can't remember what I did!
    I do remember that it took quite a while to align all the little wood splinters, remove a few uncooperative ones, and get the parts to fit fully together. I think I just applied the glue, tapped the parts together with a mallet and left it undisturbed to dry. Hide glue doesn't need clamps if the fit is good, but this was a case where the fit wasn't going to be "good" no matter what I did and the majority of the gluing surface was end grain (hence the CF spines), so as long as everything fit together as closely as possible, that was the best I could do, clamps or no calmps.

  28. #25
    Formerly F5JOURNL Darryl Wolfe's Avatar
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    Default Re: An F2 repair

    Excellent. I would have presumed/expected new neck on that
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