As Morrissey said .............Stop me if you think you've heard this one before.
I got a call late Monday afternoon (my day off) from a tour manager saying the British band Jesus Jones had landed in Brisbane for an Australian tour and one of their guitars had broken in flight. Let me guess ......... a Gibson ?
As you know from past posts it's not really an issue unless .......... "they can drop it off tomorrow sometime, we need it back Thursday afternoon for sound check"
So it get's in mid morning Tuesday and the guitarist from Jesus Jones turns up with a Gibson hardcase and pleads with me to fix his baby. He needs this guitar for the tour. I quickly evaluate the damage. It's a pretty standard break. The only real issue with "quick" tour repairs is letting the glue dry long enough and you don't have time for splints or fancy cosmetic work. There was plenty of surface area and nothing was missing which are both a plus for these repairs. OK , let's do it.
After getting the tuners, truss rod cover etc off it was straight into the jig with some long cure epoxy as the glue. Without the time to fit splints I worked on the premise that the best glue to use would be a strong epoxy and leave it for as long as possible to cure.
I left it all day Wednesday in the jig and came in Thursday and had a look. It had cured nicely and looked like it was going to be fine. The tour manager rang to see how we were looking. I told him I'd let him know after lunch. I get it out of the jig and do what I always do, I try to snap it back off !! Looks good.
So a quick clean up and smooth out the back of the neck so you can't feel the crack. I don't have time for a coat of finish so I polished the repair area to a smooth finish and left it at that. I always tape off the truss rod access from the headstock side so you usually have to remove any excess epoxy from around the truss rod before you can do a set up and put the cover back on. String it up to pitch and ......................... off you go to sound check.
I got a message from the tour manager a couple of days later saying "Hey Mate, The guitar you fixed for Jesus Jones is great . Thanks again for putting in the extra mile and doing it for them , You Rock"