Les Paul Broken Headstock Repair - Part 1 Splines

Welcome to the next project, here we go fixing more broken stuff.
Today I have the pleasure of mending an Epiphone Les Paul Muse with a serious head"less" issue.

00:00 - lights, camera, action
00:06 - project intro
00:43 - what are we dealing with
01:17 - reunited = feels so good
02:23 - the repair begins
03:50 - verify spline radius
04:24 - cut, fit, glue
05:41 - quick shave
06:21 - the repair continues
08:58 - carve & sand
10:06 - recap

To oversimplify a terrible situation, I'm going to say there are 3 types of breaks this style headstock will typically suffer - again, oversimplified.
First, a nut area into headstock break, fracture, splintering. It's not pretty!
Second, a more lateral break across the width of the neck in the nut region, this it the style break of the guitar in this video. Not much glue area, so we need to think laterally for a repair.
Third, a break from the nut area along the length of the neck, towards the body.
Beyond that, there can be a mixture of these breaks, and in various levels of ruin. Possibly multiple layers of splintering, missing pieces... it can get really ugly.

For this project, the first step was to simply get the pieces to stay inline with each other, so the real repair can begin. Clamping a severed headstock back to a neck can be a huge challenge, not a lot of great appendages to clamp onto. Rubberbands to the rescue!

With the head attached to the neck, it was time to start cutting cutting channels for new reinforcement splines. I made a routing fixture to hold the guitar and another "thingy" to hold my router to ride on the routing fixture.
Using a 1/4" spiral router bit, I started by cutting 2 channels in the back of the neck to the depth of the fingerboard.
The channel radius was tested and splines made to match. I used Titebond original glue to bond the splines into the channels.
Once fully dry, I quickly and roughly shaved the splines close to the contour of the neck, then put the guitar back in the routing fixture.
3 more channels were cut, one in the center of the neck just to the depth of the truss rod channel, the other 2 at the outside edges of the neck almost to the fingerboard, almost. More splines were made to closely fit the radius of the channels. All pieces glued up and again the giant rubberband used to clamp everything in place until the glue was dry.
Final carving and sanding was done, making the repair ready for final sanding and finish work - but that will be in episode 2.

This video is intended for entertainment only, it's not training of any sort. You may see ideas you like, but always practice better judgement than the fella in this video.

Remember, be safe and have fun!