repairing damaged wood

[mellapong]

hello. i have an issue with the wood at the headstock of my les paul. at the back where the tuners are screwed in, the tuners are overscrewed and hence the wood is damaged too much that i cannot screw the tuner tightly to the headstock anymore. and this has been giving me tuning problems, like the strings get detuned easily. what should i do?

 

[almondx]

can you post a pic to show how bad it is?

 

[crozzfire]

hmm description did not really give me an idea of the situation..mayb post up some pics?

 

[MrE]

woah... sounds like the wood at the back of the headstock is splitting. either the wood was bad to begin with (not cured properly, rotten, lousy wood?), or the installation workmanship was so bad that it damaged the headstock. I'm curious to know, what brand is it?

well no matter the reaons, i think there's not much you can do except bring it to a reputable luthier to see it can be salvaged. sound pretty serious, if it affects your tuning stability

 

[Fruitwine]

MrE, i think he means that the "threads" of the screw hole have been worn out. if thats the case, u can cut off the pointy ends of a toothpick and screw it in with the tuner's screws. might help.

 

[mellapong]

yes yes Fruitwine's got it right! pardon my bad desciption. so how how? i am scared to try to toothpick one. later drive the hole even deeper. ahhh.

 

[Fruitwine]

theoretically, it won't drive the hole any deeper. it simply adds more "material" to the hole, so the screw can "grip" better. alternatively, some hardware stores sell these wierd looking silver things that are used for the same purpose (as the toothpicks). there are flat, and look like nets, come in small packs usually. u can try asking the salesmen if they have em i think.

 

[ShredCow]

how big is the screw hole? If its too small, a toothpick might be overkill.

There's another method but it involves superglue, Malcom uses it... but I cannot remember how he used it. Do a little research around google? Can't rem leh...

 

[unsane]

superglue and wood dust

 

[Timex]

use wood putty/filler and redrill. If thats too much work than use the glue method.

 

[unsane]

wood filler tends to shrink over time leaving you with the same problem eventually..the superglue/wood dust method is stronger in the long run, though you would have to redrill the holes as well.

a toothpick shoved into the whole and sanded flush with the surface would be the quickest solution i guess..

 

[slipout]

wood fillers is too powdery for holding screw (for my case, i had a similar problem but at the strap instread, maybe its the brand of wood fillers i used). I applied the fillers and redrill but its quite powdery which cant hold the screw well.

 

[fgl]

Hammer in the better quality toothpicks with woodglue, trim flush & redrill new holes. Wood filler cant make it.... I go a step further & normally use the bamboo skewer sticks - pointed end only. After trim off, I use the rest of the stick for my aeromodeling paint jobs 8)