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Hello luthiers,

I made a blunder on a headstock I'm currently working on. I had to glue wings on the headstock blank since it wasn't going to be wide enough at the upper bout. Then I'm not sure exactly what happened exactly, I guess I must have glued it offset, but it ended up that there is a ugly gap on one side that shouldn't be there and I'm trying to find the best way to hide it. I thought I could inlay something to hide the gap and do the same thing on the other side to make it symmetrical but I think it would clash with the general aesthetic. I also thought I could just trim 1/16 inch on each side which would be the easiest way to go but I'm not sure I will like the look. So if anyone can come up with a brilliant idea please let me know.

I have outlined how much I would need to trim off on the second picture.

Make the trim and then bind the sides with the thin veneer that's under the headstock and backstrap veneer.

It's a tough one. Everything is stacked against you...
* Light colored wood can't hide seams.
* Can't simply fill the area between the purfling on that side with maple veneer since the curve would be very difficult to match perfectly.
* Can't cover the sides completely with binding material since the purfling lines coming out from under it would attract unwanted attention.
* It's an odd place to put an inlay, so that would attract unwanted attention.

Given my past behavior, I'd probably sulk over it for a few years and then just ignore it and finish the thing.

I’d doublecheck that the tuners would still fit if trimmed. If they do, I would just trim it and try never to do it again.

Given the straight sides of your peghead design, I believe this boo-boo can be disappeared with minimal signature.

I would think about removing 3/32" -1/8" of maple ONLY on the gapped side of the peghead and between the dark laminates. The key tasks are creation of a shallow dado on the side of the peghead to be repaired, widening that dado with careful trimming to the upper and lower dark laminates, and then fit the repair piece, which should be carefully chosen for grain orientation. You will create two thin join lines (one on the swell of the peghead and one on the free end of the peghead... neither will be obnoxiously visible with accurate trimming, fitting, and glue-up work.

A router jig which sandwiches the first 5" or so of the peghead (the upper part of the peghead where face and back are equidistant) should work, and avoids the issue of matching the curve at the join with the neck shaft. A bushing on the router and the correct size straight bit (maple wants sharp tools where heat can carmalize the sugars in the wood) will get you to a constant width dado just clear of the dark laminate, and careful, very sharp chisel and small router plane will trim to the line.

If you have a background in woodwork that is table saw-centric, this presents another way to create the dado, but still leaves some interesting trimming and perhaps some 4" mill bastard work with a known-to-be-flat tool (Mexican and Brazilian-made tools are seldom flat, while vintage Nicholson 4" mill bastards are usually rather true). A sharp block plane will trim the fished piece flush with the laminates, and some careful saw, chisel, and file work should handle the flushing of the ends of the repair with the rest of the peghead.

If you need a sketch of the operation or of a feasible jig, I am over with the boys at Greenridge today helping with some video work and my own milling work, so can use the brain trust to - as is fashionable in the buzzword factory known as the DC suburbs - widen the aperture.

Well, if it were me ---

If you are sure the tuners would fit with the head planed back to your lines, AND the gap would disappear, your idea to do that would be the easiest and have little chance of additional problems showing up. Temporarily install the tuners and visualize the look as if it were trimmed. The tuners will change the look.

I think your other idea of an inlay, even a rectangular block centered on the middle tuner between the darker veneer layers with the same veneer wood might look quite intentional. Again, put the tuners in one side and tape a piece of matching (dark wood) veneer where it would go, step back and have a look. If it works for you it would be a simple solution with no maple/maple joint lines to try and hide.

I'd also play with cutting a piece of the same veneer you used in the head layup to cover the straight sides of the head. Temporarily stick in in place with the tuners in their holes and have a look for aesthetics. Obviously it would cover those nice purf lines the veneers make on the sides of the head but it would add a detail to the top and back of the head. Worth a look. If the look isn't offensive you could plane back the head the thickness of the veneer prior to gluing on. Again, little chance for further errors.

Nothing wrong with any of the other suggestions at all, but I'd weigh complexity against potential for error and moving from one problem to another.

Good luck! And show us what you come up with.

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Brian R, Wood Mechanic
N8ZED

Woody’s suggestion is an elegant solution. If a less technically challenging solution is desired I would also consider squaring up the defect to a vertical line or rectangle and inlay the dark material to match the veneer. Duplicate on the other side.

You could repeat the motif on the end graft to make look even more intentional.

Client guitar or for you?

_________________
It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

If this was my mistake, I would probably just fill the gap with filler, being very careful not to disrupt the perfling lines.
Then I would tape off the perfling lines and airbrush the maple with a matching color of the base color of the maple.
I would then just lightly brush grain lines and clear it. My guess is no one will see it except you since it is on the edge of the headstock and the machine heads will make it dissapear as long as you get close to the color of the maple and blend the edges out.

This does require an airbrush and skill to use it, but you could probably repair it in a few hours rather than cutting wood and spending days repairing it with wood and possibly making the issue larger than it is already.

That's my 2c

Cheers,
Bob

Thanks everyone for the brainstorm!

I think I may have found another solution after going through your suggestions. I’m planning to make a curved template that touches the two corners on one side, with the highest point just clearing the gap. Based on the calculations, I need a 60-inch radius.
This approach would result in the two sides of the headstock being slightly curved inward. I think this is a strong compromise—it's not overly complex, minimizes the potential for errors, and should remain aesthetically consistent.

@Terrence, this is a guitar I'm making for my girlfriend who is a fantastic singer and guitar player. Back and side, purflings and rosette inlay in purple heart, padouk and wenge in the rosette too, fingerboard and bridge Indian rosewood, top sitka. The shape is custom jumbo like and I will install a Schatten HFN active pickup which I tried on my previous build and sounds great.

Given the work done already, I am confident you can execute any of the repair suggestions presented in the thread. Good luck going forward.

Send it to me for disposal.

_________________
"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

Here is how it turned out. Ugly gap is gone, sides are nice and clean.

Now I need to find something nice to inlay on the head.

Nice job!

_________________
Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Great, that looks intentional!

Looks like you meant it

Love the rosette

Cheers
Bob

You rocked it, Dom.

_________________
"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

Beautiful fix! Glad it worked out.

For anyone interested in airbrushes, buy the $20 kind on ebay or amazon with a rechargeable handheld pump. The pump is better than anything else you can buy for any price. So small and quiet and pleasant to use. And the airbrush works about just as well as my old American-made Paasche, just without airflow control. I made an adapter so I can also use the old brush with the new pump, but it's really not necessary.

Nice job!

_________________
It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

Great save Dominic. How about inlaying your initial on the headstock?