The Hub

Greetings Wise Elders and fellow seekers of the Looth Group!

I hope you're all keeping well.

I humbly beseech thee for thine sage wisdom and experience.

I purchased a 1971 Hagstrom Swede. This guitar was basically put in a case and then forgotten about for a few decades. I felt sorry for the old man and have taken it in as a stray / project. I would like to get it playing again.

There are many scars on this guitar, I have looked for as many as I could find. My greatest concern is the split in the headstock.

The split starts at the top of the headstock, continuing to centre of the neck. The split is deepest near the truss rod adjustment cavity, measuring roughly 12mm, I could feel the underside of the headstock overlay with my feeler gauge when inserting it in the split. As the split moves to the centre it is narrower, however the depth is still a concern, I measure the depth at roughly 3-5mm.

I have been thinking about how to fix this for a while, this is what I've come up with so far:

I need to try and clean the split, I plan on using a curved scalpel blade to delicately remove whatever grime is in there. I was thinking of using an air blower to move some debris as well and then getting a little naptha inside followed by a little more scraping.

Gluing the wood back together is what troubles me. From the outside the split looks clear, but could there be voids inside? I don't know if it will as simple as pumping some Titebond into the split and then clamping. Without splitting the head more I don't know what it looks like inside, so would a 2 part epoxy be a better choice? My thinking is that if there is any voids the epoxy can fill them and it will be nice and strong, but then will the flexibility of the neck be affected? If the truss rod needs adjustment will that then cause the epoxy to fail?

Am I overthinking this?

My other concern is the clamping. I think clamping the headstock on either side will work, but getting the sides of the neck to meet is going to be challenging. I've thought that maybe vacuum clamping might help with this.

I asked for some advice for some repairmen in my neighborhood and they have suggested routing a channel for reinforcement once everything is glued.

I apologize for the lengthy post. Any advice or explanations would be appreciated, I haven't started working on it yet, I'd like to get as much information as possible before starting.

Thanks so much for reading and sharing.