I've been tinkering with some wood repair lately, as my now 2-year old daughter knocked my first guitar off the stand, breaking the headstock from the neck.I was very upset, but she was 10 months old and wasn't walking at 100% yet...stuff happens.

Anyhow, I tossed it in the closet and forgot about it. I happened across it the other day. I took it out, took the old strings off of it, and just stared at it for a while. The old junker I picked up for 100 clams, that plays and sounds better than my new $500 Fender acoustic I replaced it with. I missed it. So, I decided to fix it.

Loctite makes a product called Power Grab. It is the greatest wood glue I have ever used, it beats gorilla glue hands down. I cleaned both sides of the break, put the glue to it, assembled and C clamped it with the old c clamp I keep around for changing brake pads and U-joints. I used 2 small wooden blocks to keep from marring the finish where I clamped it, and split a dryer sheet to insulate between the blocks and the guitar. I decided the dryer sheets would keep the glue from bonding the blocks to the guitar.

So it sat clamped for 2 days. I decided to string it up. After installing the machineheads and the nut, I very slowly tuned it up. After about 6 tunings(had to let the neck settle, as it had been unstrung for almost a year.) I got it to hold tune for good. It worked!!

I know not many will be interested in repairing a guitar, but there's many other things that could be repaired the same way. Wooden gun hardware, for instance. In that case I might use a little more reinforcement, but the basic idea would be the same.

Anyhow, I left the strings on it for a week, and now I've got it sanded down to refinish. The wood filler is drying, and then more sanding, probably more filling. I thought the whole time on how I was going to refinish it, and I've decided this. The headstock and part of the back of the neck will be black. In place of the brand logo on the headstock, I'm going to have the snake from the Gadsden Flag painted on it. There's a man at our local flea market who does absolutely beautiful work there.

I know a guitar is going to have little use when SHTF, but I've really enjoyed the project thus far. I thought I would share this. As a co-worker of mine used to say: This is more fun than eatin' peanuts!

I would post pictures, but she loaned the camera to her sister, and I don't even keep film for my SLR anymore :P.

Having a guitar when SHTF may be of very important use if it is the right time and situation. Moral is very important and music can be a great moral lifter.

I have seen in many of the posts, "have some playing cards or something to entertain".