When testing the 12 string bass with a musician friend, I caught my feet in the audio cable and yanked the guitar to the floor. It was seriously busted up. The tension of the strings caused the wood at the end of the neck to split. I was so upset I put it up and have not touched it for years.
But then the other day, my musician friend, who has been playing the cello and the long bass for a couple of years asked if I would repair it, and I decided to not only repair it but improve it and finish it up.
The first thing is to replace the split wood, after cutting out the bad part at the location the 5th (future) fret:
That way, the splice will be for all practical purposes invisible once I set the small 1 mm fret markers:
I happened to have a piece of human bone, out of which I cut ten 3/8" dots which I set into the wood:
Now, the biggest challenge is to redesign the brass headstock so it holds the strings with set screws without cutting them, and is firmly attached to the aluminum neck with screws instead of to the wood. In order to drill and tap the holes for the screws, I will make it in two parts, with 2 "wings" to assemble them:
The bottom will be cut out of the same 3/4" solid brass stock as the original, the top plate out of 1.4" stock. That will be A JOB!
