Bought a broken RG5SP2, need ideas

[Dores]

Hi everyone!

I recently won an Ibanez RG5SP2 on eBay for $90. It has a cracked headstock, and some missing trem/nut parts, but other than that it should be fine. I'm planning to fix the headstock myself with some titebond glue, and I have ordered the missing parts.

Now I'm just not sure what to do with the boring finish. Sand it all off and oil it? Get some fancy colored pickups? I need your ideas!

Here are some pics, I haven't received it yet.

 

[schwiz]

Yeah that headstock is F'd. It almost looks like the previous owner tried to tighten the locking mechanism too tight and it just snapped... or he/she smacked the back of the headstock realllllly hard. I would say that looks beyond repairable. Luckily you could probably find another neck on eBay for cheap

...but to your question: go GREEN! Leave the pick guard silver and do a green or blue with blue pickups. That would be cool!

 

[RV350ALSCYTHE]

This happened to my cousin's jackson, which I'll be fixing. The guitar fell and the headstock broke nearly identical to this.

I've seen much worse repaired. I've repaired a broken headstock in a much worse state. epiphone right behind the nut where the neck volute (or lack of volute) curves into the headstock. What a pain to clamp properly.
Terrible gibson design.

Do a dry run with clamps to make sure everything fits nicely together. If it does then glue it and clamp it. The only real issue is if the splintered wood doesn't fit together and requires a lot of detail work to line it all up and get a solid join.

 

[Pikka Bird]

According to plenty of tutorials online that's a semi-easy fix. Do you know if the face of the headstock has a fiber plate? Anyways, I'd get some water based wood glue and thin it a little so it's properly runny. Then I'd open the crack as much as possible before it splits completely and pour some of the thinned glue into it. Wiggle the headstock back and forth a little to work the glue into the fissure and then perhaps apply a little more before closing it up and clamping. Wipe off the excess with a damp cloth and you will have a pretty clean looking fix already.

edit: Here's a tutorial from the best Ibby resource on the webz!

 

[tssb]

headless !!!

 

[Dores]

Just wanted to give you guys a heads up on what's going on. I glued the headstock back on with some titebond, and decided to pimp the body with some ghetto spraypainting techniques.

Here's the final result:

Good enough for me! And it plays really well. Best $90 I've spent in a long time.

 

[craigny]

Win dude

 

[Cloudy]

Came out great!