u/alexyz715

Someone dropped off this guitar (a Gibson-style ES-335, supposedly a Custom Shop model—though I’m not entirely sure if it’s authentic, but that’s not the point). The headstock was broken. Clearly, he tried to glue it back together themselves using the wrong adhesive and even drove three screws and nuts straight through the wood—obviously, it didn’t hold.

I was planning to cut away the glue-filled sections, do a mahogany graft, then reshape the neck and headstock. But I suddenly had serious doubts: I wanted a straightforward repair, gluing the pieces with a 90° cut. However, to better withstand string tension, shouldn’t I instead use a trapezoid-shaped sculpted graft? How would you approach this?