How to Examine The Headstock of a Used Guitar: Part 1

Video Transcript

"KIP BRADFORD: Hi, my name's Kip and I'm here on behalf of Expert Village. Today, we're taking a look at the used acoustic guitar and with the idea that you're going to purchase one for its learning on or to try to get one that's inexpensive. We're not talking about vintage instruments at this point. We've just taken a look at the fret board and now it's time to take a look at the nut and the headstock. Now this, this is the nut, this white piece here. They could be made out of plastic or it can be made out of bone. And what you're looking for again, always, everything you look at you want to look for separation between the two surfaces that it comes into contact with to see if that's fine. Sometimes, you'll find one, where the whole nut is missing. It's just gone. It fell out because the glue got brittle and just fell off and you don't have the strings there holding it in place. But it should be glued in. If you find one that's loose, do not put super glue on there and glue that dude back in there. Take it to a local store and have them do it properly. You don't need a lot of glue either, because sometimes you have to take it off and put a new one because the strings will wear into the slots, into the string slots. That's not a horrible repair if they get too low, because you could put a dot of super glue in the string slot, let it harden and then re-file, and you can do that yourself if you have to. Take the proper string gauge in the slot and run it back and forth to work that super glue out. But you're looking for cracks. It is what you're really looking for in the nut. The other thing that we're going to take and look at will be on the back of the guitar where the neck and the headstock come together. This point here, on the back, is a common place to have your instrument break. So if you take and look right in this area, look and see if there's a crack. Now, oddly enough, the headstock break is not that expensive of a repair. It just doesn't look very nice when it's done. It looks okay, if you take it to the right guy, but it doesn't-it'll always be there and you'll always see it and it's very common especially with Gibson Les Paul's to break right here. But it happens anywhere, because you lean the guitar against the wall instead of in its proper stand. Someone puts a little pressure on the guitar and this is where it's going to take most of that force. So look and see if there's any cracking going on right there."