Hey All,
I just purchased a Les Paul 2000 from a guy on craigslist. Sweet guitar! The only problem is that the previous owner somehow broke the head off of the screw that holds the truss rod cover on. The cover is still intact, but I can't put it on because most of the screw is still embedded in there. I would be fine w/ it off, except that it's really ugly because the wood is unfinished where the cover is meant to be on.
Any suggestions on what to do? Thanks
it's kind of small for a screw extractor. depending upon what shape the remaining screw is in, I'd probably try to slot the exposed screw shaft with a Dremel tool and then use a jeweler's flatblade screwdriver to coax it out. or mask off the area around the screw and glue a piece of metal or plastic to the remaining piece and use that to "unscrew" the screw. probably not enough surface area for Superglue, but maybe either epoxy or a polyester glue would work. masking off the surrounding area is going to be key for this.
-=tension & release=-
Oh man, that's going to be hard! I doubt that glue will hold the torque needed to unscrew it.
"A cheerful heart is good medicine."
Yeah, I'm not too hopeful. Thanks for the suggestions gnease. I might take it the local music store and see if the tech has any ideas
Not sure if you would want to try this, but I once saw a guy remove a small broken off screw like this. He put drops of water into the area to soften the wood/swell the area, & when it was very wet/soft, used an appropriate size needle nose pliers, working along with a small tip screwdriver to gingerly work the screw out.
It worked very well for him. After the wood dried, the hole shrunk back to original size & everything looked good. Don't know it this would be the thing to do in this case or not - just thought I would throw it out there...
Good luck, whatever you try.
alright...maybe something to try. I guess I should mention that it's an Agile AL2000, not a "les paul 2000." I must have been tired when i typed this last night
You'd have to get enough metal protruding from the wood to grip with the needlenoses for that to work. Several swelling/shrinking cycles might back out a tapered wood screw a bit.
"A cheerful heart is good medicine."
i'm actually considering getting some black paint or a permanent marker and coloring over those unfinished spots. It would look great then and it's not like i paid much for the guitar
It's still a nice guitar. If there's a way of fixing it without too much expense, do it.
"A cheerful heart is good medicine."
i suppose you are right. It won't hurt to ask
i asked a guitar repair guy at the local music store. He said that since it broke off so deep, it probably wouldn't come out very well - and it would probably cause further damage to try. What he DID do was to find a new, larger truss rod cover and put a new hole in it. Looks great again! Doesn't say "2000" on it, but that's no big deal
good solution. maybe you have enough room to get '20000' engraved on it? :wink:
-=tension & release=-
