1959 Fender Precision

01

Soggy Headstock

This P-bass suffered severe water damage and was really coming apart.

02

Headstock in pieces

The headstock was broken and deformed enough to require a complete rebuild.

03

New headstock - face

Here we've scarf-jointed a whole new headstock onto the neck.

04

New headstock - back

Here's a rear view of the new headstock.

05

New headstock - side

Here's a side view of the new headstock roughed-in.

06

Milling Headstock Splines

Here we're milling slots into the headstock and neck for the splines that will be used to reinforce the scarf joint.

07

Splines - back

Here's a view of the back of the headstock and neck after the splines were put in place.

08

Splines - front

Here you can see the newly-installed splines from the front of the headstock.

09

Spline shaping - front

Next we re-shape everything to make it look like a bass headstock again.

10

splines - shaping - rear

Here you can see the back of the neck and headstock after re-shaping everything.

11

splines - rear - 3/4 view shaped

Everything is shaped like a neck again.

12

splines - headstock face 3/4

The front of the headstock, ready for touchup to begin.

13

Headstock face - opaqued

After spraying color to conceal the splines, things are starting to look good again.

14

headstock face color

Splines? What splines?

15

headstock - color - rear

There's little obvious evidence left of the repair.

16

fretted and finished

Here we've got some frets again and the finish work is about done.

17

body hole-plugging

Filling some big voids in the body, and re-routing the wiring cavities.

18

complete bass front

Everything's put back together, ready to play some bass lines.

19

complete - front close

20

complete - rear view

21

complete - headstock rear

22

complete - headstock face

New decal, hardware cleaned up, it hardly looks used!