Marcelo1281734115 Posted December 26, 2008 Share Posted December 26, 2008 Hello, sorry that this is not an Epi question, but perhaps the old timers here can help me with this vintage guitar. My brother has this El Degas Made-in-Japan guitar that he bought new in 1978 or so. It is similar to the Gibson L6S Custom in the link below, the one in the large picture at the top-center with the natural finish. The only difference I can see to the Gibson is that the El Degas has a humbucker without a cover at the neck (but the bridge pickup is covered) and the neck of the El Degas is a bolt-on. My brother took this guitar apart years ago as he was building a flying-V body in woodshop at his high-school and was going to use the neck and electronics from the El Degas for that project. Even though the guitar is 30 years old, it has no sentimental value to him and he is giving it to me to tinker with. I want it because my son loves the look of this guitar, it seems like it is made entirely out of maple, it is in brand-new condition (which is rare for an old guitar) but I am missing a few pieces like the the bolt and threaded inserts for both the tailpiece and bridge, but I have the tailpiece and the bridge itself. I am willing to restore it to new condition and by the looks of it, this should be fairly easy. The guitar is 1000 miles away at his place and he wants to ship it to me. http://www.vintageguitars.org.uk/gibsonL6S.php Anyhow, here is my problem, the guitar has a bolt-on neck and after removing it and reinstalling onto the guitar many times, my brother eventually shreared one of the neck screws near the tip and it broke off and still lies buried inside the neck portion of the guitar. My dad approached a few people that work in metal machine shops to get the screw-tip out of the neck, but they told him that they will damage the wood trying to do this, or they will have to remove a bunch of wood around the screw-tip to get at the screw-tip it and this will no longer support a neck screw anymore. I thought of drilling it all out into a large size hole and using a maple dowel to fill the hole and re-drill a new hole into the dowel. My dad also thought for the machine shop guys to weld a rod to the screw-tip and then twist it off until it comes out, but the wood will get burned from the welding if they do this. I wish I had pictures to see how deep the screw-tip is in there, but I guess is that it must be flush with the surface of the neck tenon area. Has anyone any ideas on how to fix this problem as I think that reinstalling the neck with only 3 screws may not give me enough support, But I am not 100% sure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarxBros Posted December 26, 2008 Share Posted December 26, 2008 Hello' date=' sorry that this is not an Epi question, but perhaps the old timers here can help me with this vintage guitar. My brother has this El Degas Made-in-Japan guitar that he bought new in 1978 or so. It is similar to the Gibson L6S Custom in the link below, the one in the large picture at the top-center with the natural finish. The only difference I can see to the Gibson is that the El Degas has a humbucker without a cover at the neck (but the bridge pickup is covered) and the neck of the El Degas is a bolt-on. My brother took this guitar apart years ago as he was building a flying-V body in woodshop at his high-school and was going to use the neck and electronics from the El Degas for that project. Even though the guitar is 30 years old, it has no sentimental value to him and he is giving it to me to tinker with. I want it because my son loves the look of this guitar, it seems like it is made entirely out of maple, it is in brand-new condition (which is rare for an old guitar) but I am missing a few pieces like the the bolt and threaded inserts for both the tailpiece and bridge, but I have the tailpiece and the bridge itself. I am willing to restore it to new condition and by the looks of it, this should be fairly easy. The guitar is 1000 miles away at his place and he wants to ship it to me. http://www.vintageguitars.org.uk/gibsonL6S.php Anyhow, here is my problem, the guitar has a bolt-on neck and after removing it and reinstalling onto the guitar many times, my brother eventually shreared one of the neck screws near the tip and it broke off and still lies buried inside the neck portion of the guitar. My dad approached a few people that work in metal machine shops to get the screw-tip out of the neck, but they told him that they will damage the wood trying to do this, or they will have to remove a bunch of wood around the screw-tip to get at the screw-tip it and this will no longer support a neck screw anymore. I thought of drilling it all out into a large size hole and using a maple dowel to fill the hole and re-drill a new hole into the dowel. My dad also thought for the machine shop guys to weld a rod to the screw-tip and then twist it off until it comes out, but the wood will get burned from the welding if they do this. I wish I had pictures to see how deep the screw-tip is in there, but I guess is that it must be flush with the surface of the neck tenon area. Has anyone any ideas on how to fix this problem as I think that reinstalling the neck with only 3 screws may not give me enough support, But I am not 100% sure. [/quote']I know the exact guitar you are talking about. I had a few El Degas years back. They were typical import stuff, this particular one was a knock off of the Santana L6S Gibson. Nothing special to speak of, even the real Gibson LS6 is a bit of a boat anchor itself. I had a few and always ended up selling em off. As far as the screw problem careful drilling with a drill press should be able to drill out the screw with minimal loss of neck wood. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron G Posted December 26, 2008 Share Posted December 26, 2008 Screw extractors Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarxBros Posted December 26, 2008 Share Posted December 26, 2008 Screw extractors Given the small amount of screw he has to work with, I don't think an ez out will work in this case. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marcelo1281734115 Posted December 26, 2008 Author Share Posted December 26, 2008 I have to find someone with a drill press and a steady hand to try drilling it out. We need to make sure the bit is short so that there little bending when the pressure is put on it and that a depth is set so that we don't go more than a millimeter or two at a time. Then maybe after this, we can insert an extractor into the hole and remove the screw. So far my brother could not get any volunteers to try this for him. It is very easy for the drill bit to slide off the screw and drill into the wood just beside the screw. Another choice is to dig around the screw and remove some wood to get at the screw with a needle-nose pliers or a locking pliers. Then I would still have a bit of wood left under this for the new screw to secure the neck (but it will look sloppy). I will post some pictures when I get this guitar completed. I guess that my brother does not have any sentimental value because this guitar never made him "feel good" about owning it. This guitar looks like a lot like "child's guitar", I guess, and the pickups never sounded good and the guitar itself was a constant reminder that he was too poor to own a better guitar, poverty sucks!. I guess that his friends played some nice LP clones at the time and he just was not proud of showing this guitar to his friends. He eventually bought an Onyx a few years later that looks like the Aria Cardinal guitars that Matsomuko made in Japan in the early 1980s. This one was a "man's guitar" and he used it to jam with his friends. He still has the Onyx, but the darn thing weights about 15lbs. It is like hauling 2 SG's around, lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ef_in_fla Posted December 27, 2008 Share Posted December 27, 2008 Well if it seems to be in "brand new condition" what the heck was he pulling the neck off so many times he broke a screw? You'll probably have to dig the screw out, but after some patchwork and a neck plate it shouldn't be any big deal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ricochet Posted December 27, 2008 Share Posted December 27, 2008 Why don't you glue the neck on? Even though the guitar may be old, it's not like it has any vintage-value... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Posted December 27, 2008 Share Posted December 27, 2008 There's always the plug cutter method, where you use a plug cutter in a drill press to remove the section around the hole where the screw is broken off. The screw will come out in the plug, leaving a round hole. You will have a 1/8 or larger hole afterwards depending on the size of the plug cutter necessary. You then cut a plug out of maple or use a maple dowel (oak is more widely available) and glue it in. Then you drill and install a new screw. Hopefullly, the cup washer you install over all the neck screws will cover the plug and the repair will be hidden. This is more commonly used on stripped neck buttons where the button covers the plug. You might also be able to use the Grab-It conical screw remover that drills a conical hole followed by a conical ez-out type screw remover. You don't have to drill that deep. http://www.getgrabit.com/Default.asp?tcode=pi4&tag=google&gclid=CPXr_sry4JcCFQE0xgodeXg4Cg&bhcp=1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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