Well Paddy, I am a dumb a$$ on such matters however I would like to maybe put a smile on your face if it's possible considering your mishap. So here goes. They have two locations. BTW what happened if you don't mind my asking? I would contact Doug Spencer at Short Mountain. http://www.shortmountainguitars.com/default.html He has done a LOT of restoration for the Opry and Museums in Nashville on instruments that were damaged by the floods. He is my "go to" guy for repairs on my vintage instruments. He is fair in his pricing. Unless someone here can help you with the repair. In any event good luck to you.
I'm no luthier, but I had a similar problem once and everybody said they could fix it except for one old fella who said I'd may as well replace the neck. After trying all the other solutions, that's what I did. Nothing held. I'm sure someone can make a pretty close replica. The job they did on my 1931 OMI Dobro looks exactly like the original right down to the aging process. They even took the fretboard from the old neck as well as the Dobro sticker, and put it on the new neck.
The heel split is pretty common on the Chinese metal bodies. They splice the heel on, as they do on a standard guitar. but because the metal bodys don't offer the same support a wood body does ( neck not glued to the body) all the stress of the dowel stick goes right the the heel splice point. Sorry for the crash.
The breaks look to be clean, with good area to reglue at the heel and not so much at the peghead. This looks like a job for hot hide glue (structurally sound, stronger than wood, does not creep & holds up to heat better than epoxies or PVAs like Titebond):
http://frets.com/FretsPages/pagelist.html . Scroll down to "Broken Headstocks"
If you don't personally have experience with this type of repair, take it to a competent repair person or luthier with experience in hot hide glue repair.
Much of the remaining "value" in your instrument is in the metal body---lots of craftsmanship, and silver soldering, and non-duplicatable parts. On the other hand you have a neck which appears to be broken at the heel split AND at the headstock too. So there is a DOUBLE repair and a question of TWO (neck) repairs---time and money. I suggest finding a luthier for a neck REPLACEMENT. Specify a one piece neck so you don't have that glued on piece at the heel cap. Salvage and transfer the fingerboard, nut, and tuners. Make sure your luthier is given the old neck to properly copy or transfer the internal neck ROD that goes inside all the way up to the heel. This long rod is essential support in a metal body. The pictures seem to indicate that a total neck replacement may be a longer lasting, better repair---if it is a one piece neck---compared to messing around with gluing up an import neck in 2 different high stress locations. You may find that doing it right with a replacement neck would only be a few dollars more than the time and labor of the double re-gluing and re-finishing the current splinters. Be sure to get a luthier with previous experience on metal body. Many say they can do it, BUT it is a whole different animal from acoustic wood body repair.
I'd contact Republic to see if they can sell you a replacement neck. For what it's worth, I had Frank Ford (of Frets.com fame) repair a Dobro resonator mandolin that had a broken headstock, and you cannot see or feel the break at all. He is the owner of Gryphon Stringed Instruments in Palo Alto, CA, one of the finest acoustic instrument shops on the West Coast.
Only problem with getting one from Republic is he would still have the same neck construction. I think Tom's recommendation is best. Send the neck to Doug and he will build you a one piece that will last. YMMV just my usual .01 cent worth.
Well, I figure it's time to weigh in with my 2 cents. Actually quite a bit more than that. I bought this trainwreck from Paddy. I have been eyeballing tri-cones for a while now, and this just seemed like a good project. I was going to take some pics to post up on the repair, but I am just too busy right now - so my apologies for that. First I removed the neck. This involved carefully routing out the pearl fret markers in the fretboard extension, they have screws under them that go into a block of wood inside the body. Once I got the neck free, I decieded to tackle the heel crack first. I was able to open it up, and glue both sides quite well, then clamp it in a jig I had from another job a long time back. The glue I used is called 'Resourcinal'. NO, it's not special glue for Reso's, despite the name! It is a two component Urea'Formaldehyde glue. They use it on things like wooden airplane propellers, and exterior plywood. It's the brownish-purple glue you see in-between the plys. This is good stuff, no creep, waterproof, withstands high temps, and is permanent. After the heel split set up well, I went to the head, to see what that was going to take. It was a very clean break, and I was able to again glue the head on using the same glue, and clamp it tightly. That was late last week, I hope to get back on it later this week after the glue fully cures. The neck wood really isn't all that great, and as a backup plan I am going to make a pattern of the neck while it's out. If it doesn't hold up, I'll lamininate a new one from some nice Walnut blanks I have lying about. More later Folks.
Well, the neck's back on. After gluing up the cracked heel I set up a jig to hold the head in the correct alignment witht eh neck and glued it on. After letting the glue cure for a week or so I first did a test fit to see what the neck angle looked like. I also wanted to test out the repairs - even though everything looked solid the real test is stringing it up. So I grabbed a set of lights I had and strung it up. Everything held fine, but the string relief was too much to suit me. So I pulled it all apart, and trimmed the neckstick back about a quarter of an inch. After putting everything back, I shimmed the neckstick to be held solidly. ( After trimming it, I had to shim between the backside posts and neckstick. ) I also cut a new endblock thet fit more tightly in the space between the neckstick and tailpiece of the guitar body. After re-assembling it and stringing it up ( again with lights) the string relief is just right for fretting well up the neck, and also allows for slide work. I have some medium gauge strings coming in that should help the tone and playability with the slide. I didn't mess with doing any touch up on the repairs yet. I figure that once I'm staisfied things are solid I want to do a worn distressed finish on it. I'll probably sand down the back of the neck to mimic playing wear, and but a few well placed dings in it,just to give it that true 'Vintage' look.
I just pulled my Republic tricone apart and reliced the neck too. It always bugged me that the body was aged but the neck looked so shiny and new. I patterned the wear after the original neck on my '32 Duolian. The green scrubby pads work great. I also used a rat tailed file and put a cigarette burn on it. Changed the tuners to Stew-Mac Golden Age ones. Looks much better....
Well, the neck's back on. After gluing up the cracked heel I set up a jig to hold the head in the correct alignment witht eh neck and glued it on. After letting the glue cure for a week or so I first did a test fit to see what the neck angle looked like. I also wanted to test out the repairs - even though everything looked solid the real test is stringing it up. So I grabbed a set of lights I had and strung it up. Everything held fine, but the string relief was too much to suit me. So I pulled it all apart, and trimmed the neckstick back about a quarter of an inch. After putting everything back, I shimmed the neckstick to be held solidly. ( After trimming it, I had to shim between the backside posts and neckstick. ) I also cut a new endblock thet fit more tightly in the space between the neckstick and tailpiece of the guitar body. After re-assembling it and stringing it up ( again with lights) the string relief is just right for fretting well up the neck, and also allows for slide work. I have some medium gauge strings coming in that should help the tone and playability with the slide. I didn't mess with doing any touch up on the repairs yet. I figure that once I'm staisfied things are solid I want to do a worn distressed finish on it. I'll probably sand down the back of the neck to mimic playing wear, and but a few well placed dings in it,just to give it that true 'Vintage' look.
LOL - sorry, I'm pretty slow at posting pics, just too many irons in the fire. I have been playing this quite a bit lately. I'm currently working on 'Little Martha' . The neck repair seems to be quite stable and solid. I changed the neck angle while I had it apart, and it frets pretty well all the way up, but the action is still high enough to play slide on. I still need to replace the abalone dots over the screws in the body, and I want to distress the neck. I plan on doing a lot of this next string change. I'll get some pics up then. I also want to pull the bridge and strip the black paint off it. I have read that this makes a huge difference in the tone, although I really like the way it sounds now. I love the extra sustain that a tri-cone gives compared to a single biscuit cone type guitar. BTW, these are very well made, and a great value for the $$. If someone is looking at buying a tricone, or even a single cone metal body, I would highly reccomend Republic.......
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