Episode 2 of the 1993 Gibson Dove restoration is all about the headstock — and it starts with a surprise.

First off come the old strings (the auction house hadn’t bothered with a fresh set), and then the tuners. The original tuner tips are that snot-green color, ugly but original, so they stay. The odd one out is a silver replacement tuner, fitted with gold screws and gold washers — and the case held two spares, which is where the detective work starts. The original gold Gibson Deluxe tuner is a double-line, single-ring, “Made in Germany” part, with the Gibson Deluxe lettering sitting centered; the replacement carries PW branding instead, with the lettering running right to the edges. The original had picked up some little dings — Jim’s guess is that’s why it was taken off, though what caused them is anyone’s guess — so it gets sanded down (rougher paper than expected) and polished back with Meguiar’s Ultimate Compound until it squeaks, ready to go back on so the all-gold look returns. It isn’t reinstalled in this episode — that’s for once the headstock and neck are cleaned up.

Then the truss rod cover comes off — two-ply, in good shape with just a slight crack at the top, polished back to white — and underneath is the episode’s mystery: a truss rod nut like nothing I’ve seen, tiny, possibly missing something. The neck itself looks untouched — no sign the fretboard was ever replaced, the headstock finish unchanged, no separation — and there’s plenty of adjustability left, so it’s a puzzle to solve rather than a disaster. The guitar had been tuned up to pitch once just to hear it, and it’s extremely loud and bass-heavy, almost like a 12-string. A little buzzing, and the action may come down a touch, but the bones are good.

With the tuners off, the story of this guitar starts to show. The finish underneath the tuners is a darker red, and the washers had pressed themselves into the nitro over the years. Down the neck there are tiny gold-looking micro-dings — most likely from a ring worn by whoever played this guitar a lot — and the finish is worn through on the side in places. Well loved and well played, and the polish should bring a lot of it back.

On to the body: the bridge pins come off, and underneath there’s a synthetic nut and a Headway undersaddle pickup that almost certainly didn’t come with the guitar. The cracks get mapped out — one in the top where the sides are coming out, one older repair that looks stable, the crack running down the sides. The fix is fish glue and clamps, taped off first so no glue goes where it shouldn’t, with a possible touch-up of red lacquer on the rough spots later. No lacquer work where the finish has simply worn away.

Next up is the fretwork — cleaning the fretboard and polishing the frets (Episode 3) — and then the big one, gluing the top back on (Episode 4). Every repair is a step toward the verdict on whether this Dove stays in the collection.

Episode 1 (unboxing): https://youtu.be/A2Of2qDKPtA