Just bought my first ever acoustic guitar (a Taylor Big Baby) used on a local craiglist-equivalent for about 130$. It came in the original gigback which had only one back strap left. I decided to bike home and strap the guitar crosswise on my back.. in hindsight I should have realised that the one strap could not be trusted. Anyway I biked for about 3m before the strao broke off completely and the guitar fell on the asphalt. Upon arriving home I found the damage you can see in the picture :( The tuning peg of the G string was very crooked, I pressed it back in shape and for the moment it seems relatively stable..
What do you think I should do? try to glue the piece together myself? get it done professionally? try to get a replacement headstock? thanks for any advice and condolences!
It’s very hard to get wood glue into a small gap like that. You should remove the piece to apply glue to the entire surface if possible. I just repaired a tiller on a sailboat like this. Don’t try to just get the wood glue in the gap, especially if the gap is small.
I am certified in acoustic guitar repair under a Luthier.
I would heavily advise against removing the wood.
There is still structural integrity by the machine head at the A string. Removing that structural integrity and replacing it by gluing the whole two pieces back together could lead to difficulty keeping it's tuning down the line.
The only proof of my guitar-specific repair knowledge I can provide quickly is that I am aware of stewmac 😁 🎸