You can remove the protective film by carefully rubbing an edge of the pickguard with the meat of your thumb until you raise a blister (on the film, not your thumb), and then pulling upward on the film; or just leave it in place until it begins to shed from normal handling. (oops, ninja’d by the master).
To me nothing sounds as good as a Strat, and those Vintage Noiseless pickups are about as good as it gets. Congrats.
Thanks folks. Reassuring to hear it’s probably not the top layer of the scratchplate peeling off. 
I’m absolutely amazed that this Guitar was repaired. You can not tell it was ever broken.
I would have assumed this guitar was headed for the dumpster. A skill luthier can do amazing work.
I’m sure this repair didn’t come cheap. But the cost doesn’t matter, if it’s a vintage instrument that you care about.
Having insurance helps too. Since the airline broke it.
I learned a lot from this video. I didn’t realize there’s a head cap glued to the wood.
https://www.sweetwater.com/insync/extremely-broken-things-repairing-dweezil-zappas-1-guitar/?utm_content=article1-image&utm_source=insync&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20170902-insync-non-aes
First of all, yes, a great luthier can do miracles. Watching someone like TJ Thompson restore a kicked-in prewar Martin is a thing to behold. In the guitar world, the best ones have long waiting lists.
That repair looks great. I see the light reflect off the neck, showing the laid-in splines, so it’s always apparent somethings been done, but if I am getting the feel and sound I want then yay.
Yes, Gibsons have a faceplate. Holly wood, sliced thin and dyed black. Covers up the mess of the truss rod carve out. Easy to cut to add the logo, bindings. Seals well and accepts decals. The back of Gibson headstocks are typically the wood of the neck. In rare cases where there was a visual defect, Gibson paints on a black Stinger, covering the back of the headstock and finishing to a point. They had not been thought highly of, but have come to be thought of as cool - I love how they look - and now they get added for the look sometimes.
Just Google Gibson Headstock Stinger.
I have seen Gibsons with the black headstock. I never knew what it was called or why they did it.
Thanks for the info Wordman.
I checked American’s policy. Without insurance they will cover up to $3500. For value above that, they offer insurance at $5 per $100 of value, so a $5000 guitar (the maximum amount of insurance coverage you can buy) would cost $45 to insure. And they only insure against loss, not damage. They have a list of exclusions. They do not explicitly exclude musical instruments, but they do exclude “fragile items.” Presumably if they break something they would claim it’s a fragile item, or it would not have broken. They also say, “…the damaged property must be presented to American for repair…” which doesn’t look like what Zappa did.
(I can’t figure out how it broke inside a hard case that looked undamaged.)
I watched that video before it was posted here and was also amazed at the mastery of the work. IIRC the guy said he worked on it 10 hours a day for five solid days. I don’t know the value of the guitar and I don’t know what luthiers charge but I would guess anywhere from $50-100 per hour. 50 hours of labor would have to be in the range of $2500-5000 for that repair. I’m sure someone whose last name is Zappa can afford that but is it really worth it? I don’t know anything about the guitar.
The luthier said he’s seen and repaired Gibsons with the head stock snapped off before. Is that a known defect in their design?
Did you notice the unfilled screw holes when he put the tuners back on? The guy does all that intricate work and refinishes. Why didn’t he take 5 minutes to fill those holes with wood putty? I know putty doesn’t take stain well. But it’s still better than leaving screw holes in the wood.
Yes. Guitars with angled headstocks, esp if made from one piece of wood, are prone to snapping off. Fenders don’t do this. Gibson Firebirds are known for having a case where the neck support is right in the wrong spot: if the case falls flat the headstock snaps off.
I would like to upload my recent playing. I am a sick alcoholic and I need and require some form of legacy. What’s the easiest way?
Vimeo is a good choice. You can easily control access to your videos. Password protect or make it public.
That’s where some of the guitar web sites post lessons. They send me a link and password after I buy a song lesson.
I eventually want to get some of my music recorded. I plan to open a Vimeo account.
Bandmix let’s you post your music with your profile. I’m not sure how much storage they provide. It is a good way for musicians to show off their best work.
I’m very sorry you’re not feeling well.
A friend of mine puts his music on Bandcamp, and recommends it. So do I, the fact that I know almost nothing about it notwithstanding. 
[long, boring story mode]
I’ve also been feeling overdue for a bit of good luck. I stopped into Atomic Music last week, to see what I could get for selling them a couple of axes and amps; and of course, being the gearwhore that I am, saw a FrankenTele I liked - with a humbucker in the neck position - but decided to wait. The price wasn’t right; FrankenTeles should be included free in the price of a new set of strings, is my stubbornly uneducated outlook.
So today I flop into a pawnshop and spy, hanging on the wall, an odd duck - a “Fender” Tele with another neck humbucker, and a brown-stained 1 piece body. The wood’s not pine, and the grain’s too uniformly dense to be ash or alder - what the heck is it? Either there’s a seam hiding here somewhere, or this thing came from a log the size of Angus MacAskill’s overcoat.
The neck, too, has a funny feel to it - thin toward the nut, but beefy in the shoulders, with a fretboard that holds an indefinably odd feel. Is it warped? No. Is it twisted? OK, maybe very slightly? But whatever, it plays fine, and sounds ballsy as hell, especially in switch position number 1 of 4. Wait, a 4 position switch? OK, it’s customized, or maybe even a counterfeit, right?
Nowhere on the guitar does it say where it was made, but the neckplate has a “Limited Edition” stamp on it. The price is right for a used Squire, so it was probably Hecho en Mexico, but with some phony pretensions toward being something above its station. Whatever. It’s a good guitar, it’s cheap - like its new owner; and it’s coming home with Old Baldy.
Once at home, we can check the provenance. And… Oh, krap!
It’s all there: compound radius neck, reclaimed (from the 1930’s) redwood body, compensating bridge saddles, a real, honest-to-goshness Limitated Edition hot rod from the Shender Fustom Cop. Sounds like Godzilla’s Drunken Uncle, runs like a scalded ape, and bought for pennies on the dollar.
I had no idea. If ignorance is bliss, then I’m extra ignorant today. I might just have to keep this one.
Now, do I go back to the pawn shop and complain about the lack of a case? 
[/long, boring story mode]
OK, serious question:
Let’s say a guy (some guy, two arms, two legs; could be anybody, really) has inadvertently bought a stolen musical instrument (could be any instrument: banjo, ukulele, anything) from somewhere, and doesn’t want to keep it if it is, in fact, stolen, and would like to get the stolen instrument back to its rightful owner, wherever he/she is.
How would such a guy (or person, really doesn’t have to be a guy, could be a lady person) determine if the instrument (or whatever) is stolen, and if it is, get the thing (could be a rock, even!) back to its rightful owner with a minimum of fuss?
Thanks in advance for your (or anybody’s!) consideration of this important topic. 
FoisGras - I hope you get what you need.
EtF - a noble hypothetical intent. Is there any sense that the instrument was stolen locally? Call the police for examples reported stolen??
Yeah. Well, if it was stolen, but not locally, I wonder if that would help? Is there a national database for such things?
And I was really hoping that there might be a way to return it with a little less fuss. “Fuss” being defined as arrests, torture, deportations, executions, etc.
Ah well, guess I’ll have to call the local PD and ask.
Yeah, unless you have others clues, I got nuthin’. Good luck!!
Pawn shops are required to provide police a list of merchandise they take in.
The police check that list frequently after local burglaries.
I wouldn’t be concerned about a Pawn shop guitar that I purchased.
I would like to ask some kind-hearted guitar person if he or she might know the chords to “Damn This Traffic Jam” by James Taylor?
I have already done google, the lyric/chord sites, requested it on Ultimate Guitar, but I get nothing.
Anyone?
Thanks
Q
Good to see you Quasi - I have no clue about the song, sorry. I can do a ham-handed Fire & Rain but that’s my JT repertoire right there.
How I hate to be late, it hurts my motor to go so slow…"?
Doesn’t ring a familiar note?
Hi to you as well, WordMan! 
Yeah, I wouldn’t fret too much about your pawn shop bargain, ETF. The pawn shop and presumably the previous owner didn’t know what they had, that’s not an indication of it being stolen.
Quasimodem, I can’t even find recordings of that song online. It’s like Taylor did a damnatio memoriae on it.