By appearance I see pads ripped off. Also the bare wire looks like the one on one relationship with the other bare wire on the other side of the bus. I would assume the black goes to the partial pad just above, the bus would need to be bridged with a solder blob and he will need a very small tip on a variable solder Iron. IMHO, If he doesn't have access to a good solder station, it's probably cheaper to buy new head phones.