Official Luthiers Forum!

(... Will they never stop??)

More than a year ago, my daughter found my old Norma in a closet somewhere, my first guitar from back in the day. This git had been through siblings, nephews, nieces - really around the horn. Over the course of time somebody had tuned it way to high, resulting in the neck joint pulling away so (of course) I decided to do a neck reset.

It all went ok, I used heat where the fretboard joins the body and cut under that without too much damage. I built a steamer and because I had a gap at the bottom of the throat to push the needle in - it took more time to build a jig with a clamp than it did to push the neck off. Anyway, it came off cleanly and is in my garage drying.

From the pictures, you can see that the dovetail is really short - not really much to glue and prolly the reason it pulled away in the first place. There's quite a bit of play there.



Now onto all the questions about getting this back and working:

Yellow or hide? I think I've heard "either", but thought I should check

Is there a good way to pin it once it's been glued up? I would like the extra security of something metal in there.

What should I use to glue the fretboard to the body, just a drop at the end so that I can cut it away in the future? Should I even glue the fretboard to the body, I read something a while ago that makes me think that it's not supposed to be glued-down (but maybe I misread)

I was surprised that the finish took such a beating from the steam. I don't know that I care that much about how it looks, though. Even though, is the damage from steaming a wax/buff sort of thing or is it a clearcoat sort of thing?

Thanks for any help on this - Mark

Mark- It's the fit of the dovetail, not the glue, that holds the joint together. You should be able to do the resetting work, shim the joint with paper shims, and then string to pitch to check your work without glue. If the heel has play or pivots out from the pocket under tension, use more shim until it fits tightly. Then use a wood shim of the same thickness for the final fit and glue. I use HHG.

You do want to glue down the tongue using a thin layer of glue. Be sure to clean the surfaces and ensure a good dry fit before gluing.

You can use Behkol to gently wipe away the blushing left from steaming.

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It will probably be alright.

Greg - thanks for the reply, everything seems to be straightfoward (other than the required craftsmanship part). I'll do as you've detailed here and will post any further questions (and maybe post a picture or two).

It's a real rush to work on these things.

He's hooked lolololol

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"....lolololol"

Or should that be "..... BWAHHAHAHA"

It's a slippery slope-ha!

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