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I've been fighting with this most of the day.

Everything started totally text book. The fingerboard extension released cleanly, quickly and without much effort. Pulled the 15th fret and found the neck pocket on my first try. But as I proceeded to steam the neck apart, it wouldn't budge.

I'd scored the finish around the neck, and was able to get a tiny (very tiny) amount of movement and could see the finish was broken around the joint without any chipping. I got a palette knife in between the neck and the body, it seems like the cheeks were glued, so I worked that around the whole dovetail and got it mostly opened, but still no neck release.

With all my steam and effort the fret board started to separate over the neck more than I'd like, but I was at a loss, and figured since I'd have to re-glue it anyway I might as well take a look inside and see what's going on so I removed the extension.

Nothing obvious. I'm tired and frustrated.

This guitar had been re-topped at one point, so I suppose anything is possible as far as glue in the joint is concerned, but with how easy the extension came apart I assumed the neck would have been glued in the same way.

Any suggestions would be most appreciated.

If it was retopped it's likely got some tough glue in there that is not hide glue. How are you applyong pressure to the heel to push it out?

The stew mac neck removal jig...

Conor.... I got a tough one off once by padding the top with blocks and using a big c-clamp and a pad. I applied pressure with the clamp slowly, going a turn every 10 minutes. It finally slid out easy as you please, but it took a half-hour.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

Wow that is a tough one. We are known to take the steam probe and steam it all up in and around the joint from the outside thinking that too much glue glued the cheeks to the rim and such.

I like Chris's idea using time and patience to your advantage.

Just make sure that however you are pushing it out as Dan suggested that there is enough push. Some people who reset fit the dovetail so that a considerable "tonk" is necessary to seat it. Then with steam, moisture and expansion there is now a mechanical bond to the joint regardless of the glue. May be time for a bigger hammer which is what we refer to as a "Gibson Tool..."

Thanks Chris, I assume that during that half hour of wrestling with the C-clamp you were also keeping the joint heated with steam?

I was thinking that the joint probably needed some time to dry out a bit as all the moisture probably had swollen things a bit. Looking down into the exposed joint it does look incredibly tight.

So you don't mind hitting the outside of the joint with the steam? Blushing isn't a concern?

I think I probably need to look at my steam source carefully too. It's an old espresso machine, but my steam needle has started belching as much water as steam...

It's a concern but when it happens we deal with it. Some Martins from the 70's used tons of glue and the neck cheeks are firmly glued to the rim and this has to be done.

A steam probe the produces water is highly suspect as part of the problem here, I would replace it and whatever until I had a good source of copious amounts of steam.

I confess, I tried a mallet...

A little reconstructive surgery, and some blush to deal with but I win.

Don't force it - get a bigger hammer!
- My Uncle Bob, the plumber.

_________________
"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

I guess this might be one of the ones that required a considerable "tonk". Putting the neck back into the pocket this is as far as I can push it in by hand, and at this point it is tight to get out. It still needs to go another 1/8". There are no shims in the pocket, so I'm assuming when the guitar was re-topped (in the 70's) the repair person was able to simply remove the neck and reinstall it as it was.

So I suppose my question is...

If I find that once I remove the necessary material from the base of the heel to re-set the neck angle, and the dove tail is still very tight and won't seat all the way down, should I proceed as if there were shims and remove material from the actual dove tail until it sits properly?

Yes. Be aware that the application of wet glue will make the wood swell a bit so the neck will be even tighter when setting it.