Early 1970's Harmony H6365

DAY 2 - Removed the neck, about 3 minutes of steam w/some pressure & wiggling. Put a fan on the sound hole to blow the steam away, no blushing.    Didn't angle in far enough to hit the pocket on the treble side, the heat & steam caused some swelling in the neck & neck block. Clamped the treble side neck & neck block areas. Scraped pickguard & added the adhesive sheet, scraped the pickguard area on the top. Sanded the bridge area, scraped the bottom of the bridge. Did a layout on the top & bridge for the Bridge Doctor holes, drilled the .166" hole in the top (slightly short of the desired 9/32").










Typical excess hide glue.








Attempting to clamp the bulge.



Scraped the glue off the back of the pickguard.


I save all the scrap pieces of the pickguard adhesive sheets.  It's time to start using some of them.




Clamped.



Did a layout and drilled the hole in the top for the Bridge Doctor.

DAY 4 - Leveled the frets. Restuck the pickguard.

Fret tops marked.


Leveled the 14th & 15th frets with the Fret Kisser.




The setup with the guitar vise.


Frets leveled.



Placed the pickguard on the top, applied pieces of tape and alignment marks.


PRACTICED clamping.




Put tape over the bridge and most of the fretboard extension area.  Removed the adhesive backing.  Sprayed both parts with slightly soapy water.


Aligned and stuck the pickguard and clamped.

DAY 6 - The neck projects 7/32" (.22") below the top of the bridge!!  That's low!  The neck projects is very close to being centered. Set the tape on the heel at .08", filed & sanded to the tape. The neck now projects .03" below the top of the bridge!  I expected slightly above the top of the bridge!

DAY 8 - After removing the angle iron and and cushions from the label I realize the date code is on the label!!  But as usual it isn't clear.  If I didn't know any better I'd guess 5-77, but I'm pretty sure it's S-72. To the right is the inspectors initials, and MADE IN THE USA below.




And I soaked thin superglue into top crack above neck block and sanded.





I used the saddle slot file to "flatten" the bottom of the saddle slot, and installed the new Stew Mac tuner bushings

Clamped the guitar in the neck jig & tuned to "D". The printed saddle holder leans in the slot, it needs to be thicker, since I didn't record it's actual thickness I will have to remove it to measure. The nut action is close. The neck relief is good low E and maybe a little low high E. The neck a very slightly off towards the bass side (need to take off the treble side). The action is (with a .013" feeler capoed at the 1st fret) 9/32" low E & a little over 7/32" high E. The saddle sticks out .22"/.20". the strings are about 9/16" above the top!! Drilled (2) 1/8" holes in the top near the ends of the bridge saddle slot to be able to push the insert out.

First stringing!!




The saddle holder is leaning.  I'll print another one that is a bit thicker.


Stew Mac replacement tuner bushing. The Harmony bushings are .25" outside diameter in a .26" hole, they always fall out when you change the strings.  This guitar was missing 3.  The new ones are .262"/.264", a nice press fit.  They won't be falling out.

DAY 11 - Printed an .005" oversize saddle holder to sand for a slight press fit to hopefully eliminate the lean. The original saddle had a definite interference fit, and the new saddle is much higher certainly causing the lean, I'm hoping the action settles in a little higher so I can lower the saddle slightly.

Sanded the sides of the new saddle holder slightly and pressed it in, probably a .002" interference fit. It was tough to get it in, and it wouldn't go all the way down, then I realized I didn't break the bottom edges. Used a .105" gage pin (thru the holes I drilled in the saddle slot) to push it out (with difficulty!), sanded the bottom corners of the saddle holder, and pressed it to full depth. The saddle is tighter, as expected.

Then I realized the apparent "lean" was probably mostly the slight taper on the back of the bridge.  An optical delusion. 


Glued (2) shims to each side of the dovetail, the dovetail fit in the body was perfect on the treble side, and only a tiny bit of sanding on the bass side. Buffed the body abound the heel & FB areas. Glued the neck on with fish glue.

CTGull ,Great work!!!