Post by CTGull on Jun 30, 2021 19:50:09 GMT -5
This is a guitar I bought 5.5 years ago! It's a made in Taiwan Red label, nearly mint except the bridge has been sanded to nearly 3/16" thick. After adjusting the neck relief, the action was 3/32" low E & 5/64" high E, except only .06" of saddle was sticking out of the bridge. At that time I wasn't doing neck resets, so I put it away.
I started working on this again 2 weeks ago. I noticed the windings of the E, A & D strings were touching the saddle, and the ball ends were a bit into the bridge plate. After removing the strings the neck projected .03"/.04" below the .118"/.17" thick bridge. But, since the bridge had been sanded, the saddle slot was only .09" deep at the ends, not enough to support a taller saddle, it will need to be deepened.
The tuners were very tight so I lubed them.
And started the neck reset. I put tape around the heel corners & scored with the scalpel, separated the fretboard (a little crunchy on the bass side), and drilled the steam holes. Steamed for 8 minutes, feeling it getting loose at 4 minutes, thought it would pop at 7 minutes, but the pusher kept falling off, and the heel lamination was cracking. I stopped, cut heel more, and 5 more minutes and it finally popped. A chunk of the dovetail and top stuck on the bass side. I removed the top from the bottom of the fretboard and glued it back to the top. Minimal blushing. The heel lamination is cracked, and slightly offset on the bass side, I tried to clamp it but all attempts failed, will have to pin tomorrow after it dries, hoping the offset goes back to normal.
3 layers of masking tape and cut the heel corners with a new scalpel.
Cut the bottom of the heel with a .010" saw.
Used a heat shield, 75W halogen bulb & spatula to loosen the fretboard extension.
Wet the 15th fret to soften the wood and reduce the chances of chipping the fretboard.
Pulled the 15th fret.
Drilled (2) 1/16" steam holes.
The setp.
The neck is off, with more difficulty than I initially though.
You can see the chunk of neck dovetail that didn't release. I had to use a chisel to remove it, it was very solid, typical of a tight joint.
Clean on the treble side.
The chunk of wood missing on the bass side dovetail.
Clean on the treble side.
The strip of bass side top stuck. The rosette sticks up too far, preventing getting a clean separation of the fretboard extension from the top.
Gluing the strip of spruce back to the top.
I started working on this again 2 weeks ago. I noticed the windings of the E, A & D strings were touching the saddle, and the ball ends were a bit into the bridge plate. After removing the strings the neck projected .03"/.04" below the .118"/.17" thick bridge. But, since the bridge had been sanded, the saddle slot was only .09" deep at the ends, not enough to support a taller saddle, it will need to be deepened.
The tuners were very tight so I lubed them.
And started the neck reset. I put tape around the heel corners & scored with the scalpel, separated the fretboard (a little crunchy on the bass side), and drilled the steam holes. Steamed for 8 minutes, feeling it getting loose at 4 minutes, thought it would pop at 7 minutes, but the pusher kept falling off, and the heel lamination was cracking. I stopped, cut heel more, and 5 more minutes and it finally popped. A chunk of the dovetail and top stuck on the bass side. I removed the top from the bottom of the fretboard and glued it back to the top. Minimal blushing. The heel lamination is cracked, and slightly offset on the bass side, I tried to clamp it but all attempts failed, will have to pin tomorrow after it dries, hoping the offset goes back to normal.
3 layers of masking tape and cut the heel corners with a new scalpel.
Cut the bottom of the heel with a .010" saw.
Used a heat shield, 75W halogen bulb & spatula to loosen the fretboard extension.
Wet the 15th fret to soften the wood and reduce the chances of chipping the fretboard.
Pulled the 15th fret.
Drilled (2) 1/16" steam holes.
The setp.
The neck is off, with more difficulty than I initially though.
You can see the chunk of neck dovetail that didn't release. I had to use a chisel to remove it, it was very solid, typical of a tight joint.
Clean on the treble side.
The chunk of wood missing on the bass side dovetail.
Clean on the treble side.
The strip of bass side top stuck. The rosette sticks up too far, preventing getting a clean separation of the fretboard extension from the top.
Gluing the strip of spruce back to the top.
