1980 Yamaha FG-335 - Neck Reset+

DAY 1 – Removed the truss rod cover. Put 3 layers of tape on the inner heel corners (to try to protect from a scalpel slippage), cut thru the heel end binding with the .010” saw, cut thru the heel lacquer radii and the fretboard extension corners with a new scalpel blade. Put the heat shield on the fretboard, used the halogen light to heat the fretboard (about 45 minutes total), and separated the fretboard from the top with a few spatula’s. It felt a little crunchy on the bass side, but the spatula went in smoothly on the treble side. Wet the 15th fret area (to soften the wood and prevent chipping), pulled it with the Stew Mac fret removal pliers, and drilled the steam holes.

I put the guitar in the neck jig and turned the steam on (alternating holes every minute), and turned it off after 6 minutes. This is to prevent overheating the heel and cracking or separating the heel lamination. With some side to side wiggling of the neck, there is a little joint looseness in the top of the treble side. I’m not going to cut deeper into the heel corners since previous epoxied necks didn’t have the face of the heel glued to the side of the guitar, unlike the earlier hide glued necks. I’ll let it sit for 10-15 minutes, letting the neck cool a bit, and let any moisture in the joint possibly soak farther into the joint. I turned the steam back on, gave it 6 more minutes, and turned the steam off. With more wiggling, the neck is much looser, on both sides, but not ready. I let it sit for another 10-15 minutes, gave it another 6 minutes of steam, more neck wiggling, and the neck is looser, but still not ready. I pulled the steam tip out of the hole, put more end pressure on the heel from the neck jig, and some more wiggling, and the neck popped out of the joint! And there is no cracking of the heel lamination, which is very common after 3 steam sessions and wiggling.

A strip of the top was stuck to the bottom of the fretboard extension on the bass side, as expected. The glue is brownish (not the usual greenish-blue epoxy I’ve seen in this era) and is rubbery after cooling, so it must be epoxy, not hide glue. And it doesn’t smell like hide glue. While it was still damp, I scraped the piece of the top off of the bottom of the fretboard extension, used the hair dryer to dry the piece and the top, and glued/clamped it back to the top. After 15 minutes I removed the clamp block, replaced the wax paper, cleaned up the glue squeeze out, and reclamped. I’ll let that sit for 24 hours before unclamping. And let the guitar dry out for 48 hours before working on fixing the neck angle and checking the fret level.

A thin strip of the edge of both sides of the neck heel was stuck to the side of the guitar after the neck popped. Because of the large lacquer radius in the heel corners, I cut into the middle of the radius.  This area was stuck to the side of the guitar by the lacquer that had soaked into the gap.  When the neck was pressed out, it sheared at the edge of those cuts, leaving the thin strip of wood stuck to the side of the guitar. This also leaves a thin gap on the sides of the neck heel. Most of this will be sanded away during fixing the neck angle. In the end, it won’t be noticeable.

I didn’t notice any finish blushing (from the steam) in the top, sides, or neck, although I didn’t look at the back.


Cutting the end of the heel.


Cutting the lacquer radius in the heel corner.




Cutting the small lacquer radius around the fretboard extension.






Heating the fretboard extension.


Releasing the fretboard extension with the spatula's.


Wetting the 15th fret area to reduce chipping of the wood.


The 15th fret removed cleanly.


The steam holes drilled.


The steam setup.


The neck is off!!


Some of the top on the bass side was stuck to the bottom of the fretboard.


The brown epoxy.




The pieces of the fretboard.




You can see pieces of the heel corner area missing or coming off.  And more brown epoxy.


Pieces of the heel corners stuck to the side of the guitar.


And many more pictures!!












The pieces of the fretboard scraped off before the glue resets.


Preparing to glue the large piece of fretboard back to the top.


Clamped.  I use wax paper against the top, and a thin piece of foam between the wax paper and wood block.  This allows for any very slight variation in flatness.

DAY 3 – Continued leveling the frets. I have the neck sitting in my lap, with the heel against my left leg, pushing the sanding beam towards the right, with even pressure from both hands, directly above the neck. I only pushing the beam to the right, pushing it back and forth will result in the beam tipping when the direction is changed, changing the forces and possibly taking more off at the ends of travel. Continued sanding the 14th & 15th frets until they were close to level. The area of the 7th thru 10th is low, but worse for the low E. Started sanding with the 20” long beam. With the treble and middle being very close, for the low E the 5th thru 12th are still low. I continued sanding but stopped when the low E string 6th & 7th still hadn’t been touched, but they were only .001”/.002” low. It’s not worth taking the rest of the frets down further. The divots in the first 3 frets have been removed.


The tools, and starting with the 20" long beam.


Starting with the 20" beam.


Done!  The divots are gone.


The low E 6th & 7th aren't touched but are only .001"/.002" low.


The "14th fret hump" removed.


I'll leave the frets flat for now, crowning them after the neck has been reattached.

No.  I use a 1/16" (.063") drill and a .052" steam tip.  The .080" wide fret covers the holes.

DAY 5 – The saddle slot is a slightly narrow .110” wide x .16”/.20”/.16” deep. I made the saddle to fit the slot, standard height. It sticks out .24”/.20”, a little high, but a good place to start. Made the rough nut, 1.76” wide x .195” thick x 1.38” string spacing.

DAY 7 – Tuned it to mostly E (a little over on 4, 2 steps down for G & E), the action is 1/8” low E and a little over 7/64” high E. Set the tape on the heel at .03”, filed & sanded to the tape. Installed the final strings, to be sure I have the right tension, and tuned to mostly E. The action is now a little over 3/32” low E & 3/32” high E. Set the tape on the heel at .015”, filed & sanded to the tape. Tuned to mostly E, the action is 5/64” low E & a little under 5/64” high E. DONE! On to getting ready to glue the neck on!

Used Stew Mac’s Fret Erasers to polish the sanded lacquer radius. It’s not perfect, but it looks pretty good. I used a buffing wheel and it looked a little better. I tried a liquid polish, but it didn’t help much, the surface isn’t smooth enough, there are still some minor sanding marks. I spent half an hour on this, I can’t spend hours looking for perfection. Super glued .022” x 3/8” x 1” maple shims to both sides of the bottom of the neck dovetail. After a few minutes I inserted the neck into the body, it almost goes in flush, about 3/32” high. Put a strip of carbon paper in the body dovetail, inserted the neck (2-3 times), removed the neck, sanded the dark spots, inserted the neck again to check the fit, the neck is flush with the top. Touched up any bare wood spots with mahogany marker. Inserted the neck to see how everything looks. Ready to glue!!

Applied fish glue to the dovetail and fretboard extension areas of the top and neck. Inserted the neck, tightened the neck jig, installed the 4 outer strings and tuned about 2-3 steps down, clamped the fretboard at the 14th fret, and at the 18th thru 20th. Released most of the string tension. DONE!!!

The Stew Mac Fret Erasers.  I'd normally use small strips of MicroMesh, but they are hard to handle and didn't work any better.  Attempting perfection risks sanding thru the finish.


The left side after only the first grit.  A noticable improvement.


The left side complete.


Making the dovetail shims.


The shims glued on.


The carbon paper in the neck pocket.


The dark areas need to be sanded.




Getting ready to glue the neck on!!


The neck glued on!

DAY 9 – Checked the neck relief, action, and fret level. Adjusted the neck relief slightly. The action is 5/64” low E and 1/16” high E. Crowned the frets using the Stew Mac Z-files. Removed the filing marks on the sides of the frets with the extra fine Stew Mac fret end file. Sanded and sides and tops of the frets, to remove the previous leveling marks. Polished the frets with the Stew Mac Fret Erasers. Oiled the fretboard and bridge with Howard Feed-N-Wax, scrubbed the fretboard with 0000 steel wool. Sanded the nut all over & rounded over the edges. Glued the nut in with 2 tiny dabs of wood glue. Installed the strings and tuned to “E”. It just needs to be cleaned all over and install the truss rod cover.


The tools.  I also slotted the E & A pin holes so the string windings don't bind with the pins.


The first 2 frets crowned.


All the frets crowned.


The first 2 frets sanded.


All the frets sanded.


The first 3 frets polished.


All the frets polished.


After removing the tape from the fretboard.


Oiled the fretboard and bridge.


About the glue the nut in.


DONE!!!  Except for a final cleaning and installed the truss rod cover.