Jeff fixes a strange prior neck reset, to rejuvenate a 1973 Martin D28! Strings Attached 2533 Main St. Columbia, SC 29201 803-447-4643 #martin #d28 #luthier
I love the dowel in the drill chuck trick! I’ll have to give it a try soon. Of course I saw this 2 days after doweling 11 holes in a “Gower” dovetail / body
You know, besides them sawing the heel extention like an ape, accessing the dovetail through the heel cap isn't a half bad idea. No need to remove a fret or fill in the board where you drilled.
Yeah, it certainly has some advantages, when done well. It seems like a lot of vintage repairs are genuinely awful. I like to think guitar repair has come a long way in the last 50 years!
A book published in 1973 by Irving Sloane entitled 'Guitar Repair' was written in collaboration with the Martin workshop for most of the book's content. On page 25 Sloane says that 'removal of the neck begins with removal of the lower portion of the fretboard that is glued to the soundboard.' He describes sawing through the fret slot coinciding with the body/neck junction with a fine dovetail saw until the fretboard has been severed, then masking off the surrounding guitar top with an asbestos sheet and using a heat lamp to soften the glue under the fingerboard end. A spatula is used to remove this from the top and expose the neck/body joint. The joint glue is softened by introducing hot water via a syringe, and allowing the water to soak into the joint for an hour before rocking and loosening the neck, using more hot water if needed. I saw the technique whereby a hole was drilled drilled through the heel to introduce steam into the joint described some years ago, but I can't remember where. It doesn't look as if this was the Martin company's way of doing it judging by Sloane's description.
Sloane's general descriptions of how to remove the neck is largely still standard practice, other than sawing through the fretboard. The only reason I can think of that he would have for doing it that way, is that high-heat blankets either hadn't been invented yet, or didn't work well, at the time. But that method is just so damn destructive. The same goes for the heel entry. Thanks for the info! This was very interesting. There is remarkably little well-documented information on how the craft of luthiery has developed in the modern era.
@@thepedalpenguin3914 Thank you for your comments, which I've found informative and enjoyed reading, and thanks also for posting your repair video. RU-vid is a wonderful educational tool.
Indeed, the least-intrusive method is desirable. But I'm not sure that the heel actually is less intrusive. Going in through the fretboard is very easy to both hide and repair, and you can go back in through the same spot decades later, should the guitar need another reset. With the heel, you're drilling through more wood, and generally performing a far more risky repair. But, that said, we all have different experience and skills, and if the heel works better for you, go for it. I repair a few hundred guitars a year, and the only thing I know for sure about the craft is that there are an infinite number of ways to accomplish each repair, and I'll be learning new ones until the day I die.
