Guitar Repair Pictures - Page 8

A decade or so ago luthiers would often saw the end of fingerboard which glues to the guitars top off to access the dovetail joint and remove the neck. So it isn't a surprise to see a f/b extension that's been sawn off and reglued, but after removing this one some surprises awaited. The gap normally present between dovetail and neck block was filled with a rosewood wedge...I imagine someone was trying to tighten a loose neck by using the ancient art of Jerry-Rigging. But honestly, I don't know, all I can say is it wasn't done by a professional.
I had to use my dremel tool to nibble away at the shim before I could remove it (photo 2). Another "surprise" is that the neck block is loose from the top and back...albeit not a big surprise. It was caused either by the previous repair person using too much steam or possibly broke loose when the wedge was being hammered in. See the gap between neck block and top in photo 3.
The binding near the neck has also been poorly repaired, instead of gluing it back properly, gaps between the individual laminates were filled with black adhesive. Photo 1.
Apart from the neck reset and refretting necessary we had an intonation problem. If I had simply glued a factory bridge in the correct spot I would have left a nasty footprint where the original was glued. Instead I made a slightly oversized bridge which I slotted for proper intonation.
Though I might recommend a fingerboard replacement in some instances, I placed an ebony spacer at the 14th fret line, glued the 2 separate pieces of the fingerboard together, and recut the 14th frets slot. It made the repair very difficult if not down right impossible to detect from the side view.

After

Related Articles:
Intonation & Correction
Neck Resets

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