Neck Reset

OK, I have an old Kent baritone. The strings are too high. The neck slants up and it should be level.

I know the uke is not worth much.

I know neck resets are a pain.

I know I could buy a new Ohana from a reputable dealer for very little money.

I still plan to fix this uke. I am not a professional - I do this for fun. So I do not need to earn "$X dollars per hour." I understand and sympathize with the pros who are frustrated at the idea of an amateur fixing an $80 uke by spending 20-30 hours in the shop. But it is my time and my uke.

If you are still reading I would like to know if the neck is probably dovetailed or probably just glued on? I'm also interested in advice (but not advice that says, "Don't bother.")

I have built four ukes, two cigar box ukes and two pineapple ukes. I carved the neck each time. I am not proud of the first neck I carved but the last three turned out very well. So I could just saw the old neck off and build a new neck. I will listen to both sides of the "remove and reset" versus "just build a new neck" argument.

What do you think?

Pop the fret board off and that will most likely give you an idea of the neck join type. It's going to need to come off at least the body anyway, and you'll be able to make a more informed decision as to the way to proceed.

+1 on Allen's advice. It is just as likely to have two dowels attaching the neck as a dovetail. The older it is, the more likely a dovetail.
Do you have, or were you contemplating setting up a steam rig?

David Newton said:

+1 on Allen's advice. It is just as likely to have two dowels attaching the neck as a dovetail. The older it is, the more likely a dovetail.
Do you have, or were you contemplating setting up a steam rig?

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I think I can get the fretboard off with an iron. The fretboard is rather ugly and I would not at all mind destroying it and cutting a new one, even if the neck is reused. But I don't want to damage the rest of the uke.

Once the fretboard is off if the neck is dovetailed I think steam is essential to getting it released. How does one release dowels? Drill down to the dowel and inject steam?

Building a steam generator does not sound difficult, only dangerous.

Pondoro said:

Building a steam generator does not sound difficult, only dangerous.

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Years ago, when I started out on the guitar building hobby, I bought a cheap old Kay to pull apart and experiment on. I made a steam generator from an old pressure cooker by drilling the lid to accept a through-drilled bolt. The pressure setting weights and safety valve were used as originally intended. Some thick wall neoprene tube, an old tea caddy adapted as an in-line moisture trap, and a football inflation adapter for an injector completed the rig. I chose to use the pressure cooker rather than a wallpaper steamer, because you have control over the heat input. I also felt the steam quality might be a bit drier, and I liked the idea of multiple safety devices!

I eased the figerboard tongue free with a clothes iron & spatula, pulled the twelfth fret, drilled a couple of holes and steamed away at the neck joint. After a while it dawned that the neck was not dovetailed (not really surprising on a cheapo). It turned out to be dowelled .... but it did finally wiggle free. The dowels were not damaged and the guitar did eventually go back together again, albeit after learning some valuable lessons. When removing the bridge, the glue holding the plywood top laminations together apparently yielded before the bridge to top glue joint softened, because the spatula went under the top lamination!

Better as previously suggested to remove the whole fingerboard to get a look at the neck joint.

When removing the board, try and protect the top from heat from the iron, or the finish may suffer.

Just a thought, but if you're going to (most likely) destroy the fret board when it's pulled you may want to consider just making a tapered fret board by reducing the nut end thickness as well as increasing the thickness at the body end. If that gets you the proper geometry to fix your action issues then that's all you would need to do without the risks of body damage or joint damage from doing a neck reset.

I also don't know on this particular instrument if the technique of slipping the endblock could be used. I've done it successfully on guitars and it can be a easy way to fix poor neck angle. The body binding is separated back to the upper bouts, so it's just a matter of re-cutting the binding channel, regluing binding, and doing a bit of finish touch-up.

You could remove the fretboard, sand it flat, glue on a new backing however thick you need, sand it to a flat taper. And re glue to the neck. No neck reset required if it is a small correction.

These options and tips are wonderful! I find myself in a similar situation as Pandoro. I have an old baritone that sounds great, looks bad and intrigues me as a great project to learn a few things with. Thank you all.

Before we all get too carried away, perhaps I should expand on my story ....

The reason I was practising on the Kay was that I had rather taken a fancy to the idea of restoring old German parlour guitars. The first two had gone quite well, requiring little more than crack repairs and general TLC. The third one had a badly split "moustache" bridge and clearly needed a neck reset.
Putting my Kay experience to the test, the broken bridge was removed pretty cleanly, with minimal damage to the top. I followed the earlier advice to remove the fingerboard before attempting to remove the neck, and the fingerboard also came off cleanly - so far so good!

Removing the board exposed a traditional dovetail, complete with builders pencil marks. There were gaps, so I drilled into them and started steaming. I steamed and steamed, but the joint would not yield. I put together an arrangement of clamps and spacer blocks to try and positively press the joint apart. It remained resolutely stuck.

I tried the "hot knife" trick - inserting a ground down knifeblade into the gaps in the joint and heating the free end with a blowtorch. I succeeded in scorching the wood, but the joint did not budge.

In the end I decided not to go any further and risk serious damage. I sold the guitar (a lovely little item in solid cherry and spruce) as a project in progress, recovering my costs on the deal. I decided from then on to concentrate on new builds!

Maybe I just didn't have the courage to apply sufficient heat/force.

Anyway, good luck with your project

Once you get the fret board off and don't see a dovetail, then it's either a butt join, or dowels. Probably the easiest way to get the neck off then is to use a fine Japanese pull saw and just cut it off next to the body. Their teeth have very little set so will cut without destroying the body, but still protect body with tape.

This baritone has a tapered fretboard already thin at the nut and thick at the body. It is as if the neck went on slanting up and they used a tapered fretboard to fix it. The neck thus is very thick near the body. So further tapering of the fretboard is not desirable. I'd like to remove the neck, make it straight, and then put a new, flat fretboard on it.

Pondoro said:

This baritone has a tapered fretboard already thin at the nut and thick at the body. It is as if the neck went on slanting up and they used a tapered fretboard to fix it. The neck thus is very thick near the body. So further tapering of the fretboard is not desirable. I'd like to remove the neck, make it straight, and then put a new, flat fretboard on it.

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Here's a couple neck removals

acoustic guitar
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nG-JFmvcacQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cpwUihZP1A
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcWMktX6N5U

1964 Martin guitar repair restoration
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c09PUI3-FjU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-wPIs8U1Qk

It is the simplest thing to remove the 13th fret, or the first fret past the joint, and drill a tiny hole through the fret slot. Probing with a wire will tell you if there is a dovetail gap.
A steam rig is simple. I'll show a picture.
If you have a capachino machine, put a hose on the steam output pipe. A wallpaper steamer also works well, but I'm thrifty, and built mine for about $10.

My advice:


Don't bother!

Neck reset of attic guitar

Some time has passed. Most likely the matter is already taken care of. But did you see this video?

Henning said:

Some time has passed. Most likely the matter is already taken care of. But did you see this video?

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I've been thinking of just such a repair on a octave mandolin with a Spanish heel joint. I'm pleased to see that it worked so well in the video.

Pondoro said:

OK, I have an old Kent baritone. The strings are too high. The neck slants up and it should be level.

I know the uke is not worth much.

I know neck resets are a pain.

I know I could buy a new Ohana from a reputable dealer for very little money.

I still plan to fix this uke. I am not a professional - I do this for fun. So I do not need to earn "$X dollars per hour." I understand and sympathize with the pros who are frustrated at the idea of an amateur fixing an $80 uke by spending 20-30 hours in the shop. But it is my time and my uke.

Click to expand...

Congratulations, good luck, more power to you. Take care.

You could do the cheapo neck reset - saw through the heel, glue it back in place, and then put a strap button with a long screw there.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1H4xy52RuM

http://www.frets.com/FretsPages/Luthier/Technique/Guitar/NeckReset/BCRIchReset/bcrichreset1.html