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Hi Everyone, I was given this guitar to harvest parts from and then throw into a fire due to a partial break in the neck. When I pull the neck to close the break the action is perfect so I'd like to fix it and then donate it. Can anyone show me what clamps to use to keep it closed after I glue it? Also, would you recommend strait wood glue or would you water it down somewhat to allow it to seep in further? Thanks in advance!

I've completed 89 vintage FG neck resets. https://yamahavintagefg.boards.net/ See the Repair section. As others have noted, the joint is very tight, and they put glue in places it shouldn't be, like gluing the face of the heel to the side of the guitar. I've done a few that were fairly easy, and a few that were brutally hard, but the rest were very difficult. A few had little to NO neck pocket! All with steam, and a neck press of my…

I am working on a wall hanger that I thought would be fun to get working. It is an old Tokai. I have repaired a crack on left tuning arm. Also removed the bridge that had been badly glued on by previous owner. I am deciding if I want to put the effort into re-fretting it. I am new to Classical guitar actions, so my question is this - when you put a straight edge on the neck, where should it hit the bridge, if at all? I have learn…

Thought I would introduce myself, I am a retired computer nerd ex farm boy that loves to fix things… used to repair/rebuild pianos but now that I live in FL, space is at a premium in small home so I now am venturing into repairing guitars…. I have numerous practice candidates I have picked up on the cheap as not to destroy anything of value or collectability, and have tooled up with enough stuff to be dangerous. I have done several aco…

I have a customer with a 2018 Gibson SG special with mini-humbuckers who is complaining about the pickups being too hot (distorting their amp too easily). I took resistance readings and, to my surprise, the readings are very high. The neck humbucker (see photo) reads over 16kohm and the bridge reads 23kohm. From the specs I've seen, mini-hums more typically come in around 6-7kohms. Has anyone seen this with Gibson mini-hbs that appear t…

This is a Kamouraska classical guitar, model 111, made in Canada in 1979. Internet information says it was made in La Patrie, Quebec, and later the line became La Patrie guitars. It looks like someone has been into this one before as the dovetail fit was poor, the gluing is very sloppy, and there are some rough chisel marks on the face of the heel. Note that if you drilled holes at the 13th fret you would miss the pocket by a few mm. Th…

Hi all I'm looking for a 4 bolt 70s fender neck. rosewood board. I have one with just way to much back bow and the customer would like to replace with period correct if possible. happy to get it from anywhere depending on cost etc. if you have anyone you know who may be a good contact also let me know Thanks Andy

I work in guitar repair for over 20 years and this strange buzz happen only 3 times and i really going crazy. Five years ago a all parts strat neck in G string, change string, leveling frets twice thinking i made a mistake, in some point i made a rudimentar neck jig to tried to repair that neck. Work in that guitar for 3 weeks and string heigth like 3.5mm and yeat, buzzing with not so hard picking just the G, even in other tuning like F…

Hello fellow looths! I recently had a customer come in with a '71 Fender neck that is a fusion of the 60s and 70s style. It has a veneer fretboard, no skunkstripe, 4 screwholes, 70s style tuners, 70s headstock logo, and it seems like it has a poly finish on the back of the neck, and nitro (with cracking) on the front of the headstock. Can anyone tell me if this combination is possible or could it be fake? Another thing is, even without th…

A friend of mine gave me his locally built mandolin for a neck reset. The glue in the dovetail has started to fail, and left a large gap at the bottom and a separation from the fingerboard and body. I've taken my brownstone and tried to heat the joint up enough to soften things up, but to no avail. I have no idea what type or where the joint is exactly. There are some indicators that this instrument was built with several flaws in the c…

Hello friends - I am a bass guitar builder who is considering building a neck-through Flying V-style guitar with a 25.5" scale length and a Floyd Rose tremolo bridge. I have not built any neck-through instruments and would appreciate any guidance on where to begin with respect to laying out the design, in particular, getting the neck angle right and the headstock angled properly. Any resources are welcomed and if someone has any interes…

when setting up acoustic guitars, from time to time I have a lot of trouble with getting the G string to ring true when fretted. Starting from lower frets and at its worst at about the 5/6th fret, the G string buzzes when plucked "heavily" (when no other string does so)...most recently a Taylor 724 which had a neck adjustment to reduce action (to 5/64-4/64), relief about 0.003 or 0.004. Increasing relief to about 8-9 helps somewhat.…

Hi fellow loothers! :) Now, I am not an electronics guru. I can follow a nice graphical wiring diagram when hooking up electronics. I have a friend who wants to utilize a superswitch in his Stratocaster like this: Position 1: Bridge Position 2: Bridge + Middle (series) Position 3: Middle Position 4: Middle + Neck (series) Position 5: Neck I have searched the internet. Either I am not good enough at searching, or it doesn't exist. And that could…

Hey all, I’m curious to know people’s general thoughts on the appropriate or ideal saddle height after a reset. And, when to replace a bridge that’s been shaved down. I know there are a lot of factors (for me anyhow) and this question could open a whole can of worms when it comes to the specifics of the guitar, its age, style of bridge and desired sound. I’m providing an example I encountered recently, but would also like to know people…

Ok, I'm a new builder and I've only done solidbody electrics so far, so this question is related to only those. In my opinion, these are the things that have the most impact on tone, listed in order from most influential to least. Have at it! Pickup/electronics, neck joint type, neck construction (including fret size/material), scale length, bridge type, bridge saddle material, tone wood Of course, this only takes into account the guitar.…

I attach my necks using the LMII/O'Brien jig. No matter the method, there is no guarantee that the neck block and edge of the rim at the top is truly perpendicular to the centerline of the guitar. I’ve just flossed when things weren’t quite right. But now I take a long square, place it on the rim at the neck block and measure where the long square aligns on the top seam. I note Bass/Treble deviation at a known point (I use 290 mm).…

I have a red-label Yamaha FG-180 that’s in overall nice condition, but the neck angle is poor and the heel is already cracked. I’d like to attempt a neck reset, but I’m unsure how to proceed given the existing crack. Should I approach the reset as usual, or plan an alternate method because of the damage? Has anyone here tackled a reset on a guitar with a pre-existing heel crack? I know a crack can develop during the reset process, but I…

I've only built a handful of necks and most of them have been roasted maple fretboards. This time around I am using a beautiful and incredibly stiff/hard piece of ebony. I am doing a light hammering in of the frets to get them seated and then using the hand-held vice clamps from Stewmac with the correct fretboard radius to push them down evenly the rest of the way. This process works just fine on roasted maple. It's just a softer wood t…