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Howdy folks, I'm a 2026 graduate of the two year guitar program at Red Wing (Minnesota State College Southeast). Between my two years at Red Wing I worked at Collings Guitars in Austin, TX for two years in the acoustic neck department, shaping and finish sanding ~2000 necks, radiusing and gluing ~750 fingerboards, and pressing ~100 sets of frets. I also spent a couple months in the finishing department level sanding and pore filling ~300…

I have a Kalamazoo made epiphone with the most extreme fingerboard ramp I have seen. I have the neck dead straight from 1st fret to body joint and get a 1/16 of gap when I run a straight edge from 1st fret to the last fret. The frets average .040" but someone leveled the extension and those frets are half the height. Does anyone have any suggestions for flattening the extension. Clamping a block on it? If I level the board during a r…

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…

I'm not sure this belongs in this subcategory, but not sure where else to post it. Could use another set of eyes and expertise on this. Customer came through yesterday wanting to sell a 1950 Gibson L-48. It's been played and loved quite a bit, but despite that it plays and sounds very well. The tuners are cheap replacements, the fingerboard being well worn, and the missing finish in areas, otherwise it seems like everything is structura…

Greetings all! I’m repairing a student-level cello, neck snapped off at the heel. I removed the fingerboard and reattached the neck with hide glue. It was a pretty clean break, and fit back together nicely. My question is – some sources say to reinforce the neck joint with 1 or 2 dowels before attaching the fingerboard, some say don’t… anyone have opinions or experience one way or the other? Thanks!

Hi everyone! I'm looking for advice about heat treatments for a warped neck, I know they are a thing but I've never actually done one. I have an Epiphone Les Paul in the shop that originally I was only going to do a level/crown/polish and a setup on, but when I tried to adjust the truss rod and checked the fingerboard with a straight edge I noticed there was about .030" of relief in most of the middle section, which was pretty consisten…

Hi Gang, I have a 1966 Harmony Archtop in need of a refret and fingerboard leveling. I have not done a refret on a cantilevered neck before. Are there any tips or tricks for supporting the fb extension while fretting?