Removing a Guild neck is really tough...

Oh man, I didn't know what I was in for today. That is probably good. I'm not sure I would have bothered otherwise.

So, this torture device is what I use to push a neck out of a guitar.

Clamp it around the body...

And it is ready to go!

I'm working with steam - gloves and safety glasses are a must. These are my cheap Harbor Freight mechanic's gloves.

My steam maker (an old espresso machine) is ready to go.

Lots of steam!

Whoo! So much steam that I fogged up the camera lens!!

The next five minutes were torture. I steamed the heck out of the joint, but could NOT get it to let go. I thumped the neck around, wiggled it, moved the needle all over, and finally it popped off. 

That white area is haze from steam hitting the finish. Not a good look, and it will be permanent if I leave it.

Bring out the alcohol! This is the good stuff, from Sherwin Williams.

A few wipes with alcohol, and it looks a whole lot better.

A bit of a crack in the sides from removing the neck. Not bad, really. The neck block is NOT cracked, so I can just give this a touch of glue and clamp it shut.

Egads - no wonder this was so hard to take off. That is a LOT of surface area glued down, and there is no way steam could reach most of it.

Now the neck just looks silly. And sad.

I figured I should get that pickguard fixed now, since I had time. I used standard carpenter's yellow glue.

Squish it down, and wipe away the excess glue.

This set of cauls is made for just such a guitar and pickguard. Guild used the same style bracing and guard on quite a few dreadnaught-style guitars during this era.

More squeezeout.

I clamped it up really well, and squeezed out as much glue as possible. Then I took it back apart and cleaned it up again, so that I wouldn't have much left to clean when I was done.

I also added my wax paper, so that the caul wouldn't stick.

Now I could finally see how close the donor neck was to fitting. The joints looked similar, so I was feeling pretty good about it. 

The dovetail sits a little proud of the top, which is great. It means I can adjust the neck to fit correctly with very little shimming.

But - uh oh. That heel isn't even CLOSE to being the right size. It is much smaller than the original, and the neck is narrower too.

CRAP! This neck might work, but it will take a lot of refinishing and touch-up, and I still have to deal with the fingerboard issue. Now my debate over which neck to use is even more difficult. I can try to make the donor neck work, or I can try to repair the old neck and make it work. Neither option is easy. No matter what, there is a lot of finish work to do.

The course of action, though, is still pretty clear - continue working on the body of the guitar, cleaning and refinishing it as needed. I might as well do the finish work around the heel area, it will look better no matter what option I choose for the neck.

Meanwhile, I will probably continue to disassemble the original neck, and see about rebuilding it.

Mistakes were made, or perhaps predestined

More work on the Guild D35 today. It was not the best day, though.

I set up an infrared lamp on the fingerboard extension.

Aluminum foil covers the fret markers, so that they don't fry in the heat.

That light is HOT. Little beads of oil form on the fretboard as it heats up.

All kinds of tools ready. The putty knife has been ground thin.

My Bob Ross palette knife slides in just a tiny bit. A added more heat for another 10 minutes. I don't get to leave during this time - I have to sit there and make sure that nothing starts to burn.

More heat, and I'm getting pretty loose.

Moving further up the neck.

I'm getting pretty far along.

I plan on cutting the fingerboard at the 12th fret, so I start to remove the fret while it is still very hot. This reduces chipping.

Well, crap. If this is reduced chipping, then we don't want to see full-scale chipping.

I gently ease a very thin saw into the slot, and start to saw through.

&%$!@*$&!!! That is full scale chipping. This fingerboard is a bit mushy, and really chip prone. It's just not a great fretboard. And now it is a not very good fretboard with a bunch of chips out of it.

Oh that is terrible.

At least the guitar looks okay.

This is a funny find. That piece of plastic is from the soundhole rosette. I wonder how it got in there. I also wonder if it rattled at all when the guitar was played. I also wonder what order of assembly caused it to end up in there.

Not bad.

The truss rod appears to have a strip of maple over it. Nice.

Okay, this picture is for anyone wondering where the dovetail joint is on a 1980 Guild D35.

This one too.

And this one.

For you inch people.

Likewise.

And here is ROUGHLY where the 15th fret falls.

Lastly, I lifted the pickguard. There is a nice crack there, if you expand the page. I'll fill it with CA glue in some places, and hide glue in others. Then I will reglue the pickguard with a caul that I had made for an identical guitar.

So, my fingerboard idea is not going to work. Looks like I will need a new fingerboard to pull this off. Fine by me - I'd rather have something a bit fancy anyways. Overall, a tedious and discouraging bit of time working on the guitar. Maybe tomorrow will be better.

Building bridges, sticking out necks

It's been a good couple of days.

Yesterday, I decided to make some banjo bridges. The design is based on (that is, outright ripped off from) the work of a few folks on the banjohangout.com. Great site. Go there.

At the bandsaw, I ripped some strips of maple. I also used some tulipwood and koa wood.

Making the edges nice and straight at the sander.

I also flattened some ebony scraps at the sander.

A nice pile of woods and strips.

One piece clamped up. Man, it takes a lot of clamps.

Sheesh. I'm running out of clamps!

Dried and ready, I have my ruler ready for layout.

Layout was done with a knife, so I would have very accurate lines. I made lines for height, string spacing, and location of holes.

After some drilling, sanding, and cutting, I had a rough first bridge.

Hey, not bad! Sounds fine, too.

Today, I received a goody in the mail.

What's in the box???

Most of a Guild neck!

Now, I'm going to be very critical of the neck, and of the guitar as well. This criticism is NOT directed at the fantastic person who gave me the neck, free of charge, even paying for shipping. This criticism is for me to understand the job at hand. 

A little crack in the heel, not a problem...

Some super glue worked in...

And a clamp to send it home. Might as well get it done.

Somebody shimmed a nut at some point.

Lots of cracks in the finish. It also seems that there is some wax on the finish, so I will need to dewax this finish as much as possible before attempting any touch-up work.

I pulled the truss rod cover, and found that the nut has probably never been adjusted - a chunk of finish was on the nut still! Did they finish these necks after installing and adjusting the truss rod?

My makeshift truss rod wrench.

After pulling the nut, I added some petroleum jelly. It should be lubed up for the rest of it's life now.

And I put the nut on, just tight enough not to fall off.

Now, here is something interesting. When you click on this picture, look for the crack in the fret. I've never seen this before. It's just one of those things, ya know? 

Now I face a decision - do I try to combine the two fretboards to fix this guitar, or just get a new fretboard and set it up from scratch? I have a fretboard on the way, but I'm not sure if I will use it.