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Following that line of thought, you can capo at the first fret, get the guitar as in tune as you can after applying the capo (everything a half step up), then use harmonics at the 13th fret to compare with the fretted notes at the 13th fret.

So I finally got around to working on this guitar. The label was barely hanging on, which made getting it off a breeze. That made me wonder if it had been off before or if it had just spent one too many hours in the trunk of a hot vehicle.

The bolts came out without any issue.

I found it a little difficult to create space at the neck joint with the fretboard still attached though. With as much force as I’m willing to use, there was baaaaarely enough room to get some sandpaper in to floss. That’s as far as I got tonight.

Does that amount of room in the neck joint seem about right?

When I initially measured where a straight edge falls at the bridge location, I did it with the strings off. That’s where the .030” below the top of the bridge measurement cam from. Taking the same measurement with the strings on yields more like .060” below the top of the bridge. I didn’t notice anything visually, but that makes me feel like the guitar is folding up a bit.

Thoughts?

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sweat the small stuff.

It could be that the bolts were loose enough that tension was pulling the joint open. Did you try just tightening them a bit and checking? I've had a couple of them, that is all that was wrong (I think I mentioned that before)

Thanks for the response, Freeman. The bolts were snug and there was no gap at the neck to body joint area.

I think it’s just one of those things where I haven’t actually seen anyone do it, so I want to make sure that what I’m seeing matches what was mentioned earlier regarding flossing the heel without releasing the fretboard from the top of the guitar.

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sweat the small stuff.

Wanted to give a quick progress report and a huge thank you to all those that have freely contributed their knowledge here. Did a “mini” neck reset today, i.e. flossed the heel without removing the fretboard from the top. I was a little hesitant at first, but soon went at it and the results were a great improvement. A straight edge now hits right at/perhaps a skosh over the top of the bridge with no string tension and is still maybe .020” under the front of the bridge when strung up. Still not perfect, but it is a vast improvement over what it was. I might have kept going, but it seemed like it was going to leave me with excessive fall-away on the soundhole end of the fretboard. That alone lowered the action at the low E from around 7.5/64 to 6/64, which changed the amount the strings were sharp from 12-15 cents to around 8 cents. I still have more work to do. Need to level and dress frets, new nut/saddle, but I’m well on my way. THANK YOU!

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sweat the small stuff.

Working on the nut slots is the next thing I would do.