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I have an old parlor guitar that I may try to restore myself, after long study. I have never made a neck joint of the type I am likely to find. I have never reset a neck. I looked at some tutorials on Youtube. They all showed how to get the neck off and change the angle, but none showed how to adjust the shims to tighten the joint. Maybe it would be obvious once I get into it, but I would like some advice in advance. So, if anyone can point out a tutorial on neck reset that shows how the revised joint is finished, please direct me.

Fit the joint tight with paper shims, then glue in Mahogany shims that are a few thousands thicker. Use articulating paper (dental carbon paper) to fit and mark the high spots on the doevetail. Scrape off the blue areas with a sharp knife blade and refit and so on, until the tongue is about .010 off the face of the guitar. Apply glue and clamp tight.

Stewmac sells a great DVD on neck resetting that shows all of this being done on several guitars.

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It will probably be alright.

If you don't have access to dental carbon paper, chalk works.

Pat

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formerly known around here as burbank
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http://www.patfosterguitars.com

Pencil lead also works. Lamp soot. Anything to show the high spots.


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I just happen to be doing one of these in the shop this morning, so here are a few pics.


This shows one of the shims glued into the pocket. The blue is from the articulating paper after press-fitting the joint together.


Blue shows the contact areas on the dovetail.


I use an X-acto knife to scrape off the blue areas. The joint is then press-fit again, and the blue removed. Keep at it until you have about .010 between the tongue and the top. Then glue and clamp tight, the remaining .010 will wedge the joint tight.

You can and should string the guitar tuned to pitch to check your angle, center line, and fit with just the paper shims in place. It is the joint itself, not the glue, that holds everything tight.

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It will probably be alright.

What kind of guitar is it? Pics?

It might help to make an actual 3D model to see exactly what you are doing. It's not terribly complicated but it's one of those things that is analogous to looking in a mirror when you try to do something, IOW it's easy to be dumb about a simple thing. I never use paper or chalk and instead just remove material where it makes sense to remove it and go from there but I can see how the paper or chalk could make it easier to visualize. If you make a 3D model then you can get a very clear picture of what you have to do. Always remember that a little bit goes a long way. So you may think you have to remove more material on the cheeks then you really have to.

I guess I forgot how to attach photos. I think I already posted a few of this guitar a while back. It is an early Bay State parlor, E 1055 with some minor historical significance, because it has a previously unrecorded label consisting of an impressed "BAY STATE" on a spruce disc inside the sound hole. Apparently not significant enough for any museum to adopt it and restore it, so I might try myself in the distant future.

Here are some photos, It has a 12.25 scale length nut to 12th fret.

heres a great little pictorial on resetting a Martin. He uses dental paper as well.

http://www.guitarspecialist.com/neck.htm


fred