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I have a guitar ,in the shop, that seriously needs a neck reset...Strings are on the frets and saddle is very high....The guitar was passed down from Grandfather to Grandson and the owner considers it priceless...The guitar neck was reset before and it was not properly done...The problem is, it appears that epoxy was used....I used a Heating pad on the fingerboard extension , set at 250 deg and it would not release...I may go higher with temp but don't want to do any damage.....Plan B...Route off the fingerboard extension to get at the pocket, drill out the Epoxy and replace it after neck reset....Any other suggestions?

Sawing off the neck is not an option ...Like I said the reset was not done correctly...Instead of making corrections on the neck heel the guy who reset the neck, cut into the body to get the angle that it is now causing a problem.....

Sounds like a lose-lose situation. I would be inclined to hand it back to the owner and explain the problems. Sometimes you are better off not taking on someone else's abortion.

If it was mine and I couldn't get the epoxy to release I might be inclined to cut through the heel where it meets the neck and put a small wedge to "lift" the neck to the proper angle. It would be pretty unorthodox and require careful matching of the wood and excellent touch up skills - not something I would attempt on someone else's instrument.

It might be worse than epoxy..... it might be superglue.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

I want to see photos..!

I will get some pics tomorrow.....This owner wants it to play again and if it doesn't work he will just hang it back on the wall....I could have said no but i'm willing to give it a try as long as he knows the outcome may not be good...I think routing off the extension to the 14 fret may be my best option.I have Rosewood fingerboards that are pretty close to what there...But I am sure open to suggestions ....

I had an older Ibanez a while back with an epoxied neck joint. I was able to release the fretboard extension but had to remove it at 14 to dig out the joint with steam and spatulas. What a gooey mess. Wound up converting it to a bolt on.

So the neck is overset with a high saddle and low strings?

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It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

My understanding is the CA will release eventually with acetone. No so epoxy.

Either way, whoever did it vandalized an innocent instrument. I'd try to avoid that 'repair' if I could.

On this thread
viewtopic.php?f=10101&t=38706&p=507547&hilit=epoxy#p507547

A couple posters mention that they have released epoxied fingerboards with heat. I realize that it's easier to get heat into a fingerboard than a neck joint.

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I'm not a luthier.
I'm just a guy who builds guitars in his basement.
It's better than playing golf.

Yes the neck is over set....If things work out I will maybe go bolt on also

I have removed epoxy glued raised panels from the rails and stiles using an oscillating tool with a sharpened spatula blade. Cutting through the fingerboard at the fret slot where the neck joins the body and using heat and the spatula you might be able to lift the fingerboard extension. With the right blade mounted, an oscillating tool would allow you to plunge cut the epoxy holding the dovetail in. Sounds like a messy job no matter how you do it. (where is the can of worms emoji)

Off topic but I have laid acetone around CA glued K&K pickup transducers with a syringe and needle to saturate the wood, waited a minute or two and they have popped right off.

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It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

You're on the right track. But, heating the fretboard extension won't get enough heat into the epoxy holding the neck on.

You need to heat the neck heel and the neck block inside the body to heat the epoxy. I use this technique to remove the necks of the Ovation guitars I work on.

The best way to heat the neck block and neck heel is to use a heat gun. Work back and forth to heat the heel and neck block evenly.

Basically, you need to heat soak the surrounding area and bring it up to a temperature of about 190-200 degrees. Once the epoxy starts absorbing the heat, you can start to work the neck joint back and forth a little to break the epoxy bond enough to pop the neck out of its joint.

Once you've got the neck out, you can use the heat gun to heat up the epoxy and scrape it off the wood without any damage to the wood itself.

That sounds like a good way to have the headblock come loose from the sides and the guitar start to come apart.

Thanks for the info and advice....I have the neck off...The extension was routed off (I will make a new one)..There was enough epoxy around the binding to hold it in place so I left it there....I found that the neck didn't have a dove tail joint...I ran a magnet around the heel and it was attracted to a metal inside the heel...There was no bolts that I could see holding the neck...I removed the heel cap and sure enough a screw was screwed up through to fix a previous crack in the heel....I ran a narrow hot spatula down on either side of the truss rod but it would only go down about 1"....I pushed a narrow Chisel down in the opening and got lucky...The Epoxy broke away from the finish ...I kept moving the neck back and forth until it came off the four wooden dowls that were also installed.....I am going to convert it into a bolt on neck...Thanks again

Only if you wave the heat gun around willy-nilly without regard to what you're heating up.

Before neck removal:


After neck removal:


Before epoxy clean-up:




After epoxy clean-up:

If you have a friend or client in health care you can sneak a guitar in for an X-ray. I’ve done that a lot for neck joints I was not familiar with.

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It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.