Guitar I repaired

[Eric Brown]

I recently repaired a guitar for a co-worker. The neck had been broken. The old neck was removed from the fret board using a saw from TFWW. Some “mahogany” was obtained and squared up using handplanes. The old neck was then used as a template for the new neck but the neck was made thicker to fit the owners hands better. The groove for the truss bar was made using a handsaw followed by a hand router. The new neck was then rough cut out using a bandsaw.After shaping the neck with rasps and sandpaper, the end where the tuning knobs go had to be done. This was accomplished by first flattening the top side with a handplane and then clamping it down onto the bench with two matching height boards. A hand router was then used to flatten the back and ensure it was parallel with the front. The holes for the tuning knobs were then done. The truss bar was installed and the new neck was epoxied to the fret board and guitar body. After curing, the neck was given a final sanding and strings fitted. Some frets required leveling, but the guitar is fixed to his liking. It sounds real good and fits his monster hands. He will take care of refinishing the neck.

---

Guitar 1.jpgGuitar 3.jpgGuitar 4.jpgGuitar 5.jpgGuitar done 1.jpgGuitar done 2.jpg

[Jim Koepke]

Very nice.

Looks like you are set up to tackle this kind of work on a regular basis.

jtk

[Will Boulware]

Nice work! What kind of router planes are those in pictures 3 and 4? I'll second Jim's comment about your set up here. Looks like you've done this a time or two!

[Tony Shea]

Curious what kind of connection you have to the body of the guitar. I noticed you didn't replace the heel part of the neck so am not so sure I get what kind of joinery you used for the neck to body connection.

Very clean work all around.

[Jeff Bartley]

Eric,
What kind of router plane is that in the forth pic? Nice looking work!

[george wilson]

Not to rain on your parade,but you should only use a reversible glue like hide glue for instrument repairs. Otherwise,it will be hard to ever fix the guitar if it needs further work in the future.

[Malcolm Schweizer]

Nice use of hand tools and that is a beautiful saw.

For or the headstock, usually it is glued on to the neck at an angle, being cut from the same piece of wood. You cut the neck blank at an angle, flip that piece over, and glue it back on to the angled cut. This saves wood and also gives you a more favorable grain pattern as opposed to carving it all out of one piece. Maybe I am seeing it wrong, but it looks like yours is all one thick blank.
http://www.tundraman.com/Guitars/001/GuitarNeck.php (not my site but has a good graphic)

That said, it is impressive work and looks great.

[Eric Brown]

The bronze router is made by http://www.stjamesbaytoolco.com/ and has blades made by Lee Valley. The other red router is an old Tyzack. It allows the blade to be positioned on either end or the middle. Really handy for keeping tendons flat and centered. The saw and saw handle makers file is from Tools for Working Wood. The wood was actually glued up as three layers from the same board. The layers are oriented left to right. As for joinery, if you look close you can see two existing dowels. These were fitted into the new neck. My choice of glue was simple enough. I wanted it strong to compensate for the joinery. It also filled any gaps between the neck and fret board. The guitar itself wasn't very expensive and he could not afford taking it to a professional shop. To answer Georges perspective on glue, consider that if this guitar is broken again with that thick of a neck, then the fret board will need replaced also. The cost of replacing everything and refinishing will exceed the cost of a new guitar of similar quality. But George, you are right. A hide type glue may have been a better choice. I just don't have enough experience with it to have used it on this guitar. By the way, the truss bar and epoxy came from stewmac.com Check them out for parts or even guitar kits. They also have other instruments. Nothing as nice as Georges, but still very nice. The one thing I love about my bench is the Tucker vice from Lee Valley (no longer offered). With tilt jaws, leather faces and height adjustable thanks to Adjust-a-Bench legs, the guitar could be positioned and held gently at a good working height. Sorry forgot to put in picture of guitar with old neck removed. Here it is.

---

Guitar 2.jpg

[george wilson]

Classical guitars usually have the headstock glued on,but steel string guitars have the headstock cut from the solid. This is partly from the greater string tension and the smaller neck making the scarf joint smaller. But,more than anything,it stems from the practices of Spanish makers working without power tools. They scarfed the headstocks on,and stacked the heels,making the neck simpler to make without large,expensive wood,or a bandsaw.

Even Torres was poor enough that he sometimes resorted to 4 piece tops and backs. There was a maker in Paris working in a 10 foot square kiosk.