Hey all, this is my first post, so i want to thank you for this great forum to which i hope to contribute to.
My problem is that I have an acoustic guitar (this is a kid-sized Lauren guitar) on which the neck heel (neck joint) is coming off from the body. Likely due to exceeds of pressure... holding the heel in now (strings are taken off to reduce pressure of course) is the fret board as well as a wood pin coming from the body into the heel. when looking in the space between the two seperated pieces of wood, it doesnt look like it was ever glued it. so i dont know how it used to hold.
what i'd like to know is how can i get this together again, and for it to be strong enough for string tension again. wood glue?
thanks a bunch in advance!
no one can tell me what i can do in this situation???
Yes, well if the heel had no glue in the first place, and if there is no so-called mortise and tenon or a dovetail, where they join like a puzzle, then it is the peg, and sometimes in other brands, 2 horizontal bolts that hold the neck on. Yet they look as if the neck was set.
"There are basically four ways of attaching the neck to the body using glued joints:
With a dovetail joint, where the dovetail is cut into the end of the neck assembly and fits into a mating mortise in the instrument's endblock. This is typically used on acoustic and hollow-body electric guitars.
With a simpler mortise and tenon joint, which is similar to a dovetail joint, except that the tenon is straight instead of tapered. Sometimes these joints are reinforced with screws, nails or pins. Since this joint is inherently weaker than a dovetail joint, it is usually only found on violins and similar instruments with less string tension.
With a neck that ends in a "foot" that is glued to the instrument body proper. This method is mostly used in building classical and flamenco guitars. The "foot" is on the bottom of the neck, and affords a large gluing surface to the back of the instrument.
By making the neck part of the body. This method is used on some solid-body electric guitars, where the piece of wood that is the neck runs the entire length of the instrument and is laminated to the rest of the body. This makes an extremely strong joint."
Of course you have the problem of the fretboard overtop holding you back from making a nice convenient repair, but it should help guide the angle, and keep things fairly straight.
Here is a Seagull image. I have one. You can read sections of this too: http://www.seagullguitars.com/seagullstory.htm
I think you would just have to manipulate the parts to make as much space as you can, and squirt, spread or inject a carpenters wood glue in there.
Professionals use Hyde or Hide glue apparently, which is animal-based, and is supposedly undoable. The method is often to inject steam to release it.
But I think you can use a tite bond cement, or carpenter's water-based glue successfully. I leave it to you regarding lining up that dowel peg.
Obviously, leave the fretboard on or the guitar might become a wreck. It is nice to fix things whenever humanly possible and not waste.
I guess you would use a very strong and not stretchy duct tape or similar, to hold in place while drying. Some luthiers use rubber bands.
Wipe off the excess glue afterward, patiently with a cloth and as much warm water as it will take, without harming the finish.
Like a bird on the wire,
like a drunk in a midnight choir
I have tried in my way to be free.
thank you fellow canadian!
i bought the strongest carpenthers glue they had today and glued it up. i just hope it will hold the tension of the strings, even if its just a kid sized guitar. but i also have an acoustic that needs gluing so i hope it can withstand that pressure.
