Takamine Neck Joint Surprise!

[morgdan]

My current project is to put a new top on a friend's Takamine F389 12-string guitar (1986). It has a laminated mahogany top that got severely warped in the sun (I presume).

So today was the day I set aside to remove the neck. I assumed that it was a dovetail neck since it was not a bolt-on. I did some research and saw no indication that it would be anything other.

I steamed...and steamed...no luck. I couldn't find the gap behind the dovetail, but I knew it had to be there.

Finally the neck released, but not the way I expected it to! It was put on with dowels, flush-mounted. Really? No wonder I couldn't find the joint to steam. One more minute of steam and I think the whole guitar would have collapsed... As it is I think it'll be fine. I had to re-glue the kerfing and heel block.

I guess I'll be converting this into a bolt-on neck, unless someone has another bright idea!

Anyway, I thought I'd share this tid-bit since it came as such a surprise to me. Had I known I could have saved myself a lot of trouble!

[morgdan]

[Tone Wood]

Ungh.....that is....unsightly. You expect some corners to be cut at the lower end, but dowles is something else altogether. I'm surprised that the string tension of a 12-string hasn't pulled it loose of it's own accord by now.