Quote:
Originally Posted by Edgar Poe
Chris, No I add the stud and acorn nut to the existing dovetail joint. The reason I started in the first place. I reset a neck for a friend, and being one of the first I did, I made some simple errors. After about a month of the neck being under string tension, and apparently I had not made the joint tight enough, possibly not allowing the joint to cure long enough, the joint opened up slightly. When I fixed it, I wanted to make sure it would hold. The stud and acorn nut make that possibly.
HOWEVER, YOU have given me an idea. I am going to take apart a cheap guitar with a dovetail joint. Make the repairs and install 2 or maybe 3 studs, and install the neck without Glue. That would be basically a bolt on neck.
Of course make the repair as if the neck would be set WITH glue, to make sure all angles are proper. If at a future time it needs further repair, the disassembly would be rather rapid.
Ed
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Re: Not gluing the fretboard extension on a dovetail - Keep in mind that the dovetail doesn't have the vertical mortise/tenon's ability to keep the fretboard extension from rising too much (creating fret buzz) against the tension added by shaving the heel base (to achieve the reset). Also, it may be the case that the glued fretboard extension may act as a structural support by transferring string tension to the soundboard, rather than letting the joint take the entire tension load. Don't know if that makes sense to someone who knows, but to me . . . .
Re: Not gluing the dovetail joint - I think if you had a really good fit, there'd be no loss of tone, and maybe on a cheaper guitar it wouldn't matter, but I'm sure those in the know may consider the joint incomplete without glue, resulting in loss of tone. I don't know. Just throwing it out there. Can't hurt to try it and see.