Sow's Ear Project

[keith.rogers]

Not going for a silk purse, but a little gummy coin holder would be a step up.

I got this 60s Silvertone from my sis (it was found in a garbage bag while clearing out late mil's basement a while back). It had a fairly warped neck, but otherwise functional. So, I removed the fingerboard (dyed poplar? I don't know...), and there was a hunk of steel in there not doing it's job, never mind its course ran to just short of the body, so wasn't doing a thing to keep the neck straight through the joint. So, I've decided to slap a harder wood fingerboard on there and try to improve the neck joint.

Today I carved out some space for a box-style "rod" and put a piece of CF in it (seen on one of the S-M vids). The fingerboard is a Martin scale rosewood one with the first fret removed. Turns out the 24" scale length that results is very nearly the same as what was on there. I'll probably be replacing bolted on bridge (kind of classical style - no bridge pins) that has a straight piece of fretwire for a saddle, but that will be after I get the neck back together.

[Fathand]

Truss rods traditionally ended in the heel area and not through the joint.

Truss rods through the joint are a result of adjustment through the soundhole instead of at the peghead.

[keith.rogers]

Originally Posted by Fathand

Truss rods traditionally ended in the heel area and not through the joint.

Truss rods through the joint are a result of adjustment through the soundhole instead of at the peghead.

I know the 1-way adjustable rods that were basically bent and anchored in the heel ended there, but I had seen a video (IIRC - can't find now) where reinforcing the square tube on a Martin showed that rod extending through the dovetail joint, so was kind of thinking about that.

Here's a page at S-M with a tiny image of that.

p.s. I covered the rod with a strip of scrap pine - it is a Silvertone, after all

[Fathand]

Originally Posted by keith.rogers

Here's a page at S-M with a tiny image of that.

p.s. I covered the rod with a strip of scrap pine - it is a Silvertone, after all

Thanks, interesting article.

[keith.rogers]

Originally Posted by Fathand

Thanks, interesting article.

Here's the rod that was in the neck before. I don't really expect it will be an improvement (i.e., vs. the square, reinforced and slightly longer one), but it was curiosity as much as anything that made me do it .

(Waiting for fret wire - I under-ordered last time so finishing up the fingerboard replacement is on hold until that arrives.)

[keith.rogers]

Deciding it's "close enough" for now I'm going to find out how far the bolt on bridge with straight fret-wire saddle is off once I come back to this. (Yes, my bench is a horror )

p.s. (edit) pulled off the clamps and did some cleanup. (Yes, I did fret the entire board before gluing on - I was real careful to get it aligned pretty well and just had to do some minor touch-up on the neck/fretboard joint.) Intonation is actually not horrible, but I had to shim the nut for the bigger wire, so some adjustment there in the cards. The clay dots look a lot better than the spray painted ones that were on the original!

[Robin, Wales]

Love the pine strip! If that was from a tree from around here then you would have yourself a self-adjusting neck as the seasons changed

[downtime]

I'm working on a Harmony with the same steel reinforced neck and it also has too much relief.

Did you plane the neck dead flat before gluing the fingerboard?
Are you aiming for dead flat and counting on string tension to provide the right amount of relief?

[keith.rogers]

Originally Posted by downtime

I'm working on a Harmony with the same steel reinforced neck and it also has too much relief.

Did you plane the neck dead flat before gluing the fingerboard?
Are you aiming for dead flat and counting on string tension to provide the right amount of relief?

Yes to both of your questions, though there was really not a significant problem with the neck's flatness with string tension release.

I can say now that it's all together I have second thoughts about not resetting the neck, because the action is still a bit higher than I'd like (5/32" - 1/8"), and a completely new bridge would need to be made, but the entire construction is flimsy and I was afraid I'd be in to a lot more work than I was already up for. (I have a couple more "projects" stacked up and seriously need to clean my workspace!) I planed off the original bridge area where the [straight] flet slot was an added a bit of fingerboard trimming so I could put a bit of radius into the [now, re-] angled fret/slot and retain the break angle. Also added a 3rd bolt to the bridge. All of these things were balanced against this being primarily a wall hanging and once/year (July, Texas) camp guitar. For that purpose, it's much improved, and hits the target .