Learning to do a neck reset?

[Dino Silone]

I have an old “Sekova” 12-string that has a lot of problems. Besides the fact that it’s got a broken truss rod, (which I may tackle at another time), the top is sort of concave, (with the deepest part of the valley being right under the bridge), and the neck angle is seriously off - like the opposite of what it should be. The result is ridiculously high action and a loss of volume. (The action is so bad that you can’t fret beyond about the 3rd fret or so without going totally out of tune. It’s so bad, it’s the kind of guitar about which people would say, “it’s good for slide!”

This isn’t a good guitar - I just want to use it to practice some repair techniques. And I’m not afraid of breaking it - it’s already broken, and, as I said, it’s not a good guitar.

The guitar has a movable bridge and a trapeze tailpiece. The concavity in the top makes it impossible to get a good break angle over the bridge, and given the trapeze tailpiece, none of the shortcut ways to lower action would help - the angle over the bridge is already as low as it’s going to get without raising the top under it. So I might have to think about doing something about that, like jacking up the bridge area under the top. (Or maybe building up the bridge, combined with steeply adjusting the neck angle ... but that’s a hack, and I’d like to learn to do this right.)

What’s a good resource to learn how to do the repairs this would require? Is there a “go to” book? I have built some instruments, done some minor repair stuff, like setups and some fret fixing, but never have attempted anything this major. I have a decently equipped woodworking shop.

Do I need special tools? Like some way to inject steam in at the 12th fret (that’s where the neck joins the body on this guitar)?

A side note: I’m starting to acquire cheap broken guitars just to practice on, so this will be the first in a series of practice exercises. I’m not planning to do this for money, just for fun - at least for now.

Thanks!

[JonWint]

StewMac has a wide selection of free instructions. https://www.stewmac.com/How-To/Onlin...k_Removal.html

In less than a hour and a half I made a "neck removal jig/clamp", added tubing to a wallpaper removal steamer, connected to a StewMac steam needle, and removed 2 necks from Martins.

[redir]

I made a jig like that too, used it once, and then never used it again. It's just not necessary imho.

[Dino Silone]

Thanks! I just watched a two-part YouTube video from Blues Creek Guitars, where Maury (?) from Maury’s Music went through the whole process. He converted a pressure cooker into the steam source, and used a veterinary hypodermic needle as the nozzle.

The process seems very straightforward. Now to learn how to raise that area under the bridge.

I’m pretty much laid up, recovering from some surgery that I had last week, so have nothing to do but watch instructional videos..

EDIT: It was actually John Hall from Blues Creek Guitars that demoed the reset; Maury was the guest...