Scott's Guitar Blog: August 13, 2017

Martin Guitar Neck Reset

A customer of mine from NY asked me to perform the neck reset on his 1965 Martin 00-18. He decided to pick it up in person, and stay and enjoy Vermont for a couple days. A few others also done this so far, which makes me very happy!

This photo was taken just after I steamed the neck out of the body of the guitar and used a chisel as a scraper to remove any traces of old glue from under the fingerboard. I then continued to clean up the dovetail tenon on the neck and mortise in the head block so that when I carved the heel back to the correct angle, all surfaces would be prepped and ready for gluing.

This neck had been reset by someone before, badly. My work was cut out for me, having to work around the fact that they used a very rubbery carpenter’s glue and removed far too much material from the neck heel.

It all came out fine, and my customer Theo went home happy. Here he is in the studio playing it after the work was complete, and standing on the trail to my studio next to some cairns I built out of rocks from the property.

I encourage folks from out of State, whether old customers or new, to come visit. A small job might be able to be done the same day while you explore Vermont. Larger jobs can be left here for me complete and return to you. There are affordable inns and B&Bs nearby, and the hiking, antiquing and beauty of the area, are wonderful.

Heck… there is likely to be a campfire involved, too.