Sometimes, despite over 23 years working on instruments, I see something weird. And this one is bizarre.
Notice anything weird? The clues were there, had I thought about them.
The guitar was brought in by the son of its original owner. The action wasn’t terribly high, but we agreed a neck reset would improve the action and saddle height at bridge, improving tone and playability.
I pointed out to customer that Gibson had put a thin shim under the fingerboard extension, maybe 1/32″. It was painted dark brown, blending in with the top finish, but it was odd. My best guess was this was done to correct for an incorrect neck angle at the factory, as it allowed the whole neck to sit slightly higher in the dovetail. I was close…
The fingerboard extension loosened with zero effort…a good sign. Next, on to the steaming the dovetail.
Here is where things get bizarre. The steam loosened the glue, and the neck had plenty of wiggle meaning it was loose, but the darn thing just wouldn’t come out. So I set it aside to think…
Next day, after a little steam, I saw the issue: The neck dovetail was actually UNDER the top wood. Gibson had set and glued the neck onto the body BEFORE the top was attached. What the hey?
See the issue? If you look closely, you’ll see the two holes I had drilled for the steam needle. And another look, you’ll notice a large gap between the underside of the fingerboard and the beginning of the dovetail on the neck.
The neck came out, with no serious damage to the top wood, which gave way just enough to lift neck out. I then reglued the section with hide glue. It will all be covered by the fingerboard.
Next step was to cut out a section so that I can REINSTALL the neck.
I have two theories as to this construction method, which I have neither seen nor heard of. The first, it was training day and someone was learning to fit necks and missed a few steps. This is unlikely on an SJ, which was a higher end model than say an LG-1, and less likely to have newbies fitting necks.
The second thought is this was a prototype, and the bosses were thinking of ways to speed up the process. This could explain the mystery numbers stamped all over the neck block, sides, and neck heel. None match the FON on inside neck block. Any thoughts? Fellow luthiers, have you seen this before????
So now we know why there was a shim. With the top glued over the dovetail, there was no easy way to fix the neck angle that was obviously set wrong. The issue now is that the dovetail has to be cut down to allow the neck to fit flush with the top, OR I keep it standing proud and make a replacement spruce ship, matching original construction. Haven’t decided yet….