Joined:
May 2011
Posts: 751
Location: Muenster/Germany | I have an old Ovation 1658 Custom Legend 12string, from 1979 with a set neck (a big wooden block inside, no screws) and a very very bad made neck-reset. I´m afraid I have to remove the neck and I don´t know what kind of neck joint was made at that time. Are there scews/ bolts or hidden anchors or is it a usual dovetail joint? Has anybody experience with removing these necks? I would highly appreciate any help with this, the guitar is so beautiful (sunburst!!) but unplayable.
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Joined:
June 2012
Posts: 2303
Location: Lake Forest, CA | A big wooden block with no screws says to me a glued-on neck.
To my knowledge, there are no hidden screws/bolts/anchors.
I don't know whether it's got a dovetail joint, but I can say with some certainty that it's got a lot of epoxy holding the neck onto the body.
Alison (CanterburyStrings) told me that she knows a luthier in her neck of the woods that has removed a glued-on neck, but as I recall, she said he declined to share with her how he did it.
If it's got a hand-laid bowl, then you can probably perform a bowl bend to fix the neck geometry. I'm planning to bend Jay's 1967 Balladeer on Saturday, so I should be able to offer some insight into temperatures, etc. once it's done. If it's got an SMC bowl, you're likely out of luck because of how hot you'd need to get the bowl to soften the resin. If it is an SMC bowl, then you'll probably need to venture into uncharted territory by attempting to remove the neck. MWoody has done this on one of his 1615. See:
Edited by DanSavage 2014-11-13 8:54 PM
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Joined:
May 2011
Posts: 751
Location: Muenster/Germany | Thanks for your precious advices,so I don´t need to have x-rays made from the guitar first... the 1615 rescue is a wonderful story. Heat, pressure and patience are phantastic tools.But a bowl-bent alone would not be enough, because the neck angle is so bad that the neck has a real bend at the edge of the body, where the thin part of the fretboard begins.Thank got the fretboard itself seems to be quite loose from the top, not fixed too strong.
I think we try to use heat first and then see what will happen, someone before us actually did loose the neck and re-glued it wrong, we just don´t know what kind of glue was used. If everything stays fixed there´s a third possibility we have in mind: to simply saw the neck heel precisely off the body and transform the construction into a bolt-on neck, why not, the big wooden block inside could hold a piano.Maybe 2 screws and one anchor to fix the side movements. My luthier did this before with an old guitar sucessfully and has some experience with this.I will ask him to make some pics of the surgery and post them here (if I ever find out how). |
Ovation 1658 neck joint?
