360/12 neck reset.

[sloop_john_b]

As some of you know, I have been working with an up-and-comer in the Rick restoration scene, Curt Wilson in Jersey. I brought Curt my re-necked '66 360/12 at the beginning of February for a neck reset, re-bind, and to have crushed pearl inlays done. I believe this is the second or third time he had worked with checkered binding and for sure the first time he used crushed pearl, both with fabulous results.

A little history on the guitar: I purchased it from Pick of the Ricks in the summer of 2008. It had no pickups and no TRC, but I was immediately struck by it's gorgeous wood and its LOUD acoustic volume. The body dates to May of 1966, the neck dates roughly to the late 80's (McGuinn/v64 spec) and the reset was purportedly done by the Rick factory around that time.

The following is a photo essay of the work, along with comments from Curt, x-posted from another forum where we post.

This is forum member Jbiscuti's beautiful 12 string that has a couple of issues, one being in need of a reset. Pretty clear what the problem is and looks to be straight forward.

Looks like the body/neck joint shifted as the back has a wave and the top cracked. I suspect that I'll find a not so square neck tenon.

It's interesting that the 80's binding is cracked and very brittle.

[sloop_john_b]

So the picture do tell the story, going to remove the neck tomorrow.

[sloop_john_b]

I was able to remove all the epoxy which was seemed to be mixed with a Titebond3 type product. The back once removed curled so I clamped it flat over a weeks time slowly adding a little more pressure. The top is a lot flatter than it was when the neck was in place which caused the split because it was forced in place. The tenon has been chopped up a bit and I'll put it on the joiner to see how it cleans up and add or subtract wood as necessary. If you look at the ships on the back of the tenon you'll see they were allowing the neck to rock and worked more like a wedge.

the glue joints are broken and the tops twisted. It's a rough job and the middle of the X should be the strongest part but the gaps are pretty big and very little contact. I would think that the should be joined on the sides. I'm thinking a simple dovetail would have made these guitar bulletproof.

[sloop_john_b]

The neck is too wide which explains the crack and the body twists both on the back and top. The other issue is the tenon lacks depth which was poorly shimmed which explains why it needs a reset. there was an attempt to fill that gap with epoxy which never works. At this point it's pretty straight forward, fix the joint, bracing, then glue the back on and replace the cracked section of the top.

If you look at the tenon you'll see it's U shaped on the bottom which is what caused the neck to fail.

Hey John, what color shelly do you want? The white would look new factory and the more yellow aged.

I went with white!

[sloop_john_b]

These are white. Smaller flakes to follow.

[sloop_john_b]

I offered the amber(ish) flakes because the rest of the guitar has an aged amber tint to it and they would look more vintage. The binding has yellowed so just offering a consistent look.

So it looks like I'll set the neck later today or tomorrow. The gaps are enormous so I'm going to rip some maple shims and I'm going to set it with that top section off so I can manipulate the shims better to assure a snug fit.

[sloop_john_b]

Glued!

The images are a dry fit, adjusting full length shims.

[sloop_john_b]

Top piece was glued in yesterday and I got up at 4 this morning to cut a small piece of maple to go under the neck pickup. Since you have a flat neck p/u I figured it was a good idea to fill in the gap and to keep some pressure at the joint. All that needs to be finished is sanding the inlays, attach the outside binding and then add clear where necessary. Most of the time and energy was spent repairing the back piece that split in half. When it split both pieces curled up like potato chips and I didn't think we were going to be able to use it. As a precaution I book-matched a piece of maple and planned it down to thickness while slowing clamping the original pice to make it flat again. I was able to use the original back but it needs to be sanded and cleared.

This has been quite a project but I'm feeling really good about it and I think it's going to a great guitar in a couple of weeks. Someone remind me not to do anymore resets on guitars that have had the necks switched because you never know what you're going to find.

[sloop_john_b]

Shells final sanded with a coat of sealer added. Binding tomorrow with more clear.

[sloop_john_b]

Binding attached and a coat of clear on the back.

[jps]

Nice work!

[deaconblues]

WOW...looks great! RAS alert.

[johnallg]

Very nice, John. Looks like he does very nice work.

[8mileshigher]

Nice photo essay of a nice repair job !

[8mileshigh]

Cool John! Let us know your final verdict when you've got it back in your sweaty hands