Guitar Neck Removal Jig, Pt. 1

I currently have four (!) guitars in the queue which need neck resets.  So I'm going to cook up a neck removal jig to help with the process.

This is basically a jig that will hold the guitar body during the steaming process and allow pressure to be put on the bottom of the neck heel, helping to press it upward.


Since I always need a plan of sorts, I got one from the Ultimate Guitar Repair web site.  Lots of good plans to be found there.

I used 3/4 inch birch plywood left over from the full-range speakers to build the jig.

First I cut the three pieces.  Actually four, since two pieces are glued together to make the super-strong piece that will carry the stud that will put pressure on the neck joint.

I cut the pieces and glued them up.

Here are the three main pieces.  The large board will be the top of the jig - it sits on the top of the guitar.  The smaller boards are the front compression board (front) and the back compression board.

I drilled holes on the rear and top boards where the adjustment slots will end.

Hopefully the routing will go better than it did on the saddle slotting jig.

And it did.  I cooked up a simple fence to keep the router straight.  Router wandering off course = bad.

I also used the router on a low speed.  It was a lot easier to control and still cut through the material easily.

Made lots of birch plywood laminate sawdust doing the routing.

The sawdust goes everywhere.

Then I glued some thin cork onto the sides that will contact the guitar body.   The plans call for thin rubber or cork, and the cork seems more organic.

I used incredibly strong contact cement.  The cork needed to be clamped to the wood as it dried.  The smaller pieces were easy - I stacked them together and clamped the whole mess.

But the big board was harder, due to its size.

I finally got the idea of putting a large hunk of scrap over the top board, and using a heavy item to hold it down.

Looking around the Dungeon for something suitably heavy, I spotted my AN/URM-25D signal generator. 

It weighs 37.5 lbs.  Makes a good clamping weight.

Quick digression.  Here's the nameplate for my URM-25D.  Turns out that Trad Electronics did Navy contract work from 1955, and went out of business in 1960.  So this until was built during that time frame.

'Servscolcom NTC' refers to a Navy Service Training School.  From what I gather, there was one in San Diego and one in Illinois.  I bought this from a fellow in Arizona, so it's a reasonable guess that it came from the San Diego school.

This unit needs restoration - yet another future project.