Guild F-50 Neck Removal

I got some 6-inch (152mm) drill bits from McMaster-Carr to drill deeper into the dovetail joint on the Guild.

You can see where I used the famous blue painter's tape to flag the maximum depth to drill.  I did have horrible visions of the bit coming out the bottom side of the guitar and wanted to ensure that didn't happen.

One thing that occurred to me while I pondered this whole removal issue was that the neck is maple.  When I first drilled into the dovetail, I was seeing first ebony sawdust (the fingerboard wood), then mahogany (the neck block wood) coming out.  I may not have been hitting the male dovetail at all.  I probably was in the neck block.

So I drilled again at a sharper angle with the longer bit, and presto! I got maple.  Things are looking up.

Now I steam again.  I just shot this for the heck of it - I like to shoot the steam into a bucket at first to make sure I have all steam and no water.

Back into the removal jig, I steam away, apply pressure on the screw against the bottom of the heel, and I hear a small crack! sound.

Oh yes!

The neck joint comes apart.  The neck practically popped out of the joint.

Couple of things - the fingerboard cracked a bit and the binding popped off.  Should be easy repairs, although it looks ugly now.

There's a ton of glue there - and it's on the mating surface of the dovetail - unlike where Martin applies it on the sides.  No wonder I had such a time with it.  The other Guild I just did had glue on the sides of the joint.

While the glue is still soft, I scrape it out.  I also used a bit of steam directly on it to keep it pliable.

It looks like caviar combined with chicken livers.  Disgusting.

This is just a small portion - there was a lot in there.

Pate, anyone?

The spruce under the fingerboard extension got pretty hacked up.  I have some of the hunks that fell out and I can glue them back in.  I'll probably have to make a patch for some of the damage.

Note that I sharpened up the stub of the Henckels knife that fell in the kitchen.  Makes a fantastic scraper.

It looks ugly, but there are no chips out of the neck heel at all.  I will have some touchup on the top, but it should be straightforward.

I have a 12-string Guild to reset also - this was good experience.  Now I know what I may find on that one.