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Repairing a neck

I've got this cigar box guitar free off a mate, he tried to fit a new pickup and cut a chunk out of the neck which has basically made the thing useless as the whole thing bends when you attempt to tune it, i've pulled out everything he did to it and going to attempt to salvage it, its a nice guitar so hoping i can get it back to playing well and have picked up a bargain (if my mate then doesn't ask for it back:))

I've posted some pics (you can see its a bit of a mess) but what i was thinking of was getting a bit of hard wood and cutting some lap joints and glue it in and join up the neck, would this work, or is there anything else you would suggest.

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Permalink Reply by Ron "Oily" Sprague on February 21, 2013 at 2:34am

Rebar?

Yep, he pretty much effed up the structural integrity of that neck. Cut down a long L-shaped lap joint in both remaining neck pieces, then screw AND glue a piece of hard wood in for the join. Do it on the side away from the pup.

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Permalink Reply by Mark Buttrick on February 21, 2013 at 2:41am

Cool, cheers dude, any other ideas welcomed

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Permalink Reply by Dan Sleep on February 21, 2013 at 2:47am

That would have been better if he had glued in a reinforcing piece to the bottom of the box, then screwed the neck to the reinforcing piece. Having it on the lid makes it structurally weak, as you already figured out.

You could also use a scrap piece of 1x2 and glue/screw it to both the neck piece and the tail piece. There should be room in the bottom of the box for it to fit when you close the lid. This would leave the hole for the pickup.

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Permalink Reply by Tom Drommond on February 21, 2013 at 4:59am

Bridge the remaining pieces as far on either side as you can. Clean the surfaces to fresh bare wood. Wipe both surfaces lightly with a damp paper towl and apply Gorilla Glue. Clamp it up. The glue joint will be stronger than the wood. I used a block of red oak. This guitar was done several months ago and is being played nightly on stage. Multiple tuning changes, string gauges and intense playing without a single problem.

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/photo.php?v=481599278554160&...

I used a piece that was 3/4 inch thick.

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Permalink Reply by Mark Buttrick on February 21, 2013 at 5:06am

Awesome, that looks good, will get to work on that.

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Permalink Reply by Tom Drommond on February 21, 2013 at 5:24am

You'll be playing it tonight! Easy fix. Next time, glue in the doubler and then cut the hole. Other than that, you are fine. In the future, I'd recommend the tailpiece layout I use. It makes the neck a free standing piece carrying the string load. I can take the lid off and still play. This is how I build all of mine.

Nothing needs to transfer to the lid and it's much harder to bow the neck in that configuration. Makes tuning easier because your not jockey-ing between strings as much to get all three in tune at the same time.