This Iconic brand guitar was brought in with a blown trussrod.
The neck is original and has a lot of sentimental value to the client, and fortunately I was able to repair it for considerably less than the cost of replacing the neck with one of comparable (very high) quality.
The Process:
The first step was to cut out the old, no longer functional trussrod.
A couple of passes with the 7-1/4" circular saw, set to a depth of around 1/8" – so I don’t run the risk of hitting the trussrod underneath – were made, with an abundance of caution taken to not go beyond the boundaries of the rosewood skunk stripe.
The skunk stripe was then carefully excavated using a 1/8" Japanese chisel, and the rod was extracted.
The channel was then routed out slightly bigger than the original, to accommodate the new, slightly wider trussrod, and the new rod was then set into place.
A new skunk stripe was then fabricated from rosewood, shaped and trimmed exactly to size, then glued in over top of the new trussrod.
I wanted to ensure that there would be no gaps, so a couple of cam clamps were added to apply lateral pressure to the heel.
This was left clamped up overnight.
The following day, the clamps were removed and the newly installed skunk stripe was then sanded flush with the surrounding maple.
Prior to starting this whole process, while removing the neck I noticed that there was a rather large shim towards the back (bridge-side) of the neck pocket.
This shim was necessary to correct the neck angle, in order to bring down the action to a playable height.
Even though the plug that’s displayed in the above picture was clean, without gaps and otherwise has no issues being exposed (although somewhat hidden by the neck pocket), I figured this would be an excellent opportunity correct the neck angle, and thus eradicate the need for a shim.
The solution to the shim problem was to add a very thin maple cap to the heel of the neck, so although it looks cosmetic, it serves a valuable purpose.
After gluing the heel cap, I mixed up some amber dye and applied some light coloring to the area that was sanded, so that the reliced look remained consistent throughout the entire neck.
Once the color was dry, a couple of light coats of gunstock oil were applied, then later scuffed up with a scouring pad, to ensure that the neck feels fast and not sticky.
Pictured above is the end result!
Overall I was happy since this job didn’t take very long, and the client was happy because he got to keep his same neck, while saving money.
Truly a win/win situation.
