The Guitar Gallery Forums - The Guitar Legacy of Matsumoku

It is a bit tricky to see what is up with the neck but if it is just a loose brace it can be glued back. First remove some of the old glue from the joint and try and determine what kind of glue it is. If it starts to disolve in hot water it is probably hide glue and you are in luck. If you apply more hide glue they will just melt into each other so you don't have to scrape all the old glue out. If not then remove as much of the old glue as possible.

Given the location you can use a regular "C" clamp for this job. You will have to make a caul for each side to get good clamping and to protect the guitar. A flat piece of wood that is a bit longer and wider than the area to be glued should work for the top. Use a piece of felt to protect the guitar top. For the inside caul take a piece of wood like the one above and route a channel slightly long the brace and slightly more shallow. This will help keep the caul in place. If the glue was not hide glue I would use a slow set epoxy for this job. It helps if you put some waxed paper between the inside caul and the brace as glue does not stick well to it.

If the bridge bulge is not to bad I would leave it. It it is bad you should check the condition of the bride plate (piece of wood under bridge inside the guitar). You need a miror for that. Repairing a damaged bridge plate is major surgery and should be done by a pro. StewMac has kit with a piece of brass that goes ove the bridge plate but it is for 6 string bridges. It may be possible to modify it or make your own. Good luck.

Thanks for the replies!

The brace for the neck has actually split instead of coming loose. It is a clean diagonal split towards the end of the brace, at the top side of the guitar. Because of the broken brace, the neck was diving into the sound hole when I got it. Someone had tried to shim the neck in in a failed attempt to get the neck playable. The strings were at full tension and sitting 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch off of the 12th fret. I think this is what caused the bridge to bulge. Since I removed the neck the bulge seems to have settled a bit. Would slight tension with clamping help improve the bulging? Do I need to replace the brace or can the break be glued with any integrity?

Thanks Again,
Tom

If you can remove the brace you may be able to glue it together if no wood is missing. Alternativly you could use it as a model to carve a new one. Most quality acoustic braces are made of spruce.

I would not try clamping the bridge. You would just be pushing the wood around without strengthening it in any way. If as you say it is not that bad, you can sand down the base of the saddle to lower the action after you have fixed the neck problem.

I've been taking my time with this one, and have figured out the real problem. I should have seen this first, but it wasn't obvious on my initial inspection. There is a screw hole that has been stripped on the neck on the bottom right:



A friend suggested stuffing the hole with toothpicks and glue to hold the screw. Is this the preferred way to fix this problem? Would a bigger screw crack the neck? Or, should I set the neck with glue.
Any advice will be appreciated.
Thanks
Tom

Based on some articles that I read:

-You can coat the screw holes with superglue until you build up more grip.

-You can drill the hole a little bigger and glue in a hard dowel and re-drill a smaller hole.

-You can fill the hole 1/3 with backing soda and apply superglue in the hole, do not breath in the fumes, Fill in another 1/3 and apply superglue.... redrill....

I will double verify my book to see if any more options are available...

P.

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MAA Member since June 29th 2009, taking one baby step at a time..... and failing miserably!

All of Frenchy's methods are good ways to help a loose screw. Given the load bearing nature of this one I would go with the oversized dowel.

Thanks guys, i will try the dowel method.
Tom