Gibson Gospel Neck Re-Attachment

 

Ready to reattach the neck to the body. The dovetail pocket is cleaned and ready to accept the neck

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The heel needs to be trimmed to allow the neck angle to come down. I used blue tape to give me a clean guideline where I need to chisel off the excess.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Two words: SHARP CHISEL!!! Do not even think about trying this without a chisel sharp enough to shave the hair on your body. I am only taking off a little more than 1/64^th of an inch.

 

 

 

Since the sides of the heel have been pared away, the walls of the dovetail joint must be built up to account for the change. Here the shims are attached to the dovetail.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Since the angle of the neck changed, the fingerboard extension is now above the face of the body. A small ebony shim is placed under the fingerboard extension to fill the gap. Some repair people will just glue the fingerboard extension to the soundboard. Although this works, it can make the upper frets unplayable. This little added touch of placing a shim under the extension makes the whole fingerboard playable.

 

And finally the neck is attached to the body.

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