Official Luthiers Forum!

I prefer to use a one piece neck due to grain incontinuity with a built up heel. But, it is not always posible to aquire a blank of sufficient size when using a non-mahogany wood for the neck. For puposes of this discussion, I am refering to a neck built of a 1x3 quarter sawn piece with a scarf joint and a stacked heel.

What type of glue do you use on the heel with a dovetail neck joint? I am thinking of potential delamination problems during a future neck reset.

Chuck

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Chuck -all the modern (Titebond,Elmers,Lmii) HHG & Fish glue will be fine -as long as you make good glue joints.
Otherwise epoxy is neede to fill gaps.

Mike

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Mike Collins

Chuck brings up a potential issue. Traditionally, built up heels were used on classicals without dovetail joints, and dovetails used on guitars without built up heels. I haven't seen any delaminating on the couple of multipiece necks (longitudinal laminations) that I have steamed out that I built with original Titebond as the glue. Fish glue would probably be the most prone to separating from steaming. If you want to be safe, use urea-formaldehyde or resorcinol, which are pretty impervious to moisture and would take a lot more heat to separate than you use when steaming the joint.

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Howard Klepper
http://www.klepperguitars.com

When all else fails, clean the shop.

Thanks for the replies Mike and Howard. I have a few built up neck heels that I used titebond on with a dovetail joint. Just never thought much about resetting back then. What do you think about polyurethane glue?

Chuck

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I have used it a couple of times successfully, but I've read that it has a very short shelf life, and lots of people have had problems. Repeat earlier suggestions.

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Howard Klepper
http://www.klepperguitars.com

When all else fails, clean the shop.

Thanks Howard, I'll look into the urea-formaldehyde glue, never used that before. Resorcinol may be a little dark, not sure if it will be noticeable. I did a test glue up with polyurethane (Gorilla glue brand) on surfaced spruce 2x4's, no noticeable glue line, and easy to work with as long as you wear gloves.

Chuck

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