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hi guys i was wondering if anyone knows of a good link for repairing a broken off heel
on a dovetail neck guitar with some sort of strengthing method involved
mahoganey dowels or bolts mabye ?

i was looking in archives with no luck only found 1 on google
but he just glued and clamped it back on
and ive heard horror storys about heels breaking off again
thanks again tomas

Is it broken clean off? I'll assume so in my answer.

That might require taking the heel cap off and drilling through the break and installing a dowel, I'd use maple though rather than mahogany. That's what I would do anyway.

If the break is clean, you should be able to just glue it though and clamp it tight. HHG would be the best bet for the repair IMO.

Got a picture?

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sorry dont have a camera but its broken clean off
why not mahoganey ? would it do
its a small enough heel though so should i make the dowel as big as i can
thanks tomas

Can you hold the broken off piece to the rest of the neck and tell us if the joint would be "clean" or is it hard to mate the two pieces (this done dry of course).

If they fit just right like two matching puzzle pieces, you really don't need to use the dowel as the glue joint should be stronger than the wood when it's fully cured.

If mahogany is all you have that would work fine. Check the pieces though, you may be able to get away without the dowel. There are many 100's if not 1000's of Gibson Les Paul's with repaired headstocks without any dowel or mechanical holding device (other than the glue, which some would argue is a mechanical bond, and I'm not going there).

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I had this happen to me in my early days. If you have a clean surface you can just glue it back on with tite bond , then drill and dowel it under the heel cap. That will be fine. None of mine failed and I hate to say how old they are.
john

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John Hall
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they would fit snug togther but their looks like their was a 1/4 dowel in there anyway
going straight down the heel
i have to steam off the rest of the dovetail off so im thinking
would i be able to pull out the dowel aswell

i was thinking of using a lump of rubber to block the gap and theirs a channel down the middle
running paralel with the dowel about 1 1/2 cm away from it
should i point the needle twords the channel or go either side to get at the dovetail glue ?
thanks for the quality advice tomas

Is this, by chance, a Yamaha?

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yes thats a good guess did you must have fixed a lot of necks
i was thinking of two dowels each side of the truss rod
as i was saying ive heard storys about heels rebreaking again
but it might been regular white glue
but ive just started using titebond recently and man that stuff is strong
so im not sure should i just glue it ?
im guessing you guessed when i was talking about the channel in the middle
of the dovetail
any tips on steaming the rest of the heel off
thinking of using a rubber wedge make holes in it for neede
but should i steam it in the middle or each side ?
thanks tomas

The steam goes in the gap between the end of the dovetail and the neckblock. Steaming off dovetails can be problematic when they dont want to cooperate, there is not a whole lot of advice to give without having the guitar in hand, but pictures sure do help.

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Chances are steaming of the rest of the neck will alter the glue surface and you will loose that puzzle piece perfect fit.

Does the neck have to be reset? Why remove it? It might be best to just glue the heal back in place and be done with it.