renovation of old Harmony guitar

[jimmacgillivray]

Hello and thanks for all the good things that this site has to offer,first of all,I,am strictly new to this instrument creation and really into this idea of knowledge shareing,learning and wish everyone connecting to this forum all the best in their creativity .I,am a musician and have done some local recording with my brothers and a sister,that was a little while ago,I,am a owner of a martin dreadnaught and I,ll have to say ,it is the best guitar that I have ever owned.Now I have a workshop and have just decided to take the top of a old harmoney guitar because,it sounded so horriable and replace it with a new cedar top.The old top had so much ladder braceing and a laminated top,so I managed to build a cedar top with x brace and tone bars.I made the top board from straight grained fenceing boards,selected at a building supply,ripped out the clear grain,planed it down to matched thickness,guled it together ,now it,s setting up for tomorrows work.I have a question reguarding the neck,it has a solid truss rod,a compound dovetail joint,how much of a relief between the ist and 12th fret should their be and is .010 too much,it being a fixed truss,I should,nt have to adjust that part at all ? those truss rigid enough to hold over time? Thanks for any reply at all to this,if you can understand what I,am trying to explain,I,am really looking forward to posting some pictures eventually and hearing what that old renovated Harmony sounds like with the new top`best reguards ,Jim

[Ben-Had]

If the .010 is under tension i.e. the guitar strung up it's probably OK. If that number is unstrung then when that guitar get stung I'm guessing it may be too much relief. You won't know how stiff it is unless you have a neck tension jig or you string it up but it is sure to go up. You can adjust for that if needed even with no adjustable truss rod if you have access to certain tools. Someone else may have a different take.

[jimmacgillivray]

Thanks Tim for your reply,yes that does make sense,as you explain it,the tensioned string ,or strings ,would indeed increase the relief of the neck,or the space beneath the string ,so I,ll have to be aware of that when I set it back up, befor glueing of mortised neck joint I,ll just clamp it shut,then test for string height,until it,s ok and go ahead then with the glue.By clamping I mean neck to the body,with a long heel to tail clamp,shims if need be .I really appreciate your help Tim,I,ll give it a try and see how it works out,best reguards,Jim