www.KitGuitarsForum.com

got an interesting project in about a year ago , this old mandolin found in an attic. The heat and dry conditions tool a tool on the body and neck. The neck had a serious bow and after 6 months clamped on a steel bar she finally got straight.
The next plan was to take it apart. As you can see the heel was broken , the top cap was separated and there is some missing pieces . I started by controlling the heat blanket at about 220. In about 20 min the extension came off nice and clean. The neck dovetail was look and also broken so the neck came out clean. The bottom of the neck was still glued in place in the block.

That is a very interesting project. How are you going to handle the repair? Are you going to take out the broken dovetail, reattach it to the neck, then do a reset?

I have a guitar that was gifted to me. It's just a cheap little old Norwood "Adjustomatic", but it had an identical problem, with a severe forward neck bend. It's taken me several months now, but I checked the other day and the neck is finally straight.

I didn't have to do near the work you have to do. The Norwood neck is just bolted on in 2 places, so the action can be adjusted by tilting the neck.

It was a cute idea, but badly executed. The neck had no reinforcement.

I had the neck clamped for about a year to get flat. There was a piece of wood missing so I used west systems epoxy for the heel repair. Reset the neck and trued the fret board.
a bit of finish touch up . The neck block was cracked and wood compressed from the time it was under stress. I used the heat blankets for removing the extension. The heel split and part was still glued in. I steamed that out ,saved the pieces and reassembled the tenon.
I also pulled the frets and got it ready to glue back together.

Great detail and photos on the repair. I learned a lot. Thank you John.

got this finished and delivered. Once I started to get it back together it was textbook. One thing was the amount of time this was pulled by string tension it did deform the neck shoulders , so that took a little work. Customer was happy , that is all that mattered

I'm always amazed by how much disassembly an instrument will tolerate, and still go back together. I'm not sure I'll ever have the patience for an operation that includes "leave clamped for 6 months to a year" as one of its steps, either.

Kudos to you John, remarkable work saving a beautiful instrument.

Is it a straight or tapered dovetail tenon? I feel like mandolins might have non-tapered dovetails but I'm not sure.

this is a full tapered dovetail