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I have a custom acoustic steel string guitar on the bench that needs a reset. To make a long story short, there's no mortise/tenon, no bolts. I've decided to drill into the glue seam, heat, gently work it, to see if someone used dowel pins, or if they just glued the neck to the side.

Sigh...just when you think you've seen everything...

My question: can this neck be saved by turning it into a bolt-on, even with no tenon? My gut screams, "no", because the heel just isn't made for that kind of stress.

But. What what do you think?

yes I have seen dowels and replaced them with threaded inserts and done it that way

Thank you!

many ways. I even used a drywall screw once
on a uke

I was gently pulling upward, peeking underneath the heel as it came up, and I saw 1 dowel pin, which I thought was very odd. All of a sudden, it gave.

Sigh...I can fix it, but still! I'm not going to repeat what I muttered when I found this. It was buried behind the heel cap. The wood stuck to glue around it made it look like a dowel.

That's a shame, in spite of your careful approach. I wonder if one of those magnetic stud finders would have alerted you to the hidden screw? Bruce W.

You know Bruce, that's a very good question. Maybe a small metal detector.

Sorry you encountered this. Hidden screws on anything can be “the devil”. Perhaps a thin blade or saw could have disclosed it was metal when you first detected it.

Just what we need, another use for a drywall screw.

Well we can take the notion of a craftsperson's skilled attention to detail out of this 'custom' instrument. Screw hidden by the heel cap?

FWIW, maybe installing a floating tenon in the neck - - - grain running vertical - - - and routing a corresponding mortise in the neck block, and installing threaded inserts into the new tenon will assure the neck's own integrity and offer a secure improvement. I've used that technique on five I've built and I've been happy with the results.