Neck Reglue approach

[East Side Guitar Repair]

I have a dilemma. I'm not sure how I want to approach this repair. The patient is a vintage Vega archtop that had a run in with my client's two year old. Alas, the Vega is need of some repair, and I am in need of some advice. As you can see, the neck heel snapped quite cleanly and fits back together rather nicely. The neck/body joint (NBJ) is a wedged mortise and tenon, not a dovetail. Most of the heel is secure in the mortise. It appears that there is plenty of gluing surface to create a strong bond. I have two thoughts on this repair: Just glue it back together. Or remove the rest of the heel, insert a spline between the broken off piece and the neck under the fingerboard tongue and glue up. I will be using hide glue. Has anyone done a similar repair and what was your approach?

Cheers,

Ryan 

[Pierre-Antoine Roiron]

I reglued some necks broken almost like this (the fingerboard was still attached). I glued it back with regular white glue, and had good results.

[FRANK]

WHITE YELLOW THE SAME STUFF REALLY UH YEA I AGREE WITH PIERRE ALTHOUGH I WOULD ADD A NEW PIECE ON HEAL TO THE BROKEN AREA ON THE HEAL .AND CAP IT ?JUST A THOUGHT CHEERS PHB

[Frank Ford]

Hot hide glue is the stuff. Yellow or white glue is almost certain to fail in the heat of a car parked in the sun. If you'd like to reinforce the joint, consider a long screw through the heel cap.

[Russell Vance]

Yep, the screw to ask for is a Teck/Tech/Tec screw used for panel work - they come in all sorts of lengths and have extra clearance on the parallel shank and therefore less chance of splitting like a tapered wood screw and less drag in the pilot bore.....Take the heel cap off before you drill the long hole (you can get two tec screws into the heel if you really try)and countersink the screw into the bottom of the heel before replacing or making a new heel cap - voila - invisble. An no, white and yellow is not the same stuff and not meant to be under permanent structural load (which this break area qualifies as). Frank likes hide glue and epoxy is also suitable (but permanent).

[East Side Guitar Repair]

Update on the Vega archtop. I finished the job yesterday with great results. After glueing the neck back on, I decided to dowel the neck heel and replace the heel cap. After some finish work and relic-ing, the repair is invisible. I used hide glue throughout the repair and nitro for the finish. I then used a can of compressed air upside down to "ice" the finish to check it. Here are some pics of the results. Thanks to all for your input.
Ryan

[FRANK]

very nice job