Neck reset 1962 Gretsch 6120 question

[Ted Kritikos]

Hi everyone!
Does anyone have any experience taking the neck off of one of these guitars?  There was a bolt behind a black plastic circle on the back of the guitar, I presume to add some strength to the joint.  The joint looks too deep to be a standard dovetail.  I wonder which fret I should drill under...  I tried shooting steam into the screw hole, but nothing's moving...

[Russell Vance]

15th fret, sliding dovetail, check that there is not an additional screw in the front of the neck heel (covered up by putty/filler or similar) - you should be able to make out a faint cracking/outline where this screw is if it in this model. Neck removal is a serious procedure on this guitar as it is not overly beefy in that area and you should do some additional web research for the full story (later models have different neck joints etc). While you are there go over the longitudinal top bracing especially around the pickup cutouts as that is often an area where they separate on the older models. R.

[Ted Kritikos]

Got the neck off nice and neatly today. Thanks for the help, Russell! Turns out that this year has a huge mortise and tenon joint, no dovetail. I reached the back of the mortise from a hole in the eighteenth fret (the first one I drilled.) Nice when it turns out that way. You were right about the walls of the joint--they're tiny. I'm just glad I didn't crack one wrenching the neck off.

[Mark A. Kane]

I used my handy "X-Ray Specs" (pre-CBS, not the cheap asian knockoffs) to unravel the mystery of a '59 6120 in my shop.