Regal/Dobro Neck reset

[onewent]

I recently picked up a 30's vintage Regal/Dobro, Model 27 I think it's called. This wood-bodied resonator has a half-stick set up, with the neck stick fastening about half-way into the sound well.. Nationals have the stick going through the entire soundhole, resting on posts and attaching at the heel much like a banjo.

I've read information from some authorities on resonator guitars that one should not remove material from the neck heel on National in order to change neck angle, only make adjustments to the stick/posts. Does that advice hold true to these Regal/Dobor 'half-stick' arrangements?

Can anyone lay out the steps necessary to tweek the neck angle?

And, compounding this issue, in a prior lifetime the fingerboard had broken off at the 11th fret slot. (12-fret neck) Someone at that time simply drilled a hole through the heel and ran a threaded rod into the sound well and tighened the neck joint. My thoughts on how to proceed:
1. Remove the fingerboard extension (four screws under the pearl dots)
2. Reglue the board to the neck
3. Adust neck angle by shimming the post inside the sound well to kick the angle back (the end of the stick screws onto the top of the post in the sound hole .. that and the four screws through the fingerboard extension appear to hold the neck on without the use of glue.)
4. Re-insert the threaded rod and tighten it up .. I figure I can hide the rod end hole in the heel block since the guitar is painted black, and the rod adds support to the now weakened fingerboard break.

But my main question is, can I trim the neck heel to help change the neck angle, or leave it be and just work with the neck stick angle? or,other ideas..thoughts?

The photos tell some of the story .. ..thanks, Tom


..thanks, Tom

[Greg Mirken]

The advice not to remove material at the heel is just plain wrong. But what you will have to do also is dowel and redrill the hole in that trapezoidal block where the neck dowel stick attaches (as well as adding a shim to raise that end of the stick). Pulling the heel in will make that attachment point move a little, and is you don't let it move back the heel gap just won't close up.

[William F.Eden]

Gregs advice is right on the money go for it Bill."""

[onewent]

..thanks Greg and Bill .. I take it you've done neck sets on the Dobro type neck attachment?
I'm glad to hear that removing material at the heel as in a traditional neck set is the way to go, it just made sense to me as I thought through the mechanics of this arrangement. I figured on the shim on the trap piece, but thanks for the tip on the fill and re-drill!
I'll get started on this one tomorrow..thanks again..Tom

[Greg Mirken]

Tom, I worked at OMI (Dobro) in the 70s in Long Beach. I've reset a few since then . . .

On the ones where the dowel goes through to the tailpiece bolt you have to shorten the stick in order for the heel gap to close up. It just won't close otherwise; maybe that's where the notion that you can't remove material there comes from.

[onewent]

Greg, another quick question on this reset: With the change of the neck angel, does this require filling/redrilling the four screw holes under the pearl dot markers, too? ..thanks, Tom

[Greg Mirken]

No, it shouldn't. I've never had to.

[onewent]

Greetings all, I just want to post a follow-up to the Dobro neck reset project I'd posted about last month, especially since there is not much info on the web regarding neck setting these type instruments.
I'm happy that, with forum members help, the project was great success ..Advice given by Greg was spot-on. I used sandpaper pulls to adjust the neck angle at the heel (and with the neck stick removed from it's mortise joint I could pull both sides of the heel at once), Next, I reglued the stick..then, made a shim, re-drilled the screw hole in the soundwell block and re-attached the stick to the block with shim in place. Attached the broken off fingerboard extension with the 4 screws (no need to re-drill the holes, they lined up perfectly) and inserted replacement pearl dots. I leveled and dressed the frets and the guitar plays like a dream with the action at about 2.5 mm.!
One thing I'd like to point out, since the saddle is pretty firmly attached in the spider, I added a few strings under a bit of tension to determine the exact neck angle/proper action, rather than go to a +/- guesstimate (like I have done with a typical bridge/saddle set up) and then adjusting saddle height for final action.
Here's a photo of the finished guitar, along with it's fraternal twin, on which I also did a neck set using the ideas gathered here ...Regards and thanks, Tom