Neck reset problem

[Roger Williams]

Hi Folks

I have this little problem that some of you guys might have come across before...  I have in my shop a beautiful 1977 Yairi YW1000 (D45 copy) the one with all the abalone bling, well the action on this old girl was way too high and to top it off the heel is split horizontally near the joint with the neck - she needed a neck reset.  Well we don't see those jobs over this side of the pond too often, but over the years, I've succesfully reset a few Martin's and Gibson's but never a Yairi!

The neck/heel/fingerboard joints are lacqured over so I carefully cut into these corners.  The fingerboard came away from the top with a good deal of heat, so far so good.  I drilled a hole through the fingerboard into the heel block at the 15th fret, slightly to one side to miss the truss-rod and angled back a little to get at the cavity.  So far I've made two attempts with a good deal of steam, but this mother refuses to budge, even with a good deal of pressure on the heel block with my jig.

Have you guys got any suggestions as I'm getting very frustrated!  How do you know when the steam is reaching the right place?  I guess I had the others too easy!

Yours in hope - RogerW

[Frank Ford]

It may be advantageous to loosen the fingerboard up to about the tenth fret so you can have a peek underneath.  There might be no dovetail pocket, and, indeed there might be no dovetail.  Lots of Asian guitars have butt joints and dowels, making removal not a real option.  Some have dovetail joints filled with epoxy. . .

[Roger Williams]

Hi Frank

 

Oh heck I had hoped for more hope than that.  My belief is that the Yairi guitars are very well made, conventional dovetail heel, the early ones at least.  I may take up your suggestion to release the fingerboard more as this should at least reveal more of the underlying construction.  Thanks again.

Cheers

RogerW

[Pierre-Antoine Roiron]

A drive to a veterinarian to get a x-ray shot could be an option too.

[Ned Knepp]

I own a Yairi and have made a habit of reading what I can find about them when I come across it. I've been told and have read in a couple of places that the neck joint on these can be VERY hard to separate. I don't know if it is the glue or the fit. I suspect that it may be a combination of both. I'm not too sure that the builders thought about neck resets when these were made. 

[Roger Williams]

Hi Ned

Yes, I had heard something similar, their website gives heel construction pictures showing a dovetail on their current guitars and they make quite a play as to the accuracy of fit. I have contacted the factory but guess I may be lucky to get a reply I can understand! Will keep you informed as to progess. Many thanks. RW