Glue disappeared in a neck joint of a 100 year guitar?

[MJS]

I sold an old parlor guitar and loosened the strings before packing it into a box to ship. Upon receipt, the buyer said that the neck was loose and with the exception of a single drop of glue, wasn't even glued to the body of the guitar.  The guitar was built around 1900 by George Bauer and I had it tuned to pitch or just below pitch for years never had a problem with the neck coming off.  Could the glue have evaporated over the years and the knocking about during shipment without any tension on the neck caused the neck to separate from the body?  Shouldn't there still be evidence of glue on the tenon/mortise, even if it's evaporated?  Was Bauer so confident that his joint fit so well that he didn't even use glue in the neck joint?

Thanks!

[Frank Ford]

I dunno.  A loose neck is an odd thing to try to use as a reason for partial refund.  Maybe I'm too trusting, but I wouldn't be surprised that the neck is actually loose.  Don't forget that in a fall, a neck can easily crack the neck block, making it appear that the glue in the dovetail gave way.

Keep us posted. . .

[MJS]

Thanks, Frank.  I want to give the buyer the benefit of the doubt but he's not offering any evidence.  Also, he had said that I did a great job packing the guitar so that's a big reason that he doesn't think that it happened during shipment.

A red flag that was mentioned earlier is that the buyer claims that he only saw a drop of glue in the neck joint yet the fretboard extension is still glued securely on the soundboard--how is that possible?  I would think that he could only raise the neck a fraction of an inch before the fretboard would crack.  He was worried that the fretboard extension would break if he attempted to take it off yet that should be a relatively simple procedure.

The other issue he had was that the lacquer is uneven and too thick on the back.  I was worried that he would be concerned that the lacquer had worn off on parts of the front and I had sent extra pictures to make sure he saw the non-shiny areas.  If he is planning on restoring the guitar, wouldn't he need to strip off all the lacquer to refinish it anyway?  I find his complaints strange; he confirmed that there were not cracks anywhere, which to me would be the key issue, and he did not bring up anything being warped (which is good because nothing was).

As I mentioned earlier, if he will send me pictures, I'll work with him, but right now, I don't feel that I need to give a refund.

[Pierre-Antoine Roiron]

All the pleasure and fun of selling something to a customer far away.... Good luck!

[MJS]

Thanks, Pierre-Antoine!

I was trying to sell it locally but didn't have any serious interest.  The buyer seemed to be knowledgeable and wanted to restore it so I thought it'd be safe to sell it--guess I was wrong!