Glue turns to dust

[Taffy Evans]

Hi, here are some photos of a recent neck reset of a Maton guitar, a 1997 model. I had planned to use my new styrene cutting tool but as it happened, I only had to heat the fingerboard over the body. I managed to wiggle the neck out of the joint with no heat. It was just a good-ish neck fit that held it in.
However, the reason for this post is to show, what I have experienced many times on old Maton’s, is that the glue used back then often turns to powder over the years. In the photo of the dovetail pocket, a little pile of dust can be seen, this was there as the neck was removed, no clean-up was done at this stage.
I have had a Maton guitar where the main cross brace had fallen off the inside of the top and was laying in the bottom of the guitar…. now that repair is another story.



Cheers Taff

[Len Biglin]

They were using a urea-formaldehyde based glue years ago . I don't know anything about it but Ive heard its good till it isn't , so can fail . But I don't know any more than that , Australian guitars rarely need a reset for some reason.