Need help with 1970s Vega dread neck reset

[Todd Rose]

Hi everybody,

I'm just getting on Frets.net for the first time, although I'm sure I know many of you from other places.  Anyway, I need some help with a 1970s Vega dread that needs a neck reset.  I had assumed that, being made so much like a Martin dread, by a subsidiary of Martin (at that time), it would have a dovetail joint. However, drilling down through the 15th fret slot, I have not succeeded in finding the gap in the joint.  Searching the web and asking around, I'm hearing that the guitar may have some different kind of neck joint.  True?  Can any of you offer me any knowledge/advice about this?  Your help would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

Todd

[Mark Pollock]

Huh - that looks exactly the same as a mid-70's Japanese made Epiphone I did last year. Three dowels, and one bolt. What I discovered when I put it back together was that the bolt was insufficient to hold the neck in place on its own, so I ended up putting a nice long screw in through the existing strap button, and that held it all together.

Odd about the similarity, though. What a pain in the butt joint those are.

[Todd Rose]

Interesting.  In this case, that apparent bolt hole does not go all the way through the neck block, and there was no bolt.  Odd.

[Ian Barker]

Mark - Sorry, going off-topic here - which Epi was it?  I have an FT-570 (Jumbo) which has a bolt, and I 'd like to know what joint is in there before I get into it.

[Mark Pollock]

I did an Epi FT550 last year, and it was a bolt and four dowels. It didn't take a lot of heat to loosen up that mess, luckily.