Official Luthiers Forum!

I'm a stranger in a strange land on this one.

A friend brought this to me to see if I could fix it. The neck has taken a blow that has caused the glue joint to fail and has put enough pressure on the dovetail to cause the tenon to pull out and split out one side of the mortis. The pics tell more than the words.

Anyone have any experience with animals? I could sure use some guidance.

cecil

I think most violin repair-type guys would reneck it.

If the client is willing (or cheap), I'd drill some deep holes through the neck into the neck block, use some long counterbored screws to bring it up tight (and glue it up, as well), then plug the holes with dowels and touch up the finish. Might have to adjust the bridge, or make a new one....

Good luck, and let us know how it comes out.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

I/ve done this repair with hhg and a dowel from the FB into the heel at abt a 60 deg angle.Then stain dowel to match FB, When heel is clamped and repaired it you will have to fair in by sanding the crack line and touch with stain or FP. You could also post this on violinforum.ca They have DB section. You can also do it from the back into the lower heel , but that is not the traditional way.

Thanks guys. that's what came to mind for the heel but how would you handle the situation in the first pictures? The open crack that you see is a section of the neck block that was split out when the tenon rotated back. The only thing I have come up with is some brads to secure it after HHG is injected into the crack. It's pretty much impossible to clamp, or am I messing something?

cecil

Not impossible , make sure you put back the original neck angle and have it centered before glueing with HHG, .If your not sure have a pro vln repairer do it.Brads are a nono in vln work imho. There is a dble bass restorer here on the forum james condino, in NC. you could try and contact him with the photos and see what he suggests. He does it all the time .I/ve only done 1, gud luck.

James is a good buddy of mine. I'm sure he'd be glad to talk to you about it. As I recall, he turns a tapered maple dowel, across the grain for grain alignment with the heel. Of course this requires a custom tapered reamer, but perhaps there's a non-tapered option y'all could discuss.

Ken

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Mountain Song Guitars www.mountainsongguitars.com