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Assuming this is a solid wood top? If we are talking about preserving the patina on plywood......well two words - buzz saw.

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Pat

I bought two broken guitars for learning as well. I disassembled one. It was largely a waste since the glue they used was nearly impossible to get apart. I spent several hours heating and knifing and they still didn't come off clean, nowhere near. I tried really hard to do a good job, to no avail. It was a seventies Epiphone 12 string, made of rosewood plywood. While impossible to get apart cleanly, the thing was poorly constructed. Lakes of glue. I recall thinking in my youth that Epiphones didn't sound that good, now I know why: plywood, bolted on bridge, random glue EVERYWHERE!

The other is a six string Alvarez that has a neck that's departing from the body. The action is so high it needs to be measured in inches. Hopefully this guitar will teach me a bit about getting a neck angle correct.

I obviously think junk guitars are worth buying to learn something. Best of luck to you getting the joints apart cleanly. I found that a highly curved blade worked best for focusing in on seams. But I really don't know what I'm doing so my advice is questionable here.

-j

\

This one should be a better guitar to work with . I have repaired a few of these successfully

_________________
The Shallower the depth of the stream , The Louder the Babble !
The Taking Of Offense Is the Life Course Of The Stupid One !
Wanna Leave a Better Planet for our Kids? How about Working on BETTER KIDS for our Planet !
Forgiveness is the ability to accept an apology that you will probably NEVER GET
The truth will set you free , But FIRST, it will probably Piss you Off !
Creativity is allowing yourself to make Mistakes, Art is knowing which ones to Keep !
The Saddest thing anyone can do , is push a Loyal Person to the point that they Dont Care Anymore
Never met a STRONG person who had an EASY past !
http://wiksnwudwerks.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/groups/GatewayA ... rAssembly/

Thats good .

_________________
The Shallower the depth of the stream , The Louder the Babble !
The Taking Of Offense Is the Life Course Of The Stupid One !
Wanna Leave a Better Planet for our Kids? How about Working on BETTER KIDS for our Planet !
Forgiveness is the ability to accept an apology that you will probably NEVER GET
The truth will set you free , But FIRST, it will probably Piss you Off !
Creativity is allowing yourself to make Mistakes, Art is knowing which ones to Keep !
The Saddest thing anyone can do , is push a Loyal Person to the point that they Dont Care Anymore
Never met a STRONG person who had an EASY past !
http://wiksnwudwerks.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/groups/GatewayA ... rAssembly/

I see the Sharpie part (why?????) but there are also lumps and chunks that appear to be squeeze out indicating a poor repair at some point.

You may find a chisel or (small) router may be the best way to get the bridge off and careful routing (again, a small router) may do good on the back if the glue doesn't separate with heat.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Wow, that's some tacky goodness. I love the moth on the pickguard.

IMHO, there's more than enough of learning opportunities here without making unnecessary work for yourself. First thing to learn is be efficient... Why remove the neck?? Is it warped??

My suggestions:

- Plug the tuner holes and add front and back headstock veneers. Fix that missing chunk by the truss rod first. No headstock veneer makes a very weak neck.
*Maybe* pull off the fretboard and put in a modern rod while you're at it.

- Make new nut.

- Fret job. Consider a full refret. (pulling all and sanding the fretboard flat)

- Rout off the bridge. Pull the back to replace/repair bridgeplate and check or modify the bracing. This will also allow you reset the neck action if needed.

I retopped a cheap guitar when I first got into this gig 25 years ago. I learned how to join a top, brace one and glue it on. It was worth the effort but I'm not sure how valuable a learning experience it will be for you to take the back off of that one. If the only reason you want to take the back off is to scallop the bracing then don't, just reach through the sound hole and use a mini plane or some coarse 60 grit paper. As for the neck, on guitars that are reasonably valuable enough or at least very sentimental to a customer I just saw the neck off with a thin flush cut Japanese saw and convert to a bolt on. That imho would be a valuable lesson.

Yeah, you're right no reason to pull the back only to scallop the bracing. Considering the damage to the bridge though, I'd expect some structural damage to the top, but maybe not. Use a mirror first...

For sure, neck removal on this one by thin flush cut saw and bolt on conversion is the only sensible method if it must be done. No point at all on trying to unglue the joint.

Yeah it's looks like it's being held on with vintage JB Weld.....

Shoot the thing and put it out of it's misery.....

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Ann Arbor Guitars

Yep -- JB Weld!

As to the OP question -- a heated wide-ish blade Exacto knife to get the bindings off, heated putty knife to remove the back. I will say that removing the back, pitching the neck back away from the sound-board then gluing the back to the rim/neck block is a simple method used to salvage the less valuable GLO's I am guessing some may not have a clue as to what I am talking about. I used this method on a few Gibson Classical's. (shame on me)

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Ken Cierp

http://www.kennethmichaelguitars.com/

Wud, thanks. When you say you've "repaired a few of these" were you referring specifically to the Kasuga brand, or just to a similar kind of guitar from the same era? I've hardly been able to find anyone who had ever heard of this brand.

Just curious....

Thanks,
CL

Was refering to The Alvarez he mentioned . The ONLY Kasuga I know about is the tenor Banjo I restored and have for sale for $180.00

_________________
The Shallower the depth of the stream , The Louder the Babble !
The Taking Of Offense Is the Life Course Of The Stupid One !
Wanna Leave a Better Planet for our Kids? How about Working on BETTER KIDS for our Planet !
Forgiveness is the ability to accept an apology that you will probably NEVER GET
The truth will set you free , But FIRST, it will probably Piss you Off !
Creativity is allowing yourself to make Mistakes, Art is knowing which ones to Keep !
The Saddest thing anyone can do , is push a Loyal Person to the point that they Dont Care Anymore
Never met a STRONG person who had an EASY past !
http://wiksnwudwerks.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/groups/GatewayA ... rAssembly/

Don't know how similar they are but here is my $30 what-the-heck experience. It is an Aria guitar, no strings on it when I bought it so I could not tell what it sounded like. Glued the bridge back on and found I paid $25 more than I should have. Well, to be fair the neck was not bad. Managed to separate the fretboard from the top with a razor knife. Used some heat and took off the binding and then the top. Was going to retop it with a cedar fence board.



Dowels were not even glued in. Almost too easy to get the neck off.



All plywood.



Did not get too fancy.



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