Official Luthiers Forum!

It's been way too long since I've been active here. Just too busy to do things other than work and take care of myself. A good thing these days and I'm not complaining!

I've got an 70's Ibanez Concord Jumbo Blonde on the bench in need of a bit of work. Neck reset and refret are first up and I'm stumped. Fretboard extension came up easier than any reset I've done. But for the life of me I can't get the neck to release with steam or the Stewmac heating rod. I'm suspecting that this is a doweled neck joint, that would require a conversion to bolt on. Can anyone confirm this? I can't find any information on line about this guitar other than a lot of people like them and they do have some value.

Cheers!

_________________
Tony Thatcher
Bozeman, Montana

Tony - good question for the guys on the Ibanez Collectors World forum.

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

Thanks, Chris! I did some searching for an Ibanez forum, but didn't find anything.

-T

_________________
Tony Thatcher
Bozeman, Montana

It's "pinned" or "doweled" and was never intended to be reset or serviceable as a result. Typically repair shops will not reset these because of the uncertainty of dealing with an unserviceable neck joint.

Some folks who dabble and time is not food on their family table will attempt resets and it can be done, a conversion as you said Tony to a bolt-on butt joint but it's a slog with a lot of scope creep when it comes to finish touch up.

What I usually get back when I let someone know that it's a doweled neck joint is that they think it's good practice for doing other neck resets. It's not, this is an operation that is not done commonly in the commercial world unless a luthier has nothing else to do but even still it's a questionable job.

Our shop would never reset one of these because of the uncertainty and the many others that we have waiting their turn for our help who have predictable jobs such as resetting Martins.

It can be done but usually the question is why would anyone want to? The economics of a proper neck reset from a quality shop that includes what a neck reset should include such as a full fret dress the cost of the repair far exceeds the value of the instrument in this case by a factor of at least two.

The reason Tony you are not finding any content on resetting these is because no one will or does with of course some exceptions that can always be found.