Turn of Cent Bruno parlor Neck Issue

[Chris Vallillo]

This is a post of mine I'm copying over from Mandolin Cafe. I figured some of you might have some thoughts or simply might enjoy hearing about my latest "trail by fire!".

I wrote about this Bruno Parlor guitar some time age when I was trying identify a mystery glue that had been used on a previous bad repair. It was insoluble in any solvent known to me or the forum and ultimately I had to deal with it by cutting and sanding off the glue.

The project has progressed to the point where I put the repaired back on the guitar yesterday and with the body re-assembled, I was now able to check if it needed a neck re-set (of course, it does!).

I could see that some of the mystery glue was visible around the neck so I pulled the already damaged fingerboard to get an idea of what the situation might be. Here is what I saw:

Pic 1

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As you can see there is a significant amount of mystery glue, light green here, holding the neck in place, but I can't tell if this is a guitar that has the top assembled over the Dove tail joint as with some older Gibson's or if this is actually just a butt joint.

Here's a shot of the guitar before I put the back on and you can see what appears to be a standard neck block.

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Has anyone on the forum ever worked on an old Bruno of this era? Anyone have any thoughts on the nature of this neck joint?

With all the terrible glue, I suspect that the best course of action will be to heat bend the neck back then re-glue the fingerboard in the new position. I believe I recall someone talking about something like that on this or another forum. Perhaps re-glueing the fretboard under tension???

Any thoughts or suggestions will be appreciated!

Thanks!

[Chris Vallillo]

My second post on this subject:

To answer my own question, it's a butt joint at the neck. Surprised the heck out of me!

While considering the possibility of doing a heat bend, I was trying a clamping dry run when the heel cracked and the neck came off before I even applied pressure.

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Note the nasty green mystery glue. It was holding only on the sides and the heel was not recessed down into the cavity properly making virtually no contact with the back side. I was able to heat and remove the remaining heel segments (2 pieces; cracked from a previous break) and repair the neck heel. The last segment had been nailed in and I cut the nail with a Dremel tool and grinding wheel, then remove the nail from the heel. It was pretty good size; about a #6 finishing nail. No wonder it cracked the tiny heel.

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At this point, my plan is to clean up the joint and try to properly re-set the neck. It may take some rebuilding of the slot and heel in order to make it fit properly. There was evidence of previous tear out and I had to chisel out the green stuff.

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The heel breaks were clean and glued up well with hot hide glue.

Here's a shot of the repaired heel with the mystery glue still attached.

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I'll grind or sand it off and, if necessary, rebuild the base to the proper thickness. I've never done a butt joint before, though, so thoughts, comments and suggestions would be appreciated!

[Bob Orr]

That stuff looks like car filler or bondo as I think you guys the other side of the pond call it!

Cheers, Bob

[Chris Vallillo]

You know, Bob, I think it does! It does have that sort of consistency too.

[Michael Lewis]

Chris, you might look st the adjustable neck joint that Rick Turner uses on his 'Renaissance' acoustics. It is an idea from a very old guitar.

Another idea that can work is to make a new neck and cut a dovetail joint. The thing about the dovetail is it lets you adjust three directions (roll, pitch, and yaw) as it gets closer to the final fit. I know it's an intimidating joint for folks that have not made them previously, but it is not rocket science, and is a strong joint. You will get your alignment and action in the process.

[Chris Vallillo]

Rick Turner's neck sounds interesting. I'll check it out. I'm afraid the new neck is beyond my current pay (and skill) grade though it would be an ultimate solution and the Brazilian body should sound great.

[Jim Ashby]

You could convert it to a bolt-on using proper inserts. I've done a few for friends who bought cheap guitars with butt & dowel neck joints