D'Angelico neck reset

[Dave Gentner]

I received a weird job today. It's a D'Angelico Premier Lexington acoustic guitar, and the neck appears to be overset. Action of the low E is .065 at the twelfth. The saddle is proper height and relief appears normal, .010 at seven. It's buzzing pretty much from 9 on. I worked on a Taylor that was like this a while back, and the solution was to reduce the neck angle and adjust the truss rod, simple on a Taylor, just a matter of changing shims. I've never worked on a D'Angelico before, I do mostly Martins. The heel appears to be set into the body like on a Taylor, as does the fretboard extension. However it's not a bolt-on. It looks like it's caulked around the seams. Is this just a normal dovetail joint or am I getting into something weird?

[Bob Gramann]

I wouldn’t do anything until I was sure it was properly humidified. Dry instruments lose their dome on a flattop and probably some of their arch on a carved top. The past few weeks have been quite challenging for maintaining humidity in a home.

[Barry Daniels]

Why can’t you raise the saddle a bit?

[Dave Gentner]

Thanks Bob, you were right. The top had collapsed and just needed to be rehumidified.