Who knows how neck is attached on Fender Tim Armstrong?

[Mario Kessels]

Dear Friends,

I have a guitar in shop where the heel has come loose from the body. It is a Fender Tim Armstrong Hellcat Acoustic. In order to get this fixed it looks like i have to remove the neck. I tried clamping dry as it is now, but the gap will not close, so complete removal of the neck seems appropriate.
Does anyone know how this neck is attached?
1) dovetail or something else?
2) PVA/ Epoxy/ ?

steam needle in 14th fret would be my normal approach , at app 1/3 distance from the fretboard side.

Anybody?
thx in advance

[Gordon Bellerose]

I can't speak to that exact model, but most of the Fender acoustics I've seen have a dovetail joint.
Remove it in the same fashion as the rest.

[Stephen Bannasch]

Don't know if this is similar but here's a picture of the neck I just removed from a fender Gemini 1 nylon string acoustic.

There didn't appear to be much glue. The bottom of the heel had separated a bit from the body. The dovetail joint wasn't tight at the bottom of the heel and the minimal amount of glue had absolutely no chance to keep the neck attached properly.

I removed the neck by softening the glue using Sheet silicone resistive heater. I left it at a medium-low temperature on the fretboard over the upper bout for about an hour. Upper fretboard separated easily and was able to push the dovetail joint apart also. Should have measured the temperature since it worked well at that setting. I remember where I positioned the dial for the AC triac controller so I'll measure the temperature next time.

Am not sure what kind of glue was used though it definitely softened under heat.

This was being used at a local high school. An admin there gives me broken guitars because he knows I like fixing them and giving them away. It's my version of a crossword puzzle!

I was just thinking I wanted to learn how to do a neck reset and learning on a "low-risk" guitar that nobody cares about is perfect.

[Mario Kessels]

Well I have figured it out now.
After removing the fretboard part i started working on the heel. On the point that I felt it was time to push the heel out with the heel removal jig I started doing just that. Normally I tighten the big ‘bolt’ to put more pressure on the heel and then it just slides out. This time it just felt wrong. I have done a few and by now kind of now what to see and feel. Too much pressure needed here!
I took the jig off and took another close look. Hard to see anything but true the 1 mm gap between the heel and upper bout shining with a light it looks like there is a dowel added to attach the heel to the heelblock! Well that explains why the heel does not slide out....

I hope this info will save the next of us doing a neck reset on this guitar some time.

[Mario Kessels]

got some pics to show what I was talking about.
I am not sure which glue to use here. I have doubts using hide glue since parts of the joint will be lacquer covered. Hate to use epoxy but it might be my only chance here?

[Mario Kessels]

here you see the dowel

[Mario Kessels]

and some more

[Brian Lewis]

I have a Tim Armstrong that needs a whole new neck. Do you have any more details about how that neck is attached? Or any advice on removal?