Day Four

Although some of the American YouTube videos demonstrate how to support the neck joint during glueing using folded paper wedged between the G-clamps and the fretboard and back of the guitar, I thought that was somewhat slipshod. It seemed logical to me to protect the newly-dressed fretboard and carefully rubbed-down body with more than a few folds of Xerox copier and emulated the idea shown in one of Coban’s videos and made a pressure board with slots for the frets. This meant the pressure bore directly and solely on the ebony not on to the fretwire. Protecting the back with a flat piece from the same offcut was simple.

I planned to use some Gorilla brand wood glue I had on the shelf but it was rather solid and heavy. Rather than spoil the job for £4 worth of fresh glue, I added a few pounds more to the overall budget. I checked the joint without glue to decide where best to position the two g-clamps. It’s a job that ideally needs three hands but since the good lady of the house was not available I managed with just my two. My sense is that there’ll be a small clean-up job when the clamps are removed but, no big problem.

I was pleased when the luthier complimented me on the smoothness of the neck but the real test will come when we can check the fitting with strings. I plan to let the parts supported under pressure settle firmly before disturbing the joint sometime late tomorrow.