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Thread: 105 year old neck joints

  1. #1
    Registered User j. condino's Avatar
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    Default 105 year old neck joints

    Flashback from 1917: locating nails in the neck block & back, tablesaw kerfs in the dovetail slot, and shallow depth faux veneers for the neck center beam....
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  3. #2
    Adrian Minarovic
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    Default Re: 105 year old neck joints

    Quote Originally Posted by j. condino View Post
    Flashback from 1917: locating nails in the neck block & back, tablesaw kerfs in the dovetail slot, and shallow depth faux veneers for the neck center beam....
    Nice pic. Are you sure about the date?
    I wonder when the change from tablesawn to routed dovetails happened. All F-5 dovetails I've seen appear to be routed. Perhaps it came together with introduction of trussrod and snakeheads that required some new fixtures or templates...
    Adrian

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    Registered User Tavy's Avatar
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    Default Re: 105 year old neck joints

    Nice work getting round that pin - man I hate finding those!

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    NY Naturalist BradKlein's Avatar
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    Default Re: 105 year old neck joints

    Is the direction of the grain in Gibson A models, always perpendicular to the neck/strings, to this day?

    As a (former) cabinetmaker, I've never been sure, why that approach? And is it universal?
    BradKlein
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    Adrian Minarovic
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    Default Re: 105 year old neck joints

    Quote Originally Posted by BradKlein View Post
    Is the direction of the grain in Gibson A models, always perpendicular to the neck/strings, to this day?

    As a (former) cabinetmaker, I've never been sure, why that approach? And is it universal?
    AFAIK, yes, more or less perpendicular.
    On F styles grain was slightly angled towards scroll. There are some other pics of open dovetails in the quite recent F-4 thread.
    Vertical grain, like violins would be probably easier to split and would have weaker joint to top or back. Also probably more economic to cut from standard lumber.
    Adrian

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    Registered User j. condino's Avatar
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    Default Re: 105 year old neck joints

    Quote Originally Posted by HoGo View Post
    Nice pic. Are you sure about the date?...
    Well...I wasn't around when they built it, but the FON number and instrument are in Spann's book with that date.
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  11. #7
    Registered User Charles E.'s Avatar
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    Default Re: 105 year old neck joints

    Nice shots James. What repairs are you doing to it that required a back removal? It looks there is binding on the back, A-4?
    Charley

    A bunch of stuff with four strings

  12. #8
    Registered User j. condino's Avatar
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    Default Re: 105 year old neck joints

    I'm cleaning up a century worth of other lame old repairs like this yellow glue mess and approx. 1 linear foot of cracks for a very nice local older gentleman whom I didn't have the heart to say no to....


    Grain direction in the blocks is always an interesting conversation. Too far to one direction and the whole dovetail blows out yet too far in the other direction and making the corners flow into the ribs blow out. When I make new mandolins, I usually make the blocks oversized and then once they are glued in I use my 700lb 1950s era State spindle sander with a vfd speed control to delicately finesse everything into position in a way such that I could never do it before glueing....
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  14. #9
    Registered User j. condino's Avatar
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    Default Re: 105 year old neck joints

    Since it is summertime, I'm sure I'll need to get out the torture rack to finesse it all back together...delicate, delicate, delicate pressure- no gorilla clamping like a big old double bass!
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    harvester of clams Bill McCall's Avatar
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    Default Re: 105 year old neck joints

    Very nice rig, purpose built, fit for purpose.
    Not all the clams are at the beach

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    Default Re: 105 year old neck joints

    Very cool, thanks for posting the pics, James!
    Chuck

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    Registered User bpatrick's Avatar
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    Default Re: 105 year old neck joints

    Thanks for the update from 1917. It's awesome to see old construction techniques (and new ones).
    Bryan Patrick

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    Default Re: 105 year old neck joints

    James,
    I am curious, The first set of photos shw the back with the binding going across the dovetail, and the last set seem to have the traditional neck cap on the heel. Was that glued sepertely? I thought it was a structural feature.
    Bob Schmidt

  20. #14
    Registered User sunburst's Avatar
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    Default Re: 105 year old neck joints

    Quote Originally Posted by irishmando View Post
    James,
    I am curious, The first set of photos shw the back with the binding going across the dovetail, and the last set seem to have the traditional neck cap on the heel...
    IF you look again you might notice that the back in the last set of pics has no binding (at least in the first photo of the pair). They seem to be different mandolins, one photo set just to illustrate the "torture rack".

    Gibson did both, heel tab part of the back and heel cap separate piece.

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    Default Re: 105 year old neck joints

    Thanks John I should have guessed that.
    That is a well thought out and designed jig James.
    Bob Schmidt

  23. #16
    Registered User j. condino's Avatar
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    Default Re: 105 year old neck joints

    A little update:

    The insides have been all cleaned up, the original bassbar back in good shape, and a few very small delicate cleats installed using the recycled soundboard from a 1921 piano. WOW that old mandolin spruce was dry & thirsty! Interestingly, it is the exact color and feel of the torrefied top I made in another post

    I'm working on a deadline for an ancient old expensive project, so I'm taking the next week off from all outside communication & the worldwide waste of time....

    Before & after:
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    Last edited by j. condino; Aug-28-2022 at 5:54pm.
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  25. #17
    Registered User DougC's Avatar
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    Default Re: 105 year old neck joints

    A clever jig. I love the T shape made to raise the instrument enough for the clamps. But I wonder about the neck. Is the jig raised to accommodate the neck angle?
    Decipit exemplar vitiis imitabile

  26. #18
    NY Naturalist BradKlein's Avatar
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    Default Re: 105 year old neck joints

    Now a shapely lateral brace!
    BradKlein
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