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I need some help from the experienced pros here!

This is my favorite neck and I've been using it since 1993. It's an early 1972 Thinline Telecater neck. It's ugly as FU@# but it fits my hand like no other neck I've ever had. It's home.

It was refretted when i got it and it still has the same frets. I don't know what that big dowel is about as it was there when I bought it. It also had a Gibson-sized nut in there when i got it.

I've had 5 different types of tuners on it and it's been back and forth as a 3-bolt and 4-bolt. I've decided it's going to be a 4-bolt permanently... well, while it's in my possession until my death haha. Oh and the truss rod was frozen at one point! The neck needed to be heated to unstick it and all dots but one (at 21st fret) melted and had to be replaced. It's been thru a lot!
Anyway...

The heel is what needs work. You can see what the issues are in the pics.

A) how do I fix the crack? It seems pretty stable. I can't recall if I or luthier friend added glue but my guess is neither.
B) I want to fill in the disc hole. Any tips for removing the finish that's in there without using heat?

THANKS!

to fix the crack put some tiebond dilute with water to make it finner ,i f you could open it a little for with a bigger screw (nottoo much to avoid big crack)
then after a clamp for 24 hours or more
fo otate the varnish in the disk ,scrap it with a razor blade

ludobag1 wrote: ↑

Sun Feb 12, 2023 9:11 pm

to fix the crack put some tiebond dilute with water to make it finner ,i f you could open it a little for with a bigger screw (nottoo much to avoid big crack)
then after a clamp for 24 hours or more
fo otate the varnish in the disk ,scrap it with a razor blade

OK, use a bigger screw in the hole within the crack to make it open up wider, got it. I think I need to buy a proper clamp, maybe a vise actually.

I figured a razor blade might be the way to go but I'm hoping there's a better way? Maybe there's a different shaped blade I'm not aware of?

Thanks ludobag1

OffYourFace wrote: ↑

Sun Feb 12, 2023 10:21 pm

ludobag1 wrote: ↑

Sun Feb 12, 2023 9:11 pm

to fix the crack put some tiebond dilute with water to make it finner ,i f you could open it a little for with a bigger screw (nottoo much to avoid big crack)
then after a clamp for 24 hours or more
fo otate the varnish in the disk ,scrap it with a razor blade

OK, use a bigger screw in the hole within the crack to make it open up wider, got it. I think I need to buy a proper clamp, maybe a vise actually.

You can probably use a little suction cup to push the glue down the crack. Be careful with watering it down too much.

OffYourFace wrote: ↑

Sun Feb 12, 2023 10:21 pm

I figured a razor blade might be the way to go but I'm hoping there's a better way? Maybe there's a different shaped blade I'm not aware of?

Thanks ludobag1

You can probably use a small chisel to scrape it down.
Acetone and a few q-tips will probably take it off too but be careful with the rest of the finish and use good ventilation or do it outside because the stuff is pretty volatile.

Steadyriot. wrote: ↑

Sat Mar 04, 2023 2:36 am

I just now saw this, thank you!

+1 on the thinned titebond and suction cup to work it down into the gap.

Usually I’ll do this with very lightly thinned Titebond original (85% glue 15% water) and inject it into the gap with a glue syringe. Then follow it up with some full strength titebond in the bigger parts of the gap

Then wood scraps on either side of the neck and a C clamp to hold it all together for 12 hours.

The added benefit of thinning Titebond is that the water slightly swells the wood so it sealed up the crack naturally. It’ll be very strong when dried.

ahh nice, thank you for this!