Junky Guitar, neck reset conversion to bolt-on, final outcome.

At the start of February 2022, I was given a cheap, 36” China-make guitar by a neighbor. He was going to trash it.
I accepted and used it to learn more about how to take off a neck and reset it, shim it, and then convert it to a bolt-on. It had/ has no truss rod. This was all about experimenting and learning. Whether it ended up sounding any better was not the end point. It was to learn first.
Did it work? Yes, and in comparison to the sound at the start, it is a literal rebirth. I like the action on it now, it has “okay” intonation, remains ugly up close, but is a playable beater and fun to pick and with which to noodle. I like having it out, not worried about humidification, lying around the home ready to play. I can if necessary take off the neck fairly easy as well and shim it more.
I just need now to find a chrome plated little rectangular piece I will cover the access opening I created on the backside.
I have less than $17 in this learning project (plus my time of course, but that part has been fun experimenting). The saddle is now bone. The pins and nut remain original plastic. The strings are new, Custom Lights D’Addario. I had to buy some stain/polyurethane, and some bolts.
Would I spend this much time on a beater, junky guitar, to get it into playing order? No way.
I learned a lot from this, and only worked on it about four hours total, and that said in incremental parts.
One of the most interesting things to me is how choosing to improvise to both take off and convert to a bolted on neck, against the standard method to remove and reset and glue the neck, worked.
A lot of videos show people using invasive steam rods powered by a goofy hook-up to an espresso machine or steam device, They do the drilling into the top of the fretboard precisely to get the tip of the steam rod wedged as close as they can where the dovetail connects to the body. The goal is to soften the glue and start wiggling away. This is of course is done after one has completely loosened the fretboard tongue from the main body first (usually from around the sound-hole to the edge of the body).
I instead did not want to go through that, possibly burning myself. I avoided blowing steamed water into the opening, using clumsy gloves, acting like an octopus to handle everything going on, etc.
I instead drilled into two key spots on the topside of the fretboard where I surmised the neck adjoins the body, as is typical. I used heated drill bit, longer ones, as the rods 1/8.” I got those for $3.18 each. I only needed one.
I wish I had 1/16, but the 1/8 drill rods worked well. Again it was a free junked guitar. After drilling the hole(s), I then heated up the drill bit, using the flame from my stove and then inserted them into the holes and it softened the glue.
The neck joint slowly loosened. I carefully put a few droplets of water into the holes before inserting the heated drill bit rod, and steam naturally came out. Kind of cool. The neck eventually wiggled and came off without mess, but was slower perhaps but not nearly as dangerous as the typical espresso steamer hose method.
As it loosened I discovered that this guitar was not joined using a dovetail joint, rather three dowels. I did not slide it up and off. It slowly pulled it off. Minimal damage if any.
I prepped the body portion and the neck portion cleaning it up, sanding it to be flat. I was able to drill two holes into the body block (neck block on the body). Used 3/8” bolt on top and 1/4” bolt on the bottom. Made a shim to match the neck and body area, allowing the neck to be reset with a backward bow of about 2 mm. There was no fancy math involved for me how I came up with a 2mm adjustment choice. I knew it needed to be at least 2mm. It worked.
I can add or subtract on the neck adjustment using shims because it is removable. WILL I? Likely not. It works well enough now. The experiment and learning of how luthiers kind of do this was worth it.
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I have 5 or more videos (before this final) on this same guitar on UA-cam showing the process and how it looked before and how it sounded. The intonation was awful, almost unbearable. The action was super high because the neck bowed (excess relief) and the strings off course were old.
I put on a really ugly finish, I know. I named this little guitar “Muddy.” My little Muddy.
March 24, 2022 - Jeremy

[@molometer]

Brilliant. I just watched the whole process lol. You did a great job in breathing new life back into that old guitar.
Perfect tone for that old timey style blues. 🎶🎸🎬