Micarta fingerboard

[Chris Whale]

Hello

I am about to remove the neck of a martin MC-16GTE this model has a micarta fingerboard.

I plan to use heat to remove the fingerboard area stuck to the body, however I am afraid that it may distort and melt the micarta!
Does anyone have an experience in working with this material and can advise me how to approach it?

Chris

[Barry Daniels]

I have not worked on a micarta fingerboard, but micarta is a relatively stable material that has more heat resistance than most other plastics. It is used as an electrical insulator in high voltage applications so it is not your common thermoplastic. You should probably be OK with using a bit of heat but you might want to minimize the use of heat to only what is required.

I would suggest trying a hot putty knife under the fretboard extension instead of applying heat to the top of the fretboard.

[David King]

Wouldn't sending it back to Martin be even easier?

[Michael Lewis]

First question: why are you doing this? As a Martin service center I have had to do this from time to time but I would only do it if it were absolutely necessary. If you answer my question I may have more for you.

[Chris Whale]

Thank you for your replies

Thanks Barry that's the way I was thinking of doing it.

The reason I am thinking of attempting to remove the neck is because the glue has failed in the mortise and tenon joint. The heel has pulled away from the guitar body by about 2mm on the bottom of the heel. I also want to reset the angle of the neck. As once tightening the screw the action was still too high.
I may consider taking it to a martin guitar repairer but there is only one in England and it will cost about $500 excluding shipping!
As it is my brother in laws guitar I thought I might try it as I have reset a neck before successfully but not with a micarta fingerboard.

Chris

[Michael Lewis]

Make a closely fitting mask to cover the upper bout and expose the fingerboard, use corrugated cardboard and cover one side with aluminium foil (shiny side up). This should help protect the body of the guitar and allow the fingerboard to be heated. 100C ( 200F) should be the maximum heat you should need, give it enough time for the heat to penetrate through the fingerboard. I use 120 watt incandescent 'indoor spot' light in an articulated lamp on my bench. I set the lamp about 6 - 8 inches above the board and wait for about 10 minutes before trying a putty knife under the corner of the fingerboard. Hopefully it will be a version of Titebond and soften so your knife will wiggle through. If it is CA gel the heat won't help much, and then it just takes judicious use of the putty knife.

Upon refitting the tenon you may need a thin veneer to help fill the mortise. These guitars have a lot of holes where steam can escape from the neck joint into the body, so I recommend putting the hose from your shop vac into the soundhole to evacuate any 'steam' and avoid swelling any interior parts and seams from the moisture. The tenon may just pull out when you get the fingerboard free but you well may need to steam it apart. These joints are glued at the factory, so keep that in mind.

My thought is the joint should be a bolt on or a glue on, but the factory thought 'better' and does both. Actually, the screw is to act as a clamp while the glue sets, and is just left in place. Good luck with this.

One more thing: If your brother in law is the original owner of the guitar this repair should be covered under the warranty. I'm not sure about rules and regulations in the UK, but it would be covered here in the USA.

[Chris Whale]

Thank you Michael for that information.

I followed your advice and the neck came away from the body without the use of steam!
Now for a clean up and removal of a tiny amount of wood from the heel cheeks and I'm ready to re-glue the neck.

Again many thanks
Chris

[Todd Stock]

Amazed at how many M&T Martins move when the sole neck bolt (which is there strictly to hold things in place until the glue dries) is removed. Just follow same procedure for micarta boards that is used for wood board. You'd have to get a micarta board heated well above the temp where you'd see other big issues (scorched top; melted lacquer, etc.) before having to worry about problems.

I usually just convert to full bolt-ons...cleaning up the joint and getting glue line thickness down to under .005" is more work than a new, beefier set of inserts and drilling/counterboring for two bolts. While the gluing area on the M&T would be sufficient were the neck block grain to run parallel to the neck, the cross-grain construction used increases the needed gluing area...what we see is a disproportionate number of Martin's M&T necks need repair. Further, the insert used is not up to handling the job without another bolt or reglue, so worth using larger, more robust inserts.