Hofner Beatle Bass- neck reset

[Tom Anderson]

I have recently acquired a '65 Hofner Beatle bass in very good overall condition. The string height isn't horrible (9/64 at the 12th), but the bass would be so much better if the neck was reset. There is a good overview of neck resetting at http://www.customguitars.com/hofner.html. My problem is that at some point, someone has already been there, and re-glued the neck with what I think is epoxy. There was a small bit of squeeze-out that I examined under a microscope and there are tiny bubbles throughout the glue chip. It doesn't dissolve in water, turpentine, varsol or naphtha, and it is only slightly softened by alcohol. So I'm wondering if anyone has experience with this and what you would advise. Maybe I should just leave well enough alone? Thanks to all for your thoughts on this.

[Michael Lewis]

If you can set the bass up to play well with the current neck angle then I would not reset it.

[Tom Anderson]

Thanks for your advice. The bridge is bottomed....maybe I'll try making a new, shorter bridge and see if I can get the string height lowered. I'd like to see it around 6 or 7/64ths. Trying to deal with the epoxy without damaging the finish would be really difficult.

[Tom Anderson]

I took the good advice NOT to attempt a neck reset when the previous one was done with epoxy . But I still wanted to get the action down from 9/64th to something a bit better, without altering the original bridge. I ended up trying something a bit unconventional. For the past few weeks we've been having a bit of a heat wave and I've been warning the customers in my store about the perils of leaving their guitar in a hot car and having the glue joints creep. A light bulb went on. Using a meat thermometer, I measured the inside temp in my car while parked in the sun: 135-140F. I took the strings off, then I removed the neck pickup from the Hofner, which gives access to the heel block. I had to add a spacer at the end of the heel block, sized so it was just visible looking vertically above the neck pickup cutout. I then put a big and sturdy F clamp on the spacer and tightened the screw end on the bottom the (neck) heel, as low as I could get it without the clamp sliding off. This applies direct pressure between the bottom of the heel and the heel block. Into the car it went, and I kept a close eye on the temp and maintained as much pressure as I could on the clamp. I did this on a couple of days for about two hours each time, letting the guitar cool down slowly. The string height is now 6/64ths and there is no sign of any harm done to the finish (including from the clamp on the heel- I was worried about that!). The big question now is how long it will take for the epoxy to creep and cause the same problem again. Of course I don't know the answer, but as long as we have hot summers (and there's a good chance we will...) I can always do it again.

[David King]

Tom, that was a very clever solution. I hope it works out over the long run for you. Most epoxies will completely lose their grip by 160-170ºF so that's another option for getting the joint apart. There's a good chance that your current epoxy has lost most of it's strength after even modest slipping. Keep that in mind when restringing it etc.

[Michael Lewis]

There is your answer to disassembling the joint. If you can move it that easily it won't hold very well, so you might as well take it apart and do it right.

Something I learned the hard way is that good epoxy is at it's best when well mixed. This is a critical factor. And by the way, once it is dry hot hide glue doesn't creep when it gets hot.

[Tom Anderson]

Hi again....Thank you for your feedback. Its Really appreciated. I don't have much experience dissassembling epoxied joints, but I'm quite familiar with hot hide glue (which of course was the glue used at the factory).

Over the 4 hours in the hot car (I now call it my mobile solar oven) and lots of pressure from the F clamp, the actual movement of the bottom of the heel into the guitar body was only about .010" ... or maybe less. It would take a long time to remove the neck entirely using this method. Not that I'm not up for it....but I think I may have to wait till next year because our "heat wave" has passed (where I live, a heat wave is anything over 90F). For now, I think I'll string it up and see how it looks after a couple of months. I won't be surprised if it doesn't hold.

Maybe a heat lamp with some reflectors might do the trick??? Any thoughts about how much heat the NC lacquer would withstand?

Thanks again

[David King]

Tom,
Getting the heat right where you'd want it isn't obvious. Your choices are radiation, convection and conduction. The last of these is probably your safest bet on the fingerboard side. The heel and sides might do better with radiation or convection. It's going to take some time so you want to set the temps close to what you'll need and let it sit for a while to soak up the heat. I'd try steam first anyway on the off chance that there's enough hide residue in the joint to get it apart and steam is less likely to hurt the finish though it will obviously swell the joint.