How to separate body wings from a through-body neck?

[Mark Walkerator]

Hello -

First time poster here; I've recently gotten deeper into guitar repair & restoration and have a new adventure ahead of me: How do I safely remove the body wings from a neck-through body guitar? I want to keep the wings unscathed for reattachment after doing some work on the neck. I've heard that there's a steam or heating process involved, but haven't been able to find a good "how to" write up on the subject. Sorry if this is a no-brainer for most of you, but I couldn't find this particular scenario covered in the FAQ.

The guitar is a 1964 RM 1999 bass.

Thanks!

[G.S. Monroe]

Can you provide a little more detail on why it is necessary to remove the neck from the wings?
Some pictures might help as well. If it is the style I'm thinking of, removing the neck seems to be a bit extreme.
As far as I know, it would take a band saw to remove the wings.

[Mark Walkerator]

The body has been damaged by additional routing to the neck pickup cavity which has weakened the neck wood and causes it to bow under standard string tension. Subsequently, the wings have already separated from the neck plank from the heel in about 2-3 inches. Also, the top body wing has been drilled with so many holes and sanded down & reshaped so much that its integrity is pretty much shot, so part of the resto plan is to replace it with a new top piece - one that's also a better grain match for the gnarly bird's eye that's going on on the bottom wing.

A little photo-history to follow...

[Mark Walkerator]

This is how the bass came to me. Not a lick of original hardware except for the tuners:



It also had a bad forward tilt to the headstock, which has since been corrected.



This is where it was at last month - just showing it with the correct hardware:



And this is where it's at now - Adios to that horrible "Pumpkin-Glo" finish that someone desecrated it with long before I got it.

[Mark Walkerator]

Sheesh! Sorry about the hugeness of the photos. Some forums automatically resize them down so they're well contained.

So... a band-saw, 'ey?

[Gordon Bellerose]

I'm wondering what you are going to do with the "weakness in the neck" problem you stated earlier.
Even if you cut the wings off, that weakness will still be there. Wiil you fill that area near the neck, and rout it out later?

You could cut the neck off and make the guitar a bolt on. I know, sacrilege.

I like the idea of the restoration however, and it looks interesting.

[Mark Walkerator]

Thanks. Yes - removing the wings will also make it easier to address the neck issue, and I'll be filling & rerouting as you mentioned. I'm still debating on whether to cut the existing neck wood down to the bottoms of the two pickup cavities and putting a new block on top of it tailpiece-to-fretboard, or fill the cavities with the appropriate wood epoxy to restablize the neck wood. I'm also thinking of running dowels between the body & neck wood when it's glued back together.

[G.S. Monroe]

So far it sounds like a fairly good plan. If it was me, I would...

1. carefully cut through the wings with a band saw ( aprox a 1/2 to 3/4 wide blade for stability ), following the wood joints down the back.
You would only lose about 1/8th of an inch in overall width due to the blade thickness.

2. Once you have the neck free, address the issues with the neck itself, and maybe add a bit more wood to the headstock so it doesn't move on you again.

3. As you suggested, cut down the wood to the bottom of the pickup cutouts, clean and true the surfaces, and splice in more hardwood.
I would even dowel the fresh wood in to the base of the neck to be sure that region is solid. I personally prefer replacing wood with wood, and only use epoxy fillers very sparingly.

4. I would then re-attach the wings, using dowels.

5. once the body was rough sanded and shaped, I would cut new pickup cutouts, and maybe move the one at the base of the neck back a little bit, maybe 1/2 inch.

[Mark Walkerator]

Great pointers, G.S. Thanks!

[Mark Walkerator]

I'll post photos of the process as it develops.

[Art Davila]

So far it sounds like a fairly good plan. If it was me, I would...

1. carefully cut through the wings with a band saw ( aprox a 1/2 to 3/4 wide blade for stability ), following the wood joints down the back.
You would only lose about 1/8th of an inch in overall width due to the blade thickness.

2. Once you have the neck free, address the issues with the neck itself, and maybe add a bit more wood to the headstock so it doesn't move on you again.

3. As you suggested, cut down the wood to the bottom of the pickup cutouts, clean and true the surfaces, and splice in more hardwood.
I would even dowel the fresh wood in to the base of the neck to be sure that region is solid. I personally prefer replacing wood with wood, and only use epoxy fillers very sparingly.

4. I would then re-attach the wings, using dowels.

5. once the body was rough sanded and shaped, I would cut new pickup cutouts, and maybe move the one at the base of the neck back a little bit, maybe 1/2 inch.

instead of using dowels, why not use the prefab carbon fiber bars to slip into groves in the wings and thru neck it would add a lot of strength to the repair.

http://www.dragonplate.com/ecart/categories.asp?cID=44

[G.S. Monroe]

instead of using dowels, why not use the prefab carbon fiber bars to slip into groves in the wings and thru neck it would add a lot of strength to the repair.

http://www.dragonplate.com/ecart/categories.asp?cID=44

Interesting suggestion.
I'm a bit "old school" as I learned from my Grandfather, and am not up to date on the latest and greatest.
But I see no reason why that would not work well.

[Nick Middleton]

I'd consider completely filling in the neck pickup-cavity and skip the neck-pickup all together to retain as much structural-integrity as possible.

[Art Davila]

Are you doing this for yourself or is this a customer repair?
I played bass and my bass was a 79 Rickenbacker.
My pu's were a bit different, but I would say the sound I liked best was my neck pickup.

[Beate Ritzert]

I would NOT remove the wings of the body.

IMO it is sufficient to enlarge the excess holes to a more regular shape and fit into these regular holes some matching wood. Properly done this will hide under the PU cover.

But first of all You should repair the head joint - this is the weakest part of the instrument. (The body should still be sufficiently strong.)

[David King]

I have to agree with Beate here. I see nothing gained from removing the body wings. I use a vertical mill and a vacuum clamping plate to get nice rectangular holes so I can quickly make exact matching blocks that will press in almost invisibly with titebond. This can be done with a router but the mill makes it a 5 minute operation.
I don't see the damage on the upper wing that you are talking about. If you are that concerned about the integrity of the neck and upper wing why not just start over again fresh with some nice wood and build this bass right- something Rickenbacker could never be bothered with.

[Darrel Friesen]

I agree with Beate and David. I just wanted to say that dowels would have added little if any strength to long grain joints such as re-attaching the body wings and would pretty much only serve as alignment pins. That of course would be assuming a good, tight joint. Dowels can provide strength to an end grain, butt joint or serve to lock a tenon into a mortise.

[Dragi Gasevski]

Does anyone have technical drawings or blueprints of the Rickenbacker bass? I'm looking for a drawing that I can translate into CAD. Otherwise, could anyone point me in the direction for where I could find something like this?

[Beate Ritzert]

Incomplete but possibly helpful...

http://home.arcor.de/badinvestment/Date ... erBass.png

[Dragi Gasevski]

Incomplete but possibly helpful...

http://home.arcor.de/badinvestment/Date ... erBass.png

Thanks for the link but i have this one and it is not enough. There is not a technical drawings on internet for Rickenbacker bass guitar with the neck with.

anyway, thanks a lot .