broken old hofner

[Andos]

I am new to the noble art of guitar repair, so please be gentle.
I was given this Hofner arch top recently
What I'd like to know is how to remove the heel without damaging the rib/front block glue. The varnish around the heel has been sanded of so I'm a bit loth to use a steamer.

[kiwigeo]

Why do you want to remove the heel block? Is it damaged? Can you post up a side view of the heel?

[Andos]

My mistake. I want to get the heel out of the block.
One of 5heu previous owners has had on go at doweling the neck back on. 3 dowels plus a screw through fretboard. Also the neck is in a bad way,the truss rod has rusted up and the head is delamination. I was going to make a new neck, but I'm open to suggestions on that.

[simso]

The dowels were actually hofners idea of manufacturing. Very common to find two dowel holes on these.

The screw is clearly someone else's idea of a repair.

Seen many of these broken over the years.

Steve

[Andos]

That's just ruined my opinion of Hofner. Those dowels look a bit on the rough side!
Back to the original question. How to get the heel out without causing anyone damage?

[simso]

Why remove the heel if it's solid or you intend to remake a new neck.

Good clean surface, some hide glue ideally, titebond if hide glue not available or comfortable with its use.

Then re-align and clamp up.

If you intend to remove regardless then just steam the glue to work the broken section out.

I have even removed sections of a broken hofner heel in situ to attach a new section of wood and create a flat glue shelf for the neck.

Will have a look tomoz through my old photos, bound to have some there of before and afters, including the new shelf.

Steve

[simso]

This one had numerous other neck repairs done, all of which had failed, so when it came to me, I decided to remove the middle section and graft a new piece in, did not even pull the heel on this one as the fit was good, clearly when it was finished that shelf was shaped and coloured

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Another broken one

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This is the first one being jigged up to flat machine a shelf to attach the wood too

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And another broken one, getting an insert fitted

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Internals of the hofners

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[Andos]

Thanks for those Steve
You have a fantastic setup there and a bloody good skill set.
I was going to fit a longer neck and turn the old girl into a 5 string bass but after seeing your pics I'll have a go resurrecting the neck and fitting a heel insert.
Thanks for your help again. There's not to many professionals of your standard that can be bothered with rank amateurs.

Now it's time to go shopping for a stronger grade of hide glue!
Cheers
Ando

[simso]

We all start somewhere.

In the future, you may find you do some amazing work, a lot of talented people exist in the world, just some people have not had the opportunity yet to find out where their skill lies.

There are way more talented people than me out there, and some of the folks on this forum fall into that category, photos of their builds really impress the hell out of me, and as a repairer I have a far more critical eye than the general lay person.

Good luck with the job, make sure you have two good clean mating surfaces and you should be fine.

Steve

[simso]

In regards to glue.

Some of today's repairs, not finished but prepped for Friday painting schedule.

One of them is a banjo heel similar to yours, I just made sure both surfaces were perfectly clean and mated together neatly and used titebond for the repair.

IMG_0689.JPG (58.07 KiB) Viewed 10650 times

The dbl bass neck I used hide glue to put the neck back on as it's pretty weak joint.

IMG_0691.JPG (77.78 KiB) Viewed 10650 times

The face plant break I used titebond.

IMG_0692.JPG (22.83 KiB) Viewed 10650 times

The splines for the ovation I used fish glue as the customer wants a visible clear coat, not hidden

[ckngumbo]

This is an awesome thread.
Thanks