Original-issue Santana SE neck joint unglued - help!

[Smylight]

Hello folks,

First-time poster here, experienced guitar tech working mainly for a school with dozens of not-so-great guitars. ;-)

Today I ran into my first serious problem with a PRS SE, a first-issue Santana SE. It was dropped on the floor by some kid and the neck joint got unglued. I mean that the glue joint just broke off. No wood damaged, just completely unglued. Now I'm trying to get the neck off to clean/reglue, but the funny little bugger won't come off although I've scored all finish from all around. It IS moving freely, but won't come out. I figure there might be some dowel under the finish in the neck pocket that is used to stabilize the neck in place through the tenon. I do see irregularities under the opaque finish of the tenon.

Any help? Maybe someone from PRS can confirm my suspicion and outline the steps to get the neck out without further damage?

Thanks a lot and have a nice day.

 

[andy474x]

Maybe the joint extends under the neck pickup, make sure that's out. Other than that, I got nothin...

 

[Smylight]

The neck tenon extends under the pickup. To get at it, you have to lift the pickup indeed.

 

[sergiodeblanc]

You'll probably have to steam the neck off. Once you do that, remove the excess glue and reset it.

 

[Smylight]

Maybe I wasn't clear enough about this. The neck is completely unglued and moves a lot, but won't slide out. That's why I'm asking about the possibility of some sort of locking dowel. Anybody has pictures of a disassembled Santana SE neck joint? I just want to make sure I don't break something that's unusual in a neck joint...

 

[andy474x]

I don't know if anyone here who has ever taken an SE neck off. But if you email PRS customer service, they're very responsive and I'm sure can get you the answer you seek.

 

[sergiodeblanc]

Maybe I wasn't clear enough about this. The neck is completely unglued and moves a lot, but won't slide out. That's why I'm asking about the possibility of some sort of locking dowel. Anybody has pictures of a disassembled Santana SE neck joint? I just want to make sure I don't break something that's unusual in a neck joint...

Oh, alright.

There's only one dude that I know of that has completely disassembled a SE, forum user Art G. I don't recall him running into a dowel or anything like that in the joint. I don't think there are any pictures available here, on this site. So when you get it off please take some and post them.

I've taken apart a couple of CE's with bolt on necks and they'll stay snugly in the neck pocket without the bolts holding anything just from the tight CNC tolerances. So you might be good to go already... my advice would be to take a couple shots of tequila and wiggle it, just a little bit.

 

[Ovibos]

my advice would be to take a couple shots of tequila and wiggle it, just a little bit.

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

 

[toothace]

There's no dowel...

 

[sergiodeblanc]

There's no dowel...

dibs!

 

[Smylight]

Many thanks, all. I'll have a shot at it after the tequila. But I

There's no dowel...

Great shot, thanks. The one I'm working on is from the first-issue, slant fingerboard inlays and no tremolo. Is this one from the same vintage?

 

[Smylight]

Thanks a lot, all of you. I'll have a tug at the bugger as soon as the tequila run out. But first I'll shoot an email to the guys at PRS. ;-)

I mistakenly thought they were monitoring this part of the forum.

 

[toothace]

Many thanks, all. I'll have a shot at it after the tequila. But I

Great shot, thanks. The one I'm working on is from the first-issue, slant fingerboard inlays and no tremolo. Is this one from the same vintage?

Yes...it's a second year SE Santana.

dibs!

Sergio...you might remember this one...we've discussed it before. It was at your urging that I put this thing back together. It's somewhere here on the Forum, I think as "SE neck Project" or something like that. My daughter has been painting it for about 3 years now...which is why I haven't had any updates to the project.

 

[Smylight]

Many thanks guys. Have a nice day!

 

[sergiodeblanc]

Sergio...you might remember this one...we've discussed it before. It was at your urging that I put this thing back together. It's somewhere here on the Forum, I think as "SE neck Project" or something like that. My daughter has been painting it for about 3 years now...which is why I haven't had any updates to the project.

Oh yeah! If she bails lemme know and I'll Metal paint job it with some Sharpee markers.

 

[Smylight]

https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B04Jq4WnLJq3v9T
A quick follow-up to my Santana SE problem. The good folks at PRS (that's Shawn) confirmed that nothing stood in the way of removal, so I used the tequila trick. Then I used a thin, long glue spreader to cut through what glue was remaining in the joint. It came out in a matter of minutes. And then I saw this...

I'm still amazed by the little-known fact that China ran into a major shortage of glue the year this particular guitar was made. Take a look at the pics and tell me the neck wasn't holding by the finish alone if you dare. ;-)

 

[Smylight]

I believe the link was not working, here it is again :

https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B04Jq4WnLJq3v9T

 

[sergiodeblanc]

Sweet! Lookin' forward to the neck reset.

 

[John Beef]

That's about as clean a break as there ever was.

 

[Smylight]

Actually, I'm reluctant at calling it a break at all. ;-) Let's call it a "glue-break".
It's on its way to a full, fast recovery thanks to Titebond III.

Now I'll have to figure a way to retouch the flaked-off break in the thick finish. Any ideas, folks?

Also, how do you manage to embed images in your posts? I can only insert an URL pointing to images...