Repair And Restoration
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Takamine Neck Reset
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Takamine Neck Reset
I’ve come across several Takamine lawsuit guitars needing neck resets. These lawsuit guitars are from the 1980’s and are basically a copy of a Martin.
Pictured below is a 12-string Takamine that came in for a neck reset. After several hours using heat rods at the 15th fret all of the the wooden dowels would not release. My solution was to take a putty knife with a sharpened edge and using a hammer slice the dowels at the joint. As you can see this guitar had 5 dowels.
I’ve also come across a Takamine 3/4 scale budget guitar needing a neck reset. In the case of the 3/4 scale guitar I was able to use heat rods and pull the neck free within 15 minutes. The 3/4 scale guitar used only 3 dowels that were placed along the centerline of the neck block.
These necks were then converted to a bolt-on with threaded inserts. Also, be aware when drilling holes at the 15th fret, that these guitars use a Martin style truss rod, which is a steel rod inserted into an aluminum channel making the truss rod itself almost 3 times wider than a typical guitar.
Good Luck.
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5 Replies
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What was the model # on that Takamine 12 string? I have one in need of a reset from the lawsuit era, but not sure I feel comfortable trying if I’m dealing with dowels instead of a dovetail…
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I don’t have possession of the guitar anymore, but I believe it was an F385.
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Thanks. That is what my 12 string is so if I go down the reset road I have an idea what to expect…
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are there ANY Japanese lawsuit era guitars that consistently have dovetailed joints?
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Hahahaha. don’t actually know as I’ve been spending all my time teaching myself resets on old harmony/stella/fender guitars since they seem to consistently have dovetails. Will step up at some point to take on some of the asia models and see what I find (the one indonesia one I have done has been a nightmare due to them just flooding an ill fitting dovetail with epoxy and prayers).
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