Mid 50's Hofner 4550

Several months back, I received a gorgeous Hofner archtop guitar in need of a little love. The neck angle had failed such that the string height was out of hand, and could be lowered no further. The fingerboard was coming off in one large section, it needed tuning machines - the whole bit.

The first thing to know is that Hofner attached their necks in a way that is fairly unusual in the guitar world. Whereas Gibson and Martin setup this convention of dovetail joints for this purpose (a trapezoid-shaped mortise and tenon common in general woodworking), Hofner necks are set like violins. That is to say that rather than a small joint hidden under the center of the fretboard, the entire width of the neck is the joint. Maybe another picture will help explain...

The joint is heated with special elements and gently pressed off of the guitar. Here you can see the deep, rectangular mortise cut into the body, and the corresponding "tenon" such that it is, extending from the neck heel. Incidentally, there is a good reason why we don't generally set necks this way on steel string guitars. They tend to fail slowly, gradually giving worse playing action, until they finally arrive on my bench. Notice on the left side of the picture, how the previous owner had marked a dark permanent marker line along where the body used to be. I imagine this was to evaluate the guitar's progress in slowly tearing itself apart.

With the neck removed, we can start dealing with the fretboard separation. Unfortunately, the crack was old and had lots of dirt in it. No hope for an unintrusive glue injection. Double unfortunately, the binding on this neck sat in a channel cut below the seam of the neck and fretboard. That is, no flat knife could slide under the fretboard with the binding still in place. Whenever heating celluloid materials like this "mother of toilet seat" inlay or the binding, utmost care must be taken. Not only are these materials flammable, but they also are prone to shrinking. I got everything all set so I could get this fretboard off ASAP and glue the binding back on before it shrank.

With the binding back on, I went ahead and planed off the small ledge of celluloid and the corresponding area on the neck. I'll glue the fretboard back on with a more practical seam. Notice the interesting aluminum extrusion used to keep the neck straight. I would not say it worked, but I would say it's cool!

With the fretboard (and original frets!) gluing up off to the side, I set about establishing a center line on the instrument's body. This will be key as I reset the neck at the proper angle.

Now that the neck has been reattached, the holes from the heating element can be plugged with matching material...

...a period correct pickguard is fashioned...

...and, voila! An old classic is ready for the next generation.