The neck on this bass was glued in crooked.



I could have lived with it just like that, or cheated the fingerboard across a bit, but I decided to reset the neck anyway, as the whole neck joint repair area looked really ugly. The button at the heel looked as if it had some ebony pins through it, and was stained dark red, but the repair was not a nice one.



First the fingerboard had to be carefully removed so I can get at the neck.


The neck took quite a bit of persuasion to get out of the mortise without damaging anything.



Ugly mess, isn't it? I can identify three different tyes of glue in there, but mostly epoxy and great big gaps. No wonder it was crooked!



First step was to remove the old glue with chisels and scrapers



Then reshape the mortise with a paring chisel, taking the cheeks back to clean wood



I repaired the purfling where the button had been cut:



These are the new cheeks to be carefull fitted to the mortise



after careful fitting, the cheeks are glued in place with hide glue



and the neck is properly chalk-fitted into the mortise

 Before gluing the neck back, it has to be straight, angled correctly and the overstand increased for better access to the upper fingerboard. I use a laser level to align everything accurately.



This is the heel area after I have glued the neck in place



The silky oak button is a bit of a folly. But it looks nice on this bass.