So I played around with the guitar all week and decided I don’t like to play it with the neck angle too steep. Sooo…..

Time for major surgery. Spoiler, it went as good as I could hope.

I used Titebond original glue which is water soluble and softens with heat. So it seems getting hot water to the glue joint is the thing to do. Luckily, the wife has a nice clothes steamer I could use.

I took all the electronics out (I want to rewire anyway) so I could get access to the neck joint.

I need a way to get steam into the joint between the neck and the body. So I bought a 12″ long drill bit and drilled some holes.

After that, I used my wife’s steamer and some small towels to heat and steam the neck and body joint.

I didn’t take any photos of the steaming because o was home alone and I’m not an octopus.

After about 30-40 minutes I got the joint hot and wet enough for the joint to release. There was no structural damage to the neck or body. Yay for me!

Although I won the war, there was a casualty. The lacquer got pretty messed up from the heat and steam. I should be able to repair it, but it’s a bummer for sure. Scars tell stories, and this is a good one.

This week I will work on the neck angle and repair the lacquer. Stay tuned!

I took the clamps off this morning and started the final assembly. I installed the pickups, finished the wiring, installed the pickguard and trussrod cover, installed the strap locks (Dunlop is my jam), and strung it up.

There are a few things left to do, I need some screws for the back plates, and the knobs don’t fit my pots unfortunately.

Overall I’m happy with the result, and it was a lot of fun getting here.

It looks pretty good. Now for the bad parts…

The kit was supposed to be ready to go, but I had to do some surgery on the neck. Apparently, I didn’t do enough surgery
I think the angle is too steep because the bridge is WAY high.

Because the bridge is too high, the pickups are not close enough.

I’ll have to remove the neck to fix this, and it’s gonna be a giant pain in the ass. Not looking forward to this.

Also, I think I have a bad ground connection or something because o have a HORRIFIC buzz when it’s plugged into the amp. I’m not sure what kind of pickups are in it. I assumed they are humbuckers by the size and shape, but they only seem to have 1 set of magnets.

Soo… Looks like I’m gonna chase a wiring problem.

Point of no return here (or at least a real pain on the ass to go back). I glued the neck on just now. Thanks to advice from some helpful redditors, I didn’t use the wrong glue! I used Titebond original glue because it can be undone with water if I ever need to take it apart (hopefully never).

I’ll let this sit and cure until tomorrow morning. Wish me luck!