Gretsch 6124 Cracked Neck Block Repair #1

This Gretsch 6124 Single Anniversary came in for a simple setup and to fix a glitch in the electronics.

Overall it's in remarkable shape. The binding is intact, finish in decent shape, has all the or original hardware, including the case. But it was immediately clear that the setup issues were coming from something more than truss rod or bridge height. There was a significant gap at the heel and along the bass edge of the heel that I could slip a feeler gage all the way into. And I could flex the gap closed fairly easily.

I was hoping it was just a neck reset. But you never know until you get the neck off, which proved to be a challenge. In steaming the neck off, a chunk of the neck block on the cutaway came with it, along with some binding. They also used an incredible amount of hide glue! You can see where the binding at the end of the cutaway is not sitting evenly and there is a thin line of cracked finish where the end of the cutaway has separated from the binding. There is also some cracked finish that is evident in other photos. I suspect this guitar took a fall at some time and someone did a half-hearted repair on it.

Separating the rest of the neck block from the dove tail took some slow and detailed work, but it cam off in the end. There was evidence that someone had tried to repair this in the past. Large shims, some cracking in the finish, and I could see where an attempt to get some glue into the crack had only penetrated a couple of millimeters (photo below).