This old Martin guitar needed a neck reset. The first step when doing a reset is to separate the fretboard from the soundboard, which we did with a thin spatula and a heating blanket to soften the glue. After that, we applied heat to the dovetail joint using an extended heating element on a soldering pencil. Once the joint was sufficiently hot to soften the glue, we used clamping pressure to separate the neck from the body.
Re-angling the neck required removing about 1/32" from the bottom of the heel, which was done with a sharp chisel. Before we could put the neck back on the body, we had to repair a long crack in the fretboard and glue an ebony wedge under the fretboard where it extends over the body. The wedge ensures playable action on the upper frets.
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