Heels I Hate

No, this is not about shoes... but check out this neck join on an 1880s Bay State gut-strung guitar... yikes!

Aside from that weird drill hole under the heel cap... talk about a joint built on faith...

Well, now I've drilled a hole in the heel block...

...and when I reglued this, I set in this dowel, just like 1920s mandolin and uke construction. This will counterract some of the tension on the very bottom of the heel that causes a joint like this to come loose and eventually pull off. This will keep the weight down as opposed to some bolts and will also retain the original neck-join style.

Now, this type of neck join -- just straight glue -- works alright for classical instruments, but when that same classical instrument has been used with steel strings, it pulls apart right quick, which is what happened to this guitar in question.