In order to streighten the neck, I inquired of a local Luthier who let me check out his shop-made "rig" for doing same, along with some advice on heating the wood to facilitate bending. Based on notes and sketches, I make one out of scrap lumber and hardware, and it works pretty jiffy - even used it to streighten out the barrel on a Harper's Ferry M-1816 musket we were restoring.

That Hideo Kamimoto book was helpful, but of course I loaned it out (as I am wont to do) and never expect to see it again. Perhaps I'll try the Don E. Teeter one per advice above.

There is an earlier thread about glues, but we are learning (the hard way, per usual) that "Al" gives sound advice on hide glue; I glued up the back of one of my "Parlor" guitars where it was peeling off with the squeezebottle variety, and later at a reenactment where it was hot & humid, found it stuck to a tent where I had leaned it. When I peeled it off, there was grass, straw etc. stuck to it like flypaper, and the back had opened back up and was smiling at me!

One of these days when I learn what I'm about, I may try to build a replica Civil-War era guitar from scratch. But for now, there's a lot to learn, and the best way I know how short of taking an intensive course somewhere exotic (and expensive) is to keep horsing around with these broken-down old beaters and reading up on it. I learn from frequent boo-boos, and in the event one of 'em is "catastrophic"... oh well.. it's not like youve screwed up your Daddy's favorite Martin (unless one is crazy enough to attempt a repair on a valuable instrument without prerequisite expertise - I've seen many a fine antique firearm ruined that way).

Also, Bill, we have come to the right place to access a wealth of expertise here on the Mudcat; some of the finest brains in the musical world, methinks, are hanging around here for the picking!

So let's put the glue on to boil, get messy, and have an interesting day!