This illustrates a sub-standard H1260 dovetail joint glue application. There was almost no hide glue in this neck joint. And what little was there never got hard. Amazingly, after all these years, the hide glue was still tacky.
In this case, the glue was mostly dry before the neck as installed. And there is glue only low on the face of the dove tail. It took about 5 seconds to steam this joint apart.
Roughly 20% of the H1260 dovetail joints have very little glue, or glue that did not make it into the sides of the dovetail or old glue that was dry before the joint was fitted together. This is why we say, "Every Harmony Sovereign needs a rebuild."
You can see that the factory did try to adjust the neck heel for a better fit. See the very thin, narrow, light colored strip of wood on the dovetail face?
Harmony Sovereigns have fine quality materials, they just were not put together very well.
©2017 D.R. Hanna