Disappointing Discoveries...

Well, removing the fiddle neck in order to re-set it turned out to be much more complicated than I originally thought.

The block refused to be loosened from the back and ribs of the fiddle, so I ended up removing it in pieces.

The neck job was revealed, and much worse than expected.

There were wide gaps between the neck and the block it was supposed to be anchored in.
After much careful work, I successfully removed the neck without damaging anything other than the block.

I smoothed the surfaces with a scraper, then tried to take apart the broken rib to re-glue more neatly.  Whooops!!

I gave up after the break, and just glued it back on as neatly as I could...

My plan at this point was to make a new block to correctly fit the neck into.  After a little investigation, I realized the base of my neck was missing far too much wood to be re-set properly.  How frustrating!

A few options now presented themselves:  I could make a new neck from scratch, buy a neck blank, or risk getting a bad neck and buy one from a parted out fiddle off ebay.  

I decided the most economical option for me at the moment was to try my hand at making a neck myself.  The blanks from Stewart MacDonald were more than I wanted to pay at the moment, and plus, if I made one myself, I sure would learn a lot!  Wow!  The prospect of carving a neck out of maple myself is a rather daunting idea!