Neck pocket size

[Andres Perez]

Hi everybody, my first post here

I'm designing a baritone 27.5" bolt on neck guitar with 24 frets. The body is basically similar to an Ibanez RG (body shape attached).
Initially I was thinking in making the the pocket 8 cm long (about 3.150") so when the neck was attached, I would have the 18th fret meeting the body. I found that 8 cm was maybe a bit too much, it would make it harder to reach the last frets so I removed 1 cm from the neck pocket length. As a result my neck/body meets at about the 19th fret, but not perfectly, it is actually in the middle between the 18th and 19th.

My question is, is that a problem? Does the neck has to touch the start of the neck pocket (body) precisely at a particular fret?
Will a neck pocket 7 cm in lenght (1" 3/4) have enough wood mass to support the neck?

[Rodger Knox]

That's two questions with the same answer, no to both. I would not trust a neck pocket less than 2 1/2" with a bolt-on neck.

[Peter Wilcox]

7 cm is 2 3/4", not 1 3/4", so you're OK there. Since it will be a longer scale length and neck, I'd feel more comfortable with 3" or greater. You could modify the body to bring the treble cutaway deeper by the extra centimeter or so, as I did on the 24 fret guitar on the left, after I'd built the bass on the right.

[Andres Perez]

Thanks you guys for the replies.

Peter, your comment about a longer scale neck, I have the same concern, So I decided to keep it 8 cm (a bit more than 3") long and made the cutaway a little deeper as you suggested. I think it's gonna to be fine.

Thanks again