Bolt-on neck install - a little glitch

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Steve Sawyer
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Bolt-on neck install - a little glitch

Post by Steve Sawyer »

I got the threaded inserts (brass 10-24) installed just fine - no issues. Something I do that eases this is I have some finish for cutting boards and other kitchen items, a mixture of beeswax & mineral oil, and smear a thin coat on screws or inserts like these to ease them in.

On the downside, because the neck pocket wasn't quite as tight as I would like, I obsessed over getting the centerline of the neck perfectly aligned with the centerline of the body/bridge. Unfortunately, I didn't notice that the neck had slipped a bit and wasn't fully seated into the pocket, and of course this wasn't evident until I got everything drilled and re-assembled. It's only about 3/32", and as you can see from the pic below, the 25 1/2" scale length is falling easily within the range of the bridge saddle addjustments, so I think I'm good there. I was going to address the cosmetic issue until I laid the pick guard in place, and it completely covers that gap, so I may just leave it as-is rather than trying to do anything more with it.

Any thoughts or suggestions to the contrary are appreciated.
Neck_Install.jpg
Neck_Misinstall.jpg
Scale_Length.jpg
==Steve==
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Barry Daniels
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Re: Bolt-on neck install - a little glitch

Post by Barry Daniels »

I prefer the neck to have something solid to butt up to. I would plug the screw holes in the body with hardwood dowels and try again.
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David King
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Re: Bolt-on neck install - a little glitch

Post by David King »

I'd plug and re-drill the holes in the body. You could also just file the holes in the body over to where the need to be to close that gap and let the back plate cover the widened hole but that's not going to be as secure as filling and starting over. You want to fill with wood that's the same density so that your new hole doesn't get pushed around when you drill it. The good news is that you'll never make that mistake again.
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Steve Sawyer
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Re: Bolt-on neck install - a little glitch

Post by Steve Sawyer »

I'd thought of plugging and re-drilling the body. The only concern about re-drilling the body is that will push the plate out of position on the back, but I can probably shape the heel so that it won't be as obvious. As you can see, I used one of those triangular plates and have do do some carving of the heel anyway, so...

Thanks!
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Brian Evans
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Re: Bolt-on neck install - a little glitch

Post by Brian Evans »

Either plug and re-drill or just put a shim on the end of the neck. Do you have a jig to locate the holes in their new position? They can be a loose fit around the bolts, the holes don't actually locate the neck or keep it from moving, friction and the sides of the pocket do that.
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Steve Sawyer
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Re: Bolt-on neck install - a little glitch

Post by Steve Sawyer »

Brian Evans wrote:Either plug and re-drill or just put a shim on the end of the neck. Do you have a jig to locate the holes in their new position?
No, but what I'm going to do is grind some center-points onto some short 10-24 screws, cut the heads off then screw them down into the threaded inserts, leaving the points and just enough thread showing so I can get 'em out with a pair of pliers. Get the neck into position, then tap with a dead-blow hammer or clamp it to embed the points of the screws into the body to provide alignment points when I clamp the neck under the drill press.
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Steve Sawyer
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Re: Bolt-on neck install - a little glitch

Post by Steve Sawyer »

Okay - took the advice I got here and plugged and re-drilled the holes in the body. The trick with the points screwed into the threaded inserts (see the first pic below) worked ok, but I think that despite my best efforts, they seemed to want to follow the joint between the plugs and the body, so I was still left with a small gap as shown in pic 2. Some veneer, some CA glue and some patience seems to have tightened things up nicely, and since this is going to be painted, the variations in color shouldn't be an issue.

I also got the fretboard position dots installed, so it's on to drilling for the tuners...
Neck Pocket Fix 1_s.jpg
Neck Pocket Fix 2_s.jpg
Neck Pocket Fix 3_s.jpg
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David King
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Re: Bolt-on neck install - a little glitch

Post by David King »

So much better Steve!
Bob Francis
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Re: Bolt-on neck install - a little glitch

Post by Bob Francis »



Much better!
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