Raise the bridge or lower the water?
Posted: Sat Nov 26, 2022 9:01 pm
I recently bought a mid-1960s Kay solid-body guitar body and a similar-vintage Kay solid-body bolt-on neck which I got to build-up together.
I first wrote both sellers to ask them to measure the widths of the neck pocket and the heel of the neck, and both measurements they reported were the same, so I pulled the trigger.
As it happened, even though both were accurate, the neck is slightly too wide to fit the pocket, so the sides of one or the other are going to have to be slightly reduced to accommodate the other. Should I sand-down the sides of the heel? -or sand-out the sides of the pocket? FWIW, the neck is maple and the body appears to be poplar or some other fairly soft wood.
Perhaps more troubling is the fact that the 3 screw-holes don't quite line-up between the two. The pattern and spacing appear identical, but the heel end of the neck appears to be about 1/4" too long (or the inside end of the pocket is 1/4" too short) for them to line-up. The body is drilled and counter-sunk for the neck screws, so that's the one variable which cannot be changed.
That seems to leave me with 3 options:
1. Shorten the heel of the neck by 1/4" (but not cut the fretboard).
2. Extend the pocket by 1/4".
3. Fill the existing screw-holes on the neck with dowels, and drill new holes without modifying either neck or pocket.
Originality isn't a consideration; these guitars are neither rare nor expensive, and I'm heavily modifying the entire guitar anyway. Nor will intonation be an issue, since I'm not using the stock bridge location. What is a consideration is the integrity of the connection; I don't want to add any weakness to that joint.
So, which should I do? Chop-out the pocket? -chop off the end of the heel? -or plug the screw-holes on the neck and drill new ones?
I first wrote both sellers to ask them to measure the widths of the neck pocket and the heel of the neck, and both measurements they reported were the same, so I pulled the trigger.
As it happened, even though both were accurate, the neck is slightly too wide to fit the pocket, so the sides of one or the other are going to have to be slightly reduced to accommodate the other. Should I sand-down the sides of the heel? -or sand-out the sides of the pocket? FWIW, the neck is maple and the body appears to be poplar or some other fairly soft wood.
Perhaps more troubling is the fact that the 3 screw-holes don't quite line-up between the two. The pattern and spacing appear identical, but the heel end of the neck appears to be about 1/4" too long (or the inside end of the pocket is 1/4" too short) for them to line-up. The body is drilled and counter-sunk for the neck screws, so that's the one variable which cannot be changed.
That seems to leave me with 3 options:
1. Shorten the heel of the neck by 1/4" (but not cut the fretboard).
2. Extend the pocket by 1/4".
3. Fill the existing screw-holes on the neck with dowels, and drill new holes without modifying either neck or pocket.
Originality isn't a consideration; these guitars are neither rare nor expensive, and I'm heavily modifying the entire guitar anyway. Nor will intonation be an issue, since I'm not using the stock bridge location. What is a consideration is the integrity of the connection; I don't want to add any weakness to that joint.
So, which should I do? Chop-out the pocket? -chop off the end of the heel? -or plug the screw-holes on the neck and drill new ones?