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Xavier

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About Xavier

  • Birthday 07/05/1981

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    South Carolina
  • Interests
    Metal, Guitars, Building Guitars, Gigging, Women

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  1. To add, my neck will be made of Cherrywood, which is also a dense hardwood. So I have room to choose a thinner neck heel.
  2. Yeah, I'm going to go with the body at 1-1/2*, and my pocket depth at 5/8". That leaves me with 7/8" to bolt onto. I think I will be okay. As far as my neck heel thickness, I will make sure it suits the string action. Should be around 7/8".
  3. With a body thickness of 1-3/4" my thickness of the body under the the pocket would be 9/8", but I'm leaning towards a body thickness of 1-1/2".
  4. I am referring to the neck heel. The portion of the neck that makes the joint and not including the fretboard. In my case the portion of the body leftover after the pocket is routed will also be 7/8".
  5. Curtisa, thank you soooo much for your feedback! i feel much more comfortable now. You also answered another question I didn't add: when to route, before or after the body is cut. I will be angling the pocket. As for the neck dimensions, I wanted to go with what I consider traditional thickness of the heel: 7/8"... As for the body weight, I 'm still undecided. I really do not want to hollow portions. I might alter the shape a little. But I want that traditional explorer look. Anyway, I am very grateful for your advice. You seem to be very experienced.
  6. My question is sort of a complex one: It requires a couple of other questions to answer. A little insight into my build will also aid in determining the answer. I want to hear what other builders/luthiers have to say about how to go about designing and executing an angled bolt on neck for my electric solid body builds. I'm sure there are mixed answers to this, as I have already read a great deal of online resources on the subject, as well as on ProjectGuitar.com That being said, I really do not want to go the route of using angled shims. I am a luthier/shop owner, and want a permanent solution that does not reduce the neck-to-body contact, while maintaining the direction of building bolt on necks. Since this post is kind of lengthy, I will organize it into categories. The first of which, introduces my build and brings about my first question. The build: I am building an electric solid body, "explorer" style. I am building a bolt on neck. Since I am using a tune-o-matic bridge, I will need to angle the neck in relation to the body for proper action. A very important note, is to point out that my body is made of one hunk of Yellowheart hardwood, 2 inches thick and 10 inches wide. I cross-cut the slab and will be gluing the halves together, side by side, to get get the width I need for an "explorer" style body; the "wings" protrude rather long outward. This wood is so dense it almost does not float in water! Please do not question my reasons, I am doing this for tone, which is subjective. Anyway, the reason I am pointing this out, is that the wood is very heavy and I want to reduce the weight. I would like to go with the standard body thickness (1-3/4") but that will be too heavy. So I would like to reduce some of the weight by going with 1-1/2" thickness. Of course considering my cavities and their depths. 3/4" for one humbucker cavity, my electrical cavity not any deeper, and my neck pocket cavity, hopefully at 5/8". This brings me to my first questions: What to do about the dimensions of my neck pocket? Do I reduce the thickness of my neck's heel, or do I reduce the thickness of the neck joint where the bolts mount? I would like to have a neck pocket depth of 5/8". My thinking is that the Yellowheart will be strong enough to allow for a neck joint that is only 7/8" thick. What do you guys think? This also ties into my entire post about an angled neck, which brings me to the next category... Angled neck: I have seen guys like the pros at StewMac suggest angled shims for bolt on necks, but I do not like that solution. My thinking is to angle the neck pocket. However, one idea I had is to angle the neck heel itself. Right away I can see the con in that. An angled neck heel will be tough to replace. An angled neck pocket means the owner can replace the neck with a standard square heel. What do you guys think? This also leads to another concern: With an angle in the pocket, the neck heel will now approach the bolts at an angle. Should I not square the heel? Rather my thinking is to offset the squareness so that the neck heel fits the pocket at all sides and gives enough room for my bolt holes. I would hate to have a gap at the end of the joint. How to create an angled joint: How to go about building an angled neck pocket? Or how to go about some other method? One idea I had was, to support my neck pocket routing template with an angled shim, so that my router approaches the pocket at the desired angle. What comes to mind though is: Do I route from 7/8" on up so that my minimum pocket thickness is 7/8", or do I route so that my maximum pocket thickness is 7/8"? Again pondering if the Yellowheart will be strong enough. I think it will. Of course the height in which the neck rises beyond the body face is most important to string action. This leads me to think that 7/8" should be the maximum thickness for the neck joint. What do you guys think? Thank you all ahead of time for any suggestions. I rarely seek help and am usually solving problems on my own. Seeing as how this slab of Yellowheart cost me around 120 bones, I really do not want to do anything I will regret. So you guys are saving me a lot of headache on the matter. Sometimes a second opinion can be necessary. Thank you!
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