Mahogany Neck

[possum1284]

hi ive been reading the forum and i see some members sugest screw inserts for mahogany bolt on necks. where would i get these inserts?

[mledbetter]

Check out www.rockler.com or www.woodcraft.com and look for "brass inserts"

[Doc]

Here's another one McFeely.com. Look under threaded inserts and go for the steel ones. They also sell really high grade square drive bolts that work a lot better than Phillips head.

[nollock]

I can highly recomend this place, very polite and helpfull. They have allot more than is listed on their site so its always worth emailing them if you cant find what you're looking for. That said, I am not sure how good those zinc alloy inserts are as most people seem to use the brass ones.

http://www.modelfixings.co.uk/threaded_inserts.htm

chris

[Unrealize]

hi ive been reading the forum and i see some members sugest screw inserts for mahogany bolt on necks. where would i get these inserts?

Uhm, can anyone explain to me what these inserts do, what it is good for, and why one would need them..?

I'm sorry, but I'm not familiar with inserts at all, and I'm just doing a mahogany bolt on...

[Jon]

The only logical use I can come up with would be using them in a neck. Instead of bolting on a neck and removing the screws 2 or more times, you'll always have that threaded insert in the same position. This way the screw holes wont widen / strip over time and you wont lose strength.

Of course, I could be full of it. But that's the only logical thing I can come up with.

[Mattia]

Jon's right on the money.

Personally, I don't use em. Only for acoustic guitars, not for bolt-on neck electrics that I rarely if ever feel the need to disassemble anyway. I've got a mahogany-necked Warmoth strat that's doing just lovely with plain 'ol screws.

[Unrealize]

Thanks a lot guys, I think I'll just go with regular screws then, I don't tend to take of the neck all the time anyway, so I don't think it would wear too much anyhow..

[SwedishLuthier]

One of the reasons to use threaded inserts is of cause to be able to disassemble the guitar without stripping the wood in the screw hole.

The other reason (and the main reason I use them) is that you get a better hold between the body and neck with the inserts. I use steel inserts and stainless screws (even stronger that ordinary steel) on all my bolt-ons and as often as I can when fixing a guitar with loose neck screws (not all customer let me persuade them into it). With this method you can screw two planks together without a neck pocket type of alignment aid and still be unable to shift the “neck”. This is due to the fact that the insert is so much wider than the ordinary screw. This gives it so much more “thread” and thus a much better (stronger) grip in the wood. And then you screw an ordinary machine type screw into the steel insert. With that setup you can tighten the screws with something like the double torque (no, I haven’t actually measured it) before the thread gives up. A rock solid coupling of neck and body.

[exhaust_49]

I was thinking of using inserts in the guitar I am building. I thought about it and I figured I'm making this guitar for maxium vibration transfer. Why add another step to transfer vibration (insert to screw) when there is play in all screws. I also never really remove my neck, at least not enough to wear out the threads. I would only really use inserts if I was flying with the guitar constantly and needed to take the neck off. It makes sence if your doing that.

[SwedishLuthier]

Exhaust: I would like to clarify things here. If you do the insert thing correct you will get a MUCH better coupling between the neck and the body. Set the inserts deep enough so they don’t protrude. This picture is slightly exaggerated:

www.peternaglitschluthier.com/neckinserts.jpg

You might also consider securing them with CA when they are in place. Then you will be able to pull the neck so much harder against the body (neck pocket) compared to ordinary screws. For a comparison it is possible to strip the wood with ordinary screw with an ordinary screw driver. I have had numerous guitars in my shop with that problem. I can tighten my stainless steel screws with torx heads screwed into steel inserts using an angled torx driver with a lever of about 10” with my maximum power without stripping the threads. That is a guarantee for good coupling.

It is true that you have play between the screw and the inset BEFORE you tighten the screws. But when you have everything in place and the screws tightened really hard there is NO play whatsoever. As I stated before: you can even attach two planks to each other without neck pocket and you will not be able to shift the joint. That is one solid neck attachment

And think about it: Do you want vibrations to transfer from the neck to the body via the screws or directly from the neck to the body? I have no hard facts to back this up but I strongly believe that if you have the much better coupling between neck and body that you get with inserts, you will also get much better vibration transfer directly from the neck to the body.

[unclej]

if you decide to use inserts check with your local hardware store first. i make my own "bridge doctors" for customers that have acoustics bellying up and use the same type of insert that you're talking about. they're relatively cheap, come in a lot of sizes and you save the shipping costs.