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Neck-thru Or Bolt-on


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take into consideration routing the neck pickup.....i use blocks of wood to keep my router base above the fretboard...and then i use a longer router bit than normal to get to the proper depth...

all of your routing has to be done with consideration for the neck already being attached.

main thing is,everyone does it differently,but you have to take notes and decide the best order for YOU to work in so that you can do it with the tools on hand..

finishing is not so bad...you just have to do it with the guitarhanging,so you have to develop the tecnique to avoid runs.

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Hey rich, those photo's are extremely useful, definitly helps me visualise the build, although to be honest, it scares me a little - the neck-thru seems very complicated, you've got me thinking about doing a bolt-on now, lol !

Is a neck-thru a big improvement on tonality? This is what would be a deal breaker for me, even though it will be my first build, I want it to sound as good as possible, so if a neck-thru is a definite improvement on tone, I guess i'll just stuck in and see where it gets me, whereas if not, i'll go with the easier bolt-on.

BB

Scares you? I don't think neck thru is harder than bolt on or set. It is just a little different n terms of the process. I don't think I would rate one method tonally superior to another. You have obvious differences in terms of how much neck material contributes to tone. Whatever wood you use for a neck thru blank, it will be the bulk of the guitars wood. A bolt on or set has a larger portion of the material in the body (so whatever you use for the body plays a bigger role). No real rocket science.

Now I do have to point out that the neck thru will have much larger area of contact with the body, and this may play into the overall tonal value as well as increase sustain to a higher level. By far the finest way to build a neck through would be to increase the area of contact with a dovetail joint. Only the finest of builders would dare to achive this level in terms of construction technique. :D:D Just for you Russ my brotha B)

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I'm not sure a dovetail is a good idea - it puts a lot of stress in the wrong direction across the grain in this case. Dovetails are supposed to run perpindicular to the grain, and a neck-through dovetail would (in almost all cases) run parallel to the grain...

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As far as joining the wings to the neck, I was considering using either biscuit-joinery or mortise and tenon as i've had some experience of these before. On a large guitar like an explorer, and the fact that i'll be thrashing with it, I would sleep happier knowing there is some real joinery in there and not just glue

Also the extra contact area would also add to the overall 'wood on wood' contact :-)

Say I go ahead and build a neck-thru (which I think i'm going to do just for the experience), if I make the fingerboard too low for the bridge, apart from ripping it off and starting again, what repair technique could I use?

One last question. On the plans it seems the neck has no angle or tilt away from the body. I've read somewhere that straight necks like these aren't as nice to play as tilted necks, is this true or complete twaddle?

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As far as joining the wings to the neck, I was considering using either biscuit-joinery or mortise and tenon as i've had some experience of these before. On a large guitar like an explorer, and the fact that i'll be thrashing with it, I would sleep happier knowing there is some real joinery in there and not just glue

Glue is stronger than wood. Forget fancy joins. The only reason you would do a fancy joint, is for bragging rights, and then someone like me would come along and tell you you wasted your time...

Also the extra contact area would also add to the overall 'wood on wood' contact :-)

Forget wood to wood contact for the body. Just forget it.

Say I go ahead and build a neck-thru (which I think i'm going to do just for the experience), if I make the fingerboard too low for the bridge, apart from ripping it off and starting again, what repair technique could I use?

Recess, or change bridges. But you wont have a problem, because you'll be following a pre-drawn plan, right?

One last question. On the plans it seems the neck has no angle or tilt away from the body. I've read somewhere that straight necks like these aren't as nice to play as tilted necks, is this true or complete twaddle?

Why dont you tell us??? I like blue personally, but red can often be nice too.... wes like pink, but thats just his opinion...

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rhoads makes several good points...you seem to be falling prey to a lot a "guitar voodoo"

there is a ton of this "twaddle" around the net...and it only gets worst among guitarists who think that playing guitars for years gives them an inside scoop on guitar building.

it is almost ALL preference...the only thing you can be sure of is that tighter tolerances on your fits makes a better instrument...and wood selection also plays a key role...

I prefer angled necks on 25.5" scale or greater guitars...24.75" it doesn't matter so much to me. there is more to it than just that though...you can "slide" the playing area of the guitar up and down the length of the guitar,in effect putting the nut closer or further away from your body..but the closer you bring the upper frets to you ,the more your body is going to interfere with upper fret access(i mean your body,not the guitar's)

one thing i notice about dovetail joints is that they seem to make a VERY visible glue join...on the pics of rus's guitar,i swear that it looks as if there is a huge(in terms of guitar building) gap on the surfaces of the guitar,as if the dovetail itself keeps the join from becoming invisible...i would like to see a close up of the joinery on that guitar before i can come to a final opinion,but it seems likely russ will fill that with filler and solid color coat it.

every piece of furniture i have ever seen with dovetail joints has visible joints...i don't think of that as acceptable on my guitar.

a good glue joint will not come apart.

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one thing to consider......

careful, you might pop a brain cell working out this one....

.....

drum roll please

by doing some fancy technical bla bla dovetail body joint.....

are you....

gaining more tone by having more "wood to wood" contact.......

OR

striping away tone by having LOTS MORE GLUE SURFACE AREA

Interesting concept huh??

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Despite some of the slightly sarcastic tones in this discussion, I appreciate all your opinions and advice, today i've received Melvin Hiscock's book, and that alongside you lot, I know have a very good idea of how to approach this build.

To clarify from your input, here's what I intend to do:

No joinery - just glue the body. (Explorer Shape) Oil and wax finish.

Thru-neck with an angle to accomdate a tune-o-matic bridge (nashville type).

The neck will be a mahogany and maple laminate, rosewood fingerboard with binding.

I'll be using the gibson compensated scale length (I have the correct plans ordered).

Direct mounting of the pickups to the body for asthetics.

1 Volume knob, and a two way switch (no tone)

Might mite motherbuckers

Bone nut

Jumbo frets

And that should just about cover it, I have all the measurements and dimensions on the plans and they should be here soon, just need to order the wood and I can get started. I'll put my progress in the other topic-area.

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