Neck Modification

[deanbo]

A few days ago i bought myself a Peavey Wolfgang in almost unplayed cond for only £220 and am very,very pleased with it.

The neck is often said to be wide,well it's nowhere near as wide as a Warlock platinum pro i have which i'm shaving down a little and rounding over the edges.

But here's my question.I have a Douggie Wilkes Slut,very HM single bridge schaller bucker and trem and very good except the neck is a little bit TOO SLIM.

Has anyone ever Widened a neck before ? I only need about 1/8 inch in total and it'll be just right.The neck has NO BINDING and was wondering what the best way

to solve this prob would be.I could easily route the edges for binding and get a bit creative with blending it in.I am about to re-fret it so i don't have to pull the frets as i've already done that and thought this would be a good opportunity.I just need the fingerboard to be a little wider not the whole neck.

Or is there some time-honoured method that i should use to accomplish this task ?

"The Slut"[that's it's real name] isn't worth much and i've modded it a lot already so don't worry about me screwing something up that costs and i'm pretty good with woodwork as i have my own little workshop that was the spare bedroom

So i'm open to any ideas or suggestions and i know i could make another neck but apart from that one thing the neck is great,so i would rather modify it as i like it and it suits my hands.Just needs to be a little wider.Thanks everyone.

[Marzocchi705]

Is this a bolt on were talkin bout here? if it is, build (or buy) a new wider neck, widen neck pocket and play away.

If you widen the fretboard on this neck by removing and replacing with a wider one, your gona have to widen the whole neck too.

[SwedishLuthier]

I haven’t tried this personally, but I think that this might work.

First a few notes:

This method works only on bolt on necks

This method requires some skill with tools. If you don’t have it, pls stay away from this method, or at least practise on scrap.

You need a router table or similar.

If 1/8” is all you need, then it is easy to find a binding that is wide to make up for this. Just remember to use half f the desired with, or you will end up with a much wider neck. You can also use thin strips of the same wood as the fret board is made from. Gives you a much cleaner and nicer look. My preferred way of binding any fret board, BTW. It gives you almost an “invisible” binding. Very sofisticated.

Take the guitar apart. Lay the neck flat on a bench, fret board up. Measure the neck and, if necessary, shim under the neck/heal so that the neck is perfectly level with the bench. Glue the shims to a larger board to make sure nothing slips wile we do the next step. Find a way to clamp the neck to the fixture we have already built (haven’t really figured it out yet, but it shouldn’t be that hard). Now over to the router table. Use a strait bit and an edge guide to rout away a small amount of wood from the side of the neck. Go all the way up to the fret board, but don’t touch it with the bit. Also stay away from the neck pocket part. Rout away about ¼”. Use a square and a plane to get the sides of the fret board square with the rest of the neck. Otherwise you might end up with a tilted binding. Also be sure to stay away from the neck pocket part of the neck wood or your in trouble. Now you have sufficient support to glue ½” wide strips “under” the fret board. Use the same wood as the neck is made of. The next step is to glue a binding on the ledge that we have created. Blend the new neck wood to the old and you are ready for finishing. This method creates a neck pocket were the fret board have an overhang over the body. It works perfect if the fret board id flush with the body. Otherwise you have to add small strips here too.

The idea of a fret board that overhangs the neck wood might be a bit unorthodox, but I make most of my bolt on necks with a square neck pocket and a similar overhang, pretty much like the Gibson way of making set necks.

Good luck

Peter

[erikbojerik]

Man...in the time it takes you to yank the frets, do that, then refret, you could make a new neck blemish-free.