Bolt On Neck To Neckthru?

[NickCormier]

Anyway to take a bolton neck, add a plank to it and make a neckthru with it? Or would that be like, totally defeating the whole purpose of a neckthrough? lol even tho it would be 2 pieces of wood glued together, the joint would be ALOT stronger, and more comfortable for the hands.. Think this is something worth looking into?

[Mickguard]

Sure you could do it....have a look for threads on bolt on to set neck conversion, that should give you some ideas.

I did something similar with my last project --that neck was an unfinished setneck, but the heel was mangled and therefore wasn't much thicker than a bolt on.

I narrowed the heel into a tenon anyway and built an extension to the body to house that ...I also cut the tenon so that it formed a T, that way the top part of the neck was glued to the surface of the guitar. I ended up with six solid points of contact (and I made sure the pocket was nice n' tight too). There's a little more than 8 cm of contact between the neck and the body.

This photo will give you the basic idea (I later sank the neck a few more millimeters into the pocket, but I was limited as to how deep I could go because of the design and the no-neck angle. And of course I carved the heel after):

This is the 'setneck' I received (thanks, ebay )

So far so good, the neck has been on there for three weeks now, with no signs of failure.

The advantage of doing a neck through like you propose is that you can make sure your neck joint is perfect before committing yourself to the rest of the project (I used a single piece of wood, so that wasn't an option for me --but I might do something similar for the next one!)

If you add an angle to your neck, you'll essentially have a scarf joint, even stronger still. I think you'll still need more of a heel than a real neck-through, but as long as you have a double-cutaway design, that's not going to be a huge issue --it'll still be less bulky than a normal bolt on heel.

[RAI6]

"Sure you could do it....have a look for threads on bolt on to set neck conversion, that should give you some ideas."

He said bolt-on to neck-through.

Not set-neck.

[Curtis P]

well, you could still do it, kinda.

Strip the body, annd pretty much, saw it in half, cut out the peices you dont need, plane the edges on jointer.

Take your bolt on neck, and you can either

1) laminate a peice of maple, or whatever your neck is, onto your exsiting neck heel, make sure its planed and such,

2) make a new neck (probaly the BEST thing to do)

Curtis

[Mickguard]

He said bolt-on to neck-through.

Not set-neck.

What, you're my wife?

He also recognized that he'd have to glue the neck --so it's essentially the same thing as a bolton to setneck conversion, only he'll be converting to what amounts to a loooonnngg tenon.

That clear enough for you? Anything else you'd like to nag me about?

[thegarehanman]

The way I see it, you'd be better off just making it into a set neck, not a neckthrough. If you make it a set neck, you're introducing one glue joint into the system. Making it into a "neckthrough" will really be no different then if you chopped a chunk out of the middle of the guitar, glued that piece back in, then did the set neck conversion.

[soapbarstrat]

I'll take a machine screw/insert conversion any day over a glue-in. You do it right, and oh man, talk about a neck and body bolted together so firmly, the string vibration might as well think it's dealing with a neck-thru. Not that string vibration actually *thinks* about anything, other than how it might have some fun wearing out your frets.

[Batfink]

My question is WHY you'd want to do this in the first place ? - a disaster waiting to happen.

Jem

[fryovanni]

I don't know if I would say it is a disaster waiting to happen. If your goal is to be able to shape the heal. I would focus on modifing the heal of the neck to add the needed thickness and length (I would probably not go further than an extra deep tenion- no further than the pickup area). You could avoid a lot of hastle by not cutting all the way through the body(or bridge area) and just providing a deep routed pocket. Seems to me that would allow you to accomplish your main objective. The main neck thru difference is in the neck being a complete unit (so to speak). By placing more joints in the neck you really don't achive idea. The bolt on, deep set, set are all fantastic if you make good solid joints.

Peace and best of luck,Rich