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Bolt On Neck - Minimum Spread Of Screws?


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I'm trying to get a feel for how small a spread of the attachment screws I can use to bolt a neck to a body and still have sufficient support. Some measurements from some of you with AANJ type setups would be very helpful!

THANKS!

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the need to be spread out so that the aresupporting the whole heel, you can go with slight variations, but i think if they get too close together the neck will just snap off

Since the heel of a neck can vary in length and the locations where designers choose to insert screws into their necks varies, that doesn't really lead me anywhere if you think about it. :D So, I'm back to asking my original question slightly rephrased - What's the minimum spread of the attachment screws seen in successful bolt on neck designs? One of the more obvious types to look at would be all the variations on the AANJ types. These are all over the place. I'm just trying to find what is the smallest separation someone has seen on a production guitar. Thanks.

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I'm pretty sure I've seen a guitar with just two bolts (I'm sure marksound has the link to that :D )

Here's hoping that marksound sees the thread. :D

Heck, I found a guitar that uses a single tee nut and bolt to hold the neck together. However, that requires building the neck with this tee nut integral to the design. Take a look at the Details and Construction Features for one of the acoustic/electrics for Veillette Guitars. However, I'm not ready to tackle a neck build. However, it is intriguing.

Back to the drawing board.

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The two bolt bolt-on - Anderson Guitars

Its an interesting idea that complicates the process of making the neck pocket - not something I look forward to but there it is. I guess I can get away with quite a bit less neck heel in a pocket than I thought. Hmm...

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I'm assuming you want to use bolts closer together so they'd be out of the way when playing ... I can't think of any other reason to want to do it.

If so, why don't you just countersink the holes in the body and use ferrules and shorter neck attachment screws? www.stewmac.com has them, I'm sure.

Maybe I need to rephrase one more time. As I've had time to think about it, the real question is - What is the smallest neck pocket anyone has seen on a bolt on guitar? Thanks for everyone's patience in trying to make sense of what I'm asking... :D

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The trashed Rick 350 copy I bought had an interesting construction-- it's similar to a set neck, in that it had a tenon extending past the heel. So the very little of the heel of the guitar stood proud of the body. The tenon was bolted in place with screws and inserts, not a plate. The joint was pretty much covered up by the pickup (surface mounted toasters).

I'm willing to bet that the sloped sides of the Anderson joint is overkill -- the essential feature is that the heel of the neck is surrounded by the body.

This is just conjecture, mind you.

But you could easily achieve something similar with a bolt on neck --narrow the treble side of the heel of the neck by 5-10 mm and then route a cavity accordingly. It's not that difficult to achieve a nice tight neck pocket-- the screws will basically serve to prevent lifting. (Danelectro does/did this on one of their models, I believe.)

You can go a step further but introducing a lip or shelf on the front (headstock) side of the heel (there's another builder out there who does this, unfortunately, I'm not a repository of linkage). The neck pocket will have a corresponding shelf for this. In this way, you've essentially surrounded the heel on ALL sides.

I can only believe that that would be an extremely stable joint. And not all that difficult to achieve either using a purchased neck. A single screw would more than like be all that's needed to keep in place.

But you can take it a step further --with this kind of construction, you can simply GLUE the neck into the pocket --with all the various contact points, there's no way that neck will ever come off.

No need for screws, and, as I pointed out before, you don't need all that much wood beneath the joint. You'd be able to sculpt a very comfortable heel that way.

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I'm willing to bet that the sloped sides of the Anderson joint is overkill -- the essential feature is that the heel of the neck is surrounded by the body.

You can go a step further but introducing a lip or shelf on the front (headstock) side of the heel (there's another builder out there who does this, unfortunately, I'm not a repository of linkage). The neck pocket will have a corresponding shelf for this. In this way, you've essentially surrounded the heel on ALL sides.

I can only believe that that would be an extremely stable joint. And not all that difficult to achieve either using a purchased neck. A single screw would more than like be all that's needed to keep in place.

But you can take it a step further --with this kind of construction, you can simply GLUE the neck into the pocket --with all the various contact points, there's no way that neck will ever come off.

No need for screws, and, as I pointed out before, you don't need all that much wood beneath the joint. You'd be able to sculpt a very comfortable heel that way.

I'm also thinking the Anderson joint is overkill in addtion to being overly complex to recreate. However, the idea of a shelf of sorts that locks the neck and body together is sounding better and better to me. I had just come across this idea a couple of nights ago as illustrated by U.S. Masters Guitar Works on their Guitar Features. Scroll down the page a bit and there is a good picture of the joint. If done properly one substantial machine screw/insert would hold this very well.

Thanks for making me reconsider this approach...

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I'm willing to bet that the sloped sides of the Anderson joint is overkill -- the essential feature is that the heel of the neck is surrounded by the body.

You can go a step further but introducing a lip or shelf on the front (headstock) side of the heel (there's another builder out there who does this, unfortunately, I'm not a repository of linkage). The neck pocket will have a corresponding shelf for this. In this way, you've essentially surrounded the heel on ALL sides.

I can only believe that that would be an extremely stable joint. And not all that difficult to achieve either using a purchased neck. A single screw would more than like be all that's needed to keep in place.

But you can take it a step further --with this kind of construction, you can simply GLUE the neck into the pocket --with all the various contact points, there's no way that neck will ever come off.

No need for screws, and, as I pointed out before, you don't need all that much wood beneath the joint. You'd be able to sculpt a very comfortable heel that way.

I'm also thinking the Anderson joint is overkill in addtion to being overly complex to recreate. However, the idea of a shelf of sorts that locks the neck and body together is sounding better and better to me. I had just come across this idea a couple of nights ago as illustrated by U.S. Masters Guitar Works on their Guitar Features. Scroll down the page a bit and there is a good picture of the joint. If done properly one substantial machine screw/insert would hold this very well.

Thanks for making me reconsider this approach...

Honestly, out of the two, Anderson's joint looks like it acutally provides more stability; the US Masters joint looks supremely gimmicky to me; the Anderson, while being a pain to do right, lines up the neck in exactly one position. You have to get it spot on, like a mortise/tenon joint, and once you bolt it down, it's locked into place solidly on all sides. The bevelled edges couple positively with the neck, unlike the 'square' sides on a standard neck joint.

Personally, I like set neck guitars if you're getting all sculpty. It's not like a pop the neck off my electrics much at all...

Also, although the positioning's different, most acoustic guitar necks (= lots more tension, given a medium stringset of 13-58 than your average electric) with bolt on necks rely on a mere 2 bolts.

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Warwick thumb basses (bolt on versions of course) have just a hair over 2 inches in contact area for the neck pocket. They use four screws. I would use three screws or bolts minimum, unless there was some sort of tenon going into the body, then I might be comfortable using two.

Awesome! that's what I needed to know! If a bass can handle it, I don't have anything to worry about. For my own piece of mind I would still go with four screws but that's just me. Thanks again.

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Some of this has to do with the neck type. Warmoth makes necks with a side trust rod fine adjustment. So you cannot put the screws in much more than the standard locations. However without this issue a good rule of thumb is at least 1 inch apart in the width and 2 inches apart along the length. The trusrod channel is typcially 1/4 inch and in most cases extends nearly to the end of the neck. A standard neck plate places the screws at the outmost corners but this is not neccessary. When using neck furrules the screw locations are moved in about 1/4 inch.

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Some of this has to do with the neck type. Warmoth makes necks with a side trust rod fine adjustment. So you cannot put the screws in much more than the standard locations. However without this issue a good rule of thumb is at least 1 inch apart in the width and 2 inches apart along the length. The trusrod channel is typcially 1/4 inch and in most cases extends nearly to the end of the neck. A standard neck plate places the screws at the outmost corners but this is not neccessary. When using neck furrules the screw locations are moved in about 1/4 inch.

That's a great help! Thanks!

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Always evaluate the size of the neck pocket for bolt locations. With a typical fender style neck pocket of 2 3/16 x 3 inches the standard locations are spread out with a neck plate. The last bolt on we did had a standard size pocket with ferrules and bolt locations were on center at 1 5/16 along the width and 1 11/16 along the length.

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