Converting A Bolt On To Set Neck

[The Fatalities]

Is there a tutorial on this? Currently my jackson is bolt on.

do i just have too bolt it on, grind down the bolt, fill in the hole and glue it?

[j. pierce]

I'd think it's a little more involved than that. Honestly, I think half the reason of having a set neck guitar is the freedom to shape the heel a bit more comfortably, but I don't think you'd be able to do that and have enough support with a standard bolt-on neck.

I'm not very certain how you'd go about doing this, (and I'm rather uncertain it'd be worth it on a guitar that was designed as a set neck) but I do know it's been discussed here before, I imagine if you search around you'll probably find relevant discussions, which might give you some pointers. Also, try searching for Mickguards "Rocket 350" guitar and related threads, because I believe he did something akin to this. Although I could be wrong. (Mickguard seems to up and posting now as well, so maybe he'll pipe in)

I think he actually used a bolt-on neck as a set neck for a new body, rather than just set-necking a bolt on, however.

[Mickguard]

Although I could be wrong. (Mickguard seems to up and posting now as well, so maybe he'll pipe in)

Yeah, you always know when I'm supposed to be working...my posts come every five minutes...

Anyway, Fate (can I call you that? "The" just seems so...impersonal), you can do a search for just this topic --I've written about it before. The Rocket didn't turn out to be a conversion since the neck was already pretty much a setneck. All I did was narrow the heel.

Is there a reason why you want to convert your guitar to a setneck? I'm sure we'll be able to talk you out of it.

The thing about taking an existing bolt-on neck and neck pocket combination is that this type of joint is rarely as tight as a setneck joint needs to be. The screws do all the work--and on a lot of the guitars, the neck is so loose in the pocket that it serves little purpose. Again, the screws do the work. So simply gluing in your existing neck won't get you anywhere really--unless your goal is, like j.p. points out, to reshape the heel to something more comfortable.

Now, if you were to take your existing neck and build a new body for it, you could make the pocket nice and tight and glue that in. Alternatively, you can fill the neck pocket on the existing guitar and recut a new pocket for the neck.

It really all depends on how far you want to go. I don't see why your idea wouldn't work-- since you're leaving the bolts in, you'll pretty much maintain that solidity. Although instead of chopping the heads off, why not just get shorter bolts and recess them into the wood? You could use inserts for that and recess the entire bolt (and get rid of the neck plate). That will let you reshape the heel too. Have a look at Zachary's neck joint as an example. I'm going to be using that idea for one of my current builds.

For the Rocket, because of the design, I narrowed the heel into a tenon and routed for that. But that was because I bought that neck and it had issues. (Memo to self: do not buy any more guitar necks off ebay)

[Tezifon]

i say respect a ended guitar and build entire new one