Neck Pocket Too Deep What Can I Do?

[sbskates]

i built a t bird. i will be making the raised center section etc. so fretboard rests on it, instead of raised liek a p bass.

so it seems i will need to have the area where the bridge sits lower so the action will be right. i plan on tapering the rasied center from neck end to to be lower and lower etc till its the height i need in the bridge area. any tips?

[thegarehanman]

If you're using a TOM, just route a shallow pocket that the top can sit in to drop it a few fractions of an inch. If you're using a hardtail bridge though, all of your [major] height adjustment in terms of the strings is going to have to be compensated for in the neck height/angle.

peace,

russ

[sbskates]

my bridge needs to be lower because the fretboard touches the top of the bass body, instead of being raised up like on a p bass etc. cani route a lower area where the bridge will sit so it is correct?

[guitar2005]

my bridge needs to be lower because the fretboard touches the top of the bass body, instead of being raised up like on a p bass etc. cani route a lower area where the bridge will sit so it is correct?

Shim the neck to give it a slight angle.

[Marzocchi705]

Shim the neck to give it a slight angle.

You dont need to angle it. all you need to do is make a shim for the neck pocket to rais the neck that extra few mm up, that way your bridge should be able to adjust properly. Slighly less extreme than resessing your bridge and alot easyer. Use maple or something simelar to make your shims.

[sbskates]

i routed my neck pocket to 3/4", reason being because the bass is a t birrd. i guess i could cut out a perfectly milled to 1/8 thick wood plate in the pocket glue it down and my pocket will be the right depth. i dont see any reason this wont work. any thoughts?

i routed it deeper bcause i was going to rout the top down like t bird is so i have the raised center. then glue a raised center to the back. anyway i am using a hard tail bridge not TOM. so the only choices i see are using the plate to raise the neck up or lowerin the center section to the area around the bridge so i dont have too high a bridge.

[westhemann]

why start three topics about the exact same problem with different wording?can't you just post in your original topic instead of cluttering the forum?

[cherokee6]

You could lower the bridge area by routing out the area for the bridge; see the Monster Bass site. The builder and his link have been on the site. I believe the builder is also a member. You could also increase the thickness of the neck heel, but it may impede playability in those upper registers. If you haven't completely sanded the body yet, it's possible to plane or sand the body to a thinner thickness. You will have to be careful not to damage rout outs. This may also cause a tonal change as the wood will be thinner. It is also possible to rout the area under the bridge AND the area between the neck and bridge. It'll be your unique design. These are just suggestions as I'm not an expert, but I've studied a lot of designs. Again the Monster Bass site has some great ideas. I'm sure the builder at that site can also give you some suggestions. You do want to have the neck as firmly against the body as possible with only a slim piece of veneer as a spacer to compensate for wood movement, otherwise you could end up with a cracked neck pocket or neck heel. I'm sure the more experienced members can address the glued-in block issue.

[strangegrey]

I would start by just shimming the neck angle back a tad. Might allow you to get low enough action right away, as you're technically only about 1/8" off.

[sbskates]

anyone ever glued in a piece of woodto fill in a deepneck pocket?

[Setch]

Please do not create multiple topics about the same thing - your 4(!)threads have been combined since they address the same problem, and should have been kept in one place to avoid cluttering the board and scattering fragments of information around in separate threads.

-Setch

[Mike Navarro]

i built a t bird. i will be making the raised center section etc. so fretboard rests on it, instead of raised liek a p bass.

so it seems i will need to have the area where the bridge sits lower so the action will be right. i plan on tapering the rasied center from neck end to to be lower and lower etc till its the height i need in the bridge area. any tips?

There's diferent options to your problem, what I will tell is base on limit information from you, I read some of the options our friends heres gave and all have some logic, but I will explain in terms of vantage and desadvantage. You can use a piece of acustic back wood, trace the the neck end in the piece of acustic back wood, then saw it as precise is possible, present the piece inside the pocket and trace the out side shape of the body in the in the excess of the piece of wood outside the pocket, sawe it, now you have a exactly shim, do the finish you like, glue it, and try the height now with the neck, depends on the thick of the piece of wood you used, if the neck got to high, then it's time for the router, in my shop I have a lot of jigs, one of the is a very big router acrilyc base, 14" X 9", and I put the router closed to one of the edges, so almoust all the router base stay over the body when you are working with the router on the pocket. Use a ball bearing template router beat and start rout the top of the shim 1/16 to 1/16 steps, tryin the neck in each sweep with a straight ruler adding some clearence measurement of the neck forward string neck pull, from nut to highest saddle of the bridge (remenber to set the height of the saddles of the bridge in a "happy mid" to have some adjust up or down later on), diferent than using a small shim in the end of the pocket to give some angle to the neck, the complete raise of the pocket with wood give a better full contact of the vibration of the neck to the body. The angle shim just give 2 points of contact, the edge of the pocket and the contact of the shim, giving a gap between this to points that deaden vibration. The bad part is that this is the hard way!, the small shim it's a lot easy. Routing the bottom of the bridge possition depends in the thicknes of the base of the bridge and this limit how deep will be this rout, not with out mention how complicate is, more getting in consideration the corners of the bridge and the diameter of the router tip, and in my opinion looks funny! but theres a fourth option, try another bridge with a diferent saddles height, normally Fender type round drums saddles are higher for example that the flat ones Gotoh bridges use, they are lower, so this is a option you can explore. Any cuestion you can write me to my web site Guitarzonepr.com and it will be a pleasure to help you! Good luck buddy!!

Mike Navarro/ Guitarzonepr.comundefined

Edited December 29, 2006 by Mike Navarro