I Think I Just Ruined My Neck Pocket ,, Any Ideas ?

[sbskates]

i am , or was building a sg bolt on neck style guitar mahoganon body topped with flame maple. anyway i wont gointo the details but what i have ended up with is a neck pocket that dosent have enough side material. pretty much only 1 inch of wood from pocket end torward front of pocket on both sides then its open..i thought of moving the neck back much as i can till i would bump into the pickup ring. that would give me another 1/4 inch or so. will this be enough side material once its bolted down to be solid and sound?

never had a goof up this big. i was trying to make the body neck area as slim as possible so it looks like an sg set neck. i have also thiught of doing a PRS style set neck i figure that smy only option left.

[Daniel R]

You may want to try some mahogany veneer and glue them to the sides. Moving the neck down will change the playing position and scale length if you have already set the bridge. I use these veneers for my neck laminations. I believe they are 12 dollars for a pack of 10 4"x48"

www.sveneers.com

Daniel

[snipes2222]

hey i built a guitar recently that has about 3/4 of an in. side material.Its built to look and feel like a prs style set neck but is actully bolted.Its called a bolt in rather than bolt on.Mine worked really well i used neck mounting ferruls from stew-mac and it worked out great.I hope that helps a little.

Wes

[SwedishLuthier]

May I ask a question? Do you mean that your neck pocket is only 1” LONG, from where the neck meats the body to where the neck butts up against the wall of the neck pocket (towards the pickup cavity)? If so 1” is waaaaay too little for a bolt on. Even 1 ¼” is too little. I wouldn’t go with less then 2. It might help if you use threaded steel inserts instead of standard wood screws. That way you can bolt the neck and body together with much more strength.

[Mickguard]

I think he means that he just didn't leave enough wood on the sides of the neck --but the lip is long enough, right?

If that's the case, then I don't see a big issue --the bolts will hold it in. Look at any strat or tele, there's pretty much no wood on the treble side. And even though there's plenty of wood on the bass side, that wouldn't stop the neck from shifting downward.

Besides, I've done pretty much the same on a project/prototype I've been working on. In fact, the 'pocket' is less than 20 mm deep where I left the sides --and I've bolted on the neck and strung it up (and left it that way for a couple of weeks) with no issues. When I get around to building the real thing, I'll probably make the pocket deeper (or the neck tenon longer), but not by much.

As long as your bolts are tight-- I like the holes in the body to be just as tight as the holes in the neck. It makes no sense to me for the screws to be loose in the body (that only makes sense in a manufacturing situation where speed becomes an issue). Instead, I position the neck in the pocket with clamps, then screw the neck and body together. I feel I get a much tighter join that way. I'm not relying on the screws to pull the neck down onto the body.

I'm still kind of new at this though, so take that under advisement...a more experienced builder might be able to say why my way of doing things is wrong. Still, like I said, it just makes more sense to me to do it that way.

Also you could always add an extra screw or two, if you're really worried.

[goat]

Can you post pictures???

[biliousfrog]

As long as your bolts are tight-- I like the holes in the body to be just as tight as the holes in the neck. It makes no sense to me for the screws to be loose in the body (that only makes sense in a manufacturing situation where speed becomes an issue). Instead, I position the neck in the pocket with clamps, then screw the neck and body together. I feel I get a much tighter join that way. I'm not relying on the screws to pull the neck down onto the body.

I was always told not to screw into both parts of a screw join (when making furniture etc) as the screw isn't going to be pulling the join together & is more likely to shear.

In the case of a neck join, the body hole is left just large enough for the screw to pass through with a gentle push. When the screw is turned it pulls the neck towards the join until it becomes tight.

If the screw is threaded through both pieces you'll be stuck with whichever joint pressure you start with. Clamping the joint is fine but you will need to clamp with sufficient pressure whenever you re-attach the neck as any gaps will not be removed by tightening the screws. If you need to apply a shim to adjust neck angle you would also need to completely remove the neck, where as a Fender join can sometimes be adjusted just by loosening the screws by 1/4".

Whilst typing this & pondering I can see why clamping & screwing into both pieces of wood might yield a stronger join initially....but I've had the other way stamped into me &, although I might not have explained it very well, it seems to make more sense to me.

[Mickguard]

I was always told not to screw into both parts of a screw join (when making furniture etc) as the screw isn't going to be pulling the join together & is more likely to shear.

Heh heh...I learned that the hard way ...that's part of why I started using the clamps... It was only afterward that I figured out that you're supposed to have larger holes for the body.

Anyway, I use those pump action type clamps, not the other kind. And by the time I'm ready for the final assembly, I've put the neck on and taken it off a number of times, enough to have loosened the screw holes up, so they're not super tight. More like snug.

[sbskates]

things are going to be fine with the neck pocket. if you look at the warmoth site there LPS bolt on body ha sthe same look as my neck pocket. thanks for all the help.