Neck Joint For A Single Pickup Explorer?

[Metalhead28]

Someone has approached me about building an Explorer style guitar with a single humbucker, using a set neck just like a Gibson.

I've been thinking about how I would do the neck joint with no neck pickup to hide the neck tenon.

Anybody have any suggestions? Would you do a full width tenon and just let part of it show?

[avengers63]

Paint the guitar a solid color.

[Metalhead28]

Paint the guitar a solid color.

Oh yeah I forgot to mention, he definitely wants a natural finish!

[avengers63]

2 options: covering it up and trying to make it invisible.

Covering it up actually wouldn't be that hard. Rout out a VERY shallow space covering the entire tenon - no more than 1/8 inch - and match the cavity with some cutoff body wood. You wouldn't want to take more of teh tenon than necessary, so you'd want to keep the plate as thin as you can manage. A veneer of the same type would be great, but a cutoff from the actual blank would be best. This would have hte closest color match.

If you want it to be invisible, that would be... difficult. You would have to have the surface of the body that is routed out for the neck pocket. Because you'll have to cut around the perimiter of the cavity, you'll NEVER get it totally invisible. There WILL be that gap, however thin, that will show. But... it might be able to be disguised somehow.

My thought on how to get it out without routing is with a drill press, a teeny bit, and about 500 holes around the perimiter of the cavity. Then, the body gets put on end and the cavity is "cut out" with the same method. It can be cleaned out with the router later - this would be just to get the cavity wood out in one piece. The plug can then be cut this and used to cap the tenon.

A last option would be to use a traditional cabnetry mortise & tenon joint. I'm not an expert on these, but it would be a dang sight easier than the drill press craziness and would end up totally invisible.

[Andronico]

A body in two parts ? The bottom part holds the tenon and then a top in other type of wood like some PRSs and LPs.

[Metalhead28]

A body in two parts ? The bottom part holds the tenon and then a top in other type of wood like some PRSs and LPs.

Ah....I just discussed this delima with the potential customer and he said he'd be just as happy with 2 pickups - he just thought the single pickup would be easier / cheaper.

Nevertheless, thanks for the feedback guys!

[Supernova9]

Well the two ways to do it is either install the neck and cover the whole of the top with a figured maple top or similar that fits exactly round the fretboard so the tenon is then invisible, or just modify the length of the tenon/position of the fretboard on the body so that the fretboard sits over the whole of the tenon (like it is on short-tenon LPs, which hold up fine)

[j. pierce]

Isn't the obvious answer to use a pickguard?

[avengers63]

Isn't the obvious answer to use a pickguard?

Nonsence! That'd be easy like... painting the body instead of a natural finish.

And when have we ever done things the easy way?

[Flon Klar Guitars]

This is why I love thru-necks!

[Xanthus]

Do a Warwick-style tenon. Just mount the tenon in on the back, instead of the front. Who looks at the back of the guitar, anyways? I mean, seriously, the best looking wood on my current build is on the back, and I've got some nice figuring on my maple neck..... on the underside

That, to me, seems the best way to do it. Then, you can make the tenon as long as you want, too.