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Smaller than usual Neck pocket - tone effect?


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Hey all,

After a long long time of not building or even touching guitars (7 years) I'm back to building.

I have a guitar that had a tru oil finish (temporary for keeping the wood in a workable condition as I live in a very humid place), now that I am back, I sanded it to the bare wood again and in doing so I accidently sanded the neck pocket too much in a way that it is now 1mm shy of the neck itself and would look very bad as is once I bold a neck there...

20210911_234542.thumb.jpg.71493cb540760c5984f26937a59e933d.jpg

To "save" this body and avoid throwing it away (I'm a perfectionist) I thought of rounding the neck pocket until its somthing like the Ibanez AANJ style joint (see pencil marking below). I'd hate throwing it away as I really love the Imbuia top I sourced for it. Will it affect the tone much? How stable would the neck be?

 20210912_003823.thumb.jpg.6fce30bfb7bbf496609aeb1784656895.jpg20210912_003753.thumb.jpg.da3cfaa672e82e552ffe699f87ea0e31.jpg

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8 hours ago, gilsolomon said:

 Will it affect the tone much? How stable would the neck be?

Everything affects the tone! The question is how much. Most often the change is insignificant.

If you're worrying about stability, using threaded inserts in the neck might help. Then again they may affect the tone as well, again so little it should not be audible.

You can also leave the base a bit larger like below. It would still be less bulky than the original and there would be space for rounding the bottom side without sacrificing bolting stability.

kuva.png.86b573c851805dd5baa559da264aeaa1.png

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Exactly.

I'd also say that there's always a point at which things start to have an effect, and for the most part I think it's not a linear progression of suck when you go towards that line. That is, the reduction of the heel doesn't have huge effects until you start approaching that point at which its function and stability become an issue. Then things go downhill pretty quickly. Guitarists and builders seem hardwired with this paranoia that shaving a mm here will have a 10x reduction in mojo there, and that's rarely the case.

Threaded inserts are a great option for increasing mating pressure. It indirectly helps "tone" just by the nature of the strong clamping force between components, the stability and durability compared to wood screws.

Do it and ignore advice against progressing your idea unless that advice comes with strong evidence that shows it would not work. Everything says it will. The rest in in people's heads 😉

 

10 hours ago, gilsolomon said:

Will it affect the tone much? How stable would the neck be?

Mostly likely not. Just as stable.

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25 minutes ago, Prostheta said:

Exactly.

I'd also say that there's always a point at which things start to have an effect, and for the most part I think it's not a linear progression of suck when you go towards that line. That is, the reduction of the heel doesn't have huge effects until you start approaching that point at which its function and stability become an issue. Then things go downhill pretty quickly. Guitarists and builders seem hardwired with this paranoia that shaving a mm here will have a 10x reduction in mojo there, and that's rarely the case.

Threaded inserts are a great option for increasing mating pressure. It indirectly helps "tone" just by the nature of the strong clamping force between components, the stability and durability compared to wood screws.

Do it and ignore advice against progressing your idea unless that advice comes with strong evidence that shows it would not work. Everything says it will. The rest in in people's heads 😉

 

Mostly likely not. Just as stable.

Thank you !!!!

 

2 hours ago, Bizman62 said:

Everything affects the tone! The question is how much. Most often the change is insignificant.

If you're worrying about stability, using threaded inserts in the neck might help. Then again they may affect the tone as well, again so little it should not be audible.

You can also leave the base a bit larger like below. It would still be less bulky than the original and there would be space for rounding the bottom side without sacrificing bolting stability.

kuva.png.86b573c851805dd5baa559da264aeaa1.png

Thank you for the explanation and the suggestion which I would exercise :)

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