Philly Q

Fair point - there are lots of different types of inserts available, but it's tough to get exactly the right ones for hardwoods. Many are designed for plastics, softwood, chipboards, metals... I've not found anything suitable in my own local hardware shops. London is surprisingly useless for those kinds of local stores, I guess they've all been put out of business by the bigger places like B&Q etc (which are no good for anything specialised). You're right too about the metric vs. non-metric thing, but I came into this from a position of zero knowledge, and as I've been researching nearly all the info I've found has been on US sites - so I'm sort of "locked" onto the non-metric sizes which I know other people have used. I have searched generally for "threaded inserts" (and variants of that phrase) on UK/Euro sites but haven't had any luck. Out of interest, which metric sizes would work, and which ones do you use?

Hi, newbie here. I found this thread by accident because I was searching for info about the machine screw inserts on the new Malmsteen Strat. It's a subject I've been looking into for several months, because I found the neck holes on my Tele were badly misaligned (someone at Fender had an off day!) and I thought it might be tidier to use inserts than dowels. The main thing I've found is that it's very difficult to find suitable inserts or machine screws in the UK, and there are very few US suppliers who'll ship here! I managed to get brass E-Z Lok inserts like the ones pictured at the top of this thread from Woodcraft, and stainless steel machine screws from Jamestown Distributors (whose shipping costs are extortionate!). I really wanted stainless inserts, but no-one will sell them to me - McMaster Carr accepted my order then cancelled it, McFeelys wanted a $250 minimum order... So you guys in the US are lucky! Anyway, the inserts I ordered were the 10-24s. I tested then out on some scrap wood, and what I don't like is the sheer size of the insert - it requires a 3/8" pilot hole which gets dangerously close to the edge of the neck. I'm quite fearful that the maple will crack. So, I did a bit more research and found that Moses Graphite use 8-32 machine screws and brass inserts for their necks. And the 8-32 inserts only require a 1/4" pilot hole. So, off I went to Woodcraft and Jamestown again. 10-24 seems to be the favoured screw size for this application, but I can't see why 8-32 shouldn't work - the screw itself is as thick as a normal Fender neck screw and - happily - the 8-32 screw has a smaller head than the 10-24, which fits perfectly with a standard neckplate. I haven't actually gone ahead and fitted the inserts on my Tele yet - haven't had time (and I'm still hoping I might find stainless inserts somewhere) but I'm reasonably confident that the 8-32 brass inserts will work fine. Sorry for the long first post!