bluesy

Ah, okay, makes more sense. I think instead of 'near miss' he meant 'close call'. Maybe they don't teach English in the frozen Canadian wasteland. Greg? As an Aussie, I'll defend his English Near miss means it nearly missed out on being long enough - but instead, it just made it!

I read that as saying the distance, as he described it, is 2" short of a string length, or IOW the string is 2" longer than that distance.

I found the same with Google. They are basically needle files. My needle files look identical, and the problem is that the thinnest needle file is too big for the small slots - hence why I had to use a thin saw blade. Maybe some locksmith key file sets have smaller needle files?

I just wanted to comment after using a spokeshave for the first time. I purchased a small, fairly cheap, Kunz spokeshave. It works fine, but is hard to set up as it has no micro-adjustments for the blade. I just finished my first neck, which I mostly shaped using this spokeshave. After shaving off two 45 degree chamfers down each side, from that point I was able to just whittle away at it until it felt right. I developed a technique for myself where I sat in a chair with the neck heel on the ground and the pegboard in my left hand. Using the spokeshave set for a shallow cut, and holding it with my right hand only, I found I could whittle away at the neck, slowly turning it using my left hand, and achieve a very smooth round surface. A great tool!

I will look into it too. Thanks.

I have just started making my own guitars, and I just finished my first neck. Most tools I have needed have been fairly cheap, but one simple thing seems to require a large expense. That is, making the nut. For some reason a set of nut files are quite expensive - getting up towards $100 locally. For the neck I just built, I used a premade nut, and adjusted the slots depths in a somewhat crude manner. For the finer slots, I used a 'junior' hacksaw which has a very thin blade, and I used some needle files for the larger slots. This seems to have worked well enough. So, how necessary is it to have the special nut files? Do others here use alternatives? Any suggestions on other/better ways to do slot nuts?

I purchased a pre-slotted and pre-radiused rosewood fingerboard for my first neck, and I have glued it to the neck, and routed it to shape. Before I start installing frets, I want to inlay some nice abalone dots I purchased. I want to offset them so they sit between my E and A strings. I intended to use a brad-point drill bit of the same diameter as the dots, to drill the holes for them (about 6mm in from the edge as per one of the tutorials). The only instructions I have found, discuss adding the dots before radiusing the board, thus the radiusing procedure reduces the wood down to the dots which are slightly recessed. As mine is already radiused I am hoping for suggestions on how to approach the job. My thoughts were to drill a much shallower hole, and to do it with a hand drill which I can hold at a slight angle to perpendicular to suit the curvature introduced by the radiusing. My aim would be to get the dot to sit very nearly flush so that only slight sanding would be required, and hence not change the radius much. Does this sound OK?

Would one of those "ashtray" type bridges from a Telecaster fit, and cover the holes for the TOM and it's posts?

I would imagine you would be approaching the same sound as no covers. Because it's a mesh, then there's no enclosed cavity to resonate, and if it's a light stiff material, intuitively I would expect the cover itself to "ring", if at all, at a frequency that's too high to be reproduced by the pickup.

or it might lend resonances to the setup. For example a wooden or metallic cover might ring at a particular frequency, or the cavity formed by the cover and the pickup hole might resonate at another.

Most pickups have SOME microphonics, and a cover would probably alter that part of the sound. Also, if you like to try to get very close to strings with the pickups, the magnetic pull will cause the strings to vibrate in a less circular way, more of an ellipse. This will change the harmonics (along with the obvious sound level change).

I like a light satin finish. That retains some of the feel that he likes, but helps protect the wood.

Sorry

I believe some metals can interfere with a magnetic field. A metal known as mu-metal was used in oscilloscopes to shield the beam from magnetic deflection. There may be other related metal alloys as well. here's a wikipedia reference http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mu-metal that said, it's not likely that someone will make pickup covers out of it

I understand that. However, it does become relevant when making a replacement neck to suit any pre-existing "standard" body. The distance from bridge saddle to the neck pocket is therefore already determined and fixed, therefore the neck length must be made to size so that the two measurements add up to the required 25.5" scale length. I didn't know either measurement, therefore I was asking what length to make the neck.

468 mm seems to be the answer. I think you are right that early 'casters had no overhang as well.

You are right, I was looking at the diagram not the text, and they have a discrepancy, because the dimension line for the 468.3 mm measurement goes all the way to the end of the fingerboard, clearly including the overhang. Then there's the 7.92 mm measurement shown at the bottom right of the next diagram. Oh well, I just have to fit the necks on a "by-project" basis. As RAI6 said, it seems that '"Standard" is a very vague thing in the guitar world, even for manufacturers like Fender.'

Lots of replies, I'll try and respond in one post. The link guitar101 left me is great. It shows 468.3mm overall, and in the second diagram it shows a measurement of 7.92mm for the overhang (I think, either that, or it's the distance to the pickup cavity - but that doesn't make sense). So that makes nut to heel distance 460.38 mm. Dpm99, by real, I meant one licenced or made by Fender, and to also address Mickguard's comment, yes, I can make it match any particular project, but I have a couple of different bodies and I thought that if I am going to make some necks, I might as well make one that is the same as the replacement Fender necks you can buy. I can't go entirely by the bodies I have because they aren't original Fender either, and might by different. If they are, I will abandon the idea of "standard" - but I needed that dimension in order to assess what would be best for me. RAI6, you mentioned the scale length not indicating the length of the neck. If you have a Fender style body that accepts Fender necks, the distance from the bridge saddles to the heel end of the neck pocket, plus the nut to heel distance of the neck itself, should end up being 25.5 inches shouldn't it? I am still learning, so I won't be upset if I am not understanding this. Dpm99, that Tele sounds very nice. Teles are my favourite Fender. Coincidentally, I was watching a show about guitars on TV recently, and one guy was showing off a very early Broadcaster. It was a bit worn and rusty, and coloured a nasty butterscotch shade, but still impressive, especially when he mentioned that they sell for tens of thousands of dollars!

I am making a neck myself - more for the pleasure of saying I did it (because it's cheaper to buy a ready-made neck), but I wanted it to conform to the "standard" neck dimensions of a replacement neck for Fender Telecasters. So, I have a 25.5" scale rosewood fingerboard, and I wanted to know the distance from the bridge end of the heel to the bridge side of the nut slot, so I can place it accurately on the neck. That seems to me to be the critical dimension, as the heel of the neck pocket on the body to the bridge saddles , must be some "standard" distance from the bridge, thus producing the 25.5" scale length (within the saddle adjustment range). I found a mention of the overall length from nut to end of fingerboard of 18 7/16" (468.3mm) but I am not sure how much of that is the fingerboard overhang.

Since we are discussing glues, I might mention that I have been told white PVA glues (not yellow like Titebond), as well as weakening at lower temperatures than the yellow, also have an age limitation. 10 years was quoted as the longest they might last before deteriorating. I am talking about the dried glue in a wood joint - not storage time in the bottle. This would be a worry as guitars should last a lot longer than 10 years

Good news. Sounds like a bottle was rattly, and maybe a dry joint or too.

Just to close this off... I removed the bushing - not a mark on the guitar that wasn't already there and managed to drill straight through from the jack hole to the bushing hole. I used a solid single core wire, laying it into one of the grooves in the side of the bushing (after scraping away some of the black paint for good contact). The bushing was still tight when reseating it - probably because of the extra width of the wire, but mostly because it came out neatly to start with. Lotsa thanks everyone, you helped me to do the job the right way!

Agreed, but I didn't know for sure that original Fender necks were tapered, AND when you see diagrams like this on web pages, it can be ambiguous. Thanks for the verification fellas.

Thanks. I was going to reply asking for clarification on exactly what a washcoat was, but I see my question has been answered by your reply and the others before it. That's guys, I will experiment on a test piece of wood. I like the idea of hardening the surface against dents too...

I know the standard dimensions quoted are 3" x 2 3/16", but on a couple of necks I have measured, the heel is actually tapered. It's as if the neck is manufactured to be 2 3/16 (55.5mm) at the butt end, and have a straight line taper to the nut where the width is about 43mm. In other words, the neck, 3" from the butt end, is actually a few millimetres smaller than the 2 3/16" (55.5mm) as specified. Sorry for the mixed measurements - I like to deal in millimetres, but as Fender uses inches, I tried to make it clearer by supplying both where needed.