postal

Scarey, Scarey!!!!!! This is a fast way to trash a guitar. You really have to be patient, and plan this out right before you start cutting. Get some poster board, mechanical pencil, your bridge and a yardstick..... You need to draw out the side view with the bridge in hand, so you know how high it is to the top of the saddle. Draw a long straight line- that is the string..... below that, draw a parallel line for the fretboard, taking fret height and string height into account..... mark the nut and the scale length for the bridge placement, and measure the height of the bridge..... and viola.... you found the baseline for the bridge...... and you can change the amount of neck angle by shifting the point of where the neck/body join is..... Find a neckthru FAQ if that didnt make sense. It'll probably explain it a lot better.

Hmmm...... I'm a little scared of it moving a bit.... but I got about 5 necks to glue up in the next few weeks, I'll have to give it a try. Thanks. Postal!

I've seen one overly paranoid builder who did a laminated neck with some pieces scarfed, and some solid one piece... or you could alternate top scarf and bottom scarf which would offset the glue joints.... Personally, I think lam necks (at least 2 piece- pref 3 or more) with a top scarf is the way to go.... but there are many ways to do this.

Cool, but I put the joint on top, not underneath. Any tips for that? I've been doing the cut staple thing which works "ok", but in softer woods I still have some slippage, and there's always the risk of hitting the staple with a bladed tool....

I've seen custom shop maple top strats with matching maple pickgards. Tey are in the neighborhood of 1/8 thick. Maybe 1/10 thick.

There are extra holes that are to align the neck in different machines- CNC and other. Many fender basses have an extra hole on the backside of the headstock for this purpose as well- That bass hole is under a tuning machine, and has a wooden plug in it. There are some artist models that have extra holes because some repair guy somwhere drilled that hole in the origional artists guitar, and fender does it as part of the re-creation ala SRV --- whaddya mean that SRV costs more? shouldnt it be less? hell, it's a scratch and dent! --------ooops---- edit--------------- just reread the post- and it was regarding extra holes in the neck pocket---- not the neck itself....... Those are to screw the metal handle onto the neck pocket to hold the guitar while it's being painted. There is also the "micro tilt" models with the extra hole that goes all the way through the pocket.

Hotrods should be in a straight channel. Yes you can recess it just a little into the fretboard as long as you use a normal thick fretboard (1/4") not a thin fender board.... its a good idea to lube the threads of any truss rod with petroleum jelly (vaseline) to make sure the rod doesnt bind in the threads. To keep glue from getting into the rod, cover the rod and channel with 3/4 inch masking tape when you spread the glue. After the glue has been spread, pull the tape, and clamp the fretboard on. The tape should stop glue from getting to the rod- unless you flood the crap out of it..... There is no GOOD way to test the rod until the fretboard has been installed. If you place the rod in the channel without the fretboard and turn the nut, the rod will just pop out of the channel- On another forum, people agree that 100/1000" (1/10") is a good minimum under the rod- I've gone down to 55/1000" with a wenge/zebra neck without issue, but wenge is a lot stronger than many other neckwoods.

Dunlop is an industry standard- doesnt mean their the best, but they cant be that bad if fender and everyone else uses it. Try and avoid stew like the plague. You can find ANYTHING cheaper ANYWHERE else. Check LMI, grizzly, allparts, guitar parts, guitar fetish... anywhere but stew! They are your last - most expensive resort...

Dunlop sells wire in coils in the 50ish pounds.... They weigh the coils and mark the weight on the outside with a marker. I dunno if they sell wholesale only or not though. Sounds to me like your teacher who is ripping you off real bad, is using dunlop.