Prostheta

I don't think anyone would buy it broken or half repaired, so it might have to be a case of writing it off or plain taking the plunge (no pun intended) and removing the fingerboard to rout in a new tenon. This is what I would propose - take off the fingerboard and.... Apologies for the weird choice of pic to demonstrate on....I couldn't immediately find anything with no fingerboard or a tenon!

Perry might tell you more about that one.... I use Perspex for my cavity covers, so clear won't be much more difficult to use as long as you spend a bit more time cleaning up and polishing the cut edges.

I would rout the pocket out. I think that no matter how far you recess the tenon into the body however, it will be the quality of the tenon joining to the neck as it's a pain of a place to work from. I would be hesitant to use a saw to remove wood as they can wander easily. I think that you might be better off enlisting the help of an experienced local luthier who can set a tenon deeper into the neck (under the fretboard I would have thought) and make sure it isn't altering the geometry of your instrument either. For what it's worth, I would consider that (if the instrument has significant personal or monetary value also!) to make sure the job is done perfectly.

Electro-Harmonix Black Finger for my bass rig.

It looks like a very short tenon to be honest - more like a bolt-on acoustic, but without the bolt! It would be feasible in that respect to enlarge the mortice and get rid of those (what look like) two pieces of wood stuck in there and drop the mortice back 1" towards the neck pickup cavity. You can make the tenon longer and more secure in that respect. The weakest point will be the tenon and the neck as it's an endgrain join, and a dowel will only help marginally IMO. I view dowels as being better for locating and helping make a better glueing joint as opposed to for their mechanical strength (which they do provide but not as much as a good clean join anyway!). Am I right in thinking that a dowel was located from the neck pickup cavity down into the tenon? It wasn't such a bad idea as it might seem, as the relatively small tenon looks like a bit of a weak design to me. Given the size (or lack of!) of the tenon, i'm surprised that the fingerboard hasn't started to seperate from the neck....the pressure seems as though it would have been applied where the fingerboard joins the neck....I would definitely be tempted to get the fingerboard removed and rout a tenon a 2"-3" deeper into the neck, and 1" deeper into the body. This is one of Ant Setchell's tenon pics: If you imagine that the tenon is a seperate piece, but extended into the neckan inch or two, that is your ideal world target but it depends on whether removing the fingerboard is more hassle than you're willing to put up with :-/ Best of luck - I hope whichever repair option you choose works. Any more pics of the bass?

Agreed - the dovetail tenon is a mess. A LOT of attention should be devoted to the cleanup however as you'll be dealing with a lot of endgrain, and good strong glueing between these sections is a must. The new tenon could possibly by recessed slightly into the heel to provide more security along with dowelling, but this will be a lot of awkward work. You have room to use a longer tenon under the fingerboard, so I would consider lengthening it a bit myself. It also looks like there was wood splinted into the pocket to make it a dovetail....I would take that out and make it into a wider straight "Gibson style" tenon. A perfect world solution would be to remove the fingerboard rout and splint a piece of wood into the top of the neck, extended out to be a long tenon. This would of course involve refinishing and headaches with the existing fretwork. Opinions?

I just realised that what I said was totally irrelevant unless your neck is made out of glue :-D As long as you have enough stable material under the rod slot, you're on a winner.

Well, most glue joins tend to be stronger than the wood so you should be in a much finer position than people without a glueline under the rod :-D

If it wasn't for the contouring on a Strat, you could cheat by getting it printed professionally and clearcoat the graphic....I suppose a vacuum bag might work depending on the flexibility of the medium you print it onto....probably not practical on a non-flat top instrument! Go for it - it's a great refreshing look to a trad Strat! Oh yes....reactions....test on scrap!

I believe that's what it is, as I bought it in the UK - I was wondering as to whether or not I should add any neck laminations for strength really (it's a solid finish project) and i've never worked with sycamore before, at least not knowingly :-D

Any information on stability, finishing and tone would be great appreciated - TIA.

It's possible that you're pulling the grain filler out of the fine pores by "scraping the heck out it". Do you apply with the grain, then level against it?

I have experienced that also. It turns out that it's a combination of guitar straps compressing my shoulder muscles, which in turn causes me to hunch up when typing at work. This stress and unnatural position means I ended up floating my wrists when typing, causing the cubital nerve to be compressed. Numb fingers ensued. I now practice sat down with the band, and only stand for "stage rehearsal" instead of writing and jamming. A good high-back chair that supports my shoulders helps too. A good friend practices the Bowen Technique which has released a lot of tensions and helped my body start repairing the damage also. Very cool.

'Twas also my first purchase, but I bought the drill press too :-D I had an issue with the grub which actuates the oscillating movement wearing it's threads out. Does the JET sander come with a complete breakdown diagram? I wish i'd maintained mine a little better, which I am doing now after a warranty repair on the actuating grub. A little lubrication is all that it took. (narf)

You could probably get that laser cut you know....it would be a challenge to do it by hand however :-D Where did you source your zebrano from? I'm having major trouble getting anything of a decent blank thickness in the UK!

Thanks everyone I was kind of thinking it was something like that, but Geo hypnomatised me into the spalt mindset! I would love to have some nicely "figured" limba for my wife's LP build, but given that zebrano is easier for us to get ahold of we've chosen that instead.

Whoa whoa whoa....pretty wood, but will the spalt hold up to the tensions of a neck build? I presume the central laminates are there to stabilise the neck. I hope this hasn't been previously covered in the Solidbody thread on this one :-D

Huh? You're putting the "finish" on your guitar. Not making it "Finnish" (one who comes from Finland). You'd make my Finnish wife proud Jon, if I wasn't already!

Yea, it's because I have to assemble them with left handed metric Cresent wrenches. LOL Otherwise they don't go around hills clockwise, etc....

Wow, a thin LP style....it's only a little thicker than most LP's maple caps! Very nice work there, shame you're not able to roadtest it. I'm starting to come around to the idea of thinner guitars since I bought my Ibanez S. My only final hurdle is that i'm a bassist and I couldn't justify a thin bass! Have you tried to increase the markup on those southpaw wheelbarrows yet, Bert?

I couldn't find any results either. I'm sure that i've seen them on sale somewhere....aaargh! I guess they'll appear once in a blue moon on eBay. Greg, your avatar is STILL giving the finger!

Surely it's the guitar being 1/4" out relative to the maple Perry? C'mon, we're talking fundamentals here! I've noticed the same thing about the "light-coloured mahogany" and the multiple pieceing to save on scrap. A good thing really, as it's better than wasting half a blank if you're mass producing!

Finish....

Sounds good to me. Ebony can take a great polish so prepare to spend lots of money on sandpaper! Another wood I would consider would be (wood wood wood) bloodwood. It seems as resilient as ebony and just looks that little bit different. Let us know how you get on!

I used the Stewmac rods for the first few builds, but have moved onto the LMI dual action rods which look basically the same as the Allied rods above. The only nag I have is the weld sometime needs a little sanding to clean it up, but overall a very nice low profile rod which is worth the extra cost for a great solid item. Hell, it's not like we have to put ten of them into one instrument, so a few dollars (or whatever) more doesn't hurt much :-D