Rev's MK-2 Build

[Rev]

Banged the tailpiece ferrules in with their ground wire, then shoved the neck in the pocket and attached one string to check the alignment and fit again. Still not totally sold on the neck pocket, its just a wee bit too tight in one corner and cant be pressed in all the way for a solid base measurement, but I can fix that in due time if needed. On this test fit I could fret all but the bottom three notes cleanly, so that tells me Im not too far off the mark.

[wokkaboy]

Hey Rev, sounds good. Sand the side of the neck heel that is tight, it's important the neck is flush on all edges of the pocket when you drill the screws. A one string test isn't a test, you will need to have it tuned with 6 strings to know how the strings and frets sound.
Just make sure your nut slots are low enough for the strings to touch the zero fret but worry about this when its all assembled and tuned up to test

[Rev]

Its probably that "hump" on the side of the pocket that I noticed earlier. Thought I had good clearance on it now, but the finish has probably accentuated the bulge, even though I had reduced it earlier. No big deal to get in there and find it, though.

[Rev]

After checking it with a straight edge, it appears that vertically, the pocket was slightly convex shaped. Ive mostly fixed that now. Still snug, just sits flatter now. Theres still a slightly wider gap on the high side that bugs me... guess Id better shape the heel just a little more.

[Rev]

Not that I recommend this or anything, but IIRC, didnt vintage Mosrites lack neck bolts? Just held together by string tension, I believe.

[wokkaboy]

Hey Rev, I very much doubt string tension would hold a neck in place without neck screws. The string tension would lift it out of the pocket.
Maybe the vintage ones had less than 4 neck screws. You would at least need 2 screws at the nut end of the pocket

[Simon Barden]

As far as I can make out from searching the web, they had 4-screw bolt-on necks. The necks actually had a tenon to them and the inner pair of screws went through the tenon, so were shorter and so not as strong as 4 longer screws would be.

Some of the Japanese versions compounded this by having very thin bodies, which weren't strong enough to sustain neck attachment if the headstock suffered a strong knock.

[Rev]

Seems to me I read that somewhere, that the neck and bridge werent mounted and as a result, you had to change strings three at a time if you didnt want the guitar to fall apart in your lap. May be apocryphal or perhaps a different guitar type. Either way, no, I am not doing that with this one

Trying to complete the wiring today, just three or four connections left to make now that Ive finished shielding and bridge install.

[Rev]

Wiring complete and checks OK. Both pickups are working.

[Simon Barden]

Seems to me I read that somewhere, that the neck and bridge werent mounted and as a result, you had to change strings three at a time if you didnt want the guitar to fall apart in your lap. May be apocryphal or perhaps a different guitar type. Either way, no, I am not doing that with this one

I saw pictures of a hollow or semi-acoustic Mosrite that had a tongue and groove neck fixing. Maybe it was that one. Maybe they should have glued the neck on but forgot. I think the Jazzmaster bridge falls out if you remove all the strings, so maybe it had something like that.