First Build RCA-4

[Trebbble]

Hi All,
This is my first kit guitar build so I am sure I will have lots of questions.
I am starting with a RCA-4. It arrived in post today. One corner of box was pretty destroyed but all contents look OK.
Intend to do a mock build this Saturday to check all is good.
First question for those that have gone before..
1. How far in does the set neck go into the body.
I've searched the forums and but could find no definitive answer. Some said all the way some said not all the way...
There was no answer on the build instruction link in the guides section either.
Cheers
Trev

[Trebbble]

The video for attaching a glued in neck doesn't appear to work in the guide section

[FrankenWashie]

Hi All,
This is my first kit guitar build so I am sure I will have lots of questions.
I am starting with a RCA-4. It arrived in post today. One corner of box was pretty destroyed but all contents look OK.
Intend to do a mock build this Saturday to check all is good.
First question for those that have gone before..
1. How far in does the set neck go into the body.
I've searched the forums and but could find no definitive answer. Some said all the way some said not all the way...
There was no answer on the build instruction link in the guides section either.
Cheers
Trev

Hi Trev, you need to check the the overall working length against the position of your bridge. This will determine how deep into the pocket your neck will sit.
How does your scale length measure up?

[Andyxlh]

The bridge can be positioned in a variety of positions at the back end of the rca body, there's plenty of length in the body to locate it. It's probably most important that you have the maximum timber contact in the neck joint first. This will make the neck join strongest, so put it all the way in. Then you can do the scale length to locate the bridge.
The neck pocket is quite small on the rca kits. Make sure you get plenty of glue in the joint and along the sides of the tongue too to make a really strong joint when you glue it in.
Make sure you use the pbg glue (titebond) for the joint, and clamp it for 24 hours with a g clamp. Don't use pva!
Check the position of the scratchplate before gluing.
Also the rca kits don't have a lot of neck tilt to allow for action lowering. I'm going to recess the body to drop the bridge into the body to fix this, but the stock bridge which comes with the kit might be ok, I used a different one.
There's a link to my build diary of the rca in the signature below

[Trebbble]

thanks all.
I thought it would have to do with making sure the bridge would sit with the neck scale for correct tuning. Also ensuring the scratch plate doesn't look out of place as it matches the curve of the body.
Again thanks for advice

[Andyxlh]

Yes it is vital the bridge is positioned correctly, and there's plenty of space for that. The scratch plate is less of an issue, but worth checking.