Just got my first kit, the last of the RC-4's, and am excited to get started!
I'm pretty sure the first thing I should do is the neck and bridge positioning, so I have drawn a centreline and found the scale length to position the bridge, but the neck has quite a bit of slop in the joint. This can be remedied by a folded piece of cardboard, but not sure what I should do.
Here are some more pictures of each side of the joint.
Hi CS and welcome to the show!
Its a common issue for bolt ons and set necks. You've done the tough bit by aligning your neck to the body.
From the photos it looks like there is only a gap on the top side of the neck, and it appears to taper out into the bottom of the pocket? Is that correct?
What i'd do is see in you can get some plain maple or light coloured veneer and layer that into the pocket sides to take up that gap. You then adjust your shim with sand paper until you get a good snug neck fit all the way up that top side of the pocket.
How is your scale length with the neck in that position? On some of these kits the neck actually needs to go out a bit to get the scale length right as well, and that may have an influence on that gap.
FrankenLab
Hand crafting guitars, because Death Rays are expensive.
Thank you!
Yes, the gap seems to only be on the top as you described, and the strings line up ok when butted up against the bottom.
There aren't any holes for the bridge, I just clamped it down like the neck to put the strings on, so I don't think I will have to move the neck out as I can just move the bridge.
The join does get tighter as I move the neck out, but I have to move it pretty much all the way out.
Good stuff, the only other thing you'll nee to check with that is whether the fretboard end will interfere with the placement of your neck pickup mounting ring.Originally Posted by CSmith
i.e; https://www.buildyourownguitar.com.a...ght=Igor+blues
post #76 is where i had to "Adjust" the body end of the fretboard and neck heel to correct for the interference issue.
FrankenLab
Hand crafting guitars, because Death Rays are expensive.
I don't think that will be an issue on this kit as the pickup has to be installed on the pickguard, the route in the body is bigger than the holes on the pickup ring. The pickguard lines up just fine with neck all the way in as well.
Sweet, no worries then!
FrankenLab
Hand crafting guitars, because Death Rays are expensive.
Welcome CS.
Good advice from FW about the veneer. I keep a range of timber veneers in my shop and use it for lots of different repairs and shims. Very handy to have.
It's great you won't have to stuff around with the neck position and pickup mounting. I learnt that lesson the hard way. I shifted the neck to accommodate the pickup ring and was absolutely positive I would be fine on the scale length. But in the end, the intonation was just a bee's dick out and I just couldn't live with it, so ended up moving the bridge about 3mm. Intonates perfectly NOW!
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Welcome, my RC4 diary is here "RC-4 Stuarts project", it may help. The only issue I had was the poor design of the wiring that can cause no output in certain conditions.
Last edited by stuzl873213; 11-08-2019 at 01:28 AM.
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