Hello! I am Rockchimp, from Green Bay, Wisconsin, where the streets are paved with cheese and most of the women say "moo"! I perform as Ike Arumba and my band is Ike Arumba and the Infidels. I just got my short scale bass kit. I quickly noticed the very bottom of the neck is almost 1/8 of an inch wider than the slot in the guitar body that it does not fit in. Yikes? I look forward to digging deeper into the issue by watching the tutorials and maybe getting input from others. I hope it is no big deal. I look forward to this project and maybe making some new friends. Check out my music if you dare!
fender3X, Thanks for the mentoring! The short scale bass model is AGB-30. (Updated upon further examination and deliberation)- The neck is too wide if I try to insert it from the top down, so to speak, like my second pic shows, that's the +/- 1/8 inch too wide thing-but as my first pic shows I can get it to fit if I rock it in from further into the slot in the body, but it cannot be pushed outward enough to avoid conflict with where the pickup would be, This means something is not square. Normal? But sanding does not seem such an extreme option now that I have it more figured out. I see the advice not to sand the neck, and to sand the sides (not bottom) of the slot in the guitar body instead - I assume equally on both sides if possible- does that seem sensible?
I have only done one of these. It should fit snugly, but if the neck is too wide you don't want to force it.
Sometimes the slots are slightly trapezoidal. If that's the case, instead of trying to slide the neck in, you might be able to put the heel of the neck to where it touches the bridge side of the pickup cavity and drop it in. If that doesn't work, then you'll need to sand the neck with a block...but just enough so that it drops in from the top. The joints are made to be tight, and erring on the side of slightly wide is better than slightly not-big-enough.
Thanks fender3X! Yes indeed it is slightly trapazoidal! This is my first build and I am pleased to have the advice! It appears that my revised information and second pic were sent just after your response, which is still dead on!
Holy crap fender3X I just figured something out- the tab on the base of the neck that fits into the guitar body slot does NOT conflict with the pickup because the pickup goes over it. Now that I did some sanding when I may not have needed to, I'll figure out where the neck sits and see if the slot in the body is too wide and sloppy for a proper installation. Good thing the kit did not cost much...I may have screwed up big time! I guess I'll let you know if I blew it when I get the proper final neck position figured out.
fender3X - sure enough, I fucked it up. Here's a pic(2nd one) of how the neck is supposed to sit in the slot,which is pretty much where the neck would sit for proper scale. the pickup goes over the end part of the neck that goes into the body slot. It is NOT a conflict, I was wrong from the start about that. Now that I have sanded the slot the neck fit is too sloppy. If I pull the neck outward until it is tight then the distance from nut to bridge is too long - well over 31 inches for a 30 and 1/2 inch scale. Any advice?
Here in Miami there is a saying "Estas cosa suelen pasar en las mejores familias" (these things tend to happen in the best of families). Not an uncommon problem to get a bit aggressive with the sanding...or to just have a little slop in joint.
It's fixable. What you will need is some veneer. Laminate it onto the sides where you sanded away too much material. You can build it back up to where it needs to be. I got this from Simon, and have used it a bunch of times.
fender3X-I got an even better solution! Pit Bull sent me a spare body they had laying around! And it is a perfect fit! And pit bull only charged me shipping! That is most excellent customer service, and this time around I will try hard not to screw up!
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