Esquire-esque

[EsquireEsque]

Well, after much to-ing and fro-ing, and quite possibly far too much measurement, I've routed the neck socket.



I understand that the neck is supposed to be about 3mm higher than the body (that is the fretboard plus 3mm of the neck itself) - and I seem to have routed a trench 1mm too deep.

I have a back-up though - i'm going to use a "thicknesser" to take 3mm off the body and put a board on the top and then machine it down so that the board is 1 to 2 mm thick and the body is 1mm thinner than it is now.
I originally thought to do this so I'd not have to find a long enough drill bit to drill the channel between the control plate trench and the pickup rout (I can simply rout a connection and then put the top on it - makes it easier to put the shielding in too).

[fender3x]

...I understand that the neck is supposed to be about 3mm higher than the body (that is the fretboard plus 3mm of the neck itself) - and I seem to have routed a trench 1mm too deep...

That seems like a lot of trouble to go to for 1-2 mm.

#1: Before fixing the problem it would be prudent to established that it is a problem ;-) To wit: I would suggest dry fitting the neck in the pocket, putting bridge in place, and seeing if you can get it into proper adjustment. If you can, declare victory ;-)

#2: If you can't adjust the saddles down far enough, either shim the neck, or sand off one or two mm from the bottom of the blank--or run your thicknesser on the blank to take off an 1-2 mm. Wouldn't that be simpler than than taking off 3 mm and laminating a 1-2 mm top onto it?

I would only put a whole new top on if you want it for aesthetic reasons. Push comes to shove, it's much easier to get a good solid glue up when you are gluing a piece into the neck pocket than it is to laminate a piece onto the entire top.

I don't think screws are an issue. If the screws are just one or two mm too long, you can simply take a mm or two off the point of the screw. The point doesn't need to be sharp ;-)

[EsquireEsque]

.... actually - I've found that the paper plans that I was using as a guide (pasted onto the body blank) had lifted - and the neck is actually exactly 3mm above the body.

I've mostly taken the paper off the body and noted where things will probably go.





So now I reassess whether to use a top (and the additional shielding and chambering) given that this is my first try.....