TL-1; the "Ellie Tele"

[Bass Guy]

Slight disaster!

In my attempt to remove the neck two of the neck screw heads broke off, leaving no choice but to wrench the neck off violently. This has caused considerable damage to the heel joint and neck heel. Oops.

Undaunted however, because I want to shim the neck as I wasn't happy with the way it was seated. I will repair the heel joint, add the shim and reattach.

Will this be the first bolt-on set-neck Tele?

[MetalMatt]

Oh noes!!

[Gavin1393]

Ouch. Did you pre-drill the original holes for the screws?

[Bass Guy]

I did pre-drill, but I am guessing the bit was too small. The big hassle was how the screw heads sheared off... 8O

Ah well, I stand by DB's wise words.... There is always a way around these things.

[WeirdBits]

Quote from Bass Guy on June 15, 2013, 11:49
Slight [...]

"You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."

Ouch... talk about ruin your day. It's amazing how easily the screws can snap if they pinch even the slightest bit in the body holes. I've snapped one, so I know how you feel. In my case I was able to use a fine drill bit to drill around the broken screw in the body and get the neck out undamaged, then just plugged and redrilled the body. Sacrifice the body, save the neck... mine was unfinished, though, so I was lucky. It was my own fault for using different screws and trying to do something clever. Needless to say, I learnt my lesson: make sure the neck screws don't bind in the body.

Good luck with the repair... the bright side is: set neck = a touch more sustain for that tele twang!

[Bass Guy]

[/quote]

"You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means..."

[/quote]


Hahahahahaargh! Inconceivable!

[dingobass]

Wow...... I have seen lots of things go tits up but never seen that one before.
Nothing like a challenge

Neck pocket..The way to fix this is to rout out the damaged area and cut a filler block of the same timber, glue it in with Titebond and leave to fully cure overnight.

Neck.. Force Titebond into the crack and clamp it and leave overnight to cure.
Then drill and plug the screw holes and start again.

When drilling neck bolt holes, I drill the body holes the same size as the outside diameter of the screw.
The neck holes should be the diameter of the shank of the screw, measured from the inside pitch of the thread. Easy way to do this is to hold the drill bit and screw together and you will soon find the right size drill bit to use.

Another DB trick is to use a little bit of soap on the end of the screw to help it drive in without snapping.

[Gavin1393]

Or just measure the screw diameter multiply by 2/3 and use a drill bit that size.....

[Bass Guy]

Neck pocket filled with Timbermate and neck holes filled and crack packed and clamped. We'll wait for a week to see if it works....

[stan]

shame to see this happen- such a good looking build too.

hopefully your ingenuity pays off!

I'm going to use a similar method to repair the misplaced holes for my lefty ES and re drill them....