First Build - AG-1

[grantxx]

Great - all glued in and clamped, now to wait 24 hours

[McCreed]

Looking good Grant!

[grantxx]

Thanks mate

[grantxx]

I am getting close to finished, setting up strings / inntonation etc, but seems I have a poor glue join, I am getting some slight movement between the neck and body. Started with a creak and once tuned all strings I can move the neck ever so slightly.

Am think best fix is to add some screws and a plate, to firm it up - will order these or similar, however currently out of stock.

I do have an old squier strat amd thinking I might borrow these. I did buy this kit as I wanted a set neck

I this a new issue or have I missed a step somewhere when setting the neck, I used the PB supplied glue. It was clamped for over 24 hours, and I left it alone for about 4 days. I was thinking of pulling the neck off and resetting, but likely be back to same issue, I cant see what i could do different to make the joint stronger apart from using a better glue.

Thought anyone please.

[Simon Barden]

I suppose the question is whether the pocket floor and pocket heel were both flat, so you got maximum contact between the two. Sometimes, the tenon extension can curve upwards, giving a gap somewhere on the join that gives a weak glue area.

And I can see in the pictures that you left the finish off the neck pocket on the body, but I don’t know where you stopped with the finish on the neck itself. The further into the pocket area the finish goes, the weaker the joint will be (one reason why I prefer to glue my necks on before adding any finish, so I get the maximum glue area - important on a guitar like an SG with a small contact area). Wood glue sticks to the cellulose in the wood, so you need bare wood to bare wood. Glue on the finish is very weak.

I would certainly have a go at resetting the neck. You might see some cracks opening up already when you pull the neck. You could try steaming it over a pan of boiling water (it’s mainly the heat that weakens the glue, but the steam helps to carry that into cracks).

Then check for both mating surfaces being flat and being clear of finish. If you need to level a surface, then double check the neck angle afterwards.

I’ve always assumed that the glue Pit Bull supply is original Titebond (the red label one), but I’m now not 100% sure. So I would go and get some of that.

If you are really happy with the neck angle, you could use epoxy instead, as that will bridge small gaps with a strong bond that Titebond won’t. But you won’t be able to get the neck off again.

The problem with standard Fender-sized neck plates is that the hole spacing is too big (I think) to get all 4 screws into the thick part of the neck, so you’d need much shorter screws at the back, and probably shorter than normal screws at the front as the overall body+neck depth is less on an SG than say on a Strat.

[grantxx]

Hi Simon, yeah 99% certain I got everyting sitting nice and flush, in the heel, glue was squeezed out both front and rear at the heel. The fit side to side was not tight and slight side to side movement when at correct scale length.

I reckon as I have movement even though slight the glue joint wont be hard to break apart. As far as the neck and heel go pretty much all clear of any coating and just raw timber, was a little overlap less thn 10mm

Maybe dodgy batch of glue.

As far as the plate goes yeah would need shorter screws, particulaly at the back, the fronts would just hit the fret board at a guess, easy enough to get shorter screws. I think I shall pull the strings off and have a good look at it and solutions, very frustrating, so close to being finished.

[Simon Barden]

I know the feeling. It's often one step forward, two steps back if you want end up with a really good guitar.

What colour was the glue? Titebond is yellow-white,. Standard PVA is white, Titebond also do a liquid hide glue, which is good, but it doesn't have a long shelf-life, maybe 6 months from manufacture. That's a transparent brown colour.

[grantxx]

Got the neck off, glue was spread perfect through the pocvket on the body and zero penetrate on the neck - weird

Looking at the neck I reckon the problem is I had sanded the heel with 1200 with the rest of the neck, then taped it up to prevent any coating so the glue had very little to bond to as it was nice and smooth

The plan will be to rough it up both neck and pocket, use an epoxy just to assit the minute gaps in the edges, set it all up and clamp it again and x fingers I dont ever need to remove it.

Plan is use

[grantxx]

I know the feeling. It's often one step forward, two steps back if you want end up with a really good guitar.

What colour was the glue? Titebond is yellow-white,. Standard PVA is white, Titebond also do a liquid hide glue, which is good, but it doesn't have a long shelf-life, maybe 6 months from manufacture. That's a transparent brown colour.

The glue looks like titebond, is a creamy white colour,

I had just sorted the intonation on the low e, and a when she creaked again. so close, string height was great, oh well.

[Simon Barden]

Yes, probably too smooth a surface. 120 or 180 grit should do it on the bottom of the heel. Maple has less pores/crevices than the body wood, so you need to make it a bit rough.