neck pocket too big???

[RMTROTTER]

gday, im a bit confused, ive received a EXA kit and to clarify I haven't done anything at all to start, ive test fitted parts and im worried there might be a problem with the size of the neck fitting into the neck pocket it has quite a bit of wiggle room, though the papers inside the box state 'not to worry if there is a bit of wiggle room as this will be needed when attaching the neck', however the amount of wiggle room on this one seems a bit excessive. to clarify it will wiggle left to right a tiny bit creating a gap around the edges of the neck pocket.

I want to attach the neck first thing and then sand it all as one piece so I can smooth out the neck joint area, as in no step, line or gap at all in between the neck wood and body wood.

I know I cant just fill it as I want to use the Dingotone Coolangatta gold on it and obviously don't want to see filler putty or anything on it.

it could be a dumb question this is my first build.

any thought would be appreciated.

[pablopepper]

No such thing as a dumb question.

The glue needs surface area to bond, the more surface area the better. If you go modifying the neck pocket area in the way I think you're talking about, you could end up with a very unstable neck.

To get a better fit on my EX neck, I used wood veneer and glued a piece on either side of the pocket.

like this.

[wokkaboy]

Hi RM, there is usally a bit of wiggle room on kits with a TOM bridge so you can line up the outside string offsets.
Usually glue will fill the gaps, if the gap is 1mm or more you may need to glue a thin veneer to each side of the neck pocket usually the best idea.
Can you please post a photo or let us know how big the gap is when the neck pushed to one side ?

[RMTROTTER]

cheers for the help it all makes more sense now
with the neck pushed to one side the gap is quite small like half a millimetre, attaching the veneer looks like the best idea should it become necessary but probably not. seems like the wiggle room I thought was excessive was not.
I think ive got a rough idea but what does 'outside string offsets' mean?

[wokkaboy]

Hi RM, half a mm gap you will find glue will fill that gap.
Outside string offset I mean the distance from both E strings to edge of fingerboard are fairly even. As the bridge position is fixed in this kit a bit of wiggle room will let you get these offsets equal.
when you do glue the set neck make sure you install bridge, E tuners and both E strings to line it up and clamp for at least 24 hours

[RMTROTTER]

makes sense to me ill do that, fitting the bridge and high and low e tuners to test this is exactly what I was thinking
thanks a lot for all the advice, cant wait to get started.

[wokkaboy]

no worries RM, with a set neck it's important to get the neck alignment right first time !

Get some spinach into you for all the sanding you got coming up, need big forearms for that !

[RMTROTTER]

haha yeah, cheers!