Neck doesn't 100% fit, what to do?

[JamesB606]

I had a go at trying to fit the neck into the body.
Was incredibly snug and actually caused a bit of wear and tear.
I'm not too fussed with it as long as it wont affect tone or playability.
Took some photos to show.




I was also wondering, in regards to sanding the sides down to fit the neck, how do I tackle the binding (see picture)? Is it best to cut it with a box cutter, or will sanding it back as well be fine?

[JamesB606]

Suggest wrapping some masking tape around the bridge posts so that they sit firm in the pre drilled holes then you can place the bridge on top..... 27" scale length should be from mid point of high E bridge saddle to inner side of nut on treble side. Once you have this lined up suggest marking around neck heel with a pencil where it overlaps on the body so that you know where to enlarge neck pocket to make things fit.

Doesn't look like any fret board overhang and wondering if you will be using a scratch plate or going naked with just a pickup ring around neck pickup? If the latter then level of precision with enlarging neck pocket becomes extremely important. Either way, slow and steady with frequent checking is best way to tackle this. Hope you have a sharp chisel. Understand you may be tempted to use power tools as that will be quicker but doing things by hand may prevent digging in a bit too far beyond the finish line so to speak.

Yeah dont have any power tools so by hand is how its going to go!

I will be using a pickguard but from what I can see its only going to cover the bottom right corner of the pickup. Guess I'll have to be careful anyway.

Will I need to chisel it? From what I've read most people are saying sanding the left and right side of the socket should do... what do you reckon?

[wazkelly]

Presume you will be using this pickguard?


Doesn't do much around neck pocket area as it looks like there are black pickup mounting rings.

From those shots it doesn't look too bad, just a wee bit tight and sanding either sides should be all you need to do. If it required a few mm widening that is where a chisel comes in handy. Wrapping sandpaper around a rectangular shaped pencil eraser may help to keep things square.

Still reckon you need to temporarily install bridge as mentioned before and also install the high & low E tuners so you can run some cotton or fishing line over the nut and down to bridge saddles. This helps to see how parallel everything is and whether neck is sitting too far to one side or the other. Very handy to know so that you don't sand too much on one particular side when the other may need more attention. This also helps with locating the 'Centreline' of the guitar too.

[JamesB606]

Presume you will be using this pickguard?


Doesn't do much around neck pocket area as it looks like there are black pickup mounting rings.

From those shots it doesn't look too bad, just a wee bit tight and sanding either sides should be all you need to do. If it required a few mm widening that is where a chisel comes in handy. Wrapping sandpaper around a rectangular shaped pencil eraser may help to keep things square.

Still reckon you need to temporarily install bridge as mentioned before and also install the high & low E tuners so you can run some cotton or fishing line over the nut and down to bridge saddles. This helps to see how parallel everything is and whether neck is sitting too far to one side or the other. Very handy to know so that you don't sand too much on one particular side when the other may need more attention. This also helps with locating the 'Centreline' of the guitar too.

My only concern with the bridge is its a bigsby so I'll need to drive her into the body. I suppose though measuring the scale length will help me determine where to put the bridge in?

I had a crack at sanding the sides down today. SLIGHT improvement but it still feels a little off, doesn't seem to sit down where it needs to.

Here's some photos after my sanding.
The concern is it doesn't seem to sit super flat, and theres some gaps around the bottom side (closest to neck humbucker) of the socket/neck.

[JamesB606]

Had a chat with some people and I reckon this is as good as its going to get!

Follow the rest of the build here

http://www.buildyourownguitar.com.au...566#post173566