Squire Strat neck replacement

[DarkMark]

Nice steam mop repurposing.

[Sonic Mountain]

Little bit more progress on this. The neck does appear to be drying out and shrinking down. It's definitely swelled as it doesn't fit in the pocket anymore. So I'll give it a couple more days. I've a feeling I'll have to do a little sanding on it regardless to get it back to how it should be.

Meanwhile, I've reinstalled the truss rod. Added an extra washer at the adjusting end to give me a couple more turns.

Also did a quick repurpose of one of my fret board disasters. I'll use this so that the clamping force is going onto the fretboard it'self not the frets. I'll have another thicker bit of flat wood between this and the clamps.

I also tidied up a few spots I mangled getting the board off, just down at the heel getting started was a bit messy. Little bit of sawdust and CA has sorted that.

[Sonic Mountain]

Nice steam mop repurposing.

It's turned out to be a very useful purchase for guitar stuff. You should see it take off finger board gunk.

[Sonic Mountain]

New dowel plug for the end of the truss rod in.



Skunk stripe in



Stripe trimmed, will finish sanding when I'm ready to do the finishing.




Fretboard glued on. Crossing all my fingers it's on straight, was a bit of a bugger to line up and clamp.

[Simon Barden]

Fretboard glued on. Crossing all my fingers it's on straight, was a bit of a bugger to line up and clamp.

If it's not, just say its a fan fret neck.

All good stuff.

[Sonic Mountain]

If it's not, just say its a fan fret neck.

All good stuff.

Hah, well good news, it seems OK. Bit messy but nothing a good clean up and refinish shouldn't sort out. I think its going to work.

Truss rod adjusts fine. Fingers crossed. I'll give it a good clean up and then assemble it to see how it goes before I spend any time on redoing the finish.

[Sonic Mountain]

Cleaned up and sanded to 320 grit. Not actually sure when I'll get to do the finishing, my ICU nurse wife is adamant I don't leave the house for any reason.

Anyway, I'm pretty happy with it. It's not 'factory perfect' but it is pretty tidy. There are some very small imperfections in the join, mostly from damage to the very outer edges during removal. Won't be noticeable once its finished. I've tidied the heel up, in the end there was probably less than .25 of a mm in difference. Just enough to not let it fit in the pocket. All good now.

I'm thinking I'll just leave the stripe natural at this stage. Enough contrast there for it to be apparent and a neat point of difference that tells a story I suppose.

Will fit it up later this arvo and do a set up. Then it'll just be waiting to see if it resumes its old tricks.







If you look carefully here you can see where I did some CA/sawdust to tidy up where the scraper got shoved in during removal.



Doesn't look it, but this is nice and flush.



Some discolouration - I had just wiped the dust off with a wet cloth

[Sonic Mountain]

To heck with it. Fitted, quick setup, plays fine. Lets see how it goes.

[Simon Barden]

Yes, no point carrying on with the finish if the neck is still going to keep losing its shape. It shouldn't do, but for the sake of a few days testing...

[Sonic Mountain]

My thoughts exactly. At the end of the day if it hasn't worked, I haven't lost anything but some time and some workshop consumables. It was an interesting exercise regardless of the outcome.

After seeing how the truss rod works in these, it's hard not to think the two way ones like I used in the Deluxester and what I think must be in the PBG necks are vastly superior.

It's still holding adjustment this morning. Will do some more fine tuning of the setup today and then just keep an eye on it.