Chinese Gibson clone neck..... makes you wonder?

[Dave H]

you cut out part of my comment that I thought was material:

Indeed, that may be drastic to some people but it's not drastic to me. It all depends on your comfort level. I build guitars out of lumber. I have a complete wood shop and I know how to use it.

Sorry for over editing your post. I don't have a workshop. It would be too drastic for me to attempt to move a bridge working on the kitchen table. The old three bolt Strat I had came with the strings hanging off one side of the fretboard. It had enough slop in the neck pocket to easily allow the neck to be pushed over to line it up. In fact it had too much slop everywhere. Fender should have been ashamed. My favourite 'cheap' guitar is the Yamaha Pacifica. There's no problem with the fit and finish on those.

[olddawg]

I'm going to have to plane about a 1/4" or so off the back of the neck tenon I believe. It already fits together fine in the pocket.... just the fretboard is setting a bit to high. Also worried about routing it for the neck pickup. I don't know where and how the truss is anchored. Will clamp and set it up with monofilament fishing line before I glue it. Deciding if I will shave the heal too.

[bob p]

Fishing line -- great idea. I've been using colored thread.

[olddawg]

What glue do you recommend? I'm over hide glue...

[bob p]

Hide glue. Any glue made of polyvinyl acetate will creep and shift under tension. Bad for a guitar neck. With hide glue you can get it apart again when you need to reset it. Can't do that with PVA or epoxy.

https://www.google.com/search?q=pva+glue+creep

[Sowhat]

With hide glue you can get it apart again when you need to reset it. Can't do that with PVA or epoxy.

If you get the PVA or Epoxy up to around 150 degrees F or so it will let loose, just need to get it a little hotter. But I agree, PVA or Epoxy is not the glue to use for neck setting. Hide glue being nice and stinky is great and so is just plain old Titebond.

I remember Ben Crowe of Crimson Guitars was a big advocate of PVA for years until one day he pulled a fingerboard right off a neck with a little tug, he was quite embarrassed and was gratious enough to show his blunder in a Youtube video. Since then he has stopped using PVA and is back to using more traditional adhesives.

[Gnobuddy]

Any glue made of polyvinyl acetate will creep and shift under tension.

I learned that lesson the hard way. I built an electric guitar in my twenties out of necessity - I didn't have the money to buy one. It was built around the neck from a cracked (cheap) archtop acoustic guitar that a classmate gave me. I carved the end of the neck into a dovetail, and glued - with white PVA glue - into a piece of teak that formed the centre of my guitar body.

That joint continued to creep slowly for the next twenty-odd years, particularly in warm weather. I could move it back with slow pressure (weights, etc), but it would just start to creep out of place again as soon as I took the corrective pressure off.

-Gnobuddy

[bob p]

Dawg -- if you don't want to deal with hide glue, then the Fender bolt-on method is an option.

[olddawg]

So I’m finally getting back to my projects after some heath issues. My biggest problem now is having to remove a 1/4” off the bottom of the neck tenon where it faces the bottom of the neck pocket. It has to be accurate and level. I did have a buddy with a power planer but he’s evaporated. What’s the best way to do it by hand? A big sanding block and a lot of patience?

[Gnobuddy]

What’s the best way to do it by hand? A big sanding block and a lot of patience?

Oh geez, that sounds like one of the twelve labours of Hercules. I can't even begin to summon the patience needed to sandpaper away a quarter of an inch of hardwood.

Is it possible to saw a number of closely spaced parallel cuts, say 3/16" deep, into the bottom of the tenon, chisel off the wood, and then just sand down the remaining 1/16" till it's flat and level? I've used this technique a few times, but never on a guitar neck.

Even better, any chance of getting access to an end-mill? It will then be a matter of finding a way to clamp the neck, bottom-up, with the underside of the tenon level, and milling off that 1/4" in several small passes.

-Gnobuddy

[ric]

So I’m finally getting back to my projects after some heath issues. My biggest problem now is having to remove a 1/4” off the bottom of the neck tenon where it faces the bottom of the neck pocket. It has to be accurate and level. I did have a buddy with a power planer but he’s evaporated. What’s the best way to do it by hand? A big sanding block and a lot of patience?

Seems like a power planer would be a wild ride. How about putting the neck in a vise or workmate and using a belt sander? Watch both sides as you go.

[Chuck H]

I bought a strat and it wasn't quite as good. The bridge was located too far off to the treble side, such that the high E is too close to the edge of the fretboard and the low E is too far away. I've removed the bridge and pulled the LP-type bushings for the tremolo studs out of the guitar. I'm going to plug the two holes for the bridge bushings and drill two new holes to relocate the bridge 2mm toward the bass side. that should take care of the alignment problem.

Sometimes you can shift the neck in the pocket. Even if you need to do some shaving or plugging and drilling this is something to consider because the work would be invisible under the neck heel and screw plate. Because of the length of the neck a very small shift here can make a huge difference in string alignment at the heel. If your strings line up with the pickup poles this would be my first approach.

[olddawg]

Well. I have a mounted circular sander, an oscillating sander, and a block plane. I may have to find someone with a table saw (as mentioned earlier) and make a hundred passes.

[Gnobuddy]

I may have to find someone with a table saw (as mentioned earlier) and make a hundred passes.

If he/she has a dado blade ( CMT 6" Precision Dado Blade 230.020.06 - Mike's Tools ), you'll only need ten passes!

Also, this might be useful (though I'm not sure I would be brave enough to try it on a guitar tenon): Cut Big-Time Joints with a Small-Time Saw

-Gnobuddy

[John_H]

The mahogany isn't very hard. If I had to do it without any power tools, I'd scribe an accurate line around the perimeter, and sand it down.