Angled screws for neck pocket

[Heavy Rock]

Has anyone tried this? Does it make a difference, or the tension of the strings is enough to pull the body and neck together?

 

[Hodgo]

Has anyone tried this? Does it make a difference, or the tension of the strings is enough to pull the body and neck together?

If you loosen the screws on a bolt on guitar while under tension you will feel the strings pulling the neck out of the pocket. This design is certainly overkill / marketing, as you would want the angled screws to be angled the opposite way to ideally counteract that force.

But if Keefer can smack a man with his Tele and keep playing in tune, four screws is probably all you need. Heck, 70s Fenders had three and Danelectros sometimes had two, and they were fine.

 

[Heavy Rock]

If you loosen the screws on a bolt on guitar while under tension you will feel the strings pulling the neck out of the pocket. This design is certainly overkill / marketing, as you would want the angled screws to be angled the opposite way to ideally counteract that force.

But if Keefer can smack a man with his Tele and keep playing in tune, four screws is probably all you need. Heck, 70s Fenders had three and Danelectros sometimes had two, and they were fine.

Yeah exactly what I was thinking too, and also pulling the heel from two different directions (vertically and angled), puts unnecessary stress on the wood in that area. Like asking to split it.

 

[NedRyerson]

This screams "solution looking for a problem."

 

[Heavy Rock]

This screams "solution looking for a problem."

True!

 

[Bassistlaw]

It’s been around over a decade and it works…here’s why…

 

[NedRyerson]

If one plays like Billy Sheehan, that's great, but as he even said around 2:00, most players don't need that.

 

[PFDarkside]

Other than EVH jumping off of risers, does anyone else find an issue with the stability of a standard 4 bolt joint on a guitar?

 

[teleme01]

I'm 64, jumping is so last century

 

[indrajeet]

Make a shim to angle the neck to where it should be. This is done using a plane. I don't know of any that you can buy to shim that direction, but you could cut down regular neck shims and use them sideways.

Route the entire neck pocket to the depth of the deepest side. Double check to make sure the fretboard won't hit the body. A small template bit and trim router would take care of it in no time.

 

[Wolfie351]

I've got an 11lb LPC hanging by two little drywall screws (into a stud) on my wall hanger

 

[Hodgo]

I've got an 11lb LPC hanging by two little drywall screws (into a stud) on my wall hanger

Drywall screws into a stud? Sir, we have standards here…

And to be fair the string tension on a guitar is much, much higher than 11lbs

 

[aarontunes]

It’s been around over a decade and it works…here’s why…

This was my first thought as well.

 

[Hodgo]

I mean if you really wanna get weird with it why even have multiple screws instead of a few alignment dowels and a single screw for quicker breakdowns?

This is all looking at making a bolt on neck have torsional rigidity in a pocket that may or may not fit - there’s a lot of ways to skin that cat that don’t involve more wood screws.

I’ve even seen attempts at using rifle bedding compounds to make insanely snug pockets.

 

[Hodgo]

Last thought: this is a blend of the of economical manufacturing processes of the 50s with the repeatable accuracy of modern CNC. Leo used 4 screws and a squared neck pocket because it was a simple solution that cut down on the manual work required for fitting set neck tenons.

Modifying the Fender neck pocket with more screws is like seam welding a 1957 Bel Air frame. Yeah, slightly more rigid, but not addressing any of the key geometry issues with the suspension.

 

[NedRyerson]

This reminds me of the case modding trend of the '90s - '00s (which I admittedly participated in, because it was fun -- much like building custom guitars!). The more fans you had in the case of your computer, and especially with colorful LEDs, the more bad-ass the mod project.

Who cares if it didn't actually improve performance? We're talking fans! With LEDs!

Oh, and custom fan grills, too. Can't forget those.

 

[Rick]

The computer I have at home has those blinkly lights, goes thru the colors of the rainbow, and a glass panel. It's really cool looking. I set it to be just a blue light though. 5 years ago, it was really advanced, made by a kid over at RPI. Those kids are geniuses. Now, I guess it's just average, but I think I'm good for another 5 years.