Attaching Warmoth neck to Non-Warmoth Body

[jlegnor]

What would be the most common/correct way to determine where to drill your neck screw holes on a non-Warmoth body, to mate up with a Warmoth neck without having to plug and redrill the neck?  My thinking would be to maybe take 4 neck screws, cut the heads off, use pliers to insert them part ways into the neck, then place the neck in the pocket on the body so the protruding screws would make indentions.  Anyone know of a more precise method?

 

[SeanM]

You could always measure the holes in the neck. Then transfer those to the body and drill small holes to start in-order to check accuracy.

 

[stubhead]

Calipers. If you're using them for comparative, real-life measurement, even the cheapest linear non-electronic ones will do, because you'd be transferring the measurement directly from body to neck. However - this doesn't take the proper alignment into effect. It's imperative (I doubt anyone will argue) that you hook up two sacrificial strings to tuners set in the outside tuning peg holes. At that point, poking a centerpunch or nail through the holes to make marks would work. If you use a nail, you want to make sure the point is at center. Make sure that if there's a pickguard, it's not pushing beyond the wood of the neck pocket.

The strings need to pass over the nut at the point that they'll be at in the final assembly, too. I'll go out on a limb here and say the neck holes should be just slightly farther towards the head stock than "perfect" - that way the neck will be pulling against the base of the neck pocket, not pulling against the screws. Slightly - like 1/64th"; at least that's what I do. Many bodies have holes so small the screws are really tight - that might be useful for the indents on the neck, but most people assembling these prefer to make the holes in the body large enough the screws pass through cleanly and only engage threads on the neck. Above all, you want to think about what your final assembly should be like - where everything needs to be, exactly.

 

[KainThornn]

Photocopy the heel of the neck, cut it out, and line it up with the neck pocket.

 

[jlegnor]

Thanks for the tips guys.  Don't have the body yet, just a future project I'm thinking about. 

Another way I thought of is to line the neck pocket with something thin, that would show the indention of the screw holes aready drilled into the neck heel.  Just something to give some kind of center point for me to drill.

 

[Watchie]

For what it's worth, it seems to me that you could follow either course (indentation or measurement), and then drill slightly oversized holes in the body to allow for any error.  Bear in mind that once assembled the screws will pull the body and neck together on a vertical plane, while the tension from the strings will pull the neck horizontally into the pocket.  Thus, the worse case would be to try to be too precise with the body holes and with any error not allow the horizontal fit into the pocket.  With slightly oversized both holes there will be enough play so as to allow the neck to "better fit."

Any one have thoughts to the contrary?

 

[stubhead]

Naw, that's pretty much why you have the body holes big enough - to let the string pull do it's thing. There's a little sustain/tone "trick" that I always think everyone knows, until I find out otherwise -

When you have the guitar all assembled and tuned up to pitch, slightly loosen all the neck screws, a quarter turn or so.  The strings will then YANK the neck into the tightest possible contact. Then re-tighten. Sometimes nothing happens, because the neck is already butted up hard in the pocket, in other cases there can be quite a pleasurable increase in tone & sustain.

P.S. EDIT - I got that trick from a "G&L" setup document that's floating around in PDF form - I'll try to find a link.

WHOOPIE!: http://www.guitarsbyleo.com/PICS/HOWTO/83ADJUST.JPG

 

[jlegnor]

Naw, that's pretty much why you have the body holes big enough - to let the string pull do it's thing. There's a little sustain/tone "trick" that I always think everyone knows, until I find out otherwise -

When you have the guitar all assembled and tuned up to pitch, slight loosen all the neck screws, a quarter turn or so.  The strings will then YANK the neck into the tightest possible contact. Then re-tighten. Sometimes nothing happens, because the neck is already butted up hard in the pocket, in other cases there can be quite a pleasurable increase in tone & all.

You know, of all the books I've read and internet searches I did when I built my first Warmoth, I never ran across this.  But that makes perfect sense to do that in any kind of setup procedure.  I mean, when thinking about it, even if it didn't make any kind of tonal difference I would assume it would create a more stable  setup.  Especially with floating trems. 

Thanks Stubhead and Watchie!

 

[Super Turbo Deluxe Custom]

I do that now per Stubby's suggestion, and if it moves enough to go out of tune when doing that, then it's time to re-intonate too because the scale length just shortened ever so slightly.

 

[Telenator]

Naw, that's pretty much why you have the body holes big enough - to let the string pull do it's thing. There's a little sustain/tone "trick" that I always think everyone knows, until I find out otherwise -

When you have the guitar all assembled and tuned up to pitch, slight loosen all the neck screws, a quarter turn or so.  The strings will then YANK the neck into the tightest possible contact. Then re-tighten. Sometimes nothing happens, because the neck is already butted up hard in the pocket, in other cases there can be quite a pleasurable increase in tone & all.

Awesome tip. It works very well.

When I install a neck, I go by the body holes. I'll plug the holes in the neck too if there are any.

I set the neck in the pocket and and then clamp it together.

Then I install the two E strings and adjust the neck to be as straight as possible while shoving the neck into the pocket towards the bridge.

Once it's all lined up, Tighten the clamp a little and then use the body holes as a guide to mark the neck holes.

Then I take the neck off and drill the correct size holes on a drill press.

The result is a neck the fits tightly in the pocket and aligns perfectly without the need for shims or adjustment.