Sculpting a heel on a body

[SonOfSobek]

I recently purchased a lot jr double cut style body to use with an old 1980s Kramer Pacer neck I had sitting around. The body doesn't have any holes drilled yet, which is good because the neck has been previously mounted on its original guitar. The issue I'm running into is that, currently, I've had little luck finding a neck plate that fits (the Kramer necks had 2" spacing on length, but narrower on width, for the screws) so I'm resigned to using ferrules for mounting it. My question is, I think these will fit, since the width of the holes is narrower, but, if I was going to do this, would it be reasonable to shape the heel to a more ergonomic shape than the traditional "block?" Since it's a double cut, and basically has both sides open, I don't want to take off too much wood, just "round" it up a bit. Anyone have experience with this?

 

[Hendrix]

not sure this post can help or not , I shape the heel to a more ergonomic shape, cut away more but not weaken the join.

https://www.unofficialwarmoth.com/index.php?topic=31564.0

after I shape it lower , also need to use recessed neck screw ferrules .

 

[SonOfSobek]

Very nice! Are you using the standard fender spacing on it, for the screws, though? My worry is that, with a 14 mm ferrule, I'll run out of room on the edge of the neck block? I've measured and, if I keep the spacing the size that it is and my neck block is the same width as the neck, I'll have about 2 mm of wood on the outside edge of the block left?

 

[rgand]

When I shaved the heel on my recent build, I gave it a 1/4" taper. I decided against inset ferules because of how close the holes were to the edge of the heel and so I rounded the edges that stuck our from under the neck plate and that did the trick. If you were careful, you could probably install ferules, though.

 

[bagman67]

You could drill out the existing screw holes in the neck and fill with a dowel or plug, then re-drill at standard Fender dimensions.

 

[SonOfSobek]

I'm really considering dowl/redrill right now. If I dowel the existing holes, after sizing it up to remove the "threads" in the hole, would that be sufficient? I've read that people advise to use a plug that has the wood grain in the correct direction, but if I'm relocating the screw holes to somewhere fresh on the neck, to do, say, a sculpted heel, would I NEED to have the grain correct with the dowels/plugs? I feel like filling them so that there's not a gap and using an undrilled area would fix this, right?

 

[bagman67]

I'm really considering dowl/redrill right now. If I dowel the existing holes, after sizing it up to remove the "threads" in the hole, would that be sufficient? I've read that people advise to use a plug that has the wood grain in the correct direction, but if I'm relocating the screw holes to somewhere fresh on the neck, to do, say, a sculpted heel, would I NEED to have the grain correct with the dowels/plugs? I feel like filling them so that there's not a gap and using an undrilled area would fix this, right?

If the new holes will not intersect with the dowels, it doesn't really matter.  As you surmise, the reason to use a plug with the correct grain orientation is to ensure that screw threads will bite and maximize the tightness of the joint. 


So yes, just clean up the old holes, dowel them, level the heel if any dowel protrudes, and then drill new holes.  You'll be fine.


Edit:
If your new holes will not overlap with the old ones, you technically don't even need to plug the old ones.  But it'll look cleaner if you do.

 

[rauchman]

I went this route.  Basically, traced out the Fender Elite / Deluxe neck plate, took a saw to the heel and went to town.  I'm going to go back at some point and reshape the neck area just forward of the neck heel to match the contour of the revised body neck heel.  Only downside to this is, if you're using a Warmoth neck, you can't use a Modern construction due to the side adjust truss rod adjustment.  I used a Vintage / Modern construction neck.

 

[Hendrix]

Very nice! Are you using the standard fender spacing on it, for the screws, though? My worry is that, with a 14 mm ferrule, I'll run out of room on the edge of the neck block? I've measured and, if I keep the spacing the size that it is and my neck block is the same width as the neck, I'll have about 2 mm of wood on the outside edge of the block left?

that why I use 12 mm ferrule for 4mm screw , it best balanced stability with out run out of room on the edge  of the neck block.

I finish edit a video how I did it

[youtube]QEIjb7JkiRM[/youtube]

 

[rauchman]

Very nice! Are you using the standard fender spacing on it, for the screws, though? My worry is that, with a 14 mm ferrule, I'll run out of room on the edge of the neck block? I've measured and, if I keep the spacing the size that it is and my neck block is the same width as the neck, I'll have about 2 mm of wood on the outside edge of the block left?

that why I use 12 mm ferrule for 4mm screw , it best balanced stability with out run out of room on the edge  of the neck block.

I finish edit a video how I did it

[youtube]QEIjb7JkiRM[/youtube]

Outstanding!