So-Cal Strat Build, Woo Hoo!

[rudbobbins]

Hey all,

So glad I found this forum, just what I need. I started a new project for the year a week or so ago. To build a guitar similar to a Charvel So-Cal/Luxxtone. With my own spin on it of course. I've modded guitars and upgraded parts and refinished many times, but never started from bare wood to complete project. At this point all I have is an AllParts Alder body and a used Warmoth neck. The neck is amazing, but used none the less and will require a little finessing in the end.

All the gold hardware is the next pieces of the puzzle. I'm anxious, but not really in a huge hurry. The fun is in the journey! And in the end product too!

I do have a decision to make. The neck holes on the neck put it on the body with a small gap  so that it doesn't butt exactly/tightly against the body. My question, how hard is it to fill the holes on the neck and re-drill? I'm pretty handy with woodworking, but not sure the best and simplest method. Any tips?

Love that grain… Anyway, look forward to sharing my progress and calling on the wisdom of the group.

thanks,
rud

 

[crash]

I don't believe that is really from Warmoth.  You didn't post pictures of the box it came in like many people do.  :laughing7:

 

[rudbobbins]

It's used from EBay. I'm on a super-tight budget and feel honored to have gotten a truly awesome neck at an awesome price. I never claimed it was new from Warmoth. One day I will get a brand new one.

 

[stubhead]

There's a problem with filling neck holes with a dowel or dog-forbid, toothpicks - and that is, the grain of the dowel is going the long way, meaning the screw threads are then going to all be grabbing the same relatively-tiny sliver off the sides of the dowel. What the big boys (Dan Erlewine etc.) do is cut a plug of maple crosswise to the grain - usually a big one, too, 1/4". If it was mine, I'd sidestep the issue entirely and install threaded inserts. I do them exactly like this guy:
http://www.philtone.com/inserts.html

Cagey does them for customers, Mayfly's doing his own, Skuttlefunk's doing them on the basses he sells, there's a lot of information all over the web on them. It's actually kind of a new standard. If you can find/borrow a drill press or can drill really, really well - a long subject, especially if you're modifying existing misplaced holes - inserts would work great.

However, you do know that the screws are supposed to be free-turning through the body, right? Now IF you have a set of screws that fit the holes in that specific neck well - which can be a bugbear with used necks and at least a half-dozen different brands of "#8 wood screws" in the mix - and IF the neck's frets line up correctly with your upcoming bridge placement, when the neck is butted up solidly in the pocket - and IF your budget is ultra-tight - it would make the most sense to me to modify the holes in the body, not the neck. The body holes are just for alignment, the neck holes are for strength as well. I have a friend who still uses screws, but after he's run them into the neck holes, he removes them and dribbles a layer of the thinnest superglue down the sides of the holes. And after that dries overnight, he's got some pretty strong threading. You're in the right place, for sure, just have to think about stuff.

 

[Cagey]

Stubhead speaks the truth. I am the neck romancer. And as he says/implies - if a Warmoth neck is leaving any gaps, it's more likely your body holes are wrong than the neck holes, particularly if it's not a Warmoth or a perfect Fender body (and perfect Fender bodies are surprisingly more rare than you'd think or expect).

Depending on how far off the body holes are, you can open them up to relocate the neck. They're drilled for a clearance hole to accommodate a #8 woodscrew. Since it's a clearance hole, there's no need for the hole to be tight. The neck attachment is a "clamp" of the body between the neck and the neck plate - it's tightness has nothing to do with those holes. They could be a 1/4" in diameter and it wouldn't matter. What matters is how tightly the neck is held to the floor of the pocket. Threaded inserts and machine screws help more than usual in that case.

Be aware that if you open those holes up, you'll have to be more careful about mounting the neck. It'll be possible to put a side angle to it so the strings are too close to the edge of the fretboard on one side or the other, but that's easy to adjust out after the fact.

 

[rudbobbins]

Thanks to both of you. Terrific info and insight. It is only off about 1/16" or so. Seems like just enlarging the holes on the body just a bit should fix it. Is this possible without a drill press?  Seems doable.

A couple of other questions about my neck. It has a squared off end at the last fret. Most current ones are rounded. Can this help to date it?  Also, the headstock doesn't seem to be exactly like a Fender headstock. More rounded. Don't get me wrong, I love it. Just curious about its history.

-rud

 

[Cagey]

While a tight neck pocket is a Good Thing, it's not as important as tight connection to the pocket floor. That's the bulk of the connection to the body. So, unless there are cosmetic issues, I don't know how much I'd worry about it.

You're not clear about whether the end of the neck is square on the heel or the fretboard. If it's square on the heel, then it's a Telecaster neck and it won't fit properly in a Strat-style pocket. If it's square on the fretboard, it may be a short-scale conversion neck. In the first case, you got a problem. In the second, whether that's a problem is up to you. It's a scale issue that you may or may not be comfortable with.

 

[Cagey]

Edit: I just went back and looked at your pictures, and that's clearly a Strat neck heel so your improper fit is the body's fault. No surprise, coming from Allparts. They like to buy coal from the pacific rim and sell it as diamond in the US. I hate to disparage a supplier, but those guys are the worst. To pour salt in the wound, they charge the most. I don't know how they stay in business.

 

[stubhead]

Your neck will be fine. This picture shows two Strat necks and one Tele, ignore all the micro-tilt stuff:
http://www.warmoth.com/Guitar/Necks/NeckHeelMounting.aspx
The hardest part may be, I would recommend that you wait to do anything major until you have the actual bridge in hand. When Fender is fitting any 1997 Fender bridge to any 1997 Fender body and any 1997 Fender neck, it works without finagling because that's how they make their labor costs. But when you leap off this cliff, all you wanna do is fit that bridge and that neck and that body so it works. Your high E saddle needs to be 25 1/2" +1/16" from the nut and your low E saddle has to be that and maybe another 1/4" or so. Unless it's a conversion neck and you knock it back to 24 3/4"++, same diffie. Regardless, your bridge is going to pivot on the posts in those holes, and if there is any fidgeting to do, you're going to do it to fit that bridge location. There's nothing odd about having to a bit of shaving or adjusting stuff when you have parts from three different sources. And like Cagey said, if there's side to side movement in the neck pocket, that's almost nothing. You can shim the sides of the pocket if you want, but the standard Grade-A fix is to put a piece of window screen on the bottom flat of the pocket. Just make sure it's lined up before you tighten it because it's not going anywhere after that.

 

[Super Turbo Deluxe Custom]

Once upon a time before Warmoth offered a rounded fretboard end, their necks didn't come pre-drilled either.  I'm not 100%, but I think late 90s, early 00s was when they started rounding fretboard ends and drilling neck mounting holes.

 

[AutoBat]

They only round the fretboards on the licensed 25.5" scale necks.  Anything else gets the squared off fretboard.*

*at least for guitars, I haven't looked at bass necks enough to say.

 

[rudbobbins]

Aha. It doesn't say "Lic. By Fender" so it must be pre-1996. Warmoth signed their agreement with Fender in 1996. This explains the square fretboard end AND the close-but-not-quite headstock shape. Also might explains the not-perfect neck screw holes. I will now consider it a "Vintage" warmoth neck ;-)

 

[rudbobbins]

In a bit of a holding pattern as I build up some funds to acquire parts, so thought I'd quiz the group on aesthetic questions. I'm planning on doing all the hardware in gold (always wanted gold hardware). The pickguard will be an HH in mint green. Color of the body is the big question. reliced white? Sonic Blue? I'm open to ideas.

 

[alterbridgefan]

Aged sonic blue... Shmexy.

 

[bagman67]

I really like how Fiesta Red looks with gold hardware.  Sonic blue doesn't seem rich enough to hold its own against gold hardware, to me.


Bagman

 

[alterbridgefan]

I really like how Fiesta Red looks with gold hardware.  Sonic blue doesn't seem rich enough to hold its own against gold hardware, to me.


Bagman

Oh. Didn't see the part about gold hardware...  :doh:

 

[rudbobbins]

Thinking really hard about Fiesta Red. In fact, I worked up a quick mockup:

 

[rudbobbins]

Slowly making progress. Hardware installed for test fitting:

Tuners are Grovers, and the tremolo is from Guitarfetish. Next is disassembly and paint.

 

[swarfrat]

Ghost pickups?

 

[rudbobbins]

Hi-tech new Invisibuckers!