Warmoth's choice of wood screws for Contoured Neck Heel

oneleaf

Newbie
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I just got my first set of parts from Warmoth for a telecaster build. Pretty excited. Warmoth's customer service has been excellent!

I did notice their choice of neck screws for the contoured heel (2x long, 2x short) is a bit problematic though. Not sure if this problem is specific to the Tele neck heel or others are seeing the same thing.

The product description states it includes 2x 1.5-inch short screws and 2x 1.75 inch long screws. The long screws go towards the bridge and short screws go toward the head stock.

I just put on the neck plate, put the screws in and measured the length of the protrusion and discovered the following:
  • The short screws are actually 1.375-inch long, not 1.5-inch as stated in the description.
  • One of the 1.75-inch screws is perfect (bottom-right looking from the rear of the guitar)
  • One of the 1.375-inch long screws is perfect (top-left looking from the rear of the guitar)
  • The other 1.75-inch screw is too long and dangerously close to protruding from the fretboard. With the neckplate as installed, the tip of the screw would just be a hair below the fret board surface. This could potentially push out a fret or leave a bump. A 1.5-inch long screw would be perfect here.
  • The other 1.375-inch long screw is workable, but a 1.5-inch long screw would also be perfect here.

My final conclusion is that if you want all the screws to stick out at a uniform length and to have no danger of fretboard protrusion, there should be 3 sizes of screws:
  • 1x 1.75-inch
  • 2x 1.5-inch
  • 1x 1.375-inch

As such, I'll only be using 2 of the screws from the Warmoth set and buying a box of 1.5-inch oval head #8 wood screws from a big box store.

Curious if anyone else discovered the same? The 1.75-inch screw being too long for one of the screws seemed very dangerous for Warmoth to send unless I am missing something.
 
Hey oneleaf, welcome to the forum. What you're saying is technically true, but inconsequential IRL. I would guess the number of necks attached with that screw set probably numbers in the hundreds of thousands.
 
The Aaron said:
Hey oneleaf, welcome to the forum. What you're saying is technically true, but inconsequential IRL. I would guess the number of necks attached with that screw set probably numbers in the hundreds of thousands.

Thanks for the reply, Aaron! I might just be over-nervous with my first build looking at the length of that screw... good to know the set of screws has been working for others!
 
Yeah, Warmoth drills almost to the fretboard so this set works.

.. But I agree if you use another brand of neck with a Warmoth contoured heel body, you’ll find the longer treble side screw might have to be shortened...
 
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