Neck doesn't fit body

[badgermark]

So i'm building a strat from parts. I picked up a squier body from ebay, and a no name neck with a 57mm heel. The neck doesn't fit. The body heel is around 56mm, and looks around 1mm out anyway. The mounting holes line up perfectly though, body and neck and neck plate. Woo!

Question is do i sand down the neck heel? Which side do i do, lower or upper horn side? Anything i should look out for? Or just get a sanding block and make it a tight fit?

[FernandoDuarte]

UPPER HORN!!!! Yes, sand it is a way to get it right...
You would have to look to make it square to the pocket...
You could route it with a dremel or bench "router", but I believe it's easier to screw up things, I would not try it if you're begging woodworking... If you have experience, will be faster...

This is what I would do, probably, perhaps the Mr Profs: Jonathan and Wez can make better hints!

[WezV]

dont touch the neck - that will throw off the taper of the fretboard and is more hassle than its worth.... enlarge the pocket in the body by .5mm on each side.... if its got a thick finish in the pocket you may find removing that gets you most of the way

[FernandoDuarte]

Mr Wez is right! took only from upper horn would take it away from the centre  :oops:

[FELINEGUITARS]

Dont alter neck - only leads to trouble
Where you remove wood on body depends upon how central the neck lies
Take the pickguard off first
I would attach a high E and a Low E and position the neck over the body so that the strings are even on both the treble and bass sides of the fingerboard - obviously the strings will only be tight enough so you can get a straight line going from the nut to the bridge on both sides.
Once you have the neck lined up draw carefully down the side of the heel onto the body to show you where to cut (you may need masking tape on the body to draw on)
Get busy with either a router or a chisel/file - and take your time to get it right (avoid rushing)

[badgermark]

Thanks guys. I was thinking of taking the neck down half a mm on each side, but shall get attacking (slowly!) the body. My biggest worry with doing this was that there isn't a lot of wood on the lower horn side of the neck pocket, shall be super careful when setting about it with a block of sandpaper.

I need a router, can anyone recommend a small handheld jobbbie? Like is there a Dremel multitool thingy that would work for jobs like this?

[Philly Q]

I need a router, can anyone recommend a small handheld jobbbie? Like is there a Dremel multitool thingy that would work for jobs like this?

You can get router bits for Dremels, but I think you'd be better off with a proper router with a flat base and two handles to control it properly (maybe you can get a base unit for the Dremel, I don't know).

Simply because when you're routing something - like this neck pocket - it's nearly always important to keep the sides of the cut perfectly vertical.   

[badgermark]

To be honest I need one anyway. My list of tools include a leatherman, set of screwdrivers, soldering iron and a cordless drill set. Not exactly sufficient for most jobs. I'll look into a little Dremel jobbie anyway, seems like overkill just to shave off  1 mm for this job.

[Twinfan]

You could see if Wez or Jonathon could do the job for you?

[badgermark]

You could see if Wez or Jonathon could do the job for you?

Bit far away... Na i think i can do it myself, i'll try carefully enlarging the neck pocket and see if it makes it fit. No rush for this really, i still need a bridge arrangement.

[AndyR]

I must admit, this is one of those jobs that would scare the hell out of me. I'd love to be able to do it, and I probably could, but I'm more likely to enquire first how much a more qualified person might like to charge me!

However, that might defeat the object of "i'm building a strat from parts" :D

Good luck with it - and of course, if you succeed, that'll be another nail in my own "hey, if I bought a dremel jobbie, maybe I could build one" coffin :roll:

[badgermark]

I must admit, this is one of those jobs that would scare the hell out of me. I'd love to be able to do it, and I probably could, but I'm more likely to enquire first how much a more qualified person might like to charge me!

However, that might defeat the object of "i'm building a strat from parts" :D

Good luck with it - and of course, if you succeed, that'll be another nail in my own "hey, if I bought a dremel jobbie, maybe I could build one" coffin :roll:

Exactly. this is the first step to me saying that i 'accidently' bought a lump of wood and a ton of tools. I feel confident, hey i'm the person that routed a telecaster for a bridge humbucker using a freaking hand drill! Literally bought a MIM tele for £300, played it for a minute then busted out the tools. It worked. Kinda.

[AndyR]

I've routed for a humbucker in tele (neck, I'd be a bit more wary around the bridge). But I did it the "old-fashioned" way with a chisel. I started out using conventional methods I was taught in woodworking at school, but after the straight(-ish) edges were reasonably secure I got bored, and just levered chunks out instead! It worked though... (which is not something I can say about the chisel since then!)

Given my record with a hand drill, which I do enjoy taking for a spin around the flat occasionally, I think there's a good chance that I would have been "rear-mounting" my pickup if I'd used it. :lol:

EDIT: Forgot to write what actually meant to say :roll: - the stuff I'm wary of is anything that has to do with the "playing surface". I have shimmed a neck successfully, and replaced nuts with pre-slotted ones, bridge saddles, but that's about it. Any messing with fitting a neck, fret condition, moving or replacing a bridge, that sort of thing, makes me think I could turn a relative cheap job into a very expensive job quite quickly with successive, er, "solutions"...

[PhilKing]

I have a Dremel with the router base from StewMac and it works really well for small jobs.  The problem is that you need a template to guide it.  For this you could mark a template on a piece of plywood and cut it out with a fretsaw then clamp that over the neck pocket and rout to that.  Taking 0.5mm off with a hand held router with no guide is probably a disaster in the making.  A drum sander attacement for the drill would work too, if you have the template and don't want to get a router.  I would probably use a sharp chisel for this though, but sharp is the key word and just take shavings off at a time.

[badgermark]

Thanks for all the help guys, i'll think it over while i wait on the rest of the parts to arrive. Strange though, my first idea was to shave the neck down a little bit on each side for a snug fit, but everyone here mentions attack the body, which seems more fragile in my eyes. I shall update when i have a guitar that works. Or is in splinters.