Removing wood from/reshaping neck heel, odd shape

thecolourbox

Hi all,

Bit of a layman question this, and it's probably beyond my abilities to do well (at least first time) but thought would ask.

I've a guitar with a nonstandard neck pocket width, it came with an awful old Satellite guitar neck which I can only assume was chosen for it purely because the neck heel was the right shape to fit.

I bought a cheap neck on ebay, as it had the right headstock shape, and then found the pocket was too small. I drew the outline of what needed to be removed and tried to remove it with a file of some sort (triangle shaped file I think, can't remember the name), and with a Dremel tool, but all they seemed to do was hack at it and burn the wood.

I took it to The Little Guitar Shop in Birmingham to sort it out, but I can only imagine the neck was too hard to work with as it's not pleasant to play now although it does fit in the pocket. They charged me £200 for the job, which also included adding a pickup, which I can't justify again if I were to try a new neck.

So I was wondering, how could I go about doing this myself if I bought a new neck? Is there a simpler way of cutting out the bits I need to in order for it to fit?

Complications are that the guitar is made of fibreglass so can't modify the neck pocket. And the design of the guitar construction is that the neck sits quite high above the surface, so the shape I'd have to cut is kind of the narrower pocket size at the bottom, a bit like this very crude drawing (guitar body hatched diagonally):

Thanks in advance
Matt

thecolourbox

The company that sold the kits for these has replied with a bit of info, they refer to the required neck being trapezoidal in shape, and they've advised sanding it off until it's the right shape... Not sure about that.

Will Google search to see if anybody does trapezoid shaped necks?

TTony

That sounds like a fun challenge.

1.  Draw everything out, full scale, and probably in all 3 dimensions (at least side view, and end-on).
2.  Work out the correct height that the fretboard needs to be at to get sensible action when put together,
3.  Ditto, the neck / body join angle that you'll need.
4.  Ditto ditto the scale length.
5.  Measure the pocket every which way, so you can draw it accurately on the scale drawing.
6.  Step back, look at it all, and challenge yourself to find the mistake.  Both of them.

(it's a lot easier correcting the mistake on paper than once you've started carving the wood!).
7.  Before you start making sawdust, ideally before you even buy the next neck, check that the heel is going to be big enough so that you can cut away what you need to cut away, and find that you've still got enough left!
8.  Transpose the drawing onto the heel of the neck.
9.  Cross hatch the area of the heel that you need to cut away.
10.  Repeat step 6.
11.  Repeat step 10.
12.  Choose your cutting tools.  You might need something harsh / coarse to get rid of the bulk (rasp?) and then something finer to fine tune it (flat file is fine - but make sure it's something that makes it easy to end up with straight edges!).
13.  Repeat step 10 again.
14.  Cut slowly, and keep stopping to check that you've not cut away too much.


Alternatively, can you finish the job that the Little Guitar Shop started?  

In what way is the current set up "not pleasant to play"?  That might help identify what needs to be done.  At the very least, you might get some pointers as to what you need to do to do a better job.  

Alternatively alternatively if you paid them £200 for the job, take it back, explain the problem ("not pleasant to play") and see what they diagnose as the problem ... then suggest that *they* finish the job.


And pics will always help.

thecolourbox

Thanks Tony, will try to digest this and see if I'm up to it (I suspect not sadly).

Re the Little Guitar Shop work  it was quite a while back now, according to my emails March 2018. So I think it would be taking the pee a bit now to take it back to them. It's unpleasant to play because the frets are sharp at the sides, I don't think they are level as some of them (but not all) buzz out at the dusty end, and as I stupidly rushed in to getting it done, I didn't apply a finish to it though I'd bought some red wood dye and some tru oil to do it. It just feels like the kind of neck I'd make from left over Ikea furniture parts, and checking back on the emails between myself and the LGS the chap said the wood was "quite soft" and was a bit of a pain in the arse to do anything with. In fairness it's probably quite authentic to the originals in that it's a pain in the ass to play but others I've played are perfectly fine - though they have the standard neck heel size.

I just can't sell the fecker so I'm trying to make it usable in order to sell a decent other guitar instead but it's not working out so well...

TTony

Well, that doesn't sound so bad - if it's only a matter of tidying up the frets to make it play better, then the solution might be to do that instead of trying to get another neck to fit.

But if the current neck is poor quality and adds to the "not pleasant to play" feeling, then assuming that scale length, action, etc, are all OK - and the neck/body join is good and snug - buy another neck (better quality!) and replicate the heel of the current neck onto the new neck.  Again, measure, measure, measure, draw on the new heel, check, and cut.  

Is the current neck a tele/strat alike, or LP alike (ie angled back)?

What to cut *with* depends partly on what tools you've got, and the shape that needs cutting.  Looking at your original diagram, I'd be using one of my super sharp (and accurate) Japanese handsaws.  I've used those to do some very fine and accurate cuts.  And then probably sandpaper (double-sided taped to something small and flat) to finish it off.

thecolourbox

I suppose templating the current neck could work, I've no idea what to do with frets so I'm not sure that would be any good...

It's this one, not a standard shape at all but was the most similar to the original that I could find:

thecolourbox

Would just rubbing/sanding with this kind of thing work if I tape over the wood?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Leveling-Self-adhesive-Sandpaper-Electric-Acoustic/dp/B07L9WNXXW/ref=sr_1_16?crid=3AF8N8PUQKIQO&keywords=fret+levelling+beam&qid=1563225783&s=gateway&sprefix=fret+le,aps,159&sr=8-16