Floyd rose locking nut installation

JClough

First off, hello everyone! I'm a long time lurker but this is my first time posting.

I'm currently trying to build up a Jackson Rhoads from parts. I got the body off ebay a while back for pretty cheap and I got tired of waiting for a suitable neck to pop up so I went ahead and took the plunge on one of those Chinese necks just to get the ball rolling.
I have most of the parts I need now to put it all together including a Gotoh floyd rose tremolo that arrived yesterday.
When I put the locking nut on the neck to see if it would fit it became pretty obvious that there was a large gap between the top of the nut and the end of the fretboard.
This is my first time trying to do anything like this so apologies if this is a stupid question but do I A) Have the wrong nut type b) Can I just carefully remove the excess fretboard material? C) Its just a poorly made neck and I got what I paid for by buying a cheap Chinese one?

Thanks in advance for any help you can give me, I've attached some pictures below to show the problem

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48503708157_9782cab9e8_k.jpg

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48503540726_ab39925f55_k.jpg ;

GluedtoMusic

The front to back measurement of a Gotoh locking nut is the same as a Schaller and Official Floyd Rose, 15.5 mm, so you don't have the wrong nut as far as that measurement is concerned. It does look like a particularly long nut shelf on the neck, are you able to attach a side profile picture? The other thing to check would be whether the manufacturer has cut the front edge of the nut shelf in the correct place and not too far forward (shouldn't be wrong as it will probably have come off a CNC but worth checking), for a 25.5" scale length guitar the space between the front edge of the nut and the 1st fret slot should be 36.35 mm.

JClough

Thanks for the quick and helpful reply @GluedtoMusic ;;
I've measured the distance from the front edge of the shelf to the first fret slot as you suggested and that looks correct.
When looking at the neck front-on, its seems like the nut slot isn't totally level either, one edge looks higher than the other

Here are some more pictures

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48504081216_8d96ab5b02_k.jpg

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48504199002_cb8cc9c7e6_k.jpg

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48504199142_66a2586465_k.jpg

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48504030376_9f94068455_k.jpg

ICBM

Unfortunately C is the correct answer...

It's just poorly made. The fingerboard is not glued to the neck properly at the end, and the nut shelf is not cut properly - it's rounded at the inner corner where the nut will go (so it can't be both up against the fingerboard and tight down at the same time) and the bottom surface is not parallel to the neck, in either direction. It may also not be quite deep enough.

This is all fixable, but you'll need to do it or the nut will never sit correctly. After all that's fixed, you can decide what to do about the excess length. Just cutting it off will look odd - probably the best thing to do is extend the slope of the headstock face up to the nut, then fit a truss rod cover the full width of the neck at the nut, if you're not going to paint the headstock.

JClough

Thanks @ICBM thats what I feared, I think I'll just try to get a refund on the neck and keep waiting until a proper Jackson one turns up