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Joe Bonamassa Forum → Joe's Guitars, Amps and Gear → Allparts neck a little loose
I just bought a new neck for my strat from allparts and it sits a tad loose in the socket. There is no finish on it but I don't think the finish will fill the void.
Anyone noticed this with a neck prior to finishing? If so, did the finish fill the gap?
Is it all maple? or with a rosewood fretboard???
All maple.
I know there is some inhert loosness before the finish because the finish will fill in quite a bit. How big a gap do you measure? I'm thinking that it should be no more then an 1/8 of an inch. I'm thinking 1/16th is what you should get. If you measure this then you should be golden. I've heard of people having problems with necks that are too tight and thats a good problem because then you have to remove material. It says on stewmac.com that your neck meausures 2-3/16ths
Ideally, the neck should just drop into the neck-pocket, or be a little snug. Don't force the neck into the pocket. If the body is unfinished, remember that the finish will make the neck pocket smaller with lacquer build up on the edge of the rout. Be sure to compensate for the finish buildup or the neck will be too tight after finishing.
It's nowhere near 1/8" probably around 1/16, hard to hold everything in place to measure (holes have yet to be drilled to mount the neck)
I think I'll intentionally spray it slightly heavier around the heel, just to make sure.
Would quite like it to be kind of snug.
snug is good. Lots of sanding sealer and laquer until you think youre polishing glass will make it fit nice and tight.
You want to spray before you drill anyway. If you don't you'll just fill the holes up with your finish. I don't think its that loose if your telling me you have a 1/16th gap. if you didn't spray I would suggest that you take a wood block and place over the fret board then take another wood block that is thin enough to show the back plates 4 holes, and clamp them together snuggly not he-man strength to hold it in place while you mark the holes to drill. If your not spraying make sure to push the neck closer to the top of the neck cavity so it hits the longer side. This will transmit more vibration through the body, this might be a good tip even after the neck is sprayed. After the holes are drilled clamp the neck up again and start putting in your wood screws. Here is a tip, dip your wood screws in candle wax before you start screwing into that hard maple. It will lubricate the threads enough that your screw goes in easy and you don't strip the head of the screw. Fender does this and so should you! Also if you do decide not to spray the neck make sure you use some kind of oil on the neck, and don't plan on taking it outside to any gigs as the neck will bow very quickly in extream temp changes more so then a sprayed neck.
Holes are already drilled, I'm not spraying where the neck is connecting to the body though so I have a handle attached covering that area. I have done a fair bit of spraying before so know what I'm doing that way.
It is a good wee trick that, though I use soap instead of candle wax, same effect and no drawbacks thus far.
Currently on about the 3rd coat of nitro. Noticed some hazing though (quite humid today) so I'll leave it till tomorrow before I spray any more on.
What brand are you spraying with? I helped a friend about a month ago spray a neck with believe it or not Stewart Macdonald aresol spray cans! He got the vintage tent and it looks fantastic. We had one run spot and after it dried we brought that spot back to bare wood and sprayed lightly until we brought the bare spot back up. It took a week to dry before we polished it down. Looks amazing and only cost him $15 for the can of spray, and we deal with polishing fiber optic connectors so we had 3M quality Polishing films that were discontinued to sand and polish with.
I think you can polish the haze out of that finish. If you have pictures I'm sure everybody love to see them 
I'm using the nitro from Manchester Guitar Tech, great nitro. I used to use tonetech but had a lot of problems with their nitro, the black wouldn't set, even after a year it was still tacky and rubbed off on everything. And I used the clear and got really bad hazing. It's a shame cause everything else from Tone Tech is fantastic.
I'll get some pics up once it's done The hazing has vanished, must have been right on the surface and very little of it.
That's me got a final coat on now. So I'll leave it for a few weeks and buff it out.
I've got a fender decal to stick on too and bought some aged Klusons 
I'll need to buy a can of compressed air and get it checked too!
Wow that sounds great. sucks that black finish didn't do well. After my experience and clean up with the Canned spray I doubt I'll ever do it the old fashoned way. I've worked on car finishes and the pain involved with that, and after doing this neck with the compressed air I wouldn't do it any other way. Look forward to seeing it.
Joe Bonamassa Forum → Joe's Guitars, Amps and Gear → Allparts neck a little loose
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