New project question

[doggy1972]

I just won this on ebay
http://tiny.cc/3Jd9W
Couldnt resist cos it looks like a real bargain. Just wanted to ask what you guys think would be the best method of fitting a MIM neck that I have.As the neck already has screw holes, do you think I should drill the body then,dowel and redrill the neck. Or is there a way I can make the body accurately line up with the neck holes. All suggestions welcome

[e-merlin]

I always dowel and redrill the neck. Drilling blind is not the easiest thing to do, but if you do the holes in the body first there won't be any alignment problems when you line up the neck.

[doggy1972]

Thanks a lot. That was my feeling too but, just wondered if anyone had any experience of doing the reverse

[JasonRobert]

You will want the neck plate to be square with the body, and this determins the holes in the body, which will determin the holes in the neck. making the holes line up by trying the match the neck holes to the body will mean the neck plate will not be square, the neck will be a lot harder to allign, and I would imagine be significantly more dificult than just drilling, plugging and re drilling the neck.

[doggy1972]

I plugged and redrilled on my last project and, this seemed to work very well. Ive tried to think the reverse process through but, I feel you are both right about the alignment issues.
A bit like threading a needle, through a keyhole :) Thanks for the feedback guys and Ill post the build (this may involve a Bigsby so expect more questions)
Thanks

Ian

[Jack Wells]

You could plug and redrill the neck but I probably wouldn't. Here are a few other options.

1. You could make a screw hole pattern by laying a piece of paper on the neck and cutting around the neck heel with an Xacto knife or razor blade. Then flip this pattern over and lay it in the neck pocket.

2. You could print the following image 3 in. wide while maintaining the aspect ratio. That would give you an accurat pattern.

......

3. You could use the Adobe Reader Snapshot Tool to crop the neck pocket area of the Terry Downs Telecaster blueprint. Then click File...Print and set the Page Scaling to None. That would also give you an accurate screw hole pattern.

4. You could cut four nails that would slip snugly into the neck holes so that only a the points extended out of the neck heel. Then push the neck down into the pocket to mark the hole centers.

The neck mounting holes in the body should allow the screws to slip through freely so you have some neck angle adjustment. The actual body neck hole diameter specification is 0.166 in.

[jkingma]

This is how I do it.

[doggy1972]

Both good ideas guys. I may try the nail option. Looks a little less complicated

[mrothacker]

Yeah , I was going to recommend the nail idea but I see jwells beat me to it !

[dougk]

Originally Posted by jkingma

This is how I do it.

Thats exactly how I do it too.