Just a few Questions about an assembly...

[justshane]

Wow, there is some really great advice going on around here! So, I have a few questions. I got my new neck in the other day and I still need to drill the screw holes to mount it to the body. Is there a trick to doing this? I have another Tele neck that I removed from a different guitar that I tested with the new body and it fit. Anyway, I just want to make these holes accurate and I wanted to know if there are any little tricks or ideas that you guys use to get that done.

Second, I disassembled a MIM Telecaster, to see how she ticked, and noticed that the body was routed for a humbucker in the neck position so that got me thinking...I was wondering if it was possible to mount a Gibson Classic '57 pickup in the neck position on that body??? Any thoughts?

Last question, is there a special way or trick to lining up the tuning keys to drill for those screw holes as well?

Thanks for all the great advice guys and keep it coming!!

[teleblues001]

Originally Posted by justshane

Wow, there is some really great advice going on around here! So, I have a few questions. I got my new neck in the other day and I still need to drill the screw holes to mount it to the body. Is there a trick to doing this? I have another Tele neck that I removed from a different guitar that I tested with the new body and it fit. Anyway, I just want to make these holes accurate and I wanted to know if there are any little tricks or ideas that you guys use to get that done.

Second, I disassembled a MIM Telecaster, to see how she ticked, and noticed that the body was routed for a humbucker in the neck position so that got me thinking...I was wondering if it was possible to mount a Gibson Classic '57 pickup in the neck position on that body??? Any thoughts?

Last question, is there a special way or trick to lining up the tuning keys to drill for those screw holes as well?

Thanks for all the great advice guys and keep it coming!!

As far as doing the body mounting holes on the neck heel, there is a trick but can't remember offhand what it is. Probably something as simple as clamping the neck into proper position and using something close to the hole size on the body, slip it into the hole and apply enough pressure to leave indent on the neck.

Second, pickup combinations are limited by the imagination. There are "traditional" mounting schemes as well as non-traditional. It's basically a personal preference. You just have to rework your pickguard or make a new one for the job. Always give some consideration to how you move forward. Routing a cavity larger will have it's own implication for you to ponder.

For lining up tuners, you could clamp a straightedge to your headstock.

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[Old Cane]

Pretty much what he said.

[Jack Wells]

Several ways you could locate the holes for the neck screws. You could do a pencil rubbing on the neck that works and transfer those hole location to the new neck.

You could use the Adobe Reader Snapshot Tool to roughly crop the neck pocket area of the Terry Downs drawing and print it out. Just happened to have this picture that I posted recently. This could be used to locate holes in either the neck or the body.

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Clamping the neck and using an exact size drill bit through the body holes mentioned above would also work.

I'm not familiar with that pickup so I'll pass on question 2.

With tuners like this Gotoh with the low-down mounting hole you could align the bodies with the straightedge then tighten the mounting nuts on the front of the headstock then remove the straightedge. The straight edge works great with vintage tuners.

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[originalmatthew]

Are the holes for the neck drilled in the body yet? If so, I put the neck in the pocket, align it, put a small clamp on it so it stays put, then I use a small punch to go through the holes and mark the neck for drilling. As for the tuning keys, I put them in snug but moveable. I line up the first one where i want it and snug it down. Then I measure from the center of the key head screw to the next to the next and make sure they are all the same. Mark the holes with a pencil, move the tuner out of the way and drill. I also put a piece of tape on the drill bit to act as a "depth gauge" so I dont drill through the headstock.
I think-i am not sure, that any standard size humbucker should fit in that rout on the mim's.

[olaftheholy]

As for the neck question ; whilst your at it, install threaded neck inserts as well, sold here at TDPRI by a user. (check under classifieds)
These will enhance overall sustain and enhance the life expectancy of the neck attachmentsystem.

good luck.

n.b. i'm swapping all boltons with inserts.