What is the best way to drill body for predrilled Neck. I want a straight neck!

[RatherBeFishing]

Hi

I finally got my baritone neck. I'm ready to begin building my Baricaster. This will be my first build (more like an assembly) and I want this guitar to have a good start in life. Hopefully tdpri can help me have a fool-proof build.

I have a neck with holes in it but a body with none. Anyone have any tips for 1: Making sure the neck is perfectly straight.
2: Making sure the holes are in the right place on the body.

Also, please let me know of any sites that have info on electric guitar builds/assembly.

Thanks

[Jack Wells]

Why not refer to Terry Downs' Telecaster blueprint.

http://terrydownsmusic.com/archive/t...awing_revD.pdf

There's a build/assembly right here in the TDPRI Resources.

http://www.tdpri.com/resourceBUILDING.htm

[crowden]

Originally Posted by TheBear

I have a neck with holes in it but a body with none. Anyone have any tips for 1: Making sure the neck is perfectly straight.
2: Making sure the holes are in the right place on the body.

I haven't done this myself but, not too long ago, some one made a post about doing this by cutting the heads off some roofing nails, inserting the nails into the neck's screw holes with the points facing out then, sliding the neck down into the pocket and giving it a tap with a rubber mallet to mark where the holes would be drilled on the body.

Hope this helps.

[TELE_BLUES]

I would fill the neck holes and do the whole thing at once,it's going to be difficult to match the existing holes to to new ones.You'll wantto be sure the neck is in line with the bridge before you drill anythingTake a look at ROB DiSTEFANO'S frettech.com there go to the info link and 3/4 of the way down the page is "attaching a bolt on neck"

[e-merlin]

I'd drill the holes in the body, plug the neck holes, and redrill it. That's going to be a lot easier than trying to mark the body holes blind. Plus, it gives you the advantage of clamping down the neck in position to make sure it will line up before drilling the mounting holes in the neck.

[Jack Wells]

Guys .............. if he bought a neck built to Fender specs, the holes are drilled to Fender specs. Drill the body's neck holes per Fender specs and everything will be copacetic.

Here's another option. The picture below was cropped from the Terry Downs blueprint. Print it actual size (3 in. wide) maintaining the aspect ratio. Cut it out and you have a template for marking the neck mounting holes in the body.

......

Edit:
Keep in mind the neck mounting holes in the body are larger than those in the neck. The screws should slip freely through the holes.......not be threaded into the holes. This will allow a slight amount of neck angle adjustment.

[mellecaster]

What Jack said, and showed...and I usually use a 9/64 or .165 bit for a nice non-binding Body hole...I think it would be foolish to dowel your New neck...YMMV

[Jack Wells]

One thing TheBear could do is print and cut out the little picture I posted above. Using a sharp pin, poke the hole centerlines. Now lay it on the neck heel and see if the hole centerlines agree the the neck holes. If they do ...... you've got a good template.

I agree with Mellecaster with regard to doweling the neck holes ........ that it seems ........ would be ....... well ..........a bit foolish.

[e-merlin]

Originally Posted by jwells393

I agree with Mellecaster with regard to doweling the neck holes ........ that it seems ........ would be ....... well ..........a bit foolish.

Provided the neck is drilled per Fender specs, that template is a good idea, but I still maintain that it's easier for a beginner to drill the body and use it as a template. It seems to me it would be more foolish if things don't line up right and he has to dowel and redrill the neck anyway. YMMV.

[Jack Wells]

Well, it's easy enough to check to see if the neck is drilled to Fender specs. One can use the method in my previous post or just take measurements. It's all right here.........

......

[RatherBeFishing]

Originally Posted by jwells393

Guys .............. if he bought a neck built to Fender specs, the holes are drilled to Fender specs. Drill the body's neck holes per Fender specs and everything will be copacetic.

Here's another option. The picture below was cropped from the Terry Downs blueprint. Print it actual size (3 in. wide) maintaining the aspect ratio. Cut it out and you have a template for marking the neck mounting holes in the body.

......

Edit:
Keep in mind the neck mounting holes in the body are larger than those in the neck. The screws should slip freely through the holes.......not be threaded into the holes. This will allow a slight amount of neck angle adjustment.

I like this idea a lot but I am guessing it will not be Fender Spec. It is an AllParts Baritone Strat neck that was cut into a tele heel and headstock by the previous owner. Ebay... :/

Surprisingly good job. It fits fairly snug in the neck pocket on another ebay cheapy "ash" (still not sure on that one) body. I'm really hoping it will intonate properly.

I actually thought of trying to put nails into the holes backwards and pressing them into the body once the neck was aligned. I think I would need to be very careful not to strip the holes though. Any surefire techniques for aligning a perfectly straight neck?

[andrewb]

use the neckplate as a guide....

[RobSm]

The sawn off 1/8 nails in the neck holes works if you're careful.

There are variations on this : You can use 1/8 pop rivets again cut down...they sit very well in the existing holes...also if you install threaded inserts in your neck holes you can leave them just proud of the surface and posstion the neck carefully & give it a tap ot two. ( Then you should screw the inserts slightly below the surface)

Dowelling & redrilling works of course, but it's nor reallly necessary.

Have fun.

[Electric prune]

I put a used neck on a new undrilled Strat body. Decided to fill the holes and then used the neck plate as a guide to drill the body. Then lined on the body up the neck (did this by eye), clamped it and drilled the holes through the body into the neck. This might not be a recommended way but worked well for me. I lined up the bridge (holes for which were not drilled either) by putting normal string through the 6th and 1st string tuning heads then into the bridge at the 1st and 6th positions and then positioned the bridge making sure the string was even with the sides of the neck and went over the pickup poles.

[sonicland]

I just put a Bigsby vibrato on my tele and the directions have you run a piece of string from the high E tuner, through the nut to the bridge, loop it through the bridge to the other side and then run it back up the neck and tie it off to the low E tuner. This way you can align the unit while looking at where the strings are centered on the neck. Works perfectly and it seems to me you could do the same thing in your situation.

Use a good strong C clamp to hold the neck to the body (obviously use thin shims on both sides of the clamp so you don't mar anything) then use the string idea or even use a real high and low E string to string it up (you won't need much tension at all on the strings). This way you can see exactly how the neck will be aligned and centered. Then you can just drill through the neck holes into the body (being extremely careful on depth) and you should have a perfectly aligned neck. Go to Bigsby's website for pics, I really think this is a better way to do it, there's really no guesswork involved at all.

On a side note, I've noticed on many Fenders that this alignment is not always done very well. I played a really nice 62' Reissue but the high E string was way too close to the edge of the fretboard, ruining an otherwise awesome guitar. This is what you get when you pre-drill from specs rather than measure each guitar. It's one of the first things I check when I try out Fender's.

Good luck