How tight should a neck pocket be?

I think snugness is irrelevant as the neck is screwed to the body with 4 screws.

Other thoughts... the pocket is kind of like a dove-tail in that the pocket is tapered like the neck is tapered, wider at the heel. It should not be able to slide in from the end, only from above.

In fact, tight of any kind is probably bad. Wood really does expand and contract at different times of the year. Snug AT ALL could lead to the neck causing cracks as the different woods expand and contract.

But if the gaps are too wide around the neck, it can LOOK like it is of poor quality, even though a tiny gap is a good thing.

To me, perfect is when the neck drops down from above with no resistance, but if you try to pull the neck out toward the headstock it is locked in. And if you try to fit a business card in between the neck sides and the body, it almost kind of wants to fit, but doesn't.

Sheet of good paper? 0.1mm?

 

Just a little force should be needed - and it should seat it completely, not partially. When you remove it, it shouldn't just drop out. and you shouldn't have to pry it away from the body. Just barely snug.

 

thats what I have with my AVRI62 teles. I think thats pretty good

 

leave some room for finish coatings, if they are both bare wood now,,

 

It always makes me feel better if it's a little snug but not tight, if that makes any sense.
I could be wrong, though.

 

On several counts, "too snug" is not a great outcome. As noted earlier, the four screws are what freezes the position, and even there you need to make sure the "through holes" on the body don't bind the screw threads. On several of my guitars I have appreciated being able to loosen the neck screws and pivot the neck to the left or right just a tad to adjust the string position on the neck. I actually like a bit more room on the high E side so I can be a little wilder with vibrato without having it fall off the cliff. When the neck is too tight in the pocket, it better be dead on in that regard for what you want, or you're stuck.

 

You want a bit of wiggle room so you can get the e strings where you want them. These aren't mortise and tenon joints.

Too tight won't allow any adjustment. Fender spec's used to call for +/- 1/32" on the drawings if I recall correctly. Plenty of CBS era bodies had some pretty big gaps and they still worked out.






Neck pocket / neck issue? | Fender Stratocaster Guitar Forum (strat-talk.com)

 

A tiny gap is what you‘re looking for.

 

That is perfect.

 

here's the thing.. they should be as tight as YOU want.. but remember... wood shrinks and expands.... you're not gonna stop that from happening.. so..

if the wood expands, the neck's heel gets larger, but... the neck pocket is getting smaller,. so you have colliding masses of wood.. this is where the notorious neck pocket cracks come from, and if the wood shrinks, the opposite happens, and guys whine about sloppy neck pockets...
and in either case absolutely nothing of any consequence happens that impacts tone..

 

As Ron said. I have consistently found that a neck pocket before finishing that requires any pressure to get in will be tight after finish and end up with cracks on the corners of the neck pocket from the expansion.

I have repeatedly seen people taught a neck pocket so tight they can pickup the guitar by the neck without screws. Then you have to push the neck a bit for e string alignment & it is destined for a crack in the pocket in. the near future.

I don't want them sloppy but I want them to set in easily before finish.

By the way, just listen to Ron on anything building and it will be right!

 

A little bit of pressure is perfect. A few years ago I put a lot of thought into this. I make my necks a little wider (Gibson thick at the heel - so no e-string alignment issues) and mostly non-fender type bodies (Gibson kind of shape with an Ibanez AANJ fender-like neck joint for the most part) and I always shape the lower bout a little closer to the bridge and use just a little more wood in the body shape for where the lower bout meets the neck pocket so that it's less likely to crack: With those design changes (with the AANJ the lower screw is actually right at the point where the neck and body meet on the lower bout (see pics below). I think those tiny changes do help with getting a tighter fit if someone wants that. But, the standard Tele neck joint will crack if made too tight, and honestly the Fender neck joint is perfect for what we build Teles for.





With those design changes I do make my necks fit pretty tight: Not so that any kind of "force" is required to get them in, but they kind of "lock in place" and only go in if aligned really well. The joint is tighter than if I were to glue the neck on. And, I do that because the pocket on my guitars is shorter, but very much a dovetail joint kind of idea - but without loosing the ability to take the neck off for doing neck work or swapping the neck.

I made those design changes because I wanted to have upper fret access where the heel did not interfere, but also to get a tone that is somewhat closer to a glued in neck - gaining sustain and low-end tone while not loosing a lot of the sparkle in the high-end tones and producing very loud acoustic sound with a lot of resonance. I went down this path over a decade ago when I noticed how well a Warmoth Strat neck and body fit together - I don't know if they just happen to be exceptionally well made on the right day of the week... but I loved the tone of that guitar and I copied a lot from that one. The neck joint was just tight enough to keep the neck perfectly in place while on a guitar stand and I think that is just the right fit for a Fender neck joint.

Making guitars is never a "one-size fits all" kind of thing. I think there is a lot to be said for extremely precise neck/body joints for certain guitar design attributes that one may want and that can be achieved. However it's a bit of a different animal.

 

I THINK on the internet we way overthink this.
In fact it's begun to annoy me how much discussion there is about a range of minutia that makes zero difference.
So many options and mods to make the guitar exactly the same!
Followed by: "Oooh, it has more resonance and sustain now with the special $50 screws!"
But when I'm annoyed it's probably a good time to not say nuthin at all...

Fitting the neck though, yeah, tight snug and loose.
My first partscaster in 1980 I made the fit veeerrrrry tight, no problems.
All worked just the same.

I do think that looser with more movement is the fastest way to crack the body.
But that just like my opinion man.

 

I wonder then if during the high humidity months the screws should be loosened just slightly to accommodate any swelling. Btw, I recently loosened the four neck screws on my Baja tele and it seemed to help the intonation. It seemed to just feel better. I thought it was my imagination but after reading this post, maybe not.

 

It doesnt really matter that much. I have never heard or seen a difference. If its a tight fit , it is probably easier to get the small cracks at the pocket , if the guitar gets a whack.
No 1 , Assemble guitar
No 2 , Play guitar , and stop fussing about all the little details !

 

I think it's aesthetic only. Having a wide gap looks bad. Too tight and paint chips sometimes.
In a perfect world I'd like to have .005-.010 gap