Remember reading a story years ago about Eddie Van Halen describing how he installed the neck on his world famous frankenstrat when he first put it together. He said the pocket was too narrow so he took a flat tipped screwdriver and a hammer and chipped out the channel as best he could. He then stated that his drill was broken at the time so he just simply drove a nail in the neck to make the four screw holes, then used whatever screws he could find laying around to fasten the neck to the body. It's really hard to believe that this royally butchered up guitar turned out to be one of the most famous in history and is worth millions of dollars today. Eddie obviously had no idea how to properly build a guitar, but, the guy was pretty resourceful and it certainly paid off for him bigtime. Butchered up or not!
Watching stuff like this makes me think of just how sloppy it looks when I'm doing it. lol Thus far, I've made a 6-string and a bass. They turned out fine but I'm still figuring out all the tools as well as jigs and so forth. It's just a lot more clunky for me right now. Anyway, these are some good tips. Thank you!
Happy to help! To date, I haven't made any bodies or necks, though I have a lot of experience on the router table and can imagine how it works. I've made hundreds of pickguards and have videos on that as well if you're interested, all under my "Pickguard Making" playlist on my main channel page. I refurbish aftermarket parts and put my own guitars together that way. I do make custom pickguards and I also make my own pickups, and I also re-radius and refret most necks i buy, as well as cut bone nuts for them, but the necks and bodies I use are all pre-fabricated. Occasionally I'll buy a raw body and do a grain fill and finish on it myself, as well as adding any contours, or deepening existing contours. Same for necks. The reason? Tooling is part of it. I've had my eye on some Potvin templates, but for the price I can get necks and bodies for, I haven't been compelled to pull the trigger yet. The tool wormhole is endless. I'd love to expand and to start building necks and bodies, especially reinforced necks for SG style guitars. My next project at some point will be my fretless SG -- I converted it to fretless, but the mahogany neck is flimsy. Would do much better with an Obsidian Ebony fingerboard, and some carbon fiber reinforcements on either side of the truss rod. But even pulling the fingerboard cleanly and making a routing template for a new fingerboard *and* the 1/4" slots on either side of the truss rod would be a lot of work. Might buy a heating blanket from LMI for fingerboard removal -- all that kinda stuff. If you've built a couple guitars, you've probably got a nice array of tools. Keep it up! It's a very deep rabbit hole, but a very fun one. One thing that's especially tough for me is being able to get bodies and necks sometimes cheaper than i could even get the lumber for! So in some sense I'm "cheating," but I do find refurbishing aftermarket parts very rewarding. If I were to build my own guitar, I'd definitely like to come up with my own design. I've redone my 2005 MIM Strat to have two pickups and a totally unique pickguard, as well as jack plate, both of which I made myself, and it's my favorite Strat setup by far. I have a video on that as well here: ruclips.net/video/ncVOjXyHkeM/видео.htmlsi=WUJkoZNHBKh1ExYO
@@guitar_md : For the body, you can use a jig saw to cut out the rough shape or a band saw. I did the 6-string with a jig saw then the band saw came later. After that, I used a Japanese saw rasp and a half-round rasp to start refining the shape then just a relatively inexpensive set of files to start smoothing things off. For the necks, I used the band saw on the neck blank to make a scarf joint at about 13 degrees (or so) then more rasps and files. I didn't use a template for the profile on either I just kinda worked on them until they were guitar necks. They are a bit chunky still but they work and I can always thin them out some day. As for fret boards, I bought a 12 inch radius block and stuck sand paper to it. There's the setting up of a jig involved just to keep the thing pointed in the right orientation. A dovetail saw works fine for the fret slots. Like I said, they feel rather rough to me but hell, at least they work and I have no plans to sell either of these. Anyway, you're absolutely right about the tool wormhole. Lol!
Ahhh! wrap the top of that C-clamp with leather, it gouges the finish when you torque the screw, the two surfaces are in direct contact. Great video and tips! I looove your half-circle neck rest. Physics at work!
Thanks so much! I'll be in the process of redoing this soon, after my more recent video on installing threaded inserts in a neck. I'm now using a transfer punch chucked in the drill press, and a Woodpecker Mini Square on the neck heel, to verify that the heel of the neck is square to the drill bit before drilling. This is the best way to check for level. I've had great results with the method in this video for many years, but ultimately this will be a more accurate way of doing things. The bubble level only measures level in relation to the center of the earth. You could have a really uneven floor for example, and a bubble level will tell you where you need to shim the table legs to get your tabletop level, so your pencils and other things don't roll off of it when simply placed onto the tabletop. But for this job -- not accurate. I wasn't aware of this at the time and will be redoing and re-uploading many of my videos as a result. That being said, again, I've had plenty of success with this method, which tells me there is some margin for error here. I'll leave this up for now but you'll be one of the few in the know about the updated methods I have for doing these things. Appreciate the support!
Thanks so much for the support! I'm slowly working on an updated version of this video, and the companion EZ LOK threaded insert installation video as well. Excited to keep going on those, I have a lot of updates and a lot of extras to share. Thanks for the support!
I use black, stretchable thread to align the neck. Tie one end to tuner #1.....down the neck...thru the 1st string bridge hole....up thru 6th string hole....up the neck to tuner #6....tie it off. You now have 2 'E' strings.
Loosening the screws slightly and retightening with the neck under full string tension will improve the fitment. I’m surprised you didn’t mention it.🙏🔑✌️🇮🇱
Yes, this is a good idea! I do this all the time -- but did forget to mention it. I'm working on many new and updated videos and I'd love to include that if I get around to doing a new version of this. Thanks!
@@guitar_md I'm curious if installing the EZ LOK Threaded Inserts (from your other video) would make this string tension loosening/tightening trick ineffective. I'm guessing this trick works by a very slight reseating of the screws in the neck and if there are metal inserts, there would be no play to adjust for the tension of strings on the neck/body connection? After watching your EZ LOK video, I'm interested in installing them on my neck but I would like that extra connection one can get from loosening/tightening screws under string tension. What do you think?
Hi! This video is very helpful, but I got a question: i have a 10yo low cost stratocaster and i noticed the neck is too hight... but it's not flat, it's angled so strings still buzz in the nut, but also very high near the body. So, the solution is to sand the neck pocket in order to reach a flat angle?
First, the most important thing is to measure these three points: Relief @ 7th fret Action @ 12th fret Action @ 1st fret An angled neck pocket is not necessarily a bad thing. I may be wrong, but I don't think neck angle has any impact on anything aside from action. That is, adjusting neck angle is not going to affect the action any differently than adjusting the height at the nut or saddles. If the neck pocket is *uneven* due to finish buildup, or being routed too roughly -- then flattening it can be a huge help. If the pocket is flat, but merely angled, this should not be an issue. Check the relief @ 7th, action @ 12th, and action @ 1st. My personal go-to specs on my guitars are: .000" - .002" relief at the 7th fret, around .046" to .050" Low E string, .045" A string, .038" D string, then .030" for the GBE at the 12th fret. And first fret, .015" wound strings, .009" treble strings. Or .018" wound strings, .012" treble strings. That's a good range to keep them within. .020" is OK on the Low E but around .018" is a good standard 'low action.' .015" can be buzzy on the wound strings if you play with more than a light attack. But go by those three specs. Set your neck relief first. Then capo at the 1st fret to take the nut out of the equation. Set the action at the 12th or 17th fret with the capo on the 1st. Then remove the capo at the 1st and file the nut slots down until the desired 1st fret action is reached. You only need to mess with the neck pocket if it's truly *uneven* from a poor job by the manufacturer or builder, or if you're unable to get the setup specs you want, for example, if the saddles run out of adjustment room. There are more tips that go beyond this, but these are the basics. Your neck angle is likely OK if your setup specs are within your desired range. I do recommend clearing the neck pocket holes. But only flatten the pocket if it's absolutely necessary. I'm currently working on designing a neck pocket routing baseplate to attach to a Dremel tool, which is a more advanced version of the one I've used in my videos. But most of the time it's not necessary. I clear the neck pocket holes on 100% of bolt-on neck guitars I work on. I probably only have to rout the neck pocket on maybe 2% of the bolt-on neck guitars that I work on.
@@guitar_md Man, you're a genius, thanks for your help. I'll try your tips, it's kinda difficult to set my nut and action since I'm testing a heavy string gauge (.13), but it's a really good start point. Thanks a lot ^^
@@RuTnVI Sure thing! Let me know what you find. You can also use discarded pieces of clipped strings as feeler gauges to check your action. This can work great in a pinch. Any of the action specs I provided, you can test with a feeler gauge or a clipped string end. Remember: relief first, then capo the 1st fret and set the action at the 12th or 17th, then remove the capo, and set the 1st fret action. You can really fine tune everything after that procedure if you're obsessive like I am. Feel free to ask if you need any advice or help again!
![ROSÉ(로제) - APT. (Band VER.) (With. 이영지) [더 시즌즈-이영지의 레인보우] | KBS 241129 방송](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/IW8qaemx74g/mqdefault.jpg)
Dude I've never subscribed to a channel so fast
Thanks so much!
this!!
Quick, clear, concise, accurate information! No need to fast forward through to find the relevant parts. Subscribed.
Thank you so much. This is what I strive to achieve. Really appreciate the support!
Remember reading a story years ago about Eddie Van Halen describing how he installed the neck on his world famous frankenstrat when he first put it together. He said the pocket was too narrow so he took a flat tipped screwdriver and a hammer and chipped out the channel as best he could. He then stated that his drill was broken at the time so he just simply drove a nail in the neck to make the four screw holes, then used whatever screws he could find laying around to fasten the neck to the body. It's really hard to believe that this royally butchered up guitar turned out to be one of the most famous in history and is worth millions of dollars today. Eddie obviously had no idea how to properly build a guitar, but, the guy was pretty resourceful and it certainly paid off for him bigtime. Butchered up or not!
Great tutorial, you deserve a lot more subs, keep going.
Thank you!
I'll be using this method next week when my new Tele neck comes in. Great vid as always. Thanks!
As always, a clear and complete guide. Thanks Matt!
Watching stuff like this makes me think of just how sloppy it looks when I'm doing it.
lol
Thus far, I've made a 6-string and a bass. They turned out fine but I'm still figuring out all the tools as well as jigs and so forth. It's just a lot more clunky for me right now.
Anyway, these are some good tips. Thank you!
Same here!! Heh, missing a lot of the tools that would make things a lot easier
Happy to help! To date, I haven't made any bodies or necks, though I have a lot of experience on the router table and can imagine how it works. I've made hundreds of pickguards and have videos on that as well if you're interested, all under my "Pickguard Making" playlist on my main channel page.
I refurbish aftermarket parts and put my own guitars together that way. I do make custom pickguards and I also make my own pickups, and I also re-radius and refret most necks i buy, as well as cut bone nuts for them, but the necks and bodies I use are all pre-fabricated.
Occasionally I'll buy a raw body and do a grain fill and finish on it myself, as well as adding any contours, or deepening existing contours. Same for necks.
The reason? Tooling is part of it. I've had my eye on some Potvin templates, but for the price I can get necks and bodies for, I haven't been compelled to pull the trigger yet.
The tool wormhole is endless. I'd love to expand and to start building necks and bodies, especially reinforced necks for SG style guitars. My next project at some point will be my fretless SG -- I converted it to fretless, but the mahogany neck is flimsy. Would do much better with an Obsidian Ebony fingerboard, and some carbon fiber reinforcements on either side of the truss rod.
But even pulling the fingerboard cleanly and making a routing template for a new fingerboard *and* the 1/4" slots on either side of the truss rod would be a lot of work. Might buy a heating blanket from LMI for fingerboard removal -- all that kinda stuff.
If you've built a couple guitars, you've probably got a nice array of tools. Keep it up! It's a very deep rabbit hole, but a very fun one. One thing that's especially tough for me is being able to get bodies and necks sometimes cheaper than i could even get the lumber for! So in some sense I'm "cheating," but I do find refurbishing aftermarket parts very rewarding.
If I were to build my own guitar, I'd definitely like to come up with my own design. I've redone my 2005 MIM Strat to have two pickups and a totally unique pickguard, as well as jack plate, both of which I made myself, and it's my favorite Strat setup by far. I have a video on that as well here:
ruclips.net/video/ncVOjXyHkeM/видео.htmlsi=WUJkoZNHBKh1ExYO
@@guitar_md : For the body, you can use a jig saw to cut out the rough shape or a band saw. I did the 6-string with a jig saw then the band saw came later.
After that, I used a Japanese saw rasp and a half-round rasp to start refining the shape then just a relatively inexpensive set of files to start smoothing things off.
For the necks, I used the band saw on the neck blank to make a scarf joint at about 13 degrees (or so) then more rasps and files. I didn't use a template for the profile on either I just kinda worked on them until they were guitar necks. They are a bit chunky still but they work and I can always thin them out some day.
As for fret boards, I bought a 12 inch radius block and stuck sand paper to it. There's the setting up of a jig involved just to keep the thing pointed in the right orientation.
A dovetail saw works fine for the fret slots.
Like I said, they feel rather rough to me but hell, at least they work and I have no plans to sell either of these.
Anyway, you're absolutely right about the tool wormhole. Lol!
Ahhh! wrap the top of that C-clamp with leather, it gouges the finish when you torque the screw, the two surfaces are in direct contact. Great video and tips! I looove your half-circle neck rest. Physics at work!
Very accommodating sir! Thanks a lot frm your fan in Philippines ❤
Thank you so much for the support! That means the world to me!
This is very useful. Thank you.
Thanks, this is the best tutorial I've seen for this
Thanks so much! I'll be in the process of redoing this soon, after my more recent video on installing threaded inserts in a neck.
I'm now using a transfer punch chucked in the drill press, and a Woodpecker Mini Square on the neck heel, to verify that the heel of the neck is square to the drill bit before drilling. This is the best way to check for level. I've had great results with the method in this video for many years, but ultimately this will be a more accurate way of doing things.
The bubble level only measures level in relation to the center of the earth. You could have a really uneven floor for example, and a bubble level will tell you where you need to shim the table legs to get your tabletop level, so your pencils and other things don't roll off of it when simply placed onto the tabletop.
But for this job -- not accurate. I wasn't aware of this at the time and will be redoing and re-uploading many of my videos as a result.
That being said, again, I've had plenty of success with this method, which tells me there is some margin for error here. I'll leave this up for now but you'll be one of the few in the know about the updated methods I have for doing these things.
Appreciate the support!
Useful stuff. Thank you.
THIS is how you make an instructional video!! Great job, thank you so much! (insta subbed)
Thanks so much for the support! I'm slowly working on an updated version of this video, and the companion EZ LOK threaded insert installation video as well. Excited to keep going on those, I have a lot of updates and a lot of extras to share.
Thanks for the support!
I use black, stretchable thread to align the neck.
Tie one end to tuner #1.....down the neck...thru the 1st string bridge hole....up thru 6th string hole....up the neck to tuner #6....tie it off.
You now have 2 'E' strings.
Loosening the screws slightly and retightening with the neck under full string tension will improve the fitment.
I’m surprised you didn’t mention it.🙏🔑✌️🇮🇱
Yes, this is a good idea! I do this all the time -- but did forget to mention it.
I'm working on many new and updated videos and I'd love to include that if I get around to doing a new version of this. Thanks!
@@guitar_md I'm curious if installing the EZ LOK Threaded Inserts (from your other video) would make this string tension loosening/tightening trick ineffective. I'm guessing this trick works by a very slight reseating of the screws in the neck and if there are metal inserts, there would be no play to adjust for the tension of strings on the neck/body connection?
After watching your EZ LOK video, I'm interested in installing them on my neck but I would like that extra connection one can get from loosening/tightening screws under string tension. What do you think?
Wow, excellent job.
Thank you so much!
Hi! This video is very helpful, but I got a question: i have a 10yo low cost stratocaster and i noticed the neck is too hight... but it's not flat, it's angled so strings still buzz in the nut, but also very high near the body. So, the solution is to sand the neck pocket in order to reach a flat angle?
First, the most important thing is to measure these three points:
Relief @ 7th fret
Action @ 12th fret
Action @ 1st fret
An angled neck pocket is not necessarily a bad thing. I may be wrong, but I don't think neck angle has any impact on anything aside from action.
That is, adjusting neck angle is not going to affect the action any differently than adjusting the height at the nut or saddles.
If the neck pocket is *uneven* due to finish buildup, or being routed too roughly -- then flattening it can be a huge help. If the pocket is flat, but merely angled, this should not be an issue.
Check the relief @ 7th, action @ 12th, and action @ 1st.
My personal go-to specs on my guitars are: .000" - .002" relief at the 7th fret, around .046" to .050" Low E string, .045" A string, .038" D string, then .030" for the GBE at the 12th fret.
And first fret, .015" wound strings, .009" treble strings. Or .018" wound strings, .012" treble strings. That's a good range to keep them within. .020" is OK on the Low E but around .018" is a good standard 'low action.' .015" can be buzzy on the wound strings if you play with more than a light attack.
But go by those three specs. Set your neck relief first. Then capo at the 1st fret to take the nut out of the equation. Set the action at the 12th or 17th fret with the capo on the 1st.
Then remove the capo at the 1st and file the nut slots down until the desired 1st fret action is reached.
You only need to mess with the neck pocket if it's truly *uneven* from a poor job by the manufacturer or builder, or if you're unable to get the setup specs you want, for example, if the saddles run out of adjustment room.
There are more tips that go beyond this, but these are the basics. Your neck angle is likely OK if your setup specs are within your desired range.
I do recommend clearing the neck pocket holes. But only flatten the pocket if it's absolutely necessary. I'm currently working on designing a neck pocket routing baseplate to attach to a Dremel tool, which is a more advanced version of the one I've used in my videos.
But most of the time it's not necessary. I clear the neck pocket holes on 100% of bolt-on neck guitars I work on. I probably only have to rout the neck pocket on maybe 2% of the bolt-on neck guitars that I work on.
@@guitar_md Man, you're a genius, thanks for your help. I'll try your tips, it's kinda difficult to set my nut and action since I'm testing a heavy string gauge (.13), but it's a really good start point. Thanks a lot ^^
@@RuTnVI Sure thing! Let me know what you find. You can also use discarded pieces of clipped strings as feeler gauges to check your action. This can work great in a pinch.
Any of the action specs I provided, you can test with a feeler gauge or a clipped string end. Remember: relief first, then capo the 1st fret and set the action at the 12th or 17th, then remove the capo, and set the 1st fret action. You can really fine tune everything after that procedure if you're obsessive like I am.
Feel free to ask if you need any advice or help again!
outstanding video
Thank you!
such a great video!
Thank you!
Screw wax! Surprised name wasn’t already taken 😂😂
I know, right? I almost thought it was a joke when I saw it. I was like....no way. Apparently it was up for grabs!