Velarian

I'll post 'em separately! Give me a moment 😊

Not sure what happened to the photos in that last post, normally they just embed but they're showing as downloads for some reason?

The neck is now united with the body 😀 Here are the steps so far: - 1. I started with some 4.5mm down and needed to reduce it to just over 4mm to fit the holes so I stuck it in the pillar drill and used some 180 grit sandpaper to slim it down 2. Then I cut them in to approximate lengths and shaped one end to try and penetrate the holes as deep as possible 3. I put some glue in the holes and on the dowls themselves and tapped them home. After a few hours I trimmed the excess lengths with a wood chisel. This was a bit messy and I scratched up the finish on the heel of the neck unfortunately, but no one's looking there right? 😉 4. Next I held the neck in the pocket of the body and used a 4mm brad point drill bit through the body, which fit the holes nicely without much movement, to mark the position of the holes on the neck. 5. Then it was time to drill the holes! I clamped the neck to a slab of polystyrene. I didn't shape this because the neck just embedded in to it. 6. I used a spirit level and set square to get things as level as possible and perpendicular to the drill bit. I also set the drill so that the maximum travel matched the depth of the hole I wanted.However, polystyrene thing was quite tricky and wasn't really ideal because there was some movement (I'd seen a video on YouTube which suggested using a fretboard sanding block matching the radius of the fret board and that would have been a good idea if I'd had one!). In the end I gauged the pressure I was placing on the neck as I was holding it and made allowance for that and just went for it! Not quite the precisely controlled procedure I'd had in mind and the end result was a bit messy but it worked well enough. 7. I'm pleased with the finished result as the screws are tight and solid and the whole thing fits perfectly.

That’s a great idea, thanks.

I’m weighing up all sorts of possibilities so these suggestions are helping me to focus on the right approach. First things first, I need the right drill bit and some decent clamps would help, so just popping down to ScrewFix to get sorted. 🙂

Thanks, I’ve just had a quick look but most of them seem to be for supporting the back of neck whilst working on the fretboard. However, I need to support it upside down to drill the holes in the heel. I’ll be giving it a go later today so I’m sure I can come up with a way of keeping it flat and stable.

Thanks for the timely tips once again. All useful stuff to help me avert disaster 😂 I was thinking about how to hold the neck in position using the pillar drill given that it’s not flat underneath. I’ll see if I can knock up some kind of rest to hold it.

Quick update. I managed to get the neck holes plugged yesterday. I’m going to try drilling the new holes and mounting the neck on the body tomorrow.

Chrome would be my choice. The plastic knobs look a bit anaemic to me.

Call me obtuse but it’s not clear to me how this actually works 🤔. The things I’ve circled in red below appear to be acting like mini capos clamping the string to the zero and -1(?) frets. If this is the case then is there a mechanism to release each of these to get to Eb and D?

Wow, that’s different! Can we see a closer picture of the headstock please?

Or should it be tomorrow is today?

Not yet. I had to spend the weekend staying with my old mum so didn’t get chance to work on it. However, I was rummaging in her shed checking out my late dad’s stuff and managed to snaffle a nice pillar drill and a workbench which will come in handy when it comes to drilling the new holes, as well as the bridge holes, with some accuracy. I’ve got some 4.5mm dowling which should be just right for plugging the existing holes. I just need to find a quiet moment to sort it out. I’m not in any rush though and I’d rather get my ducks in a row first to minimise the chance of bodging things 😉

I was recently trying to learn the bass line to San Lorenzo from the first PMG album. I managed to nail the first few bars but it turns out it’s a lot harder than my meagre skills will allow for right now. 😟 I first discovered his music in the early eighties when my mate’s brother played the Travels album for us and I’ve been listening ever since. Been fortunate to see him live many times and he’s my absolute favourite musician. Come to think of it I packed in bass playing the first time round not long after - I probably realised I’d never get to that standard of musicianship and gave it up as a bad job 😂

Awesome interview with Pat Metheny here. Just to keep it bass related, there’s a lot of discussion about Jaco too.

I’ve just discovered that the holes on a neck I’m matching to a new body are a couple of mils out and will have to plug and redrill. The neck itself fits the pocket exactly though which is a good thing. In both cases they’re designed to be direct replacements for the original parts but I guess these things are not made to exacting tolerances and even Fender models from different factories will be a little different. Presumably a few mils or so change to the scale length is still within the tolerance of the adjustment available with the bridge saddles?

All great advice thanks. Good point about the thread carrying the glue. I’ll go with a bodge on the nut initially and then fit a new one when the build is finished.

Another problem with the neck is the nut which seems to be excessively filed on the E string. Unless there’s any way to salvage this I’m thinking I need a new nut too?

Thanks. The holes are around 4mm. It almost seems counter-intuitive to make the existing holes bigger but it does make sense to end up a clean hole of a known size to work with. 🙂

I’ve not done any more with this yet other than think about my plan of attack. The next steps are: - 1. Mount the neck 2. Test fit the pickups 3. Sort out the bridge placement to get the alignment with the pickups and neck and the scale length right. So the first challenge with the neck is that existing holes in the heel are just a couple of millimetres different to the holes in the body (the red dot in the picture shows the centre of where the new hole would be). As the new holes would overlap with the existing ones I’m guessing I’ll have to plug them first. Can any one advise on the best way to do this please?