Turning a bolt on into a set neck

[HolyDirt]

What elements are required to glue a bolt on neck in a guitar body's neck pocket, turning it into a set neck? are there supports in the neck/body?

[HolyDirt]

Re: Turning a bolt on into a set neck

and i should just use normal wood glue?

[what?]

Re: Turning a bolt on into a set neck

epoxy would work best. or even Bond-O.
make sure you wipe off all access, you want it nice and smooth.

[what?]

Re: Turning a bolt on into a set neck

ok, forget epoxy.

[HolyDirt]

Re: Turning a bolt on into a set neck

I'm not familiar with tool terms... what's a dowel and do i keep it in the neck/body permanently?

[what?]

Re: Turning a bolt on into a set neck

a dowel is a piece of wood that is almost perfectly round. (nothing can be truly, perfectly rounded) it costs a pretty penny sometimes, because of the "computer technology" used to create such a rounded edge to it.
you'll probably want to keep them in there to have somet6hing to fiil in those holes where the screws used to be.

[aleclee]

Why?

Just out of curiousity, why do you want to do this?

I don't buy into the line that says that a set neck guitar sustains better than a bolt-on. As for tone, it'll likely sound different but not necessarily "better". Finally, one of the really cool things about a lot of Strat-style guitars is that you can easily replace the neck: unscrew the old one, drill pilot holes in the new one and screw it on. With a set-neck guitar, it's so hard to remove the old neck that a broken neck is the only thing that might make it worth the effort.

IMHO, FWIW, YMMV.

[sanrafael]

Re: Turning a bolt on into a set neck

But if you really want to do it, I have a question. Why not just put the screws back in after putting the glue on? Seems to me you would get the neck back in the right position for sure, and I do not think leaving the screws in would hurt anything.

A liquid, rather than viscous, epoxy would work really well. Better not to use the five minute stuff; the longer cure stuff is gernerally stronger, and it gives you more time to get things just right. Should let it sit overnight in any case.

[rspst14]

Re: Turning a bolt on into a set neck

There's more to a set neck than just glue. Set necks have some type of dovetail joint/neck tenon for added stability. Just gluing a bolt on neck to the neck pocket won't give you the same tonal characteristics of a traditional set neck. For this reason, I would advise against doing this.

Ryan