Dealing with a 25.0" scale body

BlackLantern

BlackLantern

New member
Hey there everybody, I am currently putting together a set-neck semi-hollow for a friend and I have a problem: The bridge posts are pre-drilled for a 25.0" scale (like PRS). Needless to say I'm finding it a challenge to find a 25.0" scale neck, let alone one that will fit AND has a maple fingerboard AND is within their price range (give or take $300).

This is probably a HUGE mistake but 25.0 is only 0.25" away from Les Paul scale. If I had enough room on the bridge to position the tune-o-matic saddles up a 0.25", would that work? I may have just as difficult a time finding such a bridge, but at least I'd have another option. Has anyone else had to deal with this type of scale length issue?

Thanks in advance!
 
Re: Dealing with a 25.0" scale body

is plugging the bridge post holes and redrilling not an option?
 
Re: Dealing with a 25.0" scale body

Plugging it would look kinda gross. I'm going to have to have to clear coat the body. It's an option, but I'd rather not, especially since a 1/4" move would leave a pretty big gap.

The body was bought. There's no way in Hell I would have made it 25.0" scale.
 
Re: Dealing with a 25.0" scale body

I don't think you could use a Gibson scale neck in that scenario and have it work out.

What about a Carvin neck? Don't they do the 25" scale thing? I know they make bolt-on neck kits...maybe they would have something that would work for you?

Have you checked to see how much it would cost to have a luthier make you a neck?
 
Re: Dealing with a 25.0" scale body

I looked into Carvin, but their after-market necks are all 25.5". This is a set neck body, which actually brings up another question: would slapping a heel onto a bolt neck solve the issue? Not that I have found a 25.0" bolt on, yet, but it seems like it would be a Helluva lot easier.

A luthier built neck would run upwards of $400. I've contacted Ed Roman, USACustom and BYOGuitars, amongst others, of the 3 I mentioned, BYO comes close, but it has the wrong type of heel.

I've looked at a number of after-market set necks and a lot of them are all shaped as one piece to the neck shaft. But, some of them kinda look like bolt-on necks that had an extra piece of wood glued in position. Am I crazy, or is that really all it would take for that be an option?

I probably should have asked that initially. Thanks for reminding me.
 
Re: Dealing with a 25.0" scale body

BlackLantern said:
I've looked at a number of after-market set necks and a lot of them are all shaped as one piece to the neck shaft. But, some of them kinda look like bolt-on necks that had an extra piece of wood glued in position. Am I crazy, or is that really all it would take for that be an option?
Click to expand...

They look like that for the purposes of not wasting wood. A thinner piece of wood is used for the neck shaft, and then the extra thickness for the heel is glued on, to avoid having to waste almost an entire 2nd neck shaft's worth of wood by carving the whole thing out of 1 thick piece.

But yes, getting a bolt-on neck and attaching a heel is certainly an option. Crusty Philtrum (a member here) did exactly that on a Les Paul build he did. turned out very well for him. See here: https://forum.seymourduncan.com/sho...uilds-A-Les-Paul-(How-Not-To-Build-A-Guitar-)

It's kinda weird that you wouldn't get a neck at the same time as the body, or at least plan out all the components before ordering stuff, ESPECIALLY with a set neck/hollowbody, because they are a lot more finicky to deal with than a straight ahead bolt on solidbody.

If you can't find an appropriate bolt on neck, I think your best bet is to get a neck blank with the right sized heel/tenon, and glue on a 25" scale pre-slotted or pre-fretted fretboard.

Another alternative is this: http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Bodies,_necks,_wood/Electric_guitar_necks/Through-body_Guitar_Neck.html
you could just cut off the through-body section and carve out the tenon/heel yourself, trim the fretboard down if you don't need the 24 frets, shape the headstock to your liking and done. But you are limited to the wood choices there.

Either of those methods will require some very careful measurement and accurate cutting/shaping
 
Last edited:
Re: Dealing with a 25.0" scale body

I didn't buy it. It was purchased by someone who had a very set plan in mind, but not a lot of attention to detail. Basically they are having me put together a Starcaster-like guitar. Never mind the scale and set neck and core wood (mahogany). If it did come with a neck, it was probably discarded or sold because it didn't have a maple board or the headstock wasn't right...something of that sort. I asked earlier and he said something regarding there was no neck and later on in the conversation he said something about the neck being "wrong". It would have been useful to have though, coz I could always saw the heel off and use it on the "right" neck. Or pull the board off....which, I have never done before and it sounds like a pain, especially if there's binding and whatnot. But, I don't really know, it's not available to me.

Thanks for the confirmation on the heel gluing thing, that may be my best option.
 
Re: Dealing with a 25.0" scale body

ahhhh. crappy situation to be in, but it's not a totally lost cause. It'll just take a bit more effort to get it right, that's all.

Best of luck!
 
Re: Dealing with a 25.0" scale body

ERM... Let's be real careful here, and make sure everybody's talking about the same thing...

This is a set-neck showing the tenon... that block under the fingerboard is not glued on, it's routed out from the neck blank.

251_p23583.jpg


This is showing building up the neck heel with blocks, that are glued on.

heelSquare.JPG


BlackLantern, can you post a pic of the body you're working with? How much is a matching neck from the same manufacturer?
 
Re: Dealing with a 25.0" scale body

...coincedentally, an acoustic neck that has a built up heel like that, has the tenon cut from the same laminated area. It's perfectly fine to do it that way, as long as the joints are all tight. Wood glue joints, when done right, are usually stronger than most woods.
 
Re: Dealing with a 25.0" scale body

I'm also a little curious as to how you know it is a 25" scale, but you don't have the neck? Tested with other necks? Going by your buddy's memory?

Good luck!
 
Re: Dealing with a 25.0" scale body

I know it's 25.0" because I have a 25.5" neck that I borrowed to determine the heel size. It doesn't line up properly. I also took a 24.75 bolt-on neck to see if that was the scale. It was closer, but not right. So, I determined it was 25.0". I have pictures of the body and the two necks I used for comparison. The heel on the neck on the right is the correct size, but it will not line up at the 12th fret. The one on the left is the 24.75" and you can kinda see the neck shaft is pretty much identical minus the heel.
Starcaster.jpgSCnecks.jpg
 
Re: Dealing with a 25.0" scale body

As far as the manufacturer goes, the closest thing I've seen is BYOGuitars. They have a set neck 25.00" scale neck they can custom build, but the heel is for like a solid body PRS type thing. This is looking like the way I'm going to go and just fix the heel.
 
Re: Dealing with a 25.0" scale body

Ah, the Languedoc copy kits... I'm guessing he wanted a 3x3 headstock instead of the 6 in-line? They do look a little bit like a vulture beak.

If he still has it, he might have to bite the bullet and use the neck that came with it. Thee are several other variables besides scale length to take into account when building a setneck - neck width (which I'm assuming was a relatively decent fit with the others you tried - you want it Tight, but not TIGHT), neck angle, and height (so you can get good action).
 
Re: Dealing with a 25.0" scale body

Languedoc? I'll have to look that up. No, he wanted a big-strat type headstock and a maple fingerboard. Everything else was not an issue. And even the headstock was negotiable, but, those were the preferences. The back of the body is Mahogany and has binding, so I thought a mahogany neck with binding would be cool. But he said all maple and no binding was fine too.
 
Re: Dealing with a 25.0" scale body

Don't look up Languedoc. You'll only end up trying to figure out how to hoc all your guitars to get one...

ocelot-languedoc-full.jpg


See?
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top