electric guitar neck reset

[henryr]

Hi all,

It is not uncommon for an acoustic guitar to need a reset. Do electric guitars ever require neck resets? If they do, I imagine it would be easy on a bolt on neck but, what is done with a set neck? I believe set necks are glued on and I wonder what type of glue is used and how difficult a job it is? I'm particularly interested in how this issue may relate to PRS guitars.

Thanks
henryr

 

[jtougas]

Re: electric guitar neck reset

For setneck electrics, the process is exactly the same as for setneck (glued-in) acoustics: measure the amount of correction needed, *careful* disassembly, repair, and reassemble, tweak finish as needed.

 

[ajay taylor]

Re: electric guitar neck reset

How would You get at the glue to release the neck? I always thought that You'd have to trash the neck and chisel out the pocket. What do You do? Drill into the joint and steam it?

 

[jtougas]

Re: electric guitar neck reset

Basically - the traditional method is to (*carefully!!!!*) remove a few frets or inlays, and drill holes through to the neck pocket, insert a needle attached to a hose, and push steam in through that.

It helps to know your instrument *Very well*: how wide the tenon is, for instance, so that you can drill in the right spot to get the steam to the glue joint.

It also helps to have a metric buttload of specialized tools, which is why most people leave it to a luthier to do.

 

[henryr]

Re: electric guitar neck reset

Are bolt on necks easy? just unbolt or unscrew the neck, shim or remove wood as required, and bolt or screw back together. I'm thinking it might be good to buy a bolt on neck guitar if one plans to keep a it for ever.

 

[jtougas]

Re: electric guitar neck reset

*shrug* Neck resets aren't exactly routine maintenance... they're done one or twice in the life of the instrument. There are thousands of old instruments out there that have never had to have a neck reset done.

Now, if you're talking about having to adjust the trussrod, that's something you have to do on a fairly regular basis, and is infinitely easier to do. Depending on the construction of the instrument, you don't even have to remove the neck. But most guitars are designed with that adjustment in mind, since it can need to happen after changing strings, changes in the seasons, etc.

 

[BrianS.]

Re: electric guitar neck reset

Electric guitars with glued in necks are not constructed in a way that they can be easily reset. This is because they typically won't ever need to be reset.

An acoustic guitar constructed with a traditional dovetail neck joint is built in such a way that it can be taken apart. There is a gap between the dovetail tenon and the neck block into which steam can be injected to loosen the joint. This gap does not exist on an electric guitar mortise and tenon joint.

There are numerous reasons why an acoustic guitar might need a neck reset, mostly summed up by saying that the guitar is collapsing in on itself. A solid body electric guitar can't really collapse in on itself because it is...solid.

Bottom line: don't worry about ever having to do a neck reset on any electric guitar.

 

[DrNewcenstein]

Re: electric guitar neck reset

Yeah, I was gonna say, if you need to reset a set-in neck, you need a new guitar. If it's a USA PRS, send it to PRS, I'm sure they'd hook you up. At least they should, for the money they get for those things.

 

[henryr]

Re: electric guitar neck reset

There are many electric guitars with bolt on or screw on necks. I'm thinking of buying an electric I plan to keep for ever, so a bolt on might be a good choice, if a neck reset is ever needed. Are the necks easily removed by unbolting or unscrewing?

 

[jtougas]

Re: electric guitar neck reset

On bolt-ons, yeah. But as we've mentioned, that's no reason to limit yourself to getting a Strat or a Tele (or whatever). Get what sings to you. There are very real benefits to setneck or neckthrough instruments: better sustain, better tone, etc. Mostly, bolt-ons are made that way because it's easier and cheaper to build 'em that way. And if you snap the neck? Hey, take it off, bolt on a new one, and wail away.

As mentioned, a neck reset *is* very rare on solid body electrics - to the point that it means that something was wrong in the construction from the start. It's more common on acoustics, hollowbodies, semi-hollows - and it's usually after the instrument's been played for a few decades. Even then, it's not like you're going to need to have it done every five years or something.

 

[henryr]

Re: electric guitar neck reset

I was thinking of how best to attach a neck to the body of an electric guitar and the following thought struck me.

Using new 3D manufacturing techniques, actually called 3D printing, a one piece electric guitar, (body, neck, fret channels, holes for tuning machines, other hardware, electronics, pup cavities and recesses for decorative inlays), could be made of materials that lend themselves to, 3D manufacture, stresses of guitar strings and sound characteristics, possibly including carbon fiber.

Once a 3D computer model is completed the guitar could be exactly duplicated. This technique could be used for solid or hollow bodies.

I think the only thing missing would be the effect of hand carving of the internal surfaces of tops and backs on hollow body hi-end guitars. However features like internal braces could also be part of a computer model.

A library of 3d computer models of inlays and all other features could be made to allow differences in guitars. These features can be easily merged into a computer model of the basic guitar. Different body and neck shapes can also be computer modeled and stored in a computer library.

I think, if acoustic qualities can be achieved, the main benefit would be a guitar impervious to weather and changes associated with wood, over time, like warped necks ect. Other benefits would be elimination of most hand work, eliminating positioning errors/variations of bridge and nut mounting features, and basically consistency guitar to guitar. Another plus would be a reduction of trees cut down especially rain forest woods. Much of the wood ends up as saw dust.

 

[crusty philtrum]

Re: electric guitar neck reset

There are numerous reasons why an acoustic guitar might need a neck reset, mostly summed up by saying that the guitar is collapsing in on itself. A solid body electric guitar can't really collapse in on itself because it is...solid.

Bottom line: don't worry about ever having to do a neck reset on any electric guitar.

This is it, and as someone else mentioned, an acoustic will be decades old by the time it might need doing. It is quite a common thing that needs to be done on very old acoustics, because the body is a thin-walled box that is indeed collapsing in on itself. Conversely, as mentioned, a solid body doesn't normally start to fold up, so the neck-to-body angle is not going to change, even if the neck becomes severely warped, twisted or otherwise malformed and problematic.

 

[henryr]

Re: electric guitar neck reset

I agree that a solid body won’t collapse. I was just thinking of what may improve the transmission of vibrations or make the whole guitar vibrate as one. Sound quality, including sustain, would be the top priority and I think that would be helped short and long term by eliminating the problems, you mention in your last sentence, regarding the neck.

Another result of using 3D printing, I forgot to mention, would be replacing multi axis milling machines with 3D printers. No wasted wood/saw dust. Less scarf joints and heel attachments and maybe other, conventional manufacturing, aspects I haven't thought of.

 

[AlexR]

Re: electric guitar neck reset

I don't think you should worry about the method of neck attachment. I have all 3 typical methods and sustain is good on all 3. The 'tonal mating' of the various wood bits will always determine whether the guitar works as a whole, and is infinitely more important than neck attachment.

And if the 3D printer is making a guitar that isn't wood, then it won't have the same tonal characteristics. Whether or not the tone is 'good' will still be in the ears of the beholder.

As to avoiding setnecks simply because they 'might' need a reset is like buying a modern car based on how easy the engine is to rebuild........pretty much dead last on the 'relevance scale'

 

[crusty philtrum]

Re: electric guitar neck reset

You'll need to find good sources of quality tone plastic, you won't be able to use just any old cheap plastic.

 

[henryr]

Re: electric guitar neck reset

I agree and that's why I mentioned carbon fiber. I know titanium has been used for a number of years but it would be outrageously expensive. As an aside, I've machined bridges out of blocks of Ti, in my small machine shop and like the bell like sound. I'm familiar with the 3D adaptive process because, in my one and only job, as senior engineer, for 42 years, we ended up with a very large room with about six large machines dedicated to what is now called 3D printing, or adaptive manufacturing, and it worked in Ti. The company I worked for is one of the three largest aerospace companies in the world. We were one of the first to jump on the wagon of 3D adaptive build up of components and that started about 15 years ago so I imagine significant advances have occurred since then.

 

[henryr]

Re: electric guitar neck reset

I found a very interesting site about guitars. It is called Guitar Site and they have a section on graphite and carbon fibre electrics and acoustics. There is also a link to a related section at the bottom where a college student has been doing tests of guitars, made of different tone woods, with surprising results. It called "electric guitar wood myth busted"...interesting reading.