3 bolt neck fixes?

For guitars of the straight waisted variety (or reverse offset).
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JagWire
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3 bolt neck fixes?

Post by JagWire » Tue Feb 26, 2019 6:58 am

A friend of mine has a 3 bolt strat that tends to do what a lot of them do - shift in the neck pocket.

I'd like to recommend something for him to try to fix it. Is there a simple fix people do for these necks? It seems like shims might work.

Any advice welcome.

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MechaBulletBill
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Re: 3 bolt neck fixes?

Post by MechaBulletBill » Tue Feb 26, 2019 8:44 am

Yeah definitely go nuts with shims before doing anything else.

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jvin248
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Re: 3 bolt neck fixes?

Post by jvin248 » Tue Feb 26, 2019 10:04 am

.

get a little square of sandpaper and put that in the joint. Might use a couple of bits or fold so that the paper grips both faces of the neck and body.

Or a little more ghetto but probably works best, a little shake of salt in there, keep it level while clamping up. Or some sand grains.

I shake some salt between boards I am gluing up so they don't shift while tightening the clamps.

.

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timtam
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Re: 3 bolt neck fixes?

Post by timtam » Tue Feb 26, 2019 5:04 pm

JagWire wrote:
Tue Feb 26, 2019 6:58 am
A friend of mine has a 3 bolt strat that tends to do what a lot of them do - shift in the neck pocket.

I'd like to recommend something for him to try to fix it. Is there a simple fix people do for these necks? It seems like shims might work.

Any advice welcome.
Is he using the micro-tilt to tilt the neck, or if not is the tilt grub screw backed all the way out and the machine screw tightened all the way to secure the neck ? ie is a poorly adjusted tilt mechanism (that may not even be needed) the possible source of any neck shift ?

Fender's tilt mechanism was always a bad idea. If the neck actually needs tilting (why in this case ?) but is prone to shifting then a snug full-pocket Stewmac shim (get the blank one so it can be drilled for the 3 screw holes) is the way to go.
"I just knew I wanted to make a sound that was the complete opposite of a Les Paul, and that’s pretty much a Jaguar." Rowland S. Howard.

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JagWire
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Re: 3 bolt neck fixes?

Post by JagWire » Tue Feb 26, 2019 5:17 pm

All good places to start.

I may go get the guitar from him this weekend and see what I can't figure out from inspecting it.

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