Hot-Mod Your Guitar: Adjusting Neck Alignment

[@Mystovski]

Thank you, rarely does anybody post something so professional.

[@louisliu2432]

mystovski check out crimson guitar

[@rogward]

Absolutely brilliant. Thanks very much. Just built a tele and had the top e too close to the edge of the fretboard. Now fixed! Fantastic help and superbly explained. :-)

[@jarrodhroberson]

Man you are a creative genius in using what you have at hand to do what you need. A British McGuyver for luthiers!

[@AutoRiff]

Great video. Fully convinced me that I have enough woodworking aptitude to know that I can absolutely...take my guitar to a qualified technician.

[@davidphillips2151]

Very good, very useful video. From my own experiences of building partscasters, I would agree with everything he says. My own trick is: I buy some wooden barbeque sticks from my supermarket, they are usually made of bamboo which has a similar density as maple, & they will fit pretty snugly into the original neck holes leaving only the slightest gap.

[@sheumack]

Greetings from 2019. Thanks for this. About to join body and neck for a partscaster tele project, and this gives me confidence to pull it together.

[@LeonardoLima-nk4fv]

same here! 2020 thanks

[@anejo333]

You Sir are my Savior today. Thank You so much for saving my project

[@stevenvicino8687]

Setting up my kit Explorer. How to attach my bolt-on neck? I put a broken-off wooden matchstick or toothpick into each neck screwhole along with a drop of good wood glue. Bolt the neck on but don't tighten. The ground-up wood and glue make a slurry around the hole. Fills in any pockets. Then I string up with waxed dental floss. Very cheap and flexible, yet strong. Only the E,D,G and high E. Now I've got a good guideline. Sight down the D and G and you'll see the center dots and whether they align with the strings. Now you can push or pull the neck to correct that alignment. Gently tighten the neck bolts and use some strong tape across either neck or body to hold that position. A criss-cross pattern is best. Set it down flat and go find something else to do for a day or two. Being nice to women, children and animals are strongly recommended.

[@scottsunderwater]

These are my favourite videos on this subject as you cover all the possible faults. So many are just a guy assembling a guitar and either aligns perfectly first go or else there is one fault which he fixes, which is of little use if yours is different.

[@steveglazener9733]

Many thanks as well! Love Simon's professional yet pragmatic approach. Best regards.

[@genepoole1771]

Greetings from 2023. In the video you said that altering the neck pocket was covered in another video. Could you please post a link? P.s. the content is very helpful and clearly communicated.

[@ThomasDeLello]

I am refurbishing a 20 year old Squier Stratocaster and all of my work looks very satisfactory. But now it is time for me to attach a new neck to an old body and I need some guidance. I'd like to get that .pdf you refer to in the video at 0:50 on the time dial but it looks line your web site is offline now. What to do...??? I'd like to have your .pdf on this but your web site id off line now.

[@Satchmoeddie]

Some of that bamboo is very hard. I use the drill as a lathe trick a lot. One of my favorites is running a part in the drill spinning it as I grind on it with a bench grinder. Send me some good triple stout! Cheers! Not my every day drink of choice, but it has been quite some time since I had any.

[@Williampreza]

Great set of videos. Can't find vid number 3 though?

[@thecentralscrutinizerr]

Instead of using wooden dowels to fill the neck holes, I used wood filler and compressed it into the holes using an old business card. I had a small crack in the neck that ran right through one of the neck holes. I used an epoxy putty that dries rock hard to fill that hole, after I clamped out the crack with a little wood glue.

[@dextertheg]

love your verbal flow chart method :D

[@DHgtr1]

Great video..I have some of these same problems and now I have an idea how to work it out..the chopstick was a strock of genius..as well as the way you sized it,,,THANKS DH

[@scottsunderwater]

By the way- a good source of dowels (using the power drill lathe to size them of course) are golf tees.

[@beachcomber2008]

Great advice. This is exactly what I'm about to HAVE to do.

[@JoakimSeverinsen]

Great stuff. Which is the video that shows how to alter the neck pocket btw? Couldn't find it :)

[@rogerestima538]

Really amazing video. Great explanations. Thank you 👌 good job

[@Badhands55]

Engineering here seems reasonable and correct- I had the exact same problem- vintage bridge string spacing too wide both e strings too close to the edge, I could shim the neck to give a little more real estate for the high e , or simply refret the neck and leave more material as opposed to beveling the frets as much and so on- my solution ( and the easiest fix ) was to simply purchase a callaham vintage narrow bridge- has the correct screw spacing, but 52.5mm string spacing . Problem solved. Great video btw-

[@bordebomb6631]

Excellent video, informative, concise and v.helpful. Thanks for posting

[@randallbarger5319]

Where do you place your tape measure the get the proper scale of the neck ?

[@AllenPinchloaf]

My EJ strat has the problem of both e strings falling off the edge.Narrow bridge the answer?

[@danielpatrickhuliganga5614]

thanks, I do it correctly but there are fret buzz in the 14th fret , g string and d string.. please reply

[@rickyperaza411]

I hope you were able to fix it!

[@jazzydog]

This is very useful video. Thank you for doing this. Cheers.

[@runningwithscissors0911]

Excellent!

[@guitarpoetone1]

This video is so informative thank u

[@jeffcass13]

How to set up telecaster bridge

[@wilburmartos6203]

brilliant video! thanks so much!!

[@drebrose1983]

king of rig!

[@erockscott1184]

Why Don't you just put the bit in the hole and put tape on the bit as a drill depth marker??

[@wearytraveler3524]

The chop sticks are made from Okoume!

[@jaybee7291]

Never had a problem aligning a guitar neck....... 1st E sting and 6th E string on tells you all you need to do and guage from there to centralise neck.

[@RattlecanGuitarRestorations]

LOL....if you have x-ray vision. Good video, well done.

[@ManfredElsingBielefeld]

good video,i have the same shit with a mexico Strat but i dont know somebody who can correct this....

[@gstube1]

Chopsticks are made from Bamboo no?

[@almfoto]

Your method of taping the bit is way too difficult. Great tips on plugging the holes. And nice disclaimer...

[@DougHinVA]

Snarky and fake-humor is not useful. Skip it for a pro's help. 'without letting go, tighten the 4 screws...' is easy to say and nearly impossible to do. Skip it... it is a non-solution.

[@rickyperaza411]

Awesome video thanks so much!!!