Body corrections

[Steve Sawyer]

First, I suddenly have a suspiciously guitar-shaped object on my bench!

Second, after routing the neck to the correct profile, it was obvious that there is too much "meat" between the neck mortise and the cutaway. See the second pic below and the line I drew to indicate what the correct profile is.

How would y'all deal with this?

I could re-shape the template to match the desired curve and run this small space across the router, or I could just go at it with a gouge, rasp and files and fair the body into the heel by hand. Note that I will be cutting a binding channel on this body.

Finally, it appears that I only have about a 1/8" clearance under the neck pickup (actually, under the pole screws) when it's positioned as low as possible in the pup cavity. That means that I'll only have a 1/8" thick tongue from the neck tenon extending under the pickup. I know that the pickup will not sit this low when everything is assembled, and I could notch the "tongue" to clear the pole screws, but I understand that I really want to keep the tenon as long as possible. Open to advice/thoughts on this.

Thanks!

[Barry Daniels]

A spindle sander or a drum sander would make quick work of that. But certainly, files and rasps will also do the job.

I don't know what to tell you about the tenon situation. That is kind of an achilles heel of this design.

[Steve Sawyer]

A spindle sander or a drum sander would make quick work of that. But certainly, files and rasps will also do the job.

Hadn't thought of that, and I have a spindle sander. That would help keep the edge of the body square to the top.

I may play with the PUP some more - put the pickup ring on and adjust the PUP to what is likely to be my finished height and re-measure the clearance. It would be nice if I could leave the tongue as thick as a quarter inch. Any less and it's hard to see any benefit to it.

[Barry Daniels]

I support both of those ideas.

[John Clifford]

Steve, I can't tell for sure but it looks like you've got about 3" of tenon before you get to the pickup cavity. IMHO, that's plenty for a solid neck joint, especially on a relatively short scale Les Paul type instrument - assuming you have a good fit. I wouldn't worry about the rest.

[David King]

Perhaps the Gibson "breakaway headstock" innovation was invented to protect the frail neck joint?

[Bob Francis]

Perhaps the Gibson "breakaway headstock" innovation was invented to protect the frail neck joint?

Ha! That proves the "Bright side of everything" perspective.

[Steve Sawyer]

Steve, I can't tell for sure but it looks like you've got about 3" of tenon before you get to the pickup cavity. IMHO, that's plenty for a solid neck joint, especially on a relatively short scale Les Paul type instrument - assuming you have a good fit. I wouldn't worry about the rest.

Good eye. Just a tad over.

However, I found that if I mounted everything, I have about 1/2" of clearance below the pole screws. I was concerned though that I might not be able to get the under-string clearance I need, so I "notched" the tongue to clear the screws. Now I can screw the pup height down until it's flush with the ring, and no interference from the tenon.

[Steve Sawyer]

A spindle sander or a drum sander would make quick work of that

Oh yeah - that was the thing to do. Not perfect, but I can do a little tweaking once I glue the neck in.