# Building Problem... Need Advice



## Blair Dunlop (Feb 17, 2017)

I've built a few electric guitars over the years and mean only a few, it's basically a hobby I had as a teenager and I'm now retired The present build has me stumped with respect to what's wrong, I've looked at a few videos and tried some things but can't quite get to the cause of the problem. 

It's a Tele style build with a vintage style 6 saddle bridge everything lines up fine. I've got it strung up but the strings are touching the frets almost the full length of the neck which I've never seen before. The neck looks dead straight when sighting down the length form the body and I know there should be at least a touch of relief in it. I've tried adjusting the saddles up and down, forward and back with no real results. I've screwed up one neck already by misadjusting the truss rod, boing...

Any suggestions on where to go from here would be appreciated.


----------



## Chito (Feb 17, 2006)

Maybe you need to put a shim where you screw the neck to the body.


----------



## Milkman (Feb 2, 2006)

If the strings are laying on the neck, you would need to adjust your saddles upward. If you don't have enough travel with the saddle adjustment screws you may need to remove wood from the neck heel or the neck pocket on the body.

The neck has to go down or the saddles have to go up.

A couple of good pictures would help us to understand the problem.


----------



## Paul Running (Apr 12, 2020)

Proper clearance on the first fret? If not, may need some nut adjustment.


----------



## Lincoln (Jun 2, 2008)

Is your neck pocket deep enough? How much of the neck is sticking up above the surface of the body? I like to see about 0.200" to 0.250", not counting the pick guard.

Other than that, it's shim time


----------



## nnieman (Jun 19, 2013)

I think your neck pocket needs to be deeper.
Or you need a shim.
Sometime those 6 saddles bridges can be way lower profile than a classic 3 saddle.

Nathan


----------



## Erick1987 (Feb 16, 2017)

I ran into the same sort of problem with my first Warmoth "build". I just used a stain to seal the body and didn't think to account for missing thickness of a normal paint job/clear coat. The saddles couldn't adjust enough. I guess you could shim the bridge if it's hardtail, but a router to the neck pocket is most likely what's needed. You could shave down the actual heel of the neck as well I guess but I think that could go wrong very quickly.


----------



## tomee2 (Feb 27, 2017)

What body and neck did you use? 

Someone here pointed out once that certain body makes use a different neck pocket depth.
I forget which brand it was and I'm not going guess at it..
That might be the issue...


----------



## SWLABR (Nov 7, 2017)

Had the same thing with my "Pink Nightmare" (Strat) build. I made the neck pocket deeper.


----------



## Blair Dunlop (Feb 17, 2017)

Thanks to all of you, I'll try various things and will repost to what worked the best...


----------



## tomee2 (Feb 27, 2017)

SWLABR said:


> Had the same thing with my "Pink Nightmare" (Strat) build. I made the neck pocket deeper.
> 
> View attachment 410793


You know... that looks a lot easier to manage vs hand held router from above.


----------



## SWLABR (Nov 7, 2017)

tomee2 said:


> You know... that looks a lot easier to manage vs hand held router from above.


Yup.


----------



## sjp (11 mo ago)

Reading the responses here and thinking a bit, the least dangerous thing you could do is shim the bridge. It's a pretty easy thing to try and will tell you what you need to know about the geometry problems the neck and body have. Best thing is you can reverse it if it's either not working or you just don't like the result and you still have the other methods to fall back on. 

Trouble with routing the body is that you are forever paired with that neck or facing more shim problems of a different kind in the future. Likewise shaving the neck pairs it with the neck pocket of this specific body. This is the LAST thing I would do as you might want to just trade the neck or body. Good luck.


----------



## SWLABR (Nov 7, 2017)

Can't disagree with ^^^^ but I think I have made the body universal to most necks. I measured the neck, it was "normal". The body was not. 

Specific to my case maybe, but that's what worked.


----------



## sjp (11 mo ago)

SWLABR said:


> Can't disagree with ^^^^ but I think I have made the body universal to most necks. I measured the neck, it was "normal". The body was not.
> 
> Specific to my case maybe, but that's what worked.


I see, so if the pocket was basically out of whack then you've done the right thing. Hope it works out for you. Twang that thing!


----------



## SWLABR (Nov 7, 2017)

sjp said:


> I see, so if the pocket was basically out of whack then you've done the right thing. Hope it works out for you. Twang that thing!


I did a "build thread" on the number of things that guitar put me through. I don't regret any of it, plays and sounds great. But it was a challenge.


----------



## tomee2 (Feb 27, 2017)

SWLABR said:


> I did a "build thread" on the number of things that guitar put me through. I don't regret any of it, plays and sounds great. But it was a challenge.


Ok, then you were the person with neck pocket issue I was thinking of.


----------



## alwaysflat (Feb 14, 2016)

I'm surprised nobody asked how deep the pocket is, or how thick the neck is. If all is good, and no tilt in the pocket, look for sprouting wood from the thru holes (body) or the neck that might be putting a tilt on it. If your body holes are too small for your screws you can get some pushing out of wood into pocket.


----------



## Blair Dunlop (Feb 17, 2017)

Well Folks, 
I ended up having to put a 2 shims in neck pocket as it was too deep. Adjusted the truss rod 1/4 turn counter clockwise, and then moving the saddles back and forth and up and down to get it so it would play properly... 
Thanks again for all the suggestions!!!


----------



## Silvertone (Oct 13, 2018)

Blair Dunlop said:


> Well Folks,
> I ended up having to put a 2 shims in neck pocket as it was too deep. Adjusted the truss rod 1/4 turn counter clockwise, and then moving the saddles back and forth and up and down to get it so it would play properly...
> Thanks again for all the suggestions!!!


How can the neck pocket be too deep if the strings are resting on the frets? I'm sorry but up until this post it seemed as though your neck pocket was too shallow.

Cheers Peter.


----------



## Milkman (Feb 2, 2006)

Silvertone said:


> How can the neck pocket be too deep if the strings are resting on the frets? I'm sorry but up until this post it seemed as though your neck pocket was too shallow.
> 
> Cheers Peter.


That's exactly what I was thinking.

It doesn't make sense to me.

I'm glad the problem is solved, but if the strings were too low ("laying on the frets")I'm at a loss to understand how shims in the neck pocket would solve that.

Shims under the bridge maybe, (although that would not be my choice for a solution).

I would have expected shims between the neck and the pocket would make it worse.


----------



## Blair Dunlop (Feb 17, 2017)

I had to raise the pocket depth to get the neck sitting higher, so the strings would be slightly higher. I also changed the nut as it was too low.....


----------



## greco (Jul 15, 2007)

I am SO lost at this point.


----------



## Blair Dunlop (Feb 17, 2017)

All I can say at this point is that it work fine now.....


----------



## tomee2 (Feb 27, 2017)

Blair Dunlop said:


> I had to raise the pocket depth to get the neck sitting higher, so the strings would be slightly higher. I also changed the nut as it was too low.....


The replaced nut fixed your low string problem. The shim just means you need to raise the bridge more.


----------



## 2N1305 (Nov 2, 2009)

Trick question for you all: What is the thickness of a Stratocaster (original, say 1962) body?

What is the thickness of a strat-style neck?

... makes you think, eh?


----------



## laristotle (Aug 29, 2019)

I'm guessing that it was deep at the top of the body, not at heel of the neck?


----------

