Luthier Question

[mikesr1963]

I'm practicing some stuff on the box of guitars I purchased. One of the things I'm working with are striped mounting screws on a neck. Of course I read my repair manual about drilling out the holes and gluing in hard-wood dowels then drilling the correct size hole in that and mounting the guitar. Preparing a list of things I would need and taking measurements with a digital caliper I found the screws to be #8's with a beveled head. measuring I found the hole were striped to a #10 screw size. So I cleaned them out and bought 4 #12 screws ($1.95 stainless) and cut them to the correct length and when it was all done I had an incredibly tight connection of the neck and body. Seems like a reasonable and inexpensive repair and if you removed and attached a neck enough times to have a screw strip I would think the other 3 would be on the verge of pulling through as well.

 

[mikesr1963]

 

[Bob411]

Yes.

 

[335clone]

The big screw heads would bother me quite a bit, I'd think. Did you consider enlarging the countersink in the plate?

 

[mikesr1963]

The big screw heads would bother me quite a bit, I'd think. Did you consider enlarging the countersink in the plate?

No, didn't consider it. Rubbing my hand over it it doesn't bother me. If I did anything I would use a dremal and make the screw head smaller from the bottom side. Drilling out the plate will make the edges of the holes to thin and you risk breakage.

 

[jp_nyc]

If it doesn’t bother you than go for it. But the wood you sunk those big screws into is already damaged from the old ones, so eventually it will probably still need to be drilled out and replaced.

I don’t remember who makes them, but there are special steel nuts you can sink into the body if you plan on removing the neck often.

 

[mikesr1963]

If it doesn’t bother you than go for it. But the wood you sunk those big screws into is already damaged from the old ones, so eventually it will probably still need to be drilled out and replaced.

I don’t remember who makes them, but there are special steel nuts you can sink into the body if you plan on removing the neck often.

I drilled out the old threads already. The #12 screws cut their own fresh threads in the wood.

 

[mikesr1963]

I don’t remember who makes them, but there are special steel nuts you can sink into the body if you plan on removing the neck often.

I looked into these too and could get them at Lowe's similar to the photo. I first looked up helicoils that I've used on metal in the past. I'm going to put a TusQ nut on it and if that goes well I most likely will not take the neck off again unless absolutely needed for repairs.

 

[335clone]

I looked into these too and could get them at Lowe's similar to the photo. I first looked up helicoils that I've used on metal in the past. I'm going to put a TusQ nut on it and if that goes well I most likely will not take the neck off again unless absolutely needed for repairs.

Some type of bridge bushing would work well too.