Finding The Right Fit

Scott cameron on the right way to match a neck to a body for a partscaster project

SC Relics does lots of business with home-build guitar makers. For ease of construction, many of these home-builders choose to assemble Fender-style electrics from parts, because the bolt-on nature of these designs makes them relatively easy to get to grips with. But even bolt-on neck electrics have their hidden challenges, as Scott explains.

“Get the body and neck at the same time, from the same supplier,” Scott recommends. “Because the fit between them needs to allow for the finish, which people sometimes forget. For example, people will sometimes look at the specs of a neck and a body from two different suppliers and go, ‘Well, the neckpocket spec on this body says 56mm and this neck heel is listed as 56mm, too. Happy days.’ But if they’ve bought that neck and body from two separate places, when they put them together for the first time they’ll often find that, ‘Oh, it’s a bit of a squeeze, isn’t it?’”

Scott adds that although different suppliers may state their parts are made to standard dimensions, in practice those parts may be machined to different tolerances, leading to slight mismatches in size. This phenomenon is less common when the parts come from one maker who will typically have their own in-house quality control process to ensure all parts are properly compatible with one another.

“Then they heap on the nitro with an aerosol can in the shed,” Scott says, returning to the story of his fictional home-builder. “Two weeks later they go to put the neck and body together – because most people are impatient and want to put them back together while the nitro is still drying – and all of a sudden, it doesn’t fit any more because of all the lacquer on heel of the neck. So get the neck and body from the same place and make sure you can do a dry fit that leaves enough room for the lacquer.”