Advice on..

[tom1946]

Fitting a new neck to my CV-P

I've ordered a mighty mite maple jazz neck off ebay that I plan to fit to my CV-Precision.
I know how to drill holes carefully and I know how to make lemon drizzle cake too but knowing the best way to hold it all still.... well, I need advice please.

Any help or tips gratefully received.

thank you.

[LawrenceH]

Sounds a bit trite writing this, but a sturdy workbench, clamps and plenty of padding!

[brensabre79]

measure the length of the screw, make the hole length very slightly less by putting a bit of electrical tape on the drill bit so you know when to stop.
put the neck in position and hold it there (should be a tight fit), turn bass upside down onto a towel on a solid, level worktop. Clamp the body down to the worktop (it should be pushing the neck down too but leave the neck plate area clear) drill through the holes in the heel of the body into the neck with a smaller bit (than the holes in the body) to mark the position and guide the woodscrew.
Put the neck plate in place and screw down each screw through body into the neck until you feel it grip. Then go in diagonal opposites and screw them down a bit at a time to even the tension untll its all nice and tight. Don't be tempted to use your drill as a screwdriver for this job unless you can go really slow with it, even so this is better done by hand IMO

Good luck! show us some pics when you're done...

[henry norton]

The main thing is to clamp the neck into the pocket in exactly the place you want it. Once you've done this the neck plate screws are pretty much self tapping and can be screwed straight into the neck through the existing body holes. A bit of candle wax on the tips of the screws helps allot with screwing them in. Pilot holes can help but aren't essential and just add another process that can go wrong.

Anyway, what about a recipe for this lemon drizzle cake????

[tom1946]

Very good advice, thanks very much for that i feel a lot more confident about having a go.

Henry, can you already make a victoria type sponge cake?

[whizzzy]

I've just been through a similar exercise with a bitsa P bass I'm making and the way I approached it (rightly or wrongly) was to position the neck in situ, clamping it if you can do this successfully without marking the body or neck and then to pilot and fix one screw into place. Tighten the screw reasonably tight but not to its final torque and then carefully turn the bass over so as not to stress the joint and then start to fit the G and E strings. There's no need to fit them on the machine heads but simply thread them through the bridge and locate them in the nut and then tension them by hand.

The reason for this is to ensure that the neck is located straight and that it doesn't run out at an angle. You should be able to see this by checking the distance between the strings and the left and right side of the neck. If all is well then pilot and fix the other screws however if you find that the neck does run out but a mm or two then you should find there is sufficient flex in the joint to coax it into the correct position. Obviously if the neck runs out by more than 3 - 4 mm then something is radically wrong and you need to remove the first fixing screw and start again.

Hope this helps.

[LawrenceH]

[quote name='henry norton' timestamp='1324479462' post='1474770']
Pilot holes can help but aren't essential and just add another process that can go wrong.
[/quote]

If you don't have a good way of centring the bit, definitely agree! You could try making a 'pilot pilot' hole with the screws (held centred through the body) then deepen this with your pilot bit held straight.