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I think I've screwed up, advice please.

This is my first build and I think I have messed it up already. I am using a Romeo & Juliet box and have just cut the slots to fit the neck, used a razor saw and needle file and it fits really snug, so far so good.

I then closed the lid and realised that it closed just as it's meant to. I realised that I had measured the depth of my neck cuts with the lid open and box face down on the table, If I had left the lid closed it would have meant I had to cut a piece out of the neck to allow the box lid to close and so have the top of the neck sitting flush with the top of the box, I hope this makes sense. I now have a neck that fits beautifully but a slight lip or step from the top of the box to the top of the neck that equates to the thickness of the lid.

My question is will this affect my being able to use this to learn to play slide? It was meant to be a fretless 3 string, I am hoping that I can compensate for what I see as a screw up in some way, have I ruined it beyond use, or does it matter at all?

If it was to have a fret board added this would probably even things up, but this was always meant to be a low budget try out to see if I could actually build one so I'm not about to spend any more money on it, now I'm pretty mad with myself for making such a stupid error.

Any advice gratefully received. Thanks guys

Midge

Lincoln, UK

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Tom "Broken E String" Sobieski on April 11, 2013 at 11:32pm

As I see it, basically the surface of the neck is raised about 1/8 inch? I don't think this will affect playing very much, if at all.

Permalink Reply by Hep Cat on April 11, 2013 at 11:46pm

Tom

Thanks for the reply, the surface of the neck is actually lowered by around an 1/8th, would that make a difference in your opinion?

Midge

Permalink Reply by Rouxdy Blues on April 11, 2013 at 11:51pm

It really won't matter, but I'd go ahead and glue a 1/4" piece of poplar on there... I put a fretboard on even if it's fretless. They run about 3 bucks at home depot.

Permalink Reply by Mark on April 12, 2013 at 1:59am

^this^ is what i would do. Wood glue and clamp a piece of oak or poplar to bring your neck flush with the top of the box again.

Permalink Reply by darryl kernaghan on April 11, 2013 at 11:49pm

another option,is to reduce top of neck under lid,raising it to required heght,the laminating a piece to the underside to fit your existing cut out,protruding an inch or so towards heat ,then taper to look like a neck bolster,this would maybe even strengthen the neck a little

Permalink Reply by Redbelly on April 12, 2013 at 12:10am

Should be ok as is. I think most of us have done something like this before. Putting on a fret board will make it look better and is good practice. Slide away mate, there are no rules!!!!.

Permalink Reply by Mr.C on April 12, 2013 at 12:05am

I'm in starts of a build I have lot of prosses pic on my pagev check them out they may help

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Permalink Reply by Tim LaFave on April 12, 2013 at 4:32am

If I'm understanding you correctly, it sounds like your neck is lower than the lid of the box? That is, not flush with the lid? In any case, you should still be able to play with a slide, so long as your strings clear the edge of the box. Your bridge may have to be set high to make this work. It will not be very attractive, but some builders use broom handles, which essentially means they're playing slide guitar "on air", so it can be done this way. But if this is the case concerning your build, you may still be able to correct it by cutting out the neck for the thickness of the lid, so that the neck is now flush with the lid, then adding a piece of wood filler under the neck to fill in the space left in the box cutout. This might be a much more pleasing solution than trying to cope with a low neck.

Permalink Reply by Hep Cat on April 12, 2013 at 7:26am

Tim, RedBelly, Darryl, Mark, Mr C

In fact all of you, Thanks for all your suggestions, they are very much appreciated. I could it seems just go ahead and leave it as is, BUT, I know it looks wrong and so I'm going to flush the neck surface with the lid top. As well as making it more aesthetically pleasing, it will also give me practice in some other areas of building, chopping out the neck to house the lid etc, then hopefully my next build with better box and sapele neck will turn out all the better for the experience gained. Thanks again, you guys are great.

Midge

Lincoln

Permalink Reply by MadGomer on April 13, 2013 at 4:32am

Hep Cat - I'm in the same boat with Darryl - I'd cut a relief out of the top of the neck to allow the face of the neck to be flush with the top of the lid, and then make up the difference on the back side of the neck by gluing on a thin piece which fills in the gap on your box. When you laminate this piece on, go ahead and make it a bit longer than the relief in the top side of the neck, and then sand it to blend in with the original neck 2-3" above the box. As Darryl indicated, this will help stiffen your neck a bit and allow you to keep a little lower string action due to the reduced bowing of the neck. Good luck!

Permalink Reply by Hep Cat on April 13, 2013 at 5:10am

Thanks for your input MadGomer.

I did some more work on it today and managed to cut out the neck relief for the lid to close flush with the surface of the neck, came out quite nicely considering my limited tools and zero woodwork experience. I had kept the two pieces of box that I had cut out to accommodate the neck so these have been fixed to the bottom of the neck, and along with the cutting of neck relief now bring the neck flush with the box top, as it should be. Didn't get anymore work on the neck done as I was working outside and it started raining. Will crack on tomorrow.

Thanks again for all the advice.

Midge

Permalink Reply by Hep Cat on April 14, 2013 at 7:27am

I made a lot of progress today, got the neck and headstock finished and installed tuners. I also cut a piece of antler to use as a nut, not sure I'm entirely happy with that though? I think for this one I'll go with a simple bolt? I have a brass hinge that I'm going to use as a tailpiece and I'll fit this tomorrow. I can then take a deep breath and get her strung up, fingers crossed I actually get any sound of it. I'm having trouble sourcing a slide as I have very small hands, can't seem to find anything that I can comfortably wear on my pinky, guess I'll just have to keep on looking.

Midge