Filling neck cavity / Refinishing

[ChrisReedSmith]

Hello,
I want to fill in the neck pickup cavity as well as refinish my RG. I'm a little worried about how to match up the top of the wood filler to the back of the neck. I know I dont want the neck on when I do it because I dont want the filler bonding to the neck. I was thinking of maybe using tin-foil? or a piece of cardboard? But I figure those would bond too. Any suggestions?

Thanks for any help!

Chris

[Project Guitar]

First off try adding a small block of wood in the cavity so that you don't have so much filler. Traditionally when filler dries it tends to either shrink or expand.

If you can get your hands on the new Titebond for wood repair I would use it as the top coat and filler around the sides since it drys very quickly (about 4 minutes) and rock hard without shrinking. It is also sandable.

When you block off the side to the neck pocket either use a stiff piece of card board or thick poster paper. For that matter even a good thick business card will work but remember to wrap it in wax paper. With the wax paper side towards the cavity of course.

The filler tends not to bond to wax paper and I have used this method before for doing a simular job where the neck pocket was messed up.

[ripl3y]

Originally Posted by becalvert

The filler tends not to bond to wax paper and I have used this method before for doing a simular job where the neck pocket was messed up.

Good suggestion!

Wax or Grease paper (used in cooking) should work quite well.

Just an extra thought, when installing truss rods I rub some candle wax down them so they don't bite or get stuck against the wood.
Maybe that would work for you.

Steve