[2DECADESSOFAR]

got this older guitar,a 91-ish bc rich bolt on. Has a massively fat neck pocket from the backl of the body to the top of the fretboard ......so if I remove the neckplate & grind off a 1/4" of body wood,reducing the excessive masive amount of hugeness ,which makes playing above the 15th fret slightly uncomfoirtable, All Id have to do is get 4 screws that are 1/4" shorter than what I have in there now. .....I know this sounds brutal to do. but its a mahogany body & its nearly 4 inches going from neckplate to fretboard give or take.

 

[LonePhantom]

So you are going to use a grinder to grind this off? Something about "right tools for the job" or something is going through my head here....

You'd be far better served getting a reputable luthier to do this, you wouldn't want to screw this up yourself. Or better yet, leave it and get used to the neck joint. If you need to sell it you'd be far better off not mangling the neck joint.

 

[2DECADESSOFAR]

well,if i remove the neck/neckplate & keep the body level & simply yet SLOWLY take a 1/4" off the surface ,and once its where i need it, use sandpaper to hand sand it & smooth it out & since its natural/no paint .......Ive seen a few guitars that almost have that same appearence,almost as if they cut the slope further back for comfort. Its my 3rd guitar,and although i dont think i'll ruin it because i will still have PLENTY of solid wood plus the side e3xtends up and goes up even with the egde of teh fretboard ....... cANT afford to pay someone to do it plus I have the tools.

So you are going to use a grinder to grind this off? Something about "right tools for the job" or something is going through my head here....

You'd be far better served getting a reputable luthier to do this, you wouldn't want to screw this up yourself. Or better yet, leave it and get used to the neck joint. If you need to sell it you'd be far better off not mangling the neck joint.

 

[LonePhantom]

Well, I certainly wouldn't be hitting up my guitar with a grinder that's for sure! I'd definitely recommend taking your time and sanding it. You'll have far better control, and be much less likely ruining your guitar.

 

[2DECADESSOFAR]

wewll, with hand sanding It would probably take me days & days & packs & packs of sandpaper. Im gonna go real light & real slow. Just enough to get maybe a 1/4 dpth away, Then i can hand smooth it out. Its a FAT neck pocket. It biggest drawback, right there from the 15th or so on up to the 22nd. Dont mean to make it sound like im just gonna grind away loosley, just gonna go very ligholy & check it Often.

 

[GUITARMAGEDDON]

one of those small electric hand sander might be useful. I'm so glad I picked one up.

 

[2DECADESSOFAR]

one of those small electric hand sander might be useful. I'm so glad I picked one up.

Good idea ...:wink:

 

[andrewgosline]

i did this to my warmoth strats and the result was good. I used a wood rasp and a hand sander, then I used a counterbore bit and some neck attachment ferrules to get a joint that was very similar to the AANJ of ibanez. Stewmac has the ferrules and matching drill bit for the counterbore.

The 24fret AANJ always feels better due to the 'longer' neck. Upper fret access is very good on the 24 fret AANJ, only carvin's neck through has it beat, IMHO.

 

[andrewgosline]

just remembered i had pics.

removing the neck plate, countersinking the screws, and taking some of the thickness out of the heel made a big difference. Not as good as 24 fret AANJ though. I also never got the wood/stain to look the same again cause the original stain/poly had aged. good luck

 

[2DECADESSOFAR]

I dont have any pix, but wanted to update : Its all done. I used the grinder & took off a 1/4" off the very back of the neck mount heel area (just enuff to have the base plate lay flat against the wood) Then hand sanded to get the flat surface back,making sure to not go past my designated 1/4" mark I also went & got 4 screws that were 1/4" shorter than the originals to make up the difference. Its natural wood with like a varnish type finish thats heavily worn, so what I did visually didnt do much dmage at all Visually. plus its in the back & Im not concerned about resale value very much as its not a highly sought after collectable guitar anyway. Its just a 3rd side project beater that happens to look pretty cool is all with 2 SELECT humbuckers (weakest pups Ive ever heard in my life) .....I locked it down & not that it would help, but couldnt hurt...I dipped the tips of the screws in Wood glue prior to reinserting them. Locked it down, restrung with new strings, to discover one of the trem screws didnt look right ....so remove trem & find the Trem screw post Barrel can be lifted right out. Ugh Not good Luckily I had some spare Trem posts with barrels ...slightly bigger ....Ugh , redrilled holes, installed barrels but they wouldnt sit all the way down like they should, so using a block of wood & light hammer tapping to try & get them down i there tight .....They still wouldnt sit deep enough ...SO pull them back out & redrill 1/8" deeper ....... tapped them in nice & firm ,success....only to find one of the barrels pushed too close to the trem opening ugh,almost fely like now its all ruined. it just barely craked the wood slightly, but still ....so i hit it with wood glue & let it sit overnight....the restrung it, set it up & ignored the small wood crack that the post made & hoped for the best...... so far its doing great. tuned to standard and has a much more comfortable neck joint. so the Mod went fine.

 

[axel_f]

Bummer, you should have said something, some of us are doing that fix all the time and there's even a thread going on about it. All you really had to do is glue the old one back in. Glad you got it sorted out, though.

 

[2DECADESSOFAR]

Bummer, you should have said something, some of us are doing that fix all the time and there's even a thread going on about it. All you really had to do is glue the old one back in. Glad you got it sorted out, though.

You right- I should have done that . Just wood glue the hole & press it down in there & let it sit a day or two. / On a different note ...some guy on here had an RGT42DX that he did the exact same thing & pressed a small crack in the trem cavity wall & filled the crack with wood glue & posted a bunch of pix of it on here somewhere. This was atleast 3 months ago I seen it. But yeh, hindsight sucks sometimes haha. Ty though & I agree

 

[axel_f]

Get some really runny CA superglue and it will wick right into the crack. I think allparts sells some that is very watery and perfect for that.

 

[2DECADESSOFAR]

Get some really runny CA superglue and it will wick right into the crack. I think allparts sells some that is very watery and perfect for that.

Awesome dude, thanx. Right now,after it setting over night & thruout the day and it being filled with wood glue ,I played the sh*t out of it really hard using the bar to yank, pull dive flutter,bounce off the body & just general hard playing just to test it out & it did juuust fine. so TY though will definately keep that in mind incase down the road anything goes wrong. / and just for the record, if anyone runs across aFloyd style knockoff tremelo with the model numbers SFT-70A where the Floyd logo would be ...........Those were Korean make trems back in late 80s early mid 90s & This is my second one. They are phenominal. Id use this confidently agaisnt Any Floyd or Schaller,np. And I love Schallers & Floyds. just puttin it out there. The reason its my 2nd one is because like an idiot I sold the guitar that had my 1st one on it & regretted it so now I have another. Even the flutter is identicle to a floyd but somehow slightly tighter & more smooth feeling,yet resonsive as a brand new trem. Its the ultimate Sleeper trem