WTF...Stripped neck bolt

[rjohnstone]

A.) Hope they're installed straight
B.) You better hope the inserts line up with the body holes
C.) What's the point? If you have to remove the neck that many times, you have bigger issues.

[jackson1]

Think about it... You dowel, and then you redrill in the exact same spot. Bye bye dowel, except for maybe 0.001% of it!

The dowel typically used would be 4-5 times the diameter of the new pre-drilled hole.

[StukaJU87]

Sounds like he has his mind made up to build a better mouse trap. Personally, I would do the toothpick method. It is tried, true, and idiot proof.

[Adam]

Think about it... You dowel, and then you redrill in the exact same spot. Bye bye dowel, except for maybe 0.001% of it! The well glued toothpick will actually give you more hold surface in this case.

Wow.

No, not really. You're going to have the surface area of the screw for hold surface and that's it either way. The difference is that with a dowel, it's anchored into maple that, for all intents and purposes, is indistinguishable from that of the rest of the neck.

What wood are toothpicks made of?

My point (which can be taken or left - I don't care) is that 1.) a dowel and re-drill is the proven, professional method that has been in use since the first bolt-on necks left the Fender factory in 1950, and 2.) are less likely to re-strip due to the strength of the wood than some pieces of glued-in toothpick.

Hell, either one could hold forever or strip again the very next day, but I know if it were my guitar, I wouldn't want toothpicks holding my neck on - and if I got a guitar that way from the factory, it would be going back in a hurry!

[jackson1]

What wood are toothpicks made of?

Stewmac has custom toothpicks made of quartersawn hard rock maple.

[rjohnstone]

Stewmac has custom toothpicks made of quartersawn hard rock maple.

[Adam]

Stewmac has custom toothpicks made of quartersawn hard rock maple.

That sounds a lot better than the spalted balsa ones I've been seeing everywhere.

[hippietim]

C.) What's the point? If you have to remove the neck that many times, you have bigger issues.

Many touring guitarists take the necks off their guitars when they travel.

[zeegler]

Holy crap, what a pointless dicussion. Just toothpick or dowel it, and forget about it. You shouldn't need to be taking the neck off your guitar so often. If you are, there's something wrong.

[dg]

One other reason to stick to the conservative approach: Sounds like we're talking about a Charvel strathead here. A radical mod like putting those threaded bushings in will hurt the value of the guitar, even if it is an improvement. The dowel or toothpick method is well-accepted & shouldn't hurt the value.

[Grandturk]

Warmoth sells necks with machined bushings - or at least they used to. Anybody ever see any feedback on those?

[Jeff Albertson]

A.) Hope they're installed straight
B.) You better hope the inserts line up with the body holes
C.) What's the point? If you have to remove the neck that many times, you have bigger issues.

Looking for a little collaboration, but thanks for the speculative dictatorial. Some people be knowing it all.

I've had the neck off this one, maybe two or three times. Funny thing is that I've got guitars that I've had for 20 years and the necks have been off 30 times and nooooo problems. I would guess it was pulled at the factory.

Thought I might get some feedback from anyone who tried similar?

Personally, I think the insert would require about the skill level of my 8th grade shop teacher. He was missing a finger and half his thumb, by the way. If I go with the threaded inserts, I'd make a cradle for the neck and use a drill press.

I did send Warmouth and e-mail to see if they had something in a bin somewhere. I really don't want to reinvent the wheel, but since it's busted I might as well fix it so it doesn't happen again.

[Chasbo]

I would think that the biggest problem in doing this right would be in properly lining up the insert. Since it is your guitar, do it the way you want to. Personally, I would probably stick to the dowel method myself. I have done such a repair and it was rock solid afterwards. I never had a problem again.

chuck

[Bert]

I toothpicked one of my necks (all four holes were stripped) and it's held fine for almost 2 years now.

[Chasbo]

Hey Jeff, I did some checking into this stud thing around my neck of the woods. There is a guy that lives near me that makes a living doing tele and strat upgrades. Trem blocks, stainless steel tele bridge plates and the like. He uses a stud kit for necks because he says it increases sustain because you can really tork the screws down for a solid connection between the neck and body. A friend that had a tele worked on by him showed it to me. The neck had been torked in so hard that the plate had sunk into the body. Greg swears that his tele sustains for days now.

chuck