Neck pocket in Squier Classic Vibe Telecaster

[shadewind]

I got myself a Squier Classic Vibe Telecaster which plays nicely and when I unscrewed the neck to adjust it a bit (string alignment) I saw this:

The surface of the neck pocket is not flat so the only areas which make contact with the neck are the ones highlighted in the picture. It looks like sloppy routing or something. The neck sits fine but I can't stop thinking about this...

 

[JUSTJOB]

Hard to say without physically examining the guitar in question, but I think I would first clean up the small amount to flush in upper left of the pocket as seen in your picture. That may take care of the problem completely as it looks as if it may have been missed. If you are not sure then it would be a good idea to take to your local Tech to examine, and should be an easy enough of a repair.

 

[redroos]

Yeah, I understand. They may route these things in a manner that causes this I think. I.e., they do the the important cut first - across the front - then the two sides - then the base of the neck - and then as they go to hog the rest of the wood out of the pocket, and quickly, the center kind of chips out sometimes. That's pine so its a soft wood, too.

Great pic, BTW. The two side cuts has always freaked me out, how they go past the neck bottom edge? Its something you won't see in Vintage pockets. I use to wonder why they did this and found out that they do it this way because the original neck pocket (Vintage) needs to have a different bit diameter in the corners to do the job correctly. This means they either have to move to another machine for cut clean up or swap out cutters. Well, or they could do it all with a 3/8" bit but these wear out faster and don't clear as much wood as a 1/2" cutter. Money money money.

It is possible that a different guitar will have different pocket. Throw the dice if you can return it, you might get lucky. Well, if it is causing sleep loss.

 

[redroos]

You know, looking again at your pic I see what did this. They use the overhead router to create the neck pocket (outside cuts with a 1/2" bit) and then pass the body on to another worker. He then takes a chisel and removes the center block that is left. In your case, he cut deep into the wood going below the surface to remove the center block. You can plainly see the chisel mark in the photo.

Hm. So forget what I said about finding a better one. This is probably a practice that the worker was taught. I would love to see another version of this pocket to see if I am right about it being repeated over and over.

 

[shadewind]

I honestly don't know what the sawed off metal rod is, it looks like a screw.

What worries me is the tiny corner to the upper left in the picture. Is the neck really resting against that? That doesn't seem very good, does it?

Also, I'm not sure if you can see it in the picture but there's a ledge in the surface in the lower part of the picture going right along the two screws.

 

[shadewind]

Allright, I've sent an e-mail to Fender Scandinavia with the picture so we'll see what happens.

I hate buying guitars.... hate it...

 

[_pete_]

I'm gonna play devil's advocate and come at this from the other end.
Did it play and sound good before you took the neck off?
Were you happy with it before?
If so, what does it really matter?

I think we guitarists obsess a little too much about things. I do too but I've made a resolution this year to try and forget this stuff and just play music and enjoy my gear.

 

[shadewind]

Lucky I'm a drummer and not a guitarist then
How does one qualify as a "guitarist" anyway?

On the other hand, I'm a recording engineer as well...

 

[frankencat]

Mine's clean as a whistle. If it plays and sounds good I wouldn't worry too much about it though.

 

[clapointe1]

Looks like somebody did a sloopy job on the CNC !

 

[joeybsyc]

I'm gonna play devil's advocate and come at this from the other end.
Did it play and sound good before you took the neck off?
Were you happy with it before?
If so, what does it really matter?

I think we guitarists obsess a little too much about things. I do too but I've made a resolution this year to try and forget this stuff and just play music and enjoy my gear.

This is exactly what i was going to post when I read this thread earlier... heck, i might have a half dozen guitars with worse stuff going on in the pockets than this one, but they sound good and play right, so i never felt the need to tear them apart and inspect the pocket for "defects". If it sounded good to ya then bolt the neck back on and play the sucker...

 

[VaughnC]

If it sounds good and plays well I wouldn't fret about it . One of the better sounding vintage Strats I've played had a worse neck pocket than that.

 

[shadewind]

And what was in the neck pockets that was worse?

 

[VaughnC]

And what was in the neck pockets that was worse?

It was a '66 Strat that had a gap on all 3 sides of the neck pocket that you could fit a dime into edgewise...but it was one of the better sounding Strat's I ever played. Besides, IMO, a little play in the neck pocket is a good thing because: 1)if a neck/neck pocket junction is too tight I've seen humidity changes cause cracks in the wood and/or finish around the neck pocket, and; 2) a little neck pocket play allows you to rotate the neck slightly to fine tune the alignment of the strings on the fretboard.

 

[shadewind]

I don't think we're on the same frequency here. The sides of the neck pocket are tight, properly tight. The bottom surface, however, is not as is (hopefully) visible in the picture.