hi, i'm trying to assemble a parts guitar, but i'm having quite a few issues 1. the neck cavity is too big and the neck jiggles around, is this bad? how do i fix it? 2. how do i drill the retention screws for the tuners? i tried just using a phillips and stripped a screw. 3. the holes for the neck pocket don't line up with my warmoth neck, do i just drill more holes in the body?
How loose is loose when it comes to neck pocket fit? Do you have a 2 & 1/4" neck pocket? Standard Strat/Warmoth is 2 & 3/16" in width. As far as the holes not lining up it's best, when you can, to plug and redrill the neck holes. But if you have a wider neck pocket, the holes may end up being too wide and you won't have sufficient edge distance for the neck holes. You also have to consider how the neck lines up with the strings. If you're off to one side, yer fooked. But you can, if you line the neck up, use it in the wider neck pocket and use some thin wooden shim stock to fill up the gap. Whether or not you need to plug and redrill the body holes is something I can't determine even with good pics on the interwebz. Tuner holes: I like to drill a tiny hole for the screws, IIRC it's about a #60. I'll have to look as I have one in the shop with masking tape on it just for that purpose. The masking tape is used to set the correct depth.
if you could get the number for the drill bit that'd be great if it helps, the body is from a chinese telecaster, would a warmoth neck be totally off?
Don't forget to put soap on the tuner screw threads. The small screws have a bad habit of breaking when installing them.
Measure across the neck pocket closest to the bridge. Should be close to 2 & 3/16". 5/64" is the most common drill size for tuner mounting screws. But you really need to compare one of that size to your tuner screws. Something a tiny bit smaller than the screw is what you need. Also you need to determine how deep that screw is gonna go. I do this by putting the screw in the hole and putting the drill up next to it. Now you know the depth. Use a piece of masking tape and go just a tiny bit less than the depth so the screw has something to bite when it's getting close. And do get a proper size screwdriver for installing them. I use one from my jeweler's screwdriver set. Your basic #1, or worse #2, phillips is NOT the right tool for the job. The bar soap trick was mentioned. I use it for ALL the wood screws on a guitar.
