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Guitar repair ??? Stripped hole in neck heel...


Mustaine-who?

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There's somewhat more to it than that, but you've got the basic idea.

 

They way I fix these, and I see quite a few belonging to kids that that just gotta tighten the phuck out of 'em, is to use 1/4" hardwood dowel plugs available at good hardware or wood store. Measure the approximate depth needed by putting a neck screw thru the body with the neck plate in place. Put your 1/4" drill bit next to it and use a piece of masking tape to mark the depth on your bit. Drill out the holes, glue up your plugs and gently tap them in place. Let dry over nite and cut the excess off with a hacksaw blade. Don't use the whole hacksaw, just the blade. I finally got a Japanese flush cut saw to do these, but the hacksaw blade works fine.

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Yeah, drill and dowel works great.

 

Or you could just go to the hardware store and get you something like this:

 

IMG_2389.jpg

 

I did my N4 with them and it worked great. You have to make absolutely certain that you get the right screw length and the right size drill bit when you drill the holes for the inserts but the guitar's body will snap in half long before these give out.

 

As you can see I didn't have much option since the previous dowel job was a mess:

 

IMG_2385.jpg

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Ok, wait a minute, are you saying that one of the holes through the neck itself is stripped?? you really dont want the neck holes threaded anyways, that could give you the false impression that the neck screws are tightened up. you want free movement of the neck screws in the neck itself, doesnt look like anyone else caught that little piece of information. Some guitars may "seem" to have threaded neck holes, not really the case though, just tight tolerances. Not sure if I understand you correctly or not.

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Ok, wait a minute, are you saying that one of the holes through the neck itself is stripped?? you really dont want the neck holes threaded anyways, that could give you the false impression that the neck screws are tightened up. you want free movement of the neck screws in the neck itself, doesnt look like anyone else caught that little piece of information. Some guitars may "seem" to have threaded neck holes, not really the case though, just tight tolerances. Not sure if I understand you correctly or not.

 

 

Holes in BODY should be free-running. Holes in NECK should be small enough for the screws to cut threads.

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Ok, wait a minute, are you saying that one of the holes through the neck itself is stripped?? you really dont want the neck holes threaded anyways, that could give you the false impression that the neck screws are tightened up. you want free movement of the neck screws in the neck itself, doesnt look like anyone else caught that little piece of information. Some guitars may "seem" to have threaded neck holes, not really the case though, just tight tolerances. Not sure if I understand you correctly or not.

 

 

Sounds to me like YOU are talking about the holes in the body? I, for one, very much DO want threads in my bolt-on necks.

 

AND I put threaded inserts in one of my basses (my test bass) and they are really good for a good tight joint! It improved the sound on that bass.

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Ok, wait a minute, are you saying that one of the holes through the neck itself is stripped?? you really dont want the neck holes threaded anyways, that could give you the false impression that the neck screws are tightened up. you want free movement of the neck screws in the neck itself, doesnt look like anyone else caught that little piece of information. Some guitars may "seem" to have threaded neck holes, not really the case though, just tight tolerances. Not sure if I understand you correctly or not.

 

 

The hole in the neck is stripped. When i went to tighten up the screws on the neck plate...3 went nice and tight...one spun with little resistance.

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I think since you have three good connections, the easy way of using toothpicks should be just fine for the fourth.

 

The others make great suggestions, and if you remove the neck a lot having the thread inserts installed is a great idea. But save the dowel rods and/or inserts for when the next problem surfaces, if the problem persists or another arises, then I would definitely go for a more thorough repair.

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But save the dowel rods and/or inserts for when the next problem surfaces, if the problem persists or another arises, then I would definitely go for a more thorough repair.

 

 

 

If one hole is stripped, the other three probably aren't far from it. May as well go ahead and do the proper repair (dowel or threaded insert) to all four holes as long as the neck is detached anyway.

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The hole in the neck is stripped. When i went to tighten up the screws on the neck plate...3 went nice and tight...one spun with little resistance.

Another quick and good method is to make mixture of wood glue and sawdust and force it down into the hole . . . I would let it set for at least an hour before I then drilled a pilot hole into the gemisch. Probably wouldn't be good to put the screw into wet glue.

 

Greg

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If one hole is stripped, the other three probably aren't far from it. May as well go ahead and do the proper repair (dowel or threaded insert) to all four holes as long as the neck is detached anyway.

 

 

No. Not necessarily. He says the other three the bind well, and I have no reason to doubt him.

 

This could easily be a case of someone being over eager with one screw. The neck is hard wood, there is no reason for it just to give up it's grip on all four screws.

 

If another fails, THEN it's time to address all four.

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I have done many plug n redrills during refinishing and I avoid jumping unnessarily to a big dowel (like 1/4") just to make the job of flushing it up easier. Depending on the size of your neck bolts, you may have to go with 1/4". Anyway, my local ACE Hardware stocks 1/8" & 3/16" dowel rods. I drill out the hole accordingly, jam the dowel in with wood glue and clip off excess with angle cutters. Then after the glue dries I shave that excess off with a single edge razor blade. On the heel of the neck, you shouldn't have to worry about damaged finish, but I've used the same method (carefully) on pickguard holes and whatnot.

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No. Not necessarily. He says the other three the bind well, and I have no reason to doubt him.


This could easily be a case of someone being over eager with one screw. The neck is hard wood, there is no reason for it just to give up it's grip on all four screws.


If another fails, THEN it's time to address all four.

 

 

 

For precaution, he could hit the other three holes with super glue to harden/preserve the threads.

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You have to be really careful drilling out the stripped hole. Similar to enlarging tuner holes in the peghead for different tuners. I just did this last week and the drill bit bound in the hole. I thought I was going to split the neck heel. I backed it out and got a clamp to support the sides of the neck. I dowelled all 4 holes that had evidently been dowelled before with {censored}ty non-hardwood dowels, since they were all stripped out again. Make sure you get hardwood dowels. I only use toothpcks for pickguard screw holes and the like.

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For my own guitars I'd do just one hole. I haven't seen dowel plugs smaller than 1/4" but they must exist and def would be the better way to go. When I do one for a customer, I do all 4 and tell them to leave it the phuck alone. I only so this so I'm sure the guitar won't be back for a repair I should've done first time.

The insert thang is a good option if you're R&Ring the neck frequently. But it can lead to problems if not done correctly. Things like having 2 inserts spin at the same time meaning you can't tighten them down and can't get the neck off. Another bone head customer did that very thing. I had to grab what I could of the bolts with dykes and drill the heads off. I charged him a Franklin to fix it. And I don't feel the least bit guilty.

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That's not a bad idea, but make sure you don't use the super thin super glue as it might actually seep through and discolour the fretboard.

 

 

Not really a good idea. Superglue is not flexible and won't breathe with the rest of the wood. Eventually the threads will loosen up because the glue gets crushed and pressed into the threads, the screws will not grip well, then you will be forced to drill and dowel. Superglue is far from the ideal glue for wood working. If nothing is currently wrong with the other holes, leave them alone.

 

A toothpick and friction is all the OP needs to remedy his problem.

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