Question about fitting a bolt on neck.

[Jeremy Steele]

I came across an old Epiphone FT 145 body at a yard sale and I want to mate it with a neck I had sitting around...the problem is that the neck is just a hair wider than the pocket. My question is this; should I shave down the sides of the neck at the heel or should I enlarge the pocket slightly with a router? Grateful for any advice.

[Ned Knepp]

I've looked at this sort of acoustic "franky" approach too. Have you figured the scale length and bridge placement yet? If it's off very much you will need to address the bridge plate inside of the body and perhaps even some bracing. The existing pin holes will probably need to be filled and moving the bridge may require some finish work too.    

How old is the Epi body? A body from the mid '60s or earlier might be something that deserves more than a patched neck unless the neck is particularly nice.  Speaking of necks, where did the neck come from? Does it come with a working truss rod?  

To address your question, I would consider reversibility while deciding. Think about which part, the neck or the body would you be most likely to want to keep as original as possible. If the answer is neither than just proceed with whatever is easiest for you to get the results you want.  If one of the other part is particularly nice/desirable you may need to carefully think about how much you want to modify that end of the project. 

 

 I'm not trying to dissuade you, just pointing out some of the Gotcha's that might exist. 

[Thomas James]

I have done this kind of operation. I used a chisel to widen the neck pocket. I felt I had more control on the center line. I have had many hopeless cases come across my bench. This style neck joint is a poor design. Make sure the neck block is not loose. Check that it is well seated / glued, and hasn't rotated beyond repair. Ned has great points as well about string spacing at the bridge. Cheers. Tom

[Jeremy Steele]

Thanks guys,

Ned, I think the Epi body is from the early to mid-70's....it has the blue Kalamazoo sticker but it notes that it was made in Japan. The neck is also from an Epi of around the same vintage, and it does have a working truss rod...I got it with a bunch of other odds and ends on eBay a while ago. The scale length is off by about a quarter inch, but I can deal with that by having the end of the fretboard overhang the sound hole a bit. Not overly concerned with saving either the body or neck for possible removal later, just want to see if I can put together a decent player from these parts.

[Ned Knepp]

Sounds like a match made in...Japan. 

I guess you can proceed in either or even both directions if you want. Whatever is easiest for you.  Thomas is right about checking the integrity of the neck block and bracing. It would be awful to do all that work then discover that the body was trying to fold up under tension. 

You might be able to cut the fingerboard down just a bit to keep if from overhanging the sound hole. I've cut down a few fingerboards for short scale use. Sometimes it possible to remove the last fret and make your cut there to get a "natural" look.

I've got a "Franky" project going that is about fitting a Martin 12 'th fret, short scale neck to a Seagull body. The good is that the Seagull body originally had a butt joint so I should be able to cut a slot for the tail on the Martin neck. The bad is that I have to move the the bridge fairly significantly to make it work. The body was very cheap and needs to have some major cracks in the top repaired so a strip and refinish is in the works anyway. Fortunately, The bridge plate is huge so the new position will still be well supported without moving any interior parts. 

One thing I want to bring up is documentation. In my case, I intend to leave both the Martin name on the headstock AND the Seagull label inside of the body. I'll probably include a small label with my name and the date as well as a short explanation of the modification so it completely clear that it's a hobbyist "Franky" and not a "prototype" of some sort. ( yes, I have seen some of these that people really want to believe is a "rare prototype" of some sort.)  

In your case, using two different EPI parts will probably make it much harder for anyone that works on it down the road to recognize that there were some modification made to fit everything together.  In my opinion, it would be nice if the next person was aware of the unique nature of the fittings before they  jump into something unforeseeable.