Neck got all shifty on me...

[neuralfraud]

Grr.

My Ibanez RG has gone all shifty. the neck wont sit still in the joint and the screws are as tight as they'll go.

It's an Rg2550 and i figured I'd ask the fellow musicians here for some advice first; any tips appreciated.

I re-set the neck and gave the screws just a bit of an extra snug turn but can hear the paint and/or wood starting to crack a bit so no more on that. Fucker goes out of tune because of this.. might have t put the old girl down

[Nitro Express]

One trick is to put a piece of sandpaper under the neck and then torque it down. Another thing you can do if that doesn't work is plug the neck screw holes in the body with wood dowels covered in carpenters glue and then re-drill the holes small enough to where you have to thread the screws through. This will eliminate the slop.

[ELVIS]

How much of a gap do you have on either side of the neck ??

[Nitro Express]

Get some epoxy and glue the neck into place. It won't move after that! LOL!

[neuralfraud]

i sort of figured it might be the neck holes; on my cheap RG350 the holes are completely stripped and the local repair guy recommended some toothpicks+wood glue. The screws still toruqe down though so I haven't thought much of it.

There is probably .006 to .010 worth of room in the neck joint.

[Nitro Express]

I've had bolt on guitars with really tight neck pockets and ones I could stick a medium gauge pick between the neck and body. I think the most important thing is to have tight fitting holes where the screws go through the body. If the screws are torquing up to where they won't turn that shows your neck isn't stripped out. You could try the tooth picks and glue. It's way less involved to filling and drilling which requires careful measurement and preferably a drill press. When you tune a guitar up to 440 hz you get over 300lbs of pull on the neck. Then you have the weight of the neck with the truss rod in it. That neck joint has a lot of force working on it and if the holes aren't fitting tight to the screws it's going to move.

You shouldn't have to torque the neck screws that hard either to where things are starting to crunch. I just tighten mine up to where they snug down without overly straining on the screw driver. If I'm using an Dewalt electric screwdriver I won't torque them past 2 or 3 on the clutch setting.

[ELVIS]

[Nitro Express]

Those are great if the neck is stripped out but if the holes are too big in the body it still wont fix the problem.

[ELVIS]

I know...

The body holes need to be filled with dowel pegs and re-drilled...

[Nitro Express]

I got a machine lathe. Make some brass plugs to fit the body with exact sized holes for the screws and then put those brass counter sinks in the neck. It wouldn't be going anywhere after that! The real trick would be getting the holes to line up exact but then that's what dial calipers are for. LOL! We will have a guitar built to .001" accuracy here.

[ELVIS]

Wood would be easier...

[ELVIS]

That guitar must be pretty messed up though...

I've never really had that problem, even with three bolt Fenders...

[Nitro Express]

Yes it would and actually it might be better because the screw threads can bite into it a bit. But try the sandpaper trick, that just might do it.

I've heard horrid stuff about the 70's three bolt necks and the best sustaining Strat I have is a 72 with a three bolt neck and the tilt adjust. Thick poly finish and all the tone killing sins but man, it's a great sustaining guitar. Guitars are just weird. You can follow all the so called tone enhancing tips and never quite get it then you have a guitar that technically should sound like shit and it sounds great.

[ELVIS]

I've always thought some plumbers putty would do the same thing you suggest the sandpaper would do...

[ELVIS]

I don't believe the thick poly vs thin nitro garbage...