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After I fix my upside down neck block I want to re-set it correctly. I am using a L-0 Mold bought from Blues Creek. What are tips for setting, gluing, and clamping my neck block correctly. Last time I just tried to center it using the center line of the mold as a guide. I want to do this correctly....Seems like a straight neck is kinda important..huh? just kindin.. I am using a 12 fret bolt on neck block from stew-mac. How do I make sure this is done well

Hi Jason,

I take it that the neck block is machined to match the curvature of the guitar's sides and back. Therefore, I would start by positioning the block by using the flat top side against a flat square surface and glue upside down in a sense. If you draw a center line on the bottom/guitar back side of the block. When gluing, it should match up with the two sides being jointed at the front. Same goes when gluing the tail piece. If your sides have been as radius then this approach may not be best. You may also have to compensate for the top radius so a shim placed under the block maybe needed. A shime may as be needed to compensate for you guitar body thickness.

I use a square block and my sides are not radius'd so squaring up is somewhat easy.

Hope this helps but I'm sure others with chime in with further suggestions.

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Michael Lloyd

“I was born to ignorance, yes, and lesser poverties ...
I was born to privilege that I did not see ... I didn’t know it, but my way was paved” – John Gorka

This is when a center finding rule comes in handy..

find the center of the front block (mark a point at the center of the front of the block and another center at the rear of the block and then draw a line between these 2 points) and then line up the halves of the guitar with the centerline of the mold, then line the centerline of the neck block with that line.... glue it all up and clamp it good while the glue sets.

The tail block shoulod be done the same way. Having a center finding rule is the trick no matter if the block is radiused or not... it still finds the center of the block.

Keeping everything centered, including the top and back woods is extremely important. You will find out why when you get as far as setting the bridge and stringing it up. If anything is out of center, it will show up then and no matter how far off it is, it will become really evident that something is wrong.

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Reguards,

Ken H