first string up of repair/new neck

[stoneaxe]

Is that a special strat jig for neck work? It looks like you have a plank to bolt the neck on, and a hardtail bridge bolted on with a spacer to simulate the body thickness, in order to string up the neck and check fret work before actually mounting it on a body. Very cool!

[Hot Vibrato]

Originally Posted by stoneaxe

Is that a special strat jig for neck work? It looks like you have a plank to bolt the neck on, and a hardtail bridge bolted on with a spacer to simulate the body thickness, in order to string up the neck and check fret work before actually mounting it on a body. Very cool!

Thanks. It was my idea (although I can't possibly be the first person to think of it). At the shop where I trained, my boss had a smaller one without a bridge. It occurred to me that I wanted to string the neck up while it was off the guitar, so I made this one and installed a cheap bridge on it. It works for Strats, Teles, J Basses, P Basses, or just about any Fender style neck. I wish I could take every neck off and bolt it on this thing. Vintage Fenders are usually a little frustrating to work on because you have to remove the neck to adjust the rod. This way, I can decide on a final relief adjustment without any guesswork. And of course, while doing a refret, I can change the rod adjustment whenever I need to.

I've daydreamed about making one that can hold a dovetail neck with an adjustable platform to hold the fingerboard extension in place. But I have yet to design or build it, as it would be a bit more complicated than this maple block.