Workshop: Bolt-On Hollowbody Support Rod

If you've owned any '60s or '70s bolt-on neck, hollowbody electric guitars (or basses), you know how finicky they can be as far as setup and solidity. Sometimes you shim a joint to get the neck angle back and in a few hours the action is sky-high again and it needs an extra shim. Sound familiar?

The reason is that the neckblock on most of these instruments (US-made or otherwise, though the Coronado series by Fender is solid) is usually not tough enough for the job is underbuilt and often loose from the sides even if it doesn't look loose. In the case of this guitar the joint fatigue is obvious (one horn has an attempt at regluing the drifting joint) but it was never dealt with.

This, however, is how I deal with the problem. Note in the above photo that there's a 1/2" dowel running through the center of the body. That's actually buried into the neckblock a little bit.


I use bit-extenders and a 1/2" spade bit on my hand drill to drill right through the guitar from the tailpiece mount area into the upper-edge of the neckblock. I then pass a dowel through the middle that's glued both at the neckblock (where it's inset about 1/4") and at the endblock.

The blue tape is holding the tailpiece's ground wire from falling into the body.


This guitar has a centerblock so you can see that I've actually drilled right through that as well on the dowel's way up to the neckblock.


Once installed, I cut the dowel flush (it'll hide under the tailpiece's plate) and then "pin it" with a screw or two installed from the top. These, too, will be hidden by the tailpiece.

The end result is a guitar that's stable, does not move in service, and is gig-ready. The guitar in question here is a '70s Epiphone EA-250 that now sounds/plays killer and... guess what? Hasn't moved or needed tuning since stringing last week. Yip!

I'm actually thinking of installing hidden dowels as a matter of course on all of this type of old guitar going forward... it would make life easier for the owners, that's for sure.

Comments

Chris Allen said…
This is absolutely brilliant! I have a wonderful "Lyle" hollowbody that was made in the Matsumoko factory in the early 70's that finally succumbed to this collapsing issue. I was about to screw a steel strap along the back, when someone pointed me to this blog post. I can't wait to do this to my Lyle!

Do you have pics of the dowel as it enters the neck block? The Lyle neck block is nearly non-existent; I'm wondering if this guitar had more meat to drill into/glue into.
Jake Wildwood said…
Chris: I use a long extension and plunge bit to make a small recess to fit the 1/2" dowel at the neckblock. If you can't do that, predrill a tiny 1/16" hole in the end of your dowel and tap a wire nail into it and then clip the end off -- when you tap it into the neck block with your tap-hammer when fitting the dowel, it will hold its position nicely after the glue on that end of the dowel dries-up.
Chris Allen said…
Thanks!! Austin luthier Mason Reeves did the surgery on my Lyle about six months ago. It was really tricky to line up the holes, but he got it done and the guitar has been stable since then. Great solution to a tricky problem, Jake!!