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.