Anybody ever radically resculpt (redesign) a bolt on neck joint?

[metalhead28]

I've got a bolt on Kelly that I pieced together with spare parts several years ago. It never gets played over my neck thru soloists, so I've been thinking about doing some customizing.

I never liked the lower horn on it so I was thinking about doing some sort of scallop/bevel job on it to improve access. Actually, I've been thinking about doing a total contour job on the body...just to make something evil looking but I'm not sure about that. I also would like to do something radical to the heel joint. I've gotten used to neck thru guitars for the past several years and I'm moderately annoyed by those heels. I can easily play around them, but it's enough to make me just never play the guitar. Something drastic might make me actually like playing it.

I guess my question is, has anybody ever done anything really radical to alter a bolt on neck joint? I've got woodworking experience and tools. In fact I have experience handbuilding guitars from scratch, so that's not an issue. I'm just trying to get ideas for how to modify it. I also work at a machine shop, so making a nice new custom neckplate or anything along those lines would be no problem either.

It might be easier to build a whole guitar from scratch, but I'm just interested in making something unique out of this Kelly. I've got basically no money invested in it so I don't care if I ruin it in the process....it would still be fun.

Any ideas?

[RacerX]

I believe FirebirdZ has done this...I'd also be interested in finding out more about this...

[Jason1212]

That fan made COB Rhoads that was on here a while back had some stuff done to the heal.

[mm2002]

The neck could be glued in and the heel shaped. If a guy was real careful he may even be able to make it look good. I've seen a few attempts.

[VulfgangPfuck]

I believe FirebirdZ has done this...I'd also be interested in finding out more about this...

Thanks Ron!...

I've done a neck conversion on an Ibanez Destroyer. It came out great!

Do a "King Kelly" cut out (go to Jackson's custom shop page)
I would just scoop out the lower cutaway, flatten over the roundover on the bottom horn, etc...

I'm assuming you already know how you would go about setting the neck in to the body. Have fun with the neck heel...try an ESP style angled heel.

I did it by counter sinking the bolts into the body in addition to the glue so it kept the neck straight...and then shaping the heel into a Gibson style heel (Which Ibanez was doing on these at the time)

[Jester700]

http://www.playhousemm.com/images/rad7.jpg

The ferrules stuck out a little so I dremelled them - that's why they look icky.

[DonP]

I didn't like how high the neck was in my Aria, so I routed/angled the neck pocket lower. Aria's had a smooth contour heal so it's already on it's way. I also carved bevels into the horns.

[Bengal65]

I just did a ESP style bevel with an older Soloist style recess on a Warmoth Soloist body. I used a 4" sander disk on a 4" Makita grinder with 50 grit pad to get the recess in fast. Then I shaped the contours with a Dremel contour sander and finished out to 220 grit before priming. Worked real well for eyeballing. I used a tracing first and transfered the markings to the wood body before I started.