More Abuse of the Number One Strat
I was forced into refinishing my main guitar after some (avoidable) damage. I wanted to see if I could improve on the playability further (although it didn’t need it) by adding a shim under the neck heel – something I’ve done to two of my other guitars with great results.
However, for some reason, two of the neck screws would not turn and in my attempts to unscrew them to get the neck off I damaged the screw heads so badly there was no way of getting them out with a screwdriver.
With limited tools and expertise I had to resort to the frightening prospect of partial destruction to get the neck off; I didn’t want to just leave the guitar as it was because I would inevitably need to take the neck off at some point anyway. I had to drill away the heads of the screws, so I could lift the neck plate off and then get the screws out with pliers.
Unfortunately, after the neck plate was off there not enough left of the screw tops to get a grip on them with the pliers, so I had to drill into the wood around the screws to create a pocket of space to get the nose of the pliers in and around the screw shafts. I was devastated, but also saw this as an opportunity to develop a new skill: Structural repair!
So far it’s been successful. I won’t know how well the repair has gone until the neck is back on the guitar, but I’m certain it’s at least as strong as it was before. In fact I think it’ll be better because those holes were starting to wear after a great deal of past screwing and unscrewing.
The next video on this guitar will be a pleasure because it’ll feature the Sonic Strat re-assembled and making a noise again!
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