Neck Ferrules

Ferrules... at least I think that's what they are called...

Does anyone have a good lead on where I can get some ferrules for attaching a neck to a body? All the ferrules I have seen so far have been either a standard 15mm diameter, or occasionally 14mm. The holes on the back on the back of my newly acquired Cutlass are only 11mm...

I don't really want to make the holes bigger unless I have no other choice.

Any suggestions greatly appreciated!

Sorry, I can't help you out but you got me thinking....(I know, you smelled wood burning!)...

Attaching the neck to the body with just wood screws makes me shudder just a little bit. I'm not sure about the Spectrums, etc., but the Vantage Avengers are screwed together (brrrr). I just took mine apart.

I would feel a whole lot more confident if they were, in fact, "bolted" using threaded inserts. That's a lot more solid and less likely to turn to mush under stress. Could be a consideration as part of a general upgrade if you happen to be tearing things down??

Just sayin'

There is a member on this forum called Flyssy, he has a UK Cutlass model he is rebuilding over on his site:

http://guitarcollecting.co.uk/.

It might be worth contacting him to see how his guitar neck bolts on, it could be that these guitars use different screws from the norm. The 11mm diameter holes in your guitar are barely bigger than a standard neck screw head? I was checking the pics from the site above and from what I could see, the ferrules he has are pretty big and to have a large diameter lip sitting on the surface of the body rather than flush.

Also the neck has a thin stepped heel which extends under the front pickup. From other guitars I've seen with this type of joint, they tend to use shorter screws due to the lack of space, and sometimes to maintain strength they even use machine screws which mate up to metal threaded inserts fixed in the heel of the neck.

This is just a bit of guess work and brain storming on my part, there is so little info on these guitars, I can't really be sure how they built them.

DAN.

Thanks DuoFuzz, I'm already an avid viewer of Flyssy's website and follow him on twitter too. Thanks to the fantastic Westbone though I have discovered all the relevant details. Status Bass in the UK who made the originals still supply both the correct screws and bushings - although they are out of stock of the bushings at present! he also pointed me in the direction of an ebay seller who had some alternative bushings in the right size, so I have ordered those for now.

Barry - you could well be right, I've seen a few aftermarket kits for threaded inserts - for now though I'll stick to the old fashioned way

Yay!! A win!!

I did a quick look around and there are indeed threaded insert kits to replace those nasty wood screws!

Those guys over at the telecaster forum can be a tad, um, strange at times, but they do have a lot of knowledgeable and interesting members. Here's a description of one fellow converting his neck to a true "bolt on": LINK

And here's another do-it-yourself (read: 'cheap') approach: LINK

There's lots more info out there but this'll get ya started.