Loose neck screws
 

2 out of the 4 neck screws on my Jazz Special will not tighten. How can I safely repair this ? Will gluing tooth picks in to the neck work in this case ?

I prefer to drill out the old hole so I can and fill it with a long plug I cut from a very hard piece of maple I have for this purpose.

Yes, that will be perfectly fine. Just remember to introduce the screws while the glue is still wet for best results.

Riis

Sounds like a good time to consider threaded inserts as an option to plugging and redrilling.

I prefer matchsticks to toothpicks for this. Insert glue, matchstick, break off flush, insert screw to tighten. Being of soft pine, they "smoosh" better with the glue than toothpicks, which are usually maple and less inclined to break up and reform decent threads, IME. I've never had a failure of this repair. I also imagine threaded inserts would be a great fix, but I'm sure they require a higher level of woodworking skill to be done right than glue and matchsticks. Oh, and I have to wonder how you stripped the holes to begin with? Whatever it is, cut it out :)!

No clue how why all the sudden they are stripped. I took the bass apart to paint it now the screws dont tighten which makes me wonder if they were already stripped. Its an 80s fender so truss rod adjustment is at the bottom of the neck so Im sure its been apart a number of times.

Threaded inserts are actually an easy conversion. You simply overdrill the existing hole for the insert and crank it in. I've done it several times using a hand drill.

I wouldn't do it that way for a new undrilled install (really calls for a drill press), but for a repair it's easy and painless.

I have a drill press. were can I get inserts from ?

I've always gotten them from Rockler, but that's because they have a local store. IIRC they are 8-32 thread. Many hardware stores carry them.

http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?p...2&site=ROCKLER

Be sure to buy matching machine screws, of course!

I've used the toothpick trick without the glue. The wood gets mashed in there pretty good on it's own.

Threaded inserts: what I use
 

1/4-20 buttonhead machine screws, steel inserts. Tremendous crankdown torque, this way.

Do you end up having to overdrill the body holes to clear? I thought they were usually smaller than 1/4".

Yup. This is the way I've always done it, save for a few dalliances w/crossnuts, decades ago. The buttonheads rest on top of the neckplate.

It's imperative to have the inserts square to the surface of the heel, so I recently made a jig that will hold the neck fingerboard down, and indexed to the quill of the drillpress. I use a Wixey digital angle checker, set to zero on the quill, and 90 degrees on the heel. The last conversion I did, I used this, it was an enormous timesaver.

Hi.

+1000

I wouldn't use toothpicks or matchsticks and glue because...

You'll probably have to remove it again at some point, and the band-aid remedies usually don't last very long if they have to be taken apart.

Regards
Sam

I do these conversions because of the the tonal enhancement & increased sustain.

This thread of mine may provide some help if you wan to go to the trouble of threaded inserts. You'd also be OK to either drill and plug the holes or add wood and glue to fill out the holes.

http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f18/in...k-long-612671/

Thanks guys. I think Im gonna call the shop that does my repair work and have him put the inserts in the neck. Better safe than sorry.

Good call. I trust the matchstick/toothpick and glue trick for strap buttons, but for neck screws I would use the inserts for sure.

Im sure toothpicks would work till I go to adjust the trust rod and end up right back were I was.

Probably, but by my way of thinking ( Maybe just the carpenter in me), if your strap button moves a little it's no big deal, if your neck moves a little, it's a big deal.