hey guys, sorry I’ve been gone LOL. Not that it matters or anyone cares LOL. anyways got a stripped neck bolt and i hear on YouTube that you can use wood glue and toothpicks. I asked my tech about it at the guitar shop, and he said use toothpicks and super glue. I imagine cuz it would dry faster? Anybody have any ideas or views on which way is best? super glue or wood glue for stripped neck bolt fix with toothpicks?
That will work, but I wouldn’t consider it the best option. The best option would be to buy a hardwood dowel, drill out the screw hole to fit it, and redrill a fresh hole.
The soft pine toothpicks will eventually get chewed up and loose when you take the bolt on and off again in the future.
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Toothpicks or matchstick with wood glue does work but as AGTG said the best solution is definitely to drill the hole out a little and fill it properly with a piece of dowel then redrill a new hole for the screw.
Google ‘guitar neck bolt insert’ for another option. I’ve never tried this approach, so I can’t comment on results, but it seems a lot easier than plugging with a dowel. Pretty cheap option and lots of suppliers available.
I’m actually building a bass at the moment and using the inserts on it. They work fabulously but are a little harder to get aligned properly in the first instance. Once they are drilled the never wear out like screws into wood does.
Which is why I got them all screwed up the first time and had to fill the holes with dowel then re drill properly 
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not real fast with technology in putting the quotes in so you know exactly what I’m talking about but hopefully you still get what I’m saying LOL. I bought Dan Earlewine’s guitar player repair guide 3rd edition, so i had an about the dowel. But really I’m about as poor as it gets right now. Actually, just went thru 2 jobs, now working on the 3rd. Which is y i haven’t been back for awhile. Thanks so much for the advice guys. I actually haven’t even anything to it yet. So far its held decently. But i tend to look down once in awhile and notice the smallest of millimeter gap between neck and body. Actually, come to think of it, i remember y i haven’t done it yet. Okay, I’m sure u guys are familiar with the ESP LTD tun-o-matic TOMs right? The bridge posts are inserts with the bridge pins that screw into them? I noticed one day bout week and half -2 weeks ago that the inserts were sagging, leaning, and sinking into the body. I couldn’t believe it! I know that basswood can b soft, but i never seen this. I haven’t had enough to take it to my techy but it was affecting sound immensely. Everytime I’d pick it up to play, i noticed fret buzz on frets 1-5. So initially i thought, okay, truss rod and/nut. Fiddled with it for awhile, still the same. Then i checked the bridge and that was when i noticed that sagging. I guess my techy tightened the stop bar down all the way, causing almost all the strings to touch bridge on the tail piece side. And i read Dan’s book and it said that if that happens it doubles the pressure and tension on the bridge. So I’m thinking that plus standing or sitting with guitar upright it must have slowly began it’s annoying decent. At first, I’d just raise the action when I’d get the buzz. After awhile, it started to look ridiculous LOL.
I heard about those inserts as well. Which is why I didn’t go try to find them LOL. Yeah anyting that costed more than a couple dollars and needed equipment I just didn’t have to keep it safe during the procedure I couldn’t get. sucks that you had to redo it but as I see it looks very worth it. I bet it is very reliable and sturdy.
I’ll give that a try. I haven’t got to look at it yet but I’m hoping for thinking that it’s something different than what I’ve heard so far? Lol. I don’t even know why I’m asking I’ll just find out LOL. But thanks guys. You should see how it looks now LOL. Not exactly your showroom guitar LOL. Cuz I pried up the bridge pin inserts and I think it definitely did push the wood into a new directional angle. Of course I have no screwdrivers or drill bits to redrill it and no money to get dowels or anything. So I just been putting tiny strips of metal trying to get it to wedge into the right position. So far I’m at least getting some clean notes out of it. But every now and then I got readjust the little pieces of metal I Islip under the edges of the bridge pins sleeves. But yeah I did it beat it just looks horrible LOL. I did hear however if you add something to fill the space in the tailpiece that way you can tighten it all the way down without the strings touching the bridge, that it helps with sustain. I can’t say for sure if it does or not because I got so many pieces of metal under the bridge pins that there’s no clear way of knowing LOL.