I recently ordered a Washburn WG587 7 string, and i've done a truss rod adjustment, set the action and checked the intonation. I also sanded the neck down a bit to give it a thinner profile. Since its a cheap guitar i was thinking about making the cutaway deeper to access the bottom frets easier, but i've never done anything like that before, and was wondering wether it would weaken the neck joint since its a bolt-on neck. If I do that i'll probabably sand the body and stain it. Has anyone here tried to increase the cutaway on a guitar before?
Never did anything like that. Don't think I'd want to either. Is it that hard to get to the upper frets?
"Work hard, rock hard, eat hard, sleep hard,
grow big, wear glasses if you need 'em."
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It might weaken the joint there.
I took a look at the WG587 online; the cutout goes right up to the last fret; shouldn't be too hard to access it as it is. Usually not being able to play on the upper frets is an issue with thumb/wrist position. You could certainly try deepening the cutout but unless you draw it out carefully it might look a bit weird. It's a pretty nice shape the way it is.
I'd cut my thumb off before I would cut up my strat.!
Thanks for the replies. The washburn is just a 200$ cheapy i've been wanting to do something with for a while. Since its a seven string i was worried about the string tension putting extra stress on the neck joint. The last one i played was a Jackson with a really deep cutaway, and a bevel on the edge of the cutaway. This ones not too bad, but seems to get in the way just a little compared to that one. I'll probably do something else, like place a different pickup set in it.
You might bevel it if you don't go too deep.
Yeah plus since its a bolt-on, you're gonna have that neck plate in the way no matter how deep the cutaway is. It'd be better to take a look at your hand position. Believe it or not, there are guys who have no problem playing on the high frets on acoustics with NO cutaway...
