The tenon of a set neck guitar should be tight against the bottom of the neck pocket, and snug against the sides. When its correctly set the sides of the neck will be equal distance from the sides of the bridge (ie the strings will be the same distance from the sides of the board) and the fret plane will just touch the tops of the saddles when they are at their lowest adjustment.

Its been a while since I worked on a flying vee but as I remember the neck to body joint is at 18 or 19 which means that the tenon is relatively short. It should extend into the neck pickup cavity and be below the pickup (if I remember).

Ideally you would have done multiple dry runs to make sure the neck geometry was going to be correct before you got glue anywhere close to the joint.

I did some fit tests of the neck first (which I'm glad I did) as the neck doesn't sit all the way back in the pocket, otherwise the humbucker and pick guard won't fit. I pencil mark the body for alignment, take a huge breath, and get the wood glue out.

Okay... Provided you used a proper glue such as Titebond or hide glue, you can steam the joint apart and then do some adjustments, etc.

PLEASE tell me you didn't use a permanent glue.

I did use titebond.

So I take it that little gap where it's not sitting flush on the bottom of the pocket is really going to throw it all off, right? The actual position of the neck is workable (the bridge sits far enough behind the bridge pickup, only need to drill holes in the pick guard), or do you feel that's completely off as well?

I'm not being snarky, I'm trying to help you.

And yes that little gap is a major problem. What I want you to do is put bridge on at the location where it is suppose to be, put it on some small blocks of wood that are about the thickness of the adjuster wheels and studs on your bridge - what you are trying to do is simulate it being in the lowest possible adjustment. Then put a 24 inch straight edge on the frets and point it to the bridge - it will look like this



Ideally the straightedge will just barely touch the tops of the saddles at their lowest adjustment.

The idea here is this gives you the best range of adjustment to get playable action

An alternative is to just measure vertically from the top to the bottom of the straightedge. Post the picture or the measurement.

It should be steam, and you should completely remove the neck.

Okay. I figured as much. And going back to look at it, I’m almost certain I did it wrong.

What’s the best way to steam it? I’m assuming just a standard electric kettle under the joint and keep trying to wiggle it free?

As Chris said, most of us who do this very often have rigged up a way to inject the steam right into the joint. I made mine out of an old espresso machine, a piece of rubber hose and the needle to put air in a basketball



You really don't want to flood the joint with a lot of boiling water but you may be able to drip a small amount right into the joint itsefl while applying pressure to open the joint. If you are in a city with a good guitar repair shop they should have a steamer

Taking it to a Guitar Center would be a huge mistake. You never did answer my question about what type of Titebond you used.

Guitar Center is a good place to go if you want your guitar screwed up even more. There is no such thing as qualified guitar repairmen at Guitar Center because they don't pay crap, and they treat their people like slave labor. The internet is rife with horror stories about Guitar Center. They are no good stories.

Good job. Again your goal is to get it to seat tightly against the bottom of the pocket AND have the geometry that I describe. Clamp the neck to the body leaving a space in the center, do the straightedge test (you can use a yard stick or almost any straight piece of metal but a 24 inch metal rule should cost you five bucks at Home Depot). You may need to sand or chisel some wood from the pocket to get it to fit right but the geometry has to be correct.

After that deal with the pick guard and everything else.

I feel the same as Barry and Chris about GC.

That is much better and the geometry should work fine. I'm going to bow out at this point and let you deal with the pickguard and all the rest of your build, but I think you've dodged the bullet.