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I am making a guitar and have slotted the neck into the body but there are some large gaps between the neck and body. Is there any foolproof way to disguise these gaps. I have been thinking of mixing glue with sawdust to fill the gaps but I am wanting more ideas.

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  • The neck/body joint in a guitar needs to take quite a bit of strain, I hate to say it but consideration should be give to remaking the neck so that there are no gaps so that the joint is as strong as possible.
    – Graphus
    Commented Nov 1, 2017 at 16:33
  • Re. wood dust and glue, as has been mentioned in some previous Answers despite it being so commonly stated that it is "a good colour match" it's usually (virtually always) much darker than the surrounding wood. Do a quick test on some scrap and see firsthand.
    – Graphus
    Commented Nov 1, 2017 at 16:37

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There is no foolproof way. Here's a rundown of some options:

  1. Use slivers/wedges of real wood glued and pushed into crevices. This offers the most strength and tends to look best, but is probably the hardest to achieve.

  2. Fill the gap with a gap-filling glue, like epoxy. Epoxy will offer some strength to this mistake. Even if you fill the epoxy with sawdust or a die, it will tend to look like a filled gap.

  3. The old wood glue and sawdust trick. Easy, but will stand out similar to epoxy. Regular wood glue will not strengthen the area like epoxy.

  4. Real Wood filler. Has the potential to look better than the glue options, but usually not by much. It will also not strengthen the area.

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  • Another option, depending on the size of the gaps, is to mix shellac and sawdust. This works well for smaller gaps, maybe up to 1/16", and allows you to control the consistency by varying the ratio of sawdust to shellac -- if you get it a little thick, it's pretty easy to thin it back just by adding more shellac. And of course if it's too thin, add more sawdust. Pros: Looks a little better than wood glue or epoxy. Cons: Doesn't fill as big a gap as epoxy would. Other info: The filled gap tends to be just slightly darker than the surrounding wood. I've liked the effect, but ymmv.
    – Katie Kilian
    Commented Nov 1, 2017 at 13:42

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