Acoustic Guitar Construction

the Ditson guitar I made last year has a neck which is too thick. I need to contour it and bring the size down to more of a Martin shape. I have not had to do this yet so... I am undecided wether to use a spoke shave or a rasp or scraper or sander or? Suggestions please.

A number of ways to do it - the easiest for me is a sharp spokeshave.
I bought these from Lee Valley and they work great on a neck and for lots of other stuff as well.
http://www.leevalley.com/US/wood/page.a ... 1182,46334

I also bought a metal one from BestThings.com, an old Preston in great shape, and once sharpened it is impressive to use. I can hold the neck in one hand and just carve with the spokeshave in the other.

No matter how you decide to make the modification take note of these details -- first the neck was digitized from a Martin neck -- yes we leave it over-size. At the first fret the Martin is .610" generally our necks leave here at .650" at that fret location. Key is that the truss rod channel is .50" deep so you must take care not to remove so much material as to break through the surface of the neck -- one of our members did just that a while back. The thickness of finger-board also plays a role in the feel of the neck material can be removed there as well.

I make my necks at the first 22mm and have had a couple think it is to thin, with Ken's size of .650 and a FB at about .25 equals .9" or almost exactly 22mm. So I agree be careful.

The neck really doesn't need much material removed so I I'll just use a little sandpaper.

Thanks guys

Dang it Woody, you need an expensive tool to do this right!! Not..:-)

Woody, just don't use cheap sandpaper and we all won't think less of you.........

Kevin