neck shaping

[peter havriluk]

I'm about to start shaping a neck (first of two similar ones). Been bolted to the body, angle adjusted. Next is to shape and prepare for fretboard attachment.

I'm looking for suggestions as to how to capture and stabilize the neck while I shape it. My best guess is to screw the neck, from the fretboard side, to a piece of lumber longer and narrower than the neck and clamp the array to my workbench and commence hacking away at the neck, taking care to leave the region of the fretboard joint untouched until after the fretboard's been attached.

Any suggestions will be gratefully received.

Thanks!

[Tim Benware]

This is the holder I use, self made styled after Martin Factory. If you need a better pic let me know.

[peter havriluk]

A thousand words. All I need to know is right in the picture. Thanks!

[peter havriluk]

On some reflection...I have a few questions:

Tim, I think I noticed in your picture that the fretboard is not attached to the neck. At what point in your workflow do you do that? And what precautions do you take to avoid corrupting the fretboard/neck intersections? ( I have a roll of one-inch-wide 'duct tape'. Would wrapping the neck edges, leaving a quarter-inch of tape on the side, the rest wrapped onto the top, be sufficient? )

I assume that final shaping/sanding is done after the fretboard's attached.

Parenthetically, do you install frets on the fretboard before attaching it to the neck, or after? I realize that this question generates strong opinions on both sides, but I'm curious to get an idea of when's a good time to do fretting given the workflow it's part of.

Thanks!

[John Parchem]

Peter in general the answers to your questions are yes. Every different way is used and it a matter of trade offs.

For steel string guitars I want to set the neck angle without the fret board attached. It is a lot easier to get the angle correct on the heel cheeks if the fret board is not in the way. when using a chisel or a sanding stick. The same is true on the mortise of dovetail joint.

Before setting the neck angle the heel of the neck should be shaped or carved so the heel is hitting the body like it will on a finished guitar

I like to glue on the fretboard without frets and fret either as part of setup or right before I finish the guitar. This gives me one last opportunity to tweek the neck angle a bit. It is a lot easier to fret with the fret board off the neck so a lot of builders do that. I just hate missing the opportunity to do a bit of adjustment before fretting. The things I have fixed in this step includes adding a bit of relief past the body join to avoid a sky ramp, a slight adjustment in neck angle and sanding out a hump at the body join.

[peter havriluk]

Thanks, John. So far so good, I think. Neck's been bolted into place, angle previewed and accepted. Neck's off and will stay off till shaping's done. Thanks for helping me feel comfortable about my own workflow.

[Tim Benware]

John. if you notice the DT is not cut yet on this guitar. Once I get the neck near final shape I cut the DT and body mortise on my jig matching up the neck angle. Then I fit the neck and make sure the neck angle goes flat across the top (it may take some minor sanding to ensure it is flat). Once that is done I glue up the Fret board. I press my frets in prior to gluing on the FB and have not had any issues doing it this way. As you said others prefer it add them after the board is glued on.