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Thread: Neck Building

  1. #1
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    Neck Building

    Who builds their own necks? I have built 3 guitars and am starting number four. Yet I buy my necks. For some reason, I have convinced myself that its not worth the risk/trouble. The body of a guitar is very forgiving... but the neck must be correct (scale, etc). Same thing for finger boards. Perhaps it is that I just do not understand the science behind the neck and finger board.

    Mike

  2. #2
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    I'm about to embark on my 1st fretted neck, we'll see how it goes. I did a fretless bass neck but that almost doesn't count.

  3. #3
    There just really isn't that much to it, to be honest. There's a lot of small details to get right. For example, make your headstock + veneer thin enough that the tuning machines fit. Stupid things like that that are easy to get right but also easy to forget. It's also easy to do something out of order, thereby obliterating a line or an edge that would have proved invaluable in a later step. For example, if you intend to route a truss rod channel using a fence of any kind (including on a handheld router), and if you intend to use headstock wings, gluing the headstock wings on before routing the channel can cause you all sorts of grief. Think about it for a second and you'll see why Nothing that can't easily be recovered from, but it just makes it more difficult. So instead of thinking in terms of just vaguely making a measurement, for example, think of exactly where you will measure from. Sometimes you'll find that in your sequence, the convenient place has been destroyed earlier on and you'll rethink things. It's also easy to do things like gluing over centerlines. Fingerboards and veneers come to mind. It's not that they can't be reestablished, but it's so much easier to mark them down the edges as well so when you glue over them you can simply remark them from the edge. Little details like that.

    Making a couple of practice necks out of 2X4s can be really helpful and confidence inspiring!

  4. #4
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    John pretty much summed it up. I build my own necks. I prefer it as I can make sure the scale is perfect, the profile and radius is how I like and whatnot. I prefer a 10" radius and a thin D profile. The most useful tip I'd say is to always keep track of your center line. Be mindful of the materials you are using. I made one not too long ago that came out really nice but a few days later developed a significant back bow. I'm not entirely sure why this happened though I had an idea why and the one I made to replace it came out great. Even though I wasted a nice piece of flat sawn maple and a great birdseye maple fingerboard, I don't chalk it up as a complete waste. I got to experience how to remove a fingerboard that has been glued on with titebond. Seems possible if you use a heat gun and go real slow. It was a learning process for me so I ended up ruining it.

  5. #5
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    Well, given the complexity of my current projects, I just have not wanted to go there yet. $120 for a custom neck is small change in the bigger scheme of the project. But I do plan to try soon.

    Mike

  6. #6
    If you are "building" guitars then certainly you must be building the necks. A guitar neck is the primary interface between the player and instrument and I wouldn't want to leave that up to a factory that pumps out neck copies of factory designs. Make your own neck and your overall guitar design can be truly yours, integrated with your body design - you choose the joinery too. So much of any given guitars playability and character comes from the players impression of the neck - make your own necks and your customers can truly get a custom instrument - you build to their specs. I always suggest to my guitar customers that they come to my shop when I'm carving the neck for their guitar so that they can have it exactly as they want it. Good relationship builder!

    Making a neck seems to be very involved at the start, but a methodical build will break the process down into simple steps.

    I know that there are many ways to skin a cat but I started building guitars from raw lumber/logs and I think that it really helps a builder develop a complete skill set and integrated understanding of guitar building.

    All of this being said I tie my own flies when I go fishing so maybe I just can't help but get in over my head...
    Last edited by Chris Fournier; 01-19-2011 at 2:41 PM. Reason: spellink

  7. #7
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    I agree, I just have not gone there yet. And I am talking about acoustic guitars. My necks are made by a skilled individual (actually well known in the trade). Hand made, no cnc (though I see nothing wrong with that). Of all the things I have done in guitar building... this is the one I wish I could see someone else do (in person).

    Mike

  8. #8

    For $120?

    Quote Originally Posted by Mike O'Melia View Post
    I agree, I just have not gone there yet. And I am talking about acoustic guitars. My necks are made by a skilled individual (actually well known in the trade). Hand made, no cnc (though I see nothing wrong with that). Of all the things I have done in guitar building... this is the one I wish I could see someone else do (in person).

    Mike
    At waht level of completion is this $120 neck? At this price I'd get this person to make the body too!

  9. #9
    I actually find the neck one of the more fun parts of the guitar to build with carving the profile and all. Plus most of the "playability" of a guitar is determined by the neck. If you want to build guitars that play great, and feel great when playing, its all in the neck.

  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by Chris Fournier View Post
    If you are "building" guitars then certainly you must be building the necks.
    Thats a good point. I never considered it actually building without making the neck too. The bodies (solid body electrics anyway) are just too easy. You can bolt a neck to any block of wood and have something that makes noise. The neck, in my opinion, basically IS the guitar. Obviously other things play a part too but the neck is where the magic happens.

  11. #11
    He's making acoustics, though. I'll go out on a limb and say that I spend more time making the box on an acoustic than I do making the neck. The neck is pretty simple. Still, for $120, that's tough to beat!

  12. #12
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    The neck for $120 is an unshaped peghead, heel, block, joint, and truss rod. The neck is shaped. Mahogony. You still have to shape the peghead, apply fingerbaord, etc. I will attempt them when I get an edge sander... but those take up too much space.

    Mike

  13. #13

    Plenty of work left!

    Is the peghead veneer glued on when you get the necks?

    I'm not sure what you want to use the edge sander for when it comes to neck construction. The edge sander is one of my least favourite machines in my shop as it is perfectly happy to remove all and any stock in a rapid and haphazard fashion!

    Once the neck is laminated, scarfed and the heel block is glued on I find that the bandsaw, router and drill press are the go to machines for my methods. The rest of the work is hand tools.

    Granted a big instrument year for me would have been 8 - 10 instruments but I've found that neck production can move along pretty nicely with mostly hand tools for the shaping aspects of the build.

    Now a big disc sander is another story...

  14. #14
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    No peghead veneer. I have a 9" disk sander. Do you cut the general shape of the neck on the band saw first? When do you rout the truss rod chanel? And what are your primary shaping tools?

    Mike

  15. #15
    I've built two fretted necks recently. I came up with a good trick. John mentioned losing the centerline in the process of developing the parts. I made the blank for the fingerboard longer than the final size and drilled two small holes on the centerline in the waste area at each end. I used the holes to line up the board in my fretting fixture (home made), radiusing jig (also homemade), and tapering jig (for cutting the sides on my tablesaw). (Almost sounds like that bank ad: "I can my own jam: apricot.") In the case of the tapering jig, I could flip the board and cut the same taper on the opposite side without problems. I placed small screw eyes thru the holes to fasten them to the jigs. Since I had a milling machine, I used the bed to help me mark an aluminum bar with the distances for the fret locations. I used the bar to index my square as I cut each fret slot. I also came up with a new idea for a fret wire bender out of spare parts. There's also a description in that link of how I did the frets using low budget tools.

    I made the neck from mahogany which turned out to be remarkably easy to shape. I was able to use my spokeshaves and drawknife. It was a very labor-intensive task, but I enjoyed doing it as well as the planning and construction of jigs to make it possible. Here's a link to the final results.
    Last edited by Floyd Mah; 02-10-2011 at 1:08 PM.

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