Neck Builds (Now With Truss Rod Jig Plans: Page 3)

Talk about modding or building your own guitar from scratch.
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Strider13
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Neck Builds (Now With Truss Rod Jig Plans: Page 3)

Post by Strider13 » Thu Mar 22, 2012 10:15 am

Hey everyone, just thought I'd start a thread showing everyone how I go about making a guitar neck. I've learned a lot about methods for building them from this forum and the TDPRI, but it's mostly been in bits and pieces. I haven't really seen a thread demonstrating a two piece neck build from start to finish. So I figured that I would start one myself, in order to help others that may want to start building necks themselves. I hope other members will chime in with their own methods, so we can make a consolidated thread of neck building techniques. But that's enough of an introduction, let's get building!
Last edited by Strider13 on Fri Mar 30, 2012 8:42 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Rough Shaping The Neck Blank

Post by Strider13 » Thu Mar 22, 2012 10:33 am

I start out by tracing my neck template onto the pieces of 3/4" thick maple I'll be making the necks out of. Two of the blanks are regular hard maple, and the other one is flamed maple. When tracing the neck, I try to avoid knots and any defects that may be in the neck blank.

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I used a large forstner bit to drill some relief holes around the nut in the neck blank.

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I then use my bandsaw to rough cut around the neck, about 1/8" to 1/16" around the perimeter.

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I then move over to the spindle sander to sand even closer to the line. I use the round drum attachments to shape the inner curves around the headstock, and the belt attachment for the flat parts and outside curves.

Image
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Re: Neck Builds

Post by Telliot » Thu Mar 22, 2012 10:47 am

Awesome! Thanks for starting this thread! I'd really like to start making necks, but I'm pretty intimidated by the idea. It just seems so easy to eff up... :unsure: I hope you can show the process using everyday tools for those of us (me) who haven't the specialized equipment. :)
The cool thing about fretless is you can hit a note...and then renegotiate.

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Re: Neck Builds

Post by PoppaPopp » Thu Mar 22, 2012 10:57 am

Thanks again Strider - it's greatly appreciated!
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Shaping The Neck Profile Further

Post by Strider13 » Thu Mar 22, 2012 11:03 am

I then screw my template onto the neck blank with some 1-1/4" drywall screws. The holes are located where the truss rod routs will go, or in the case of the headstock, where one of the tuner holes will go. I shortened the screw near the first fret to about 1" long, so that it doesn't go too deep that it leaves a hole when we shape the neck later on.

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With the template firmly attached, I take the neck over to the drill press and use my set of robosanders to sand even closer to the line. I want the router to have to take off as little material as possible, so we get a smoother cut without tearout. I use the larger drums to sand the majority of the neck, and the smaller one to get into the inner curves of the headstock. I also get the heel end nice and smooth and to the line. I don't like routing around the neck heel, as no matter what it seems to want to grab a corner and tear it out. So I just use the robosander to get the area around the heel where I want it, and don't rout it at all.

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I set up my spiral cut router bit in my router table, the same bit I use for routing bodies. I also set up the router fence, with the bit guard above the tip of the router bit. This makes the routing a bit safer.

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I rout the profile by pushing the wood against the cutter (From the right side of the table towards the left) as I'm not a big fan of climb cutting (routing with the spinning direction of the cutter). By using the sanders to get so close to the line before, I don't have to worry too much about cutting against the grain, so I'm able to rout everything more safely by avoiding climb cuts.

The finished profile looks something like this:

Image

And here are all of the necks together, next to the AllParts Jaguar neck I'll be using as a reference for these builds.

Image
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Re: Neck Builds

Post by blacktiger » Thu Mar 22, 2012 11:06 am

I doubt that I'll ever attempt to make a neck in my life, but this thread is awesome nonetheless. It's always cool to see how things are made.
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Re: Neck Builds

Post by Strider13 » Thu Mar 22, 2012 11:11 am

Telliot wrote:Awesome! Thanks for starting this thread! I'd really like to start making necks, but I'm pretty intimidated by the idea. It just seems so easy to eff up... I hope you can show the process using everyday tools for those of us (me) who haven't the specialized equipment.
PoppaPopp wrote:Thanks again Strider - it's greatly appreciated!
Glad to hear there's some interest! It is a bit intimidating at first, but gets easier when you know everything that needs to be done. I have access to a lot of tools, but most of what I am doing can be adapted for those without access to a large shop. A jigsaw can be used instead of a bandsaw, regular sanding drums and a belt sander can be used instead of a spindle sander and robosanders, etc. The specialized tools can make things easier, faster, and more reliable, but most of them aren't necessary. No matter what tools you end up using, the basic techniques and ideas should stay roughly the same.
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Strider13
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Re: Neck Builds

Post by Strider13 » Thu Mar 22, 2012 11:14 am

I've made a lot more progress on these necks, but I'll have to wait until after work to get some more photos and writing up on the thread. Glad to hear that everyone is interested in the process though. ;D
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Re: Neck Builds

Post by willc » Thu Mar 22, 2012 11:34 am

Outstanding!!!

This great to document.
I have been wanting to make a neck for a bit now and hopefully this can help out.

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Re: Neck Builds

Post by maximee » Thu Mar 22, 2012 2:39 pm

Hey Strider13,
thanks for your time and effort! Very interesting read, can't wait to see more! :)

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Re: Neck Builds

Post by cmatthes » Thu Mar 22, 2012 5:21 pm

Awesome thread! Thanks for sharing...

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Re: Neck Builds

Post by CROSS_guitars » Thu Mar 22, 2012 5:57 pm

Yep. Got all that but what about peoples' trussrod installation techniques?

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Re: Neck Builds

Post by Strider13 » Thu Mar 22, 2012 7:07 pm

CROSS_guitars wrote:Yep. Got all that but what about peoples' trussrod installation techniques?
I'll get to truss rod channel routing, truss rod building, and truss rod installation over my next few posts. My truss rods are vintage style, single action, which makes them pretty easy and cheap to build.
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Re: Neck Builds

Post by Tree's » Thu Mar 22, 2012 7:28 pm

Thanks for sharing 8) , good point on not using the router on the heel. Made me realize, all the vintage necks I've owned had some bit of vertical saw lines still visible on the heel. Fender didn't rout around the heel to avoid tearout also.

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Re: Neck Builds

Post by lokalfuz » Thu Mar 22, 2012 7:37 pm

This is awesome indeed. Thanks much!

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