Necking in the Shop

I wanted to finish 3 necks today, but it's Saturday and I ended up goofing around and only finishing one. This one is for a single cutaway Envirocaster:

Four New Necks

While the water-based lacquer is curing on my other guitar projects, I took the time to start on four new necks. Here are some photos of my progress so far:

That's one long flamed Maple neck blank!

Marking the necks with a template.

Cutting out a neck.

One of four rough necks.

Four rough necks.

3/8" tuner holes.

Routing a truss rod slot.

Finished truss rod slot.

Carving and blending the neck's contour.

Houston, We Have A Problem

While making a neck for one of my latest guitar builds, I discovered a knot in the middle of the back contour. For obvious reasons, I can't use it. However, I don't plan to trash it just yet. I have an idea for something special, which I will detail in a future post. In the meantime, I made another neck today.

I drilled out the surface of the knot and tried to fill it in. You can't feel it, but you can definitely see it.

This is the new neck. To get to this point from a flamed Maple blank took about 3 hours. All I have left to do is attach the fretboard and do the final sanding and shaping.

eGuitar Plan's Daily Diary 12/08/11

Right now I have 3 different electric guitar builds underway. The closest one to being finished is a Highline Legato. Check out the progress up to this point:

So far, I have wiped on about 7 coats of tung oil to the body, neck and headstock. Tomorrow, I plan to examine the surface to see if I need to apply any more coats. What I'll be looking for are rough spots where more tung oil may be needed to make the surface smooth and consistent. Once I have achieved a uniform surface sheen, I'll lightly sand the surface with 400 to 600 grit sandpaper to remove any dust specks or lint fibers. Then, I'll wipe it down with another coat of tung oil and cover it with a plastic sheet to keep dust off the surface. Finally, I'll wipe on another coat 12 hours later. Once that last coat has dried, she'll be ready for final assembly.

The other two guitars I'm working on are a pair of Highline Envirocasters. The body blanks are resting on a shelf for the next couple of weeks since they were made by glueing two boards together. Glue adds moisture, therefore it's a good idea to let them sit and dry out before cutting out the body shapes.

While the blanks rest, I'll continue to forge ahead with the necks. The photo below shows my progress so far:

The top neck will be used on a single cut design while the bottom one will find a home on a double cut. Both necks are made from beautiful slabs of Birdseye Maple. The next step will be to make the fretboards. Stay tuned!

eGuitar Plan's Daily Diary 12/06/11

I was going to detail my later electric guitar build in a multi-part series, but I have so many projects going on, I decided to organize this blog into a daily diary. Today would have been Part 3 of my latest build, but it will now be the eGuitar Plan's Daily Diary 12/06/11. So here is what happened today:

This morning, I glued up a couple of Ash blanks for a pair of Envirocaster guitars. One will be a single cut and the other a double cut. Since moisture has been reintroduced to the wood, I'll let them sit for a couple of weeks.

To make a neck, I start with a suitable blank and my neck template. 

I trace the outline of the template onto the blank and mark the holes for the tuners and the ends of the truss rod. Next, I take the blank to my band saw and cut the shape about 1/16" (1.5mm) outside of the outline.

After cutting out the neck, I use a homemade pattern sander on my drill press to fine tune the shape.

This is how the neck looks after fine tuning on the pattern sander. I also planed the headstock thickness, drilled the tuner holes, routed the truss rod slot and formed the back contour. From the original blank to this stage took about three hours of work.

All In A Days Work...

Five necks and two fretboards. Whew!

A Thin Neck Is A Sexy Neck!

1/2" thick at the 1st fret!

Slightly thicker at the 12th fret.

It only took seconds to carve the volute with my new Iwasaki Files.

Here is a closeup of the files.

How To Make A Guitar Neck In One Hour

I've always felt the hardest task we luthiers face when building a guitar is making the neck. Not only does the process require skill, but it also demands stamina. Excluding the fretboard, the process of sawing, shaping and sanding a neck usually takes me a full day to complete. And after I have finished the work, I can really feel it in my shoulders and elbows.

To speed up the process and save my joints, I've added a new jig to handle the work of carving the back contour of my guitar necks. It's called the Scheltema Neck Jig and was designed and developed by fellow luthier Bill Scheltema. You can see it in action and download the plans from his youtube video. Here are a few photos of my version:

The jig slides back and forth over my router while the neck is rotated
from side to side.

I use a 1/2" diameter straight bit to do the carving as
I slide the jig back and forth.

The end result is a perfectly formed "C" shaped contour that tapers
from the heel to the headstock. The cool thing about this jig is that I can
achieve different contours by changing the half-round pucks at each end
of the jig. Any contour is possible. All that left to do is blend the contour
at each end and lightly sand out the tool marks.

My Latest Electric Guitar Neck

Along with several other electric guitar builds that I have in progress, I'm starting a new one, which will be called the Highline Neolux. I'm almost finished with making the neck and I thought I share some photos of the work up to this point:

The fretboard is Morado and the marker dots are Maple.

I carved the volute as far forward as possible
to keep it from interfering with the fretting hand.

The neck itself is made from Canarywood and will be
a bolt-on design with a minimal heel.

Dig the truss rod adjustment access hole.

I love the color and grain of Canarywood, not to mention
its amazing tonal properties.