Shaping the Neck

So, now pretty much the entire guitar is put together; everything is almost ready for beginning the finishing process. However, the most important (and potentially fun part of the build) needs to be complete. That is, shaping the neck of the guitar. Now most guitarists know that one of the the things that draws them to a particular guitar is the shape of the neck. A neck that is too fat, feels like a baseball bat, where a neck that is too thin, might not feel right in their hands. Additionally, some people - like myself - prefer a somewhat "V" shaped neck. For this guitar, I began by drawing out something that looked about right to me to get my bearings, but then I realized that it was relatively asinine, as it would be much more important to me to just do it by feel, so I kind of threw it out the door and did what I wanted. 

The first thing that I needed to do was to take off a great deal of material of the mahogany. The first step was to take out notches at the 1st fret and also at the 10th fret and then shaving that area down. The picture to the left shows the saw that was used to cut out the material. Additionally, once two cuts were produced, a 3/4 inch chisel and a few different rasps were used to get rid of the rest of the material.

Then using a spoke shaver, I took off the material between the two notches on each side. This was relatively quick work as the spoke shaver takes off a pretty good amount of material from each pass. Once most of the material was gone, I used a flat rasp to make sure the surface was completely flat.

The picture to the left shows what one side looked following the use of the rasp. Additionally, you can see on the left side of the neck where a few passes of the spoke shave have taken out some of the wood. In the picture to the right, you can see that both sides of the neck have been flattened and are set to be shaped even more.

The next step was to set up the depth of the neck. The neck that I created was a little bit proud. using the spoke shave, a hand plane, a few chisels and rasps, I took the wood down to the correct thickness. Then it was time for the fun situation of using numerous rasps to actually shape the neck. Basically this was done by feel. In essence, I took down all the heavy sections of the neck - the ridges that were created by making flat surfaces. Once I felt satisfied with the shape, I then began to chisel out the areas that had not been touched by the spoke shave. I first worked on the heel of the guitar, which can be seen in the picture below.

When I was happy with the feeling of the heel, I realized that I had need to take a little more wood down in the area that I had previously worked on, again using a rasp. This was mainly done by trial and error. Basically picking up the guitar and feeling the neck throughout the entire area that I have worked on. This is one of the most fun processes of building a the guitar because it is something that you can make the guitar your own. A hand crafted neck to your own specifications allows you to make the proper modifications in the way that you want it. For this guitar, the neck has a slight V-shape, but is slightly heavy on the left side of the neck (in the picture on the right) as it will allow me to be able to use my thumb at times.

I next bean working on the headstock section of the neck. For this, I decided I wanted to add a velote. This is basically a small carved portion of the neck where the body of the neck meets the headstock, right at the nut. I decided to do this as it occasionally comes on some of the more high end guitars and I wanted to add a little something to the neck. For this guitar it is s slight pyramid shape that has been carved, using multiple chisels, carving tools and some sand paper. Some individuals that don't really like velotes, however there is some structural significance to them. It allows for additionally strength at the scarf joint since there is added wood placed where the tension of the strings. However, it is more done for some extra flair.

In the pictures on the right and the left, you can see a few different pictures of the volute. I have worked with some guitars where the volute somewhat impedes playing at the first fret. However, I am pleased to find that this one is small enough and placed correctly on the neck that it will not be any bother  when playing.

Lastly, the final stage of the neck shaping is to sand the whole thing down to 320 grit, as this is the last thing that needs to be done on the main body of the guitar prior to final sanding and finishing. One way that makes life easy for sanding is to take a bit of paper and put some pressure on both sides of the neck and run the paper up and down the neck from the heel to the velote. This really allows to get all the bumps, ridges and scratches out of the neck without deforming the shape. After sanding the neck down, I also sanded the rest of the guitar down from 120 to 320 grit in preparation for finishing, which I will try to post pictures of the process throughout the next 3-6 weeks, which is the amount of time it will take to French Polish my guitar.

The Fretboard

So the next step for this guitar is to begin the fretboard. Some call it the fingerboard, and usually these two different terms are interchangeable. I continuously call it the fretboard, as it will have frets place in the slots you can see in the picture to the left. For this guitar, I have decided to bind the board, using a piece of Indian rosewood, which will be separated by a piece of white laminate. In the picture to the left, you can see the board, with the bindings, in their raw form. I was lucky to have some extra body bindings that I was able to use for my fretboard.

The first thing that I needed to do was to cut the raw board down to shape. To do this, I needed to precisely measure the width at the nut and the 12th fret. Then, simply, I took a straight edge and drew the line. The one issue with binding the fretboard, is that you have to cut the  fretboard a little bit smaller to accommodate the bindings. For this guitar, I first cut the  fretboard to the exact size that the whole  fretboard would be, and then took the edges down by approximately 1/8th of an inch. To the right, you can see the  fretboard as it was tapered to the correct size.

I began the binding process by taking my pieces of binding, and mitering them so that the joint would look like one continuous piece of wood. This was done with chisels and a bit of sanding. It was one of those "try and see" type of things to make sure that they met perfectly. 

Once, I was satisfied by my work. It was time to glue the whole thing up.  You can see in the picture to the right, and the subsequent picture on the left (below), that there was a bit of wit trim that appeared on the edges of the  fretboard . This will come off with sanding and shaping the fretboard. It was just a product of the white laminate that was on the bindings. After letting the glue tack up for a night, I began the process of adding fret markers on both the face and the edge of the fretboard. To do this, I had to measure the points where the markers were going to be placed and then drill in using the correct drill bit to make sure the size was correct. In the picture to the left, you can see the 9 points that I drilled into the face of the fretboard. Additionally, you may be able to see the pencil marks on the fretboard. I used a straight edge to make an "X" from the edges of the frets. This allowed for a precise spot of the center of the frets. This may be more visible in the picture on the right.

Next, I took the blue abalone dots and glued them in using epoxy. This hardened after a few minutes so I had to be very careful of not getting any into the slots of the fretboard, as it could be a problem when putting the frets in.

Once the glue had dried, it was time to sand the fretboard down. To do this, we took the board to the drum sander for a few quick passes.

Additionally, this guitar was to have a compound radius on the fretboard. What this means is that there will be varying radii from the nut to the end of the  fretboard, which allows for easier playability up the neck. To do this, I used a sanding block, which allowed for me to change the settings so that at the nut there was a 12" radius and at the final fret (fret 18) there was a radius at 16". It is very difficult to show this in a picture, but you may be able to see it in the picture on the right. Also, you are now able to see the separation with the white laminate between the fretboard and the binding. Lastly, You may be able to see the sheen on the fretboard as well. This was accomplished by going through the multiple grits of Micro-Mesh, which sands the wood down to a very fine polish.

Next, it was time to fret the fretboard. This is a relatively simple process, but it can be done in multiple ways. Since I had bound my fretboard, I made the decision to use a fret press, which will be pictured shortly. Basically, the process s very simple, take a long piece of fretwire, cut it to size and press it into the slot for the fret. Finally, on each fret, you snip the edges and you have it done. One additionally thing that was completed during this time period was to take off the tang of the fret wire, where the binding would be located. This is done by using a tang snipper (black tool on the right), which allows for the face of the fret to be preserved, but take off the piece of metal that would be pushed into the slot. 

In the picture on the right, you can see what the tang snipper does. So the frets on the left have not been "fixed" yet, whereas the ones on the right are set to be pressed into the fretboard. There was a lot of trial and error in this as you don't want to cut off too much, but if you press in a fret that the tang is too big, you run the risk or pulling off your binding, which would not be any fun as you would then have to re-bind the entire thing. 

Now, it was time to press in the frets. To the left you can see the fret press doing it's work. All in all, what you have to do is place the fret in the right spot on the fretboard and pull down on a lever to make sure the fret gets seated correctly. The brass piece that is touching the  fretboard is designed to have the same radius as the fretboard. However, some of the frets were not seated completely, so I just took a small hammer and pushed them into place, so that I wouldn't run the risk of pulling the frets out while playing. 

To the right you can see the fretboard with all the frets firmly in their respective slots. One bit of housekeeping, in order to glue the fretboard on the neck, I had to omit these steps with the 12th and 8th frets. This was done so that we could make sure the fretbord was perfectly in place on the neck. We used small brads and hammered them through the 12th and 8th frets into the neck so that we had a guide. I had to be very precise with this because if the frets were somewhat off center, and not perpendicular to the neck, each not on the neck would be somewhat off, making it very challenging to play and being pretty much a big waste of time. Once this was done, I was able to press the last two frets in and get ready for the glue up.

To do this, I needed to put the truss rod in. A truss rod is a metal rod that is placed in the neck to help stabilize the neck and also allow for some movement of the neck by putting pressure in either direction to allow for relief. This means that you can slightly bend the neck in one way or the other so you have more playability. In order to get the truss rod set, I had to chisel s little bit of the top and some of the headstock down, so that the dual-action rod would be able to fit. Additionally, I used a mill file to clean up some of the burrs that we found on the truss rod from welding. Once the top and headstock were chiseled down and the truss rod fit snugly into the slot, it was time to glue up the fretboard.

To glue the  fretboard down to the neck, a special caul was used to allow for equal clamping pressure across the entirety of the fretboard. This caul is specifically designed for lutiers, as there are small cut outs in the metal which allow for the frets to be place in. Additionally, a piece of cork was placed between the board and the caul so that there was no major scratches put on the fretboard . It is very difficult to sand the fretboard down at this point since it has its frets already set in. As you can see in the picture to the right, many claps are used so that there is no gap between the neck and the fretboard. Additionally, there was a significant amount of squeeze-out (glue) that, meaning that we had a very good glue up.

After leaving the guitar as seen above for the night, it was time to take off the clamps and see how the glue up went. Overall, the glue up was a success. No gaps or anything. However, some of that squeeze-out that I discussed earlier ended up on the fretboard. Though it could be a major issue, it appears that I will be able to clean it out perfectly fine using some chisels and sandpaper. I will not deal with that until the final set up, as there may be more marks on the fretboard that I have do deal with. So now, the guitar is ready for neck shaping - my favorite part of guitar building, the neck shape is one of the things that really helps to determine the playability of a guitar for individual players.