Neck fitting

Today I had some free time to work on the SJ so I decided to tackle the most dreaded part of guitar building for a lot of amateur builders, the neck set. I have been fortunate as the last 3 builds really have had fairly easy neck sets. Even the dovetail on my Dreadnought was relatively easy. Don't get me wrong, they all needed work, and they all needed adjustments but I didn't find them to be overly difficult, just tedious. This time was different. When I bolted the neck in to get an idea of what needed done I found that my straight edge was just 1/16" over the top at the bridge location, and the straight edge was almost 1/2" to one side of center at the tail. That is a huge amount! My first line of attack was to get a fairly good heel to side fit so I could get a stable starting point to work out the two adjustments that needed done. Once I had a decent joint I started 'flossing' one side of the joint until I got the left to right angle correct. Once that was done, I chiseled out a tiny bit of the heel end of the joint to start tipping the neck back so the angle would raise at the bridge. I went very slowly and carefully removing a little, fitting, measuring, and repeating. The entire time I tried to keep a straight line from the top edge of the neck sides to the heel end so the entire neck tipped back without a rocking motion in the center. If I just removed wood at the heel side, there would be a 'hump' in the middle of the joint which would ruin my joint fit. I spent around 3 1/2 hours working the joint until I finally got it right. The actual joint still needs a little fine tuning but it is almost done. As far as the angle and left/right measurements, it is good. My straight edge just touches the top of the bridge with the un-fretted fingerboard, and the center line is within 1/16" of the actual center of the guitar tail. I could try and get that last little bit but I am afraid that I could mess up the joint and have to start over again. The important part is that the point on the end of the fingerboard lines up dead on with the center joint of the top. That is what anyone looking at it will see.

After that was done, I dug in my scrap box to see if I had any more box elder to use as a heel cap. I just happened to have a piece about 1" square of the pink swirly stuff so I glued that to the heel and called it a day.

I was looking at the overall guitar design, and I have to say I am really happy with it. I put a lot of thought into each element of it trying to get an overall design that ties together. People might think the pink inlays on the back and heel are kind of an odd choice, but they tie into the rosette and that was the plan. I wanted the top to have a somewhat 'formal' look to it, with a little bit of whimsy which is what the pink rosette adds, and I wanted the back and sides to have a wild look which is what the camatillo does. The pink parts on the back add the same whimsy as the rosette, and it ties the top and back together. All in all I think it works.

I have been working on putting together the materials for my next build(s). I am planning on doing a double build which will be Christmas gifts. I am still up in the air as to whether or not to make 'twin' guitars, or if I want to make two totally different guitars. One part of me wants to do two identical guitars with different bracing patterns to see the differences, and the other part of me wants to make the gifts different. Either way, they will both be built using 'opportunity grade' EIR back and sides, Adi tops, and Koa bindings. I am probably going to do one piece necks too. I am trying to keep the cost down as much as possible which is why I am using the lower grade EIR and one piece necks, but also I want to spend the money where it counts, the top. I chose the bindings simply because I love the look of Koa bindings and I have never used it. My plan is to get the parts ordered in the next week or two so I can get started towards the end of August. It's hard to believe, but Christmas is coming fast and I need to get going on these if I want them to be done in time. I would like to have them curing in the finish room by mid October. I will lose almost a month of work time because of hunting season during late November-mid December. I have to account for this in my build schedule. I am really excited about these builds, it should be a lot of fun! If all goes well, that will mean that I will have built 5 complete guitars this year, 4 of them being scratch builds. Who would have thunk it!

Here you can see the straight edge and the center line. Unfortunately, my maple joint is not dead center on the center line as you can see the pencil mark is the actual center joint of the top. I got it close but not dead on. One day I will get these joints right!

The straight edge sitting ont he fretboard just touching the top of the bridge. I am going to make my own bridge, but I have a pre-made one to use for these measurements.

One side of the neck joint.

And the other side of the neck joint. In this picture you can really see the flaw in the heel block that was hidden until I carved the neck. I really wish these weren't here but I am way too far into the neck now to start over again! The neck is getting stained anyways so it should hide.

The heel cap glued and clamped in place.