Building A One Piece Neck.........

I've been planning on a neck building thread for some time now. As you may know Telex has recently started a neck building thread in Tele-Tech. However it appears we are using different woods, tools and techniques. My construction pretty much follows that found in Make Your Own Electric Guitar by Melvyn Hiscock.

I've chosen to use single action truss rods since they are fairly simple to make yourself. However they do require you to rout a channel that varies in depth. For the curve of the channel I used the neck blueprint found on page 49 of the Duchossoir Strat book. In building my channel routing jig I first drew the curve onto poster board then transfered it to 2x lumber. I then cut close to the line using the bandsaw followed by sanding to the line with the Ridgid oscilating belt sander. I then ripped this piece in two and put it together glueing equal width spacers at each end. Here's the completed jig. The step pieces at each end are stops for my plunge router base.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/Neck%20Building/TrussChannelJig.jpg

Making a neck in a home workshop is all about centerlines. You need centerlines on your template, jigs and on your neck blank. Here's the centerline mark on the jig

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/Neck%20Building/ChannelJigCenterline.jpg

Before starting, I used my neck template to draw the outline, nut line and centerline on my neck blank. I'm using 5/4 hard maple from a local supplier here in Albuquerque. Here's the jig mounted on the neck blank. I routed the channel in several passes. I started at the jig high point with the 1/4 in. straight bit just touching the blank. I have the Porter-Cable micro-adjustable edge guide mounted on the Ridgid plunge router.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/Neck%20Building/RoutingTrussRodChannel.jpg

For adjusting the edge guide I made this bit from a 1/4 in. bolt by cutting off the head, chucking it into the drill press and using a file to form a point.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/Neck%20Building/CenterlineLocaterBit.jpg

With the edge guide adjusted we're ready to rout. Here's the neck blank after routing the channel and after bandsawing the rough shape. This particular neck will be a vintage style with the adjustment at the heel. The maple I bought was a wide board and being thrifty, I am trying to get as many necks as possible from it. That's the reason for the odd shape of the blank. The shallow point of the channel was routed close to 0.495 in. deep per the Strat book.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/Neck%20Building/ChannelRoutedBandsawn.jpg

I made a neck template from 3/4 in. MDF. This thick template allows me to start the shape routing with a shallow pass on the router table. I do the neck shape routing on the router table using a pattern following bit (the bearing is below the cutter when mounted in the table) making several shallow passes .......... 1/4 in. or less. Here's the neck and template after shape routing. Here's I'm transfering the centerline and nut line from the template to the neck.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/Neck%20Building/MarkingNutLineOnMaple.jpg

With the template still attached, I mark the tuner hole location with a 1/8 in. bit.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/Neck%20Building/MarkingTunerHoleLocations.jpg

After marking the tuner hole location, I remove the template and drill the tuner holes. I stop before going all the way through. I'm drilling for Kluson style tuners.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/Neck%20Building/DrillingTunerHoles.jpg

Next I thin down the headstock. I want the final thickness to be a little less than 0.6 in. so I cut it a little thicker.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/Neck%20Building/ThinningHeadstock.jpg

I use the Wagner Safety Planner mounted in the drill press to get the final thickness.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/Neck%20Building/HeadstockPlaning.jpg

I've built a jig patterned after the one in the Hiscock book for drilling the acces hole to the truss rod channel. Here are a couple of pictures of it.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/Neck%20Building/AcessHoleJig1.jpg

The long 3/8 bit goes through a guide block made of hard maple and drilled at a 3 degree angle per the Strat book. Depth of 3/8 hole is 1.2 in. beyond the nut line.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/Neck%20Building/AcessHoleJig2.jpg

I've got three necks underway at this time. On the two earlier necks I drilled a 1/4 in. hole into the channel using a guide block clamped to the jig. On this one I wanted a smaller hole and didn't feel like making a guide block so I drilled this 3/16 hole freehand by eyeballing that the bit was centered in the 3/8 in. hole.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/Neck%20Building/3-16Hole.jpg

Now to do the transition between the headstock and the fretboard. I'm using the Ridgid oscillating drum sander. In this photo I'm choosing a block to raise the heel so the nut line is perpendicular to the table.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/Neck%20Building/HeadstockFretBoardTransition.jpg

Here I'm using the sander. It's easy to screw up here and sand into the headstock face so I try to stop short and do the final sanding by hand.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/Neck%20Building/HeadstockFretBoardTransition2.jpg

This shows the final sanding using the sanding drum by hand.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/Neck%20Building/HeadstockFretBoardTransition3.jpg

Great stuff Jack!

You'll have me ready to fly solo on one before you know it. :wink:

You know, you can buy necks already built - I've seen 'em! :wink:

Just kidding - this is awesome stuff. I'm a long way away from building my own necks, but this will help when I do!

Great stuff as usual Jack.

How did you fix the mdf template to the neck blank?

This picture shows the fret slot sawing set-up I used on neck #2. It should be understood that the StewMac fret slot miter box is intended for sawing fret slots in separate fret boards ....... not one piece necks. In normal use the fret board being sawed has parallel sides. This setup consists of a long board with the miter box attached in the center and MDF strips attached at either end level with the base of the miter box.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/Neck%20Building/FretMiterBoxSet-up.jpg

Here I'm sawing the slots. The neck is taped to the StewMac fret scale template. The template has notches which engage a pin in the miter box thereby making measuring unnecessary.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/Neck%20Building/FretSaw-1.jpg

Slot sawing completed.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/Neck%20Building/FretSlotsCompleted.jpg

Here I'm cleaning out the nut slot with additional cuts. As you can see, if you were making a one piece Strat neck, you'd have to do some of the slots without the miter box.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/Neck%20Building/NoStrat.jpg

Thanks guys .............. I think putting this thread together so it makes some sense might be more work than actually building the neck.

Chickenpicker .......... the MDF neck template is attached with double-stick tape.

It's nice to see someone else's approach!:wink: Looks great so far.

A couple of questions:

Did you decide on an anchor yet? Another possibility is the top of a valve stem for a fawcet. It has the same thread usually (10-32), and If you knew a plumber, you could get some for free maybe.

Did you hit the channel where you wanted to? That part is scaring me!

That's a long 3/8 bit, where did you get it?

I'll have to get a safty planer for the drill press. Good idea!

Although the fret slot cutting above worked out OK, it was a bit tedious setting up the miter box for the correct depth of cut and the sawing took some time. I chose another method for neck #3. I purchased the StewMac thin kerf fret slot cutting circular saw blade for use in my radial arm saw. I cut a special fence and installed a pin to engage the template notches.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/Neck%20Building/FretFencePin.jpg

Sidebar: I'm a big fan of the radial arm saw having used mine extensively over the last 30 years. I've recently discovered that DeWalt no longer makes them and they were not shown in a recent copy of the Sears tool catalog. Probably less call for them with the advent of the sliding compound miter saw. I think they are still being made by a company in Canada but they may only be large industrial models.

Here's neck #3 after cutting the slots. This probably took only about four minutes. The template has been taped to a piece of 1/4 in. MDF with a centerline drawn on it. The neck is taped to the MDF with the neck centerline aligned to the line on the MDF.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/Neck%20Building/SpecialFencePin.jpg

With the fret slots cut we're ready to radius the fingerboard. I used the StewMac 9.5 in. radius sanding block with 100 grit self stick paper and some elbow grease followed by 320 paper.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/Neck%20Building/FretBoardRadius.jpg

Next step ...... drilling for the fret board markers.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/Neck%20Building/DrillingForMarkers.jpg

Telex.......... I haven't found an anchor yet. That top of a valve stem is a good idea. I've even thought of making one from an hex nut by filing notches with a triangular file.

I've bought several foot long bits from Lowes. However the sizes are limited. The 3/16 in is a little small. The 1/4 in. is a little large. I'm thinking I may be able to enlarge the 3/16 in hole a little with a shorter bit........ maybe.

I did hit the channel with the 3/16 in bit........... not perfectly centered but close enough. I'll show a picture later. This post has used up my four pictures.

Woodworkers Supply had the Safety Planers on sale cheap a while back. It's been quite a while though. It may have been a clearance item.

Why does jwells make his own Tele neck instead of buying one?

BECAUSE HE CAN!! Hehe.

Man, that is crafsmanship at its finest. I can't wait to see you cut the profile.

Thanks for posting.

Glueing in the fretboard markers. These markers were purchased from StewMac. I think they're 15/64 in. I used a super glue gel. After the glue set, I sanded them flush with the radius block and 320 paper.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/Neck%20Building/GlueingMarkers.jpg

Here I'm preparing to drill for the side dot markers. I'm using the level to choose a riser block for the heel to make the bass side of the neck parallel to the drill press table. I'm using 2mm plastic rod I purchased some time ago from Warmoth.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/Neck%20Building/SideMarkers-1.jpg

Here a picture showing the holes I drilled from the headstock into the truss rod channel. The top one is a 1/4 in hole drilled using a guide block in the jig. The second one was done more or less free hand. Both are a little off to the treble side. Looks fixable to me.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/Neck%20Building/Acessholes.jpg

Since I have room for one more picture in this post here's a picture of neck #2 which will have the truss rod adjustment at the headstock. The channel is was routed to within about 3/4 in. of the end. A 1/2 in hole was drilled with its center about 1/2 in. from the end with the depth the same as the channel at that point.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/Neck%20Building/HeelAnchorHole.jpg

Thanks Terry .......... but in my books, you're still The Man.

Looks like you are doing a fine job on this neck. Thanks for documenting this.

This AWESOME!

Jeez Jack... I don't even like installing a nut if I don't have to!

Nice work. I like your jig for cutting a bend in the truss rod slot.

Pete

Awesome thread....I always look forward to your build threads jack

Beautiful work and really inspiring!

I am sooooo jealous..... just lookit how neat and organized that shop is..... that's just not right.

Ron Kirn

Ron ............... I'm not really sure what you're looking at. Maybe it just looks neat in the pictures because stuff gets moved from one horizontal surface to another for picture taking. Horizontal surfaces typically look like this.

......http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/Neck%20Building/FretSaw-1.jpg

Ahhhh. . . that's more like it..... looks like home......

Ron Kirn

I'm interested in seeing how he cuts the contour on the back

I think I mentioned earlier that I had three necks underway........ actually four if you count the one I started from a 2x4. I'll use that one to practice installing frets. Here's neck #1 .......... a short scale (22 3/4 in. - same as the Mini-Strats) I'm making for a Mini-Tele. It was made with a StewMac 3/4 in. thick neck blank and a StewMac pre-cut maple fingerboard. It was made like a one piece neck with the truss rod installed from the back. The second fret slot was made the nut slot. I don't have pictures of the neck contour shaping but I used rasps, spokeshaves, an orbital sander and the Ridgid oscillating belt sander ............. man that's a great tool. I'll get pictures of the shaping of necks 2 & 3.

......http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/Mini-TeleNeck640.jpg

Picked up my son in Yuma MCAS.He spent 4 years in the Marine Corps. OHRA! Drove back along RT 66 to New Jersey..(Well ,RT 40)....Came up over the hill at night and there was ALBUQUERQUE!... bright lights...multi-colored sky scrapers! Beautiful city! I'm getting ready to post my CNC builds on body and neck, Many pics, and thought I'd bring this post back up to the top and see what progress you've made on the necks? What i've seen so far has impressed AND inspired me to do my build thread of a 53' repro. Great work JWELLS. Always enjoy your work.Look for my 53 repro stuff in about a week!
Cheers
ED Hawley

Haven't done any work on the necks recently so I thought I should get back to it. In this installment I'll be making the truss rod. This first picture shows a little jig I made for cutting the anchor slugs from 1/2 in. steel rod.

......http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/Neck%20Building/SawingAnchorSlug.jpg

Here's the cut slug

......http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/Neck%20Building/SlugCut.jpg

I've chucked the slug into the drill press and am using a file to clean up the cut ends.

......http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/Neck%20Building/FilingSlug.jpg

Drilling the anchor.

......http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/Neck%20Building/DrillingAnchor.jpg

Tapping the anchor.

......http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/Neck%20Building/Threadinganchor.jpg

Threading the rod.

......http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/Neck%20Building/ThreadingRod.jpg

The anchor is screwed on to the end of the rod and secured by center-punching the rod several times

......http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/Neck%20Building/SecuringAnchor.jpg

A filler strip was cut from 3/4 in walnut. After running the strip through the thickness planer to get thickness right, I hit the corners of one end with a sanding block then rounded the end by dragging sandpaper over the end.

......http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/Neck%20Building/RoundingFillerStrip.jpg

I used the channel routing jig to draw the channel curve on the filler strip. I then bandsawed it and sanded to the line with the oscillating drum sander.

......http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/Neck%20Building/DrawingCurveOnFillerStrip.jpg

Here's the neck, truss rod and filler strip ready for installation.

......http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/Neck%20Building/NeckRodFiller.jpg

............. more to come.

Neat stuff.

Please keep it coming.

When I first got this teaching gig, back in the 70s, I found a 16mm film of some "educational" Saturday morning kids' TV show...there was segment of a tour of the Fender factory...showing how a bass was built. I don't remember much of it, but I remember how the frets were slid in from the side...AND how the shape of the neck was cut in two passes, one for each side, by a big honking shaper bit. IIRC there was a metal template fixed to the front of the neck, and the bit followed the pattern. Like a pin router I guess.

I showed that to the kids every year...until it just up and disappeared from the library I got it from...low circulation I guess.

One of those big honkin' shaper bits would make your upcoming days a lot easier.

:grin:

Awesome...I am taking notes as the thread continues!
Keep it comin'...

Here's the truss rod installation. In his book Melvyn Hiscock suggests putting the rod into plastic tubing if the proper sized tubing can be found. I couldn't find it. As an alternative he suggests soda straws. The purpose is to prevent the rod from sticking. The straws I had were a little larger in diameter than the rod so I split them lengthwise so they could wrap around the rod.

......http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/Neck%20Building/ReadyToInstall.jpg

Here's the truss rod installed and ready to be hidden.

......http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/Neck%20Building/TrussRodInstalled.jpg

After glue is applied to the sides of the filler strip it is inserted and clamped.

......http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/Neck%20Building/FilletGluedandClamped.jpg

With the anchor recessed slightly there's no chance of nicking the plane blade during the next step.

......http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/Neck%20Building/RecessedAnchor.jpg

Planing to remove most of the exposed wood.

......http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/Neck%20Building/PlaningFiller.jpg

Sanding the back of the neck to check the fit of the filler strip.

......http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/Neck%20Building/SandingLevel.jpg

Here's how it fits.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/Neck%20Building/FillerFit.jpg

............ more to come. Next up......... shaping the back contour. Here are the tools I've gathered for the neck shaping.........

......http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/Neck%20Building/NeckShapingTools.jpg

Nice! Seriously nice.

Someday I hope to be able to do this too.

It looks like the best part is coming up!

Looks great! Keep 'em coming!

Nice anchor!

Started the neck shaping yesterday afternoon. I started by taking some heel measurements on a Fender neck and marking them on my neck along with the 12th fret.

......http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/Neck%20Building/HeelMarks.jpg

I marked the first fret location and the headstock flat line.

......http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/Neck%20Building/OtherEndMarks.jpg

I started roughing out the heel transition area with this Sureform round rasp.

......http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/Neck%20Building/RoughingHeelEnd.jpg

I then used the rasp at the headstock end. It seems to work best holding it so it cuts on the pull stroke.

......http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/Neck%20Building/RoughingHeadstockEnd.jpg

Here I'm using a spokeshave to remove wood between the two roughed out areas. I don't have much experience using a spokeshave and this wasn't going well. I seem to get a lot of chatter as I pull.

......http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/Neck%20Building/UsingSpokeShave.jpg

I seem to have better luck using the ole Stanley hand plane.

......http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/Neck%20Building/UsingHandPlane.jpg

After roughing out the shape, I think I've found my shaping tool of choice........... the Ridgid belt sander. The sander is short enough to work between the first and 12th frets. Here I'm just rocking the neck back and forth letting the sander do the work. This works great because you don't have the neck clamped to a table. You can instantly check the feel of it.

......http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/Neck%20Building/BeltSander1.jpg

......http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/Neck%20Building/BeltSander2.jpg

Here's another great tool for neck shaping....... the orbital sander. This is great for working on the transition areas at the heel and headstock.

......http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/Neck%20Building/OrbitalSander1.jpg

If you don't have the Ridgid belt sander you could probably use an orbital sander with coarse paper and rock the neck back and forth like I'm doing here.

......http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/Neck%20Building/OrbitalSander2.jpg

Well ............ it's starting to look like a neck. Still a little too chunky for me but I've purposely gone slow because you can always remove more wood but can't put it back.

......http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/Neck%20Building/StartingLookLikeNeck.jpg

Great work as usual Jack.

Do you have any way of checking the neck profile at various points along its length (e.g. card templates), or are you going purely by feel?

I'd be worried about removing too much material with the belt sander. It looks fairly quick, so it seems like it would be easy to go too far.

Thanks chickenpicker ............. I've got a fine grit sanding belt on the belt sander and I'm using a light touch. The maple is so hard you'd really have to press hard and hold it in one place for a while to really make a mistake.

I'm not using any profile templates .......... just going by feel. I may take some thickness measurement on some necks I like and try to duplicate one of them.

That is amazing work Jack. You are a true craftsman. Thanks for sharing your details here on the TDPRI.

Great work, Jack! :grin:

Could you give some ideas of the rest of the materials you used for the truss rod?

Absolutely killer as always Jack, & THANX !

Very impressive indeed, thanks for sharing this project.

Upside : Amazing threads like this have me stopping by TDPRI on a daily basis.
Downside : Your disclaimer is no longer valid Jack.

Great work , love it :razz:

Cheers,

ch

Thanks guys.

Could you give some ideas of the rest of the materials you used for the truss rod?

Well, as I showed above, the anchor was made from 1/2 in. steel rod threaded with a 10-32 tap. The rod itself is 3/16 in. steel rod threaded with a 10-32 die. These rods are available from Lowes, Home Depot and many neighborhood hardware stores. The truss rod nut is this one from StewMac.

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Truss_rods/Adjusting_nuts/Fender-style_Bullet_Truss_Rod_Nut.html

......http://www.stewmac.com/catalog/images_1lg/0987_1lg.jpg

Almost forgot about this. This is a great tool for neck shaping ........ part of a set I bought from Grizzly. It's good to get the burnishing tool from StewMac so you can keep a good edge on it.

......http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/Neck%20Building/HandScraper.jpg

GREAT STUFF!!!

i was just about to take some pics of my own neck making.... Anyways, i just bought a router this week, so im not used to using it yet....

Either way, ill make a go-along pic-torial as i go...

thanks for sharing!

I mentioned earlier in this thread that I was also building a vintage style neck (truss rod adjustment at the heel). That one has been on a back burner since I was unable to find a suitable anchor for the truss rod. The anchor mounted on the truss rod has to fit through the 3/8 in. hole in the headstock and lock into the wood somehow.

I was unsuccessful after contacting StewMac Customer Service. I was basicly told "Don't have them. Don't know where to get them". Warmoth sells a vintage truss rod but not just the anchor. I went so far as to contact Melvyn Hiscock inquiring about the one pictured in his book. He wasn't able to help much. Said "they" had had several made up special several years ago.

Yesterday as I was browsing around the special parts drawers at my local Lowes, I may have found my anchor. It's a 6-32 knurled nut. I bought a package of two ($1.05). When I got back to Jack Ranch I drilled and tapped it 10-32. The knurled part does fit through the 3/8 in. hole.

......http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/Neck%20Building/KnurledNut.jpg

I decided to do a little test with a small block of hard maple. Here I've drilled a 11/32 in. hole followed by a smaller 1/4 in. hole into the end grain.

......http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/Neck%20Building/TestBlock.jpg

A few taps with a dowel and a hammer and the knurled part is driven into the maple.

......http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/Neck%20Building/DrivenIn.jpg

Here's the block after removing the rod. Looks like it just might work.

......http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/Neck%20Building/Shouldwork2.jpg

First off great thread and I wish I had see this before yesturday, but thats usually the story of my life. My question is what radius did you use when cutting the neck jig for the router to run along? I've read the whole thread but did not see that radius mentioned. I tried using one of them plastic bushings on my router like telex showed but it melted at the end so its back to the drawing board. I did get a lot of practice in, but I will not be able to use the neck. Thanks in advance.

I discussed in the first post that I used the Stratocaster neck blueprint found in the Duchossoir Strat book. I didn't go into specifics because it's a little more complicated than a single radius. Probably best understood if you take a look at the following:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/Neck%20Building/StratNeckBlueprint.jpg

If you build a jig like I show in the first post it would be a good idea to practice on 2x4s and take measurements of the channel depth at the ends and at the high point before starting on a neck blank. Actually making a neck out of a 2x4 would be good to work out the various steps.

I hope to get back to finishing these necks and this thread in a couple of weeks. Hopefully I can show something not seen in recent neck building threads.

Hey Jack,
Kinda off topic for this thread but you mentioned you were making a mini neck for a mini tele, I am in the midst of the same. Was wondering how you went about your mini tele body templates?
Would love to see the mini neck build.

Thanks for showing an alternate neck method.

Mini-Tele Body Template:
Let's see if I can explain this. I took a Jpeg scan of the Telecaster blueprint found in the Duchossior book. This was before the Terry Downs drawing. I cropped the picture so the cropped image outlined the body. The picture was then resized so the length is 14 1/2 in. I printed this image actual size in two pieces since I can only print 8 1/2 x 11. I taped the two pieces together and glued them to 1/4 in. MDF then cut and sanded to the line................ the neck pocket area was modified to allow for a standard sized neck pocket.

This body will be used with a 22 3/4 scale neck as found on the Squier Mini-Stats. Location of pickup cavities and control plate cavity will be worked out with the neck in the pocket.

......http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/MiniTemplate.jpg

Thanks , I did about the same thing for the print to be placed on the template using the excellent tdowns pdf. Used the snapshot tool in acrobat to copy it to the clipboard and then import into paintbrush, played around with size until it was about the same size as the mini strat body I have. I also noticed that the lower bouts of the strat and tele are very close but the horn seems to be off quite a bit. I thought it was strange the mini necks heel was standard size. I have yet to add this to my drawing. Couple more questions:
Are you going to transfer the 1/4 to a 3/4 template when you cut the body?
I imagine the bridge will determine the location of the bridge pickup rout, but for the neck pickup are you just gonna
- wing it?
- use the dimension from the neck pickup on one of your mini strats?
- use a ratio based on the location and scale length of a full size tele?

would love to see pics of the mini neck.

thanks again for the detailed info.

I've already cut my body. I used the template above to make a plexiglas template. I actually didn't do as I say. Somehow my template turned out to be 13 3/4 in. long. It's been a long time since I made it and I don't really remember the criteria I was using at the time. I've laid it out with a vintage style bridge and it looks like the bridge may be set back a bit toward the butt end. I measured a Mini-Strat and saw that the centerline length was 14 1/2 in.

I'll probably just use what looks right visually when determining location for the neck pickup. Since the Mini neck only has 20 frets, using a ratio based on a full sized Tele might place it too far from the neck to look right.

Here's my Mini-Tele neck alongside a Mini-Strat neck with reshaped headstock. I'll be using it for a mini-hybrid project. The maple board neck still needs frets, nut, final shaping and finish.

......http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/Neck.jpg

Here's the body with the bridge plate in the required location. It doesn't look right to me so I may start over with a larger body. I'm thinking the size of this pine scrap may have determined the length I made it.

......http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/Mini-Body.jpg

thanks again jack, neck looks fantastic, I think you're right the bridge does look a little far back. Maybe it's just the size of the bridge?

Wonderful thread, Jack. Thanks so much for your contribution.

I'm already devising a way to mount my portable 3" belt sander so I can imitate what you've done with that cool Ridgid tool, to put a little taper on the boatnecks I'll be getting from Warmoth. After a wee bit of work with the lil plane.

Yeah, the quarter sheet random motion sander is a real workhorse for me.

Love the way you just wade in there and get the job done. When ya got tools ya gotta use 'em.

Bubbanov

Jack,
You are such a baddd dude!!!!

Thanks for sharing. With much respect....

TD

Love the way you just wade in there and get the job done.

Well ................ I sure haven't been getting the job done recently. Looking at my posts, I see I haven't worked on these necks since July. Maybe in a couple of weeks I'll get started again.

Wow, nice work.

MacGyver has got nothing on you. I'm very impressed.

Hey Jack,

Thanks for taking the time to put this up. Very educational and inspirational!
I've really enjoyed all your other build threads too.
Much appreciation, man!

Chris

Jack, you da man! Makes me *THINK* about getting back to scratch building .... NOT!!! :mrgreen:

I'm loving this post!

:smile: Peter

Good stuff man!

J

Looks like a good choice.
Good work there Jack!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/Neck%20Building/KnurledNut.jpg

So Jack, did you fret these necks yet ?

Thanks for a superb thread!
Very interesting and great pics.
Thanks for sharing!
Cheers,Wikur!

Jack I love your build threads!

I had posted some photos of my builds but nowhere near the detail you show. I'm a photographer by trade and I just don't like using a camera when I'm not working I guess. Anyway, nice job and thank you for sharing!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/Animations/Embarassed.gif.....Now this is embarrassing. I haven't worked on this project since July ............ of last year. Hopefully I'm embarrassed enough to get back on it.

These things take time.

I have to say that this:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/Neck%20Building/KnurledNut.jpg

is absolutely brilliant.

Oh and I will steal this idea from you eventually LOL

I ordered a couple of vintage style truss rods from Warmoth. At $10 each it's hardly worth making your own. You get the rod with attached anchor, truss rod nut and plastic sleeve. If you order one of these make sure you specify the vintage style nut. They initially sent me the wrong one. They did however replace it at no charge.

......http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/Neck%20Building/WarmothVintageTrussRodAnchor.jpg
......http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/Neck%20Building/WarmothTrussRodAdjuster2.jpg

Great work and great presentation. Very detailed and well supported by the picures.

BTW - after reading many of your posts I finally bought one of the Rigid belt/spindle sanding machines you rave about - your raving was spot on - it is a great tool for the shop!.

Keep it coming.

How wonderfull the world is full of people like you lot here thanks I'm on to it,being a Newbie this gives me ummmpf correct to go under down under
Thanks to jwells wonderfull article
PS: I WILL turn the flash of hmm
Tzen in Oz

GREAT STUFF!!!

i was just about to take some pics of my own neck making.... Anyways, i just bought a router this week, so im not used to using it yet....

Either way, ill make a go-along pic-torial as i go...

thanks for sharing!
japasul thank you so much for all the posts, I follow them intensely,you are a genius, such great result with the limited sources. I aspire to do what you have done, here in OZ we would say " good on ya mate "
tzen

Great thread.

A good source for long drill bits is an alarm systems distributer. Installers use them to drill through door and window frames and can be found in various sizes.

When I did that we used bits up to 6' long.
You can usually find them in a well stocked Electrical Supply House too.

Have read this great thread on building one piece necks i could not help but wish it had been done years ago...shame that jwells393 has not finished it off.
Anyway having built a number of one piece necks I thought it maybe cool to throw in a few little things i discovered during my own process of learning how to do it. First off I also use a Stew Mac fret slotting jig just like jwells, but because i build one piece strat and bass necks i have adapted mine to cope with the peg head getting in the way not an issue with with the radial saw i know but for those without...by cutting of the rear left side of the jig you can slot right up to the nut even with a bass neck14282...if you keep the piece you cut off you can still bolt it back on using the small allen nuts.14283
Also if you wanna make life easy when it comes to carving the rear of the neck get a "flapper" which is a round sanding disk that goes on a small grinder...it gets rid of most of unwanted material really fast u can then finish off by hand...far less elbow grease, basic shaping takes 5 mins....to get the correct final shape i use a two pack filler and cling-film moulds. You can take the moulds at say 5 points from a real neck....I think u guys could use "Bondo" as well, its just a matter of checking the shape against the moulds...i found surforms and spoke shavers a total pain in the neck to coin a phrase...if you use a flapper practice first it is a skill to get good at you can wipe a neck out if you're not careful. ill add some pix of me building a one piece as well...but here is hoping jwells finishes off a great post.

Hey Jack,

I am working on my neck and neck jig tonight.
When you get to the end of your router travel, do you leave the slight angle that you get from the 90 degrees off the curve, or to you do another step there?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/Neck%20Building/RoutingTrussRodChannel.jpg

Bill

You had me at one piece neck, Jack...you had me at one piece neck :cry:

BTW, are you using this for a specific project? Also, how would you describe the profile?

Another terrific thread and SUPERB pics!

Jack,
I admire your craftsmanship and thanks for the great pics! Makes me want to run out and buy some tools, but it would take me many years to get half your skills.

Regards, JD...

Jack were you at on the neck build? Quit teasing us so much! I love to see how other folks solve problem during the build phases.

When you get to the end of your router travel, do you leave the slight angle that you get from the 90 degrees off the curve,

Yep that's what I did. I suppose you could square up the end with a drill press but I really don't see much benefit.

All you need to be concerned about is getting the walnut skunk strip snug at the headstock end of the channel. The other end will be in the neck pocket. Many of Fender necks I've seen have a gap in the channel at the heel end.

Thanks for the compliments guys. I hope to finish this up soon but my chosen career path is interferring at this time.

Thanks Jack,

I will be building my curved jig tomorrow night.
I have 2 necks in waiting, I just need to pick up a 1/4" bit.

Bill

Hi Jack, new to these forums. Just wanted to know what those lever-type clamps were that you were using to hold down the neck while you drilled out the keyhole for the trussrod at the headstock? Looked like you have built a permanent jig for that.

Thanks
Darren

Those clamps are called 'quick release toggle clamps'. The should be available from most woodworking stores. I got mine from Woodworkers Supply.

Quick Release Toggle Clamps @ Woodworkers Supply (http://woodworker.com/cgi-bin/FULLPRES.exe?PARTNUM=173-001&search=Clamps%20And%20Vises%20-%20Specialty%20Clamps)

The neck drilling jig is not my idea. I saw something similar in Make Your Own Electric Guitar by Melvyn Hiscock.

......http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/Neck%20Building/AcessHoleJig1.jpg

Hey welcome Uberaxe.
You'll find this an exciting and informative forum.

Bill

Jack,

Do you have closeup shots of your truss rod hole jigs?
(see my poplar build post)

Bill

Next I thin down the headstock. I want the final thickness to be a little less than 0.6 in. so I cut it a little thicker.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/Neck%20Building/ThinningHeadstock.jpg

I use the Wagner Safety Planner mounted in the drill press to get the final thickness.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/Neck%20Building/HeadstockPlaning.jpg

I've built a jig patterned after the one in the Hiscock book for drilling the acces hole to the truss rod channel. Here are a couple of pictures of it.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/Neck%20Building/AcessHoleJig1.jpg

The long 3/8 bit goes through a guide block made of hard maple and drilled at a 3 degree angle per the Strat book. Depth of 3/8 hole is 1.2 in. beyond the nut line.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/Neck%20Building/AcessHoleJig2.jpg

Jack,

How did you fix the holes that were slightly offcentre?

Here a picture showing the holes I drilled from the headstock into the truss rod channel. The top one is a 1/4 in hole drilled using a guide block in the jig. The second one was done more or less free hand. Both are a little off to the treble side. Looks fixable to me.
http://www.tdpri.com/forum/telecaster-discussion-forum/79699-building-one-piece-neck.html#post865250

My headstock hole is dead on but my heel is slightly off. I drilled using a 3/16" bit, so maybe going to a 1/4" bit will solve the issue if there really is one.

Bill

Some silly investigating.
The strat neck drawing calls up a .203 hole through.
3/16 is 0.1875
1/4 is 0.25
13/64 is 0.203125

Don't know of a long drill bit with this dia. so it will need to be a 1/4 for ease of installation.

Bill

This thread inspired me to join Telecaster Guitar Forum.
I have been contemplating the one piece neck build. These posts are exactly what I needed to gain the confidence to get started.
Thanks for all your hard work Jack!

MAKE ME ONE PLEASE!,,,,,, that is great stuff...........

Fantastic thread, Jack. Because of you're praise of the Ridgid oscillating edge-belt, SWMBO got me one for Christmas. I noticed from a video tour of the Gibson custom shop that they have a similar ege belt sander with a belt long enough to roll the entire neck at once.

The 4x24 belt is not quite as long as the neck profile, so how did you do it? - did you slide the neck back and forth sideways as you rolled it (two motions at once), or did you roll one area and then move the whole thing along and roll again?

By the way, the specs aren't available online or in the manual, but the sanding sleeves are 4-1/2" long which is a standard size in the Klingspoor sandpaper catalog, in case you don't want to buy the full assortment sets from the Depot.

JWells,

I have a small question regarding your Ridgid sander.
What is the distance from table top to spindles height at its lowest travel?

Bill

These measurement are approximate.

With a 2 in. drum the top of the sandpaper sleeve moved between 3 in. and 3 3/4 in. from the table top.

With the belt sander attachment tracking true the top of the sanding belt varied from 3 1/2 to 4 1/4 in. above the table top.

jwells, Are you still liking that spindle sander? I thought I might pick one up.

John

The Ridgid Oscillating Spindle/Belt Sander is on of my favorite woodworking tools. It's great if you use the sand and try method of fitting parts together.

Hi Jack,

Any more progress on these necks? I've really enjoyed the thread so far.

I'm just about to have a go at a tele neck and was wondering if you could answer a couple of questions for me.

This may be a stupid question, but what do you use as a guide when you route for the truss rod channel, are you using some kind of bushing on the router base that lines up against your jig?

The truss rod i have is one that fits in a U-shaped aluminium housing so would i need to route a flat channel rather than a curved one?

How does the Stewmac fret mitre box take account of the fact that the neck does not have parallel sides. Do you have to line it up and clamp it, how do you make sure the fret slots are all parallel?

Sorry for all the questions :oops:

Best wishes
Dave

You could check out my neck build thread under new member poplar tele build,
if you haven't already.

Bill

Double post ............. again !!

No progress Dave. I do need to get back to neck building because I've built several bodies that need necks.

You should definitely check out Bill's thread. Very interesting neck shaping jig he's developing.

I think the StewMac fret slotting miter box is actually intended to cut slots in fingerboards before they are glued to the neck. If you want to use it on a one piece Telecaster neck you need to get a long strip of 1/4 in. MDF that will fit inside the miter box. Draw a centerline down the length of the MDF. Align you neck centerline to this centerline and stick your neck to this with double sided tape. This is what you would do if you were not using the Fret Scale Template.

If you're using the Fret Scale Template with the miter box, You would align your neck centerline with a line on the template parallel to the edge of the template. The following post shows how I mounted the miter box to make a jig and shows the neck stuck to the Fret Scale Template. It also show that a Telecaster neck will fit into the miter box to saw the lower frets slots and nut slot but a Strat neck wouldn't allow that. Someone in the forum cut away the back side of their miter box to allow for a Strat headstock.

StewMac Miter Box and Fret Scale Template (http://www.tdpri.com/forum/865158-post8.html)

what do you use as a guide when you route for the truss rod channel,

It didn't actually show up clearly in the pictures but I used a router edge guide that runs along the back side of the curved channel jig. I don't necessarily think that's the best way to do it. However at the time, it gave me an excuse to buy the Porter Cable micro-adjustable edge guide. Here's a better picture.

......http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/Neck%20Building/DSC05062.jpg

you guys are super talented

Everytime I get on here someone is doing some really cool things.

one day I really want to make my own guitar.

Thanks Jack! That is really helpful. :cool:

I will definitely check out Bill's thread (thanks Bill).

I'm still trying to get my head round building a neck and what do you know, enough timber to build a quilted maple capped thinline and a Les Paul :oops: has just arrived! I'm planning on reading and re-reading as much stuff as I can and just taking it slowly.

Not sure I'm up to it but we'll see.

Best wishes

Dave

I have been following your neck building thread with interest. I have my blank cut and built my own truss rod. I am having a difficult time making the jig to cut the truss rod slot. I have drawn out a quite a few templates and seem to get it wrong each time.

Would it be possible to post some basic dimensions of your jig?

Regards,

I have been following your neck building thread with interest. I have my blank cut and built my own truss rod. I am having a difficult time making the jig to cut the truss rod slot. I have drawn out a quite a few templates and seem to get it wrong each time.

Would it be possible to post some basic dimensions of your jig?

Regards,

Are you particularly hung up on the vintage style rod? If it was me, and bear in mind that I'm only on my first neck, I would get one of the single- or double-action rods that sit in a flat bottomed slot like in this post http://www.tdpri.com/forum/1846206-post2.html. You don't need a curved channel and you don't have to worry about anchoring at the headstock end and filling the hole. The only 'jig' you need is to clamp the neck down and clamp a straight edge parallel to your centreline that either your router base or 1/4" router bit can run against.

I'm sure Jack will come in, but you can make a jig for the curved truss rod channel by using the strat neck cross-section that he has posted a few times. Have a look in Bill Scheltema's thread as well.

Cheers
Dave

Hi Dave,

Thanks for the quick reply. I made up the truss rod from the info in the strat neck blueprint. I also used that to make the side templates for routing the curved recess. I'm having difficulty getting the templates orientated to the blank so that the proper curve and depth will be cut.

This has been a reality check for me. I can carve a wooden propeller but can't seem to build a jig.

I might have to try the straight slot style truss rods. I can always use the truss rod I built in the next one.

Thanks Again,

Bill

Another bookmarked thread from Jwells . . . .

Man, this is good stuff.

Hi Dave,

Thanks for the quick reply. I made up the truss rod from the info in the strat neck blueprint. I also used that to make the side templates for routing the curved recess. I'm having difficulty getting the templates orientated to the blank so that the proper curve and depth will be cut.

This has been a reality check for me. I can carve a wooden propeller but can't seem to build a jig.

I might have to try the straight slot style truss rods. I can always use the truss rod I built in the next one.

Thanks Again,

Bill

Don't feel bad, you're not alone. I think I'm on my 5th truss jig and am just starting to get to where I want to be. For whatever reason, I'm finding it particularly difficult too. I've cut a few slots that I could have salvaged, but I'm trying to get a quality result along the lines of what jwells, and preeb, and Scatter Lee and these guys get, so practice practice practice has been my mantra. Thank goodness wood is cheap...

My current jig looks a lot like the one posted here except instead of an edge guide, I put a 'wall' on one side and keep the router base pressed against that wall as I ride the rails. I have a toggle clamp like the one shown to hold the headstock down, but I need a clamping solution for the heel. The rails and the stop for the end of the heel end of the truss channel are preventing me from fitting a clamp in there. So I need to solve that somehow. I tried just sticking the heel down with double-sided tape last time, and it wandered and ended up screwing up the slot...

I have a couple Stewmac Hot Rods here and could just put in a straight channel for them, but now I'm kinda bull-headedly determined to tackle the vintage truss first.

I'm not sure what help is needed for building the curved channel jig. I'll go into a little more detail on how I built mine. First, I'll show the Strat neck blueprint once again.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/Neck%20Building/StratNeckBlueprint.jpg

As you can see the curve is made up of two radii..... 115 inches on the headstock end and 255 in. on the heel end. I used a 25 ft. tape measure to draw these curves on a piece of poster board. I put a screw in a board and put a weight on it then attaced the end of the tape measure to the screw. I then went to the 255 in. mark ......... aligned my pencil and swung the tape measure to draw a curve that intersected a straight line aligned with the centerline of the tape measure. I then did the same at the 115 in. mark positioning the poster board so the 115 in. mark on the tape aligned with the previous curve.

With the complete curve drawn on the poster board. I then cut it out and trace it to a piece of wood. I cut close to the line with a bandsaw then sand to the line. I then rip the piece in two giving me the two curved rails the router base rides on.

From the drawing, you can see that the centerline of the radii is 8.745 in. from the nut slot. From this centerline, the channel should go 6.745 in. toward the headstock and 9.060 toward the heel (for a headstock adjust neck....... on a heel adjust neck this dimension would be ~ 7.25 in.). Where you put the stops on your jig to determine the ends of the channel will depend on your router and the dimension of the base plate.

Since routing the channel is the first step, my jig is attached to the neck blank with screws in locations that will be cut away when the neck shape is cut.

I start the routing at the radii centerline point with the bit just touching the wood. Consider that the zero depth reference point. I then set the depth on my plunge router to make shallow passes until I have it set 0.495 in. below the zero reference point.

Here's a better picture of my channel jig. I've marked the following reference points: Nut line, End of channel, High point (radii centerline) Vintage end of channel and Modern end of channel.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/Neck%20Building/ChannelJig.jpg

I hope this helps. I'll try to answer any other questions.

It all depends on what type of side rail you are using.

I used a 1-1/2" piece (http://www.tdpri.com/forum/attachments/tele-home-depot/23520d1239393807t-new-member-poplar-tele-build-pins-jpg) of wood which I used to rout the arc into. I made a matching mirrored rail for the other side they are 6" apart because my router sits in between the rails keeping it steady as I run along the rout path.

What you could do is make the arc pieces first then add outside pieces to get the same effect.
Or...
Forget the outside pieces and do what Jwell does with his guide. Both will work.

Bill

Thank you very much ... Drawing the arc was causing me grief. Your explanation cleared that up. Looks like tomorrow I'll be cutting wood.

Thanks Again.

I took ehawley's drawing from his cnc thread of the neck profile, printed it out, stole my 4-year-old's glue stick, and glued it to 1/4" mdf. Then I cut that on the bandsaw and made a template that I used to route thicker stock to make the actual rails.

Hi JWells,

I just glued in my fret position markers and am ready to drill in the side dot markers, what distance did you go from centre of dot to edge of fingerboard, about 1/8"?

Bill

I just bought a rigid spindle/belt sander tonight. Have you had any problems finding replacement spindles? I hear HD does not sell them, even though they sell the sander.

JWells,

I'm late to this thread. I had an idea with respect to the mini-Tele and proportions.
The stock Tele control plate seems to me to be out of scale to match the dimensions of the otherwise smaller guitar. I would think one of the folks here might be able to supply a shorter control plate. I don't know if someone could make a pair of smaller diameter knurled knobs; mini pots are a possibility. Maybe remove some metal around the perimeter of the stock Tele bridge.

Just a small suggestion...

Regards,
Penny

Bill ......... It's been so long since I drilled the side dot holes, I don't remember how far they were from the fretboard surface. I probably just measured on a Fender neck and went with that.

Edd677 .......... When I bought my Ridgid sander Home Depot didn't have the spindle sanding sleeves. However, I think I saw a package of them on a recent visit. I ordered sleeves from Grizzly. They're also available from Woodworkers Supply.

Penny ........... you're right about the control plate being out of scale for a small guitar body. I have another thread started on building a Mini-Telecaster.

Designing and Building a Mini-Telecaster (http://www.tdpri.com/forum/tele-home-depot/156591-*designing-building-mini-telecaster*.html)

I've cut down a regular control plate by cutting at the tone control hole and drilling a new hole. Here are pictures of the smaller control plate. I think the bridge must be left as is.

......http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/Mini-Telecaster%20Project/DSC04935.jpg
......http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/Mini-Telecaster%20Project/DSC04943.jpg

Oh, that mini Tele mockup is -- you should excuse the expression -- so cute!
And the bridge doesn't look out of scale at all.
You've got another winner!

I made a neck template from 3/4 in. MDF. This thick template allows me to start the shape routing with a shallow pass on the router table. I do the neck shape routing on the router table using a pattern following bit (the bearing is below the cutter when mounted in the table) making several shallow passes .......... 1/4 in. or less.


Jack, thanks for the great tutorial. When you route with shallow passes as you mention, does it eliminate the tendency to grab the neck around the headstock curves and tearout? Any other tips on this? I've been having a heck of a time getting this done without some mishap. I had bascially given up on using the router on the headstock and was just going to take it down with the spindle sander.

Shallow passes are especially important on hard maple. Another important thing is "downhill routing". Problems can occur on the end of the headstock if you go the wrong way. I've posted a picture showing downhill routing on a body. Guess I should make one up for a headstock.

Edit: Here's that downhill routing guide for the headstock. After you've done a few bodies, the downhill routing becomes second nature. In the sections marked with an "X", you're not pushing against the rotating cutter, therefore you need to hold on really tight so the router doesn't grab the workpiece........ another reason for shallow passes.

......http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/HeadstockRouting-1.jpg

I wanted to say thanks to you Jack for the great thread. Largely because of this thread and preeb's threads, I'm nearing completion of my one-piece neck. I figured some things out the hard way, but (surprise, surprise) when I closely followed the proven methods of the builders here, it really started to come together.

Case in point - these headstock curves...Using the spindle sander like preeb details to get very close to the pencil line (I actually take half the line), leaving just a whisper of wood for the router to take, and then routing in the directions that Jack shows, taking small depth bites each time, and I got a headstock with no tearout, no chipping, and only the faintest burn spot that ended up being on the waste part of the headstock anyway.

So - thanks!

Hi Jack,
Thanks for the great post.Your work is very inspirational!
I am about to make up the neck drilling jig out of Melvin Hiscock's book,but I was wondering how you made the drill guides up to stop the drill wandering amd chewing out the holes.

His description in the book is a bit vague (good book though!!!!)He mentions using an insert of some kind ?.

Any info would be greatly appreciated.

Regards

Greg

I was perusing the net and found this sight with great x-rays of the necks and the anchor question I emailed you about.
Very helpful indeed.

trussrod anchor (http://www.timeelect.com/truss-f.jpg)

Bill

Thanks guys.



Well, as I showed above, the anchor was made from 1/2 in. steel rod threaded with a 10-32 tap. The rod itself is 3/16 in. steel rod threaded with a 10-32 die. These rods are available from Lowes, Home Depot and many neighborhood hardware stores. The truss rod nut is this one from StewMac.

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Truss_rods/Adjusting_nuts/Fender-style_Bullet_Truss_Rod_Nut.html

......http://www.stewmac.com/catalog/images_1lg/0987_1lg.jpg

Almost forgot about this. This is a great tool for neck shaping ........ part of a set I bought from Grizzly. It's good to get the burnishing tool from StewMac so you can keep a good edge on it.

......http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/Neck%20Building/HandScraper.jpg

I noticed that the 70's CBS bullet tips are not smooth like the old Fender ones!! Any one know who makes these smooth tipped before I polish the chrome off mine?:mad:

Great work, Jack! :grin:

Could you give some ideas of the rest of the materials you used for the truss rod?

I'll second that, If stainless rod what type of stainless? I bought some T-316 it’s a nightmare to thread I’m lost when it come to metal

Hi there,

You don't have to go elaborate when it comes to the actual rod.
I just get the 3/16" steel rod from my local hardware store, I have also gotten the zinc plated as well.

Bill

I just got an idea *uh oh*. You said the bridge looked odd, maybe a mini-g.e.smith? Could be interesting.

Hi Jack! How do you do!? What do you think to use a special bit to shape the backside of a neck?? I was thinking about...Could be?? Thanks! Great work..

Here I'm using a spokeshave to remove wood between the two roughed out areas. I don't have much experience using a spokeshave and this wasn't going well. I seem to get a lot of chatter as I pull.

......http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/Neck%20Building/UsingSpokeShave.jpg

I seem to have better luck using the ole Stanley hand plane.

......http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/Neck%20Building/UsingHandPlane.jpg

After roughing out the shape, I think I've found my shaping tool of choice........... the Ridgid belt sander. The sander is short enough to work between the first and 12th frets. Here I'm just rocking the neck back and forth letting the sander do the work. This works great because you don't have the neck clamped to a table. You can instantly check the feel of it.

......http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/Neck%20Building/BeltSander1.jpg

......http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/Neck%20Building/BeltSander2.jpg

Jack: Who DOES take all of your great photos? Or - I know you have 3 hands!! That's it - mystery solved.

genesiospinola....... Regarding the special bit, it probably could be done. In fact I think some people do that but using a large bit like that isn't something I'd want to try. I'm 66 years old and still have all of all of my fingers.

mgdesigns........ Credit for my pictures goes to a couple of friends ......... Sony and Tripod.

genesiospinola....... Regarding the special bit, it probably could be done. In fact I think some people do that but using a large bit like that isn't something I'd want to try. I'm 66 years old and still have all of all of my fingers.

1+ on that - working closely with a big bit just seems crazy to me. A lot of people think the process of shaping the back of the neck with a spoke shave and other hand tools is their favorite part of making a guitar. I've used Bills jig with the pucks for a number of necks using different kinds of pucks (I'm trying out a little thinner version of a boatneck right now and I've really liked the '59 Roundback necks I've made for my Teles - these are copies of my favorite Warmoth necks with a few tweaks) - I like that method as the results are very consistent. Most of all those 2 methods are fairly safe.

Shaping necks is yet another one of those things that looks really difficult until you try it.

There are also lots of things that look really easy until you try them. Shaping necks isn't one of them - kitesurfing is.

If you can play a guitar you have the brains and manual dexterity to make a guitar. In the immortal words of the Greek Goddess of Victory - Just Do It :mrgreen:.

Shaping necks ... kitesurfing ... Just Do It :mrgreen:.
Shaping necks ... (while)... kitesurfing ... Just Do It. That's one for YouTube:lol:

With your encouragement I tried it myself, and found the same difficulties with the spokeshave. First I used rasps to get a rough shape and thickness at the nut and transition near the heel. A block plane was easier for establishing a straight line between the two areas and gave some confidence that the taper would be straight.

However the spokeshave was easier after a while. Biggest difference was some time spent to tune the thing. Flattening the sole of the flat spokeshave and resharpening the blade, and a little file work in the throat all helped to reduce chatter. The flat sole one works better for long strokes on the neck since it's really straight and not concave. The only place a round-soled spokeshave helps is the transitions, and there I found I was able to go right from the rasps to the card scraper.
http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk155/bobv_photo/Blackguard/IMG_4587.jpg
http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk155/bobv_photo/Blackguard/IMG_4586.jpg
http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk155/bobv_photo/Blackguard/IMG_4585.jpg
http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk155/bobv_photo/Blackguard/IMG_4595.jpg

Looks great!

Glad this thread got bumped. I'm graduating to neck building and this tutorial is hot.

genesiospinola....... Regarding the special bit, it probably could be done. In fact I think some people do that but using a large bit like that isn't something I'd want to try. I'm 66 years old and still have all of all of my fingers.

mgdesigns........ Credit for my pictures goes to a couple of friends ......... Sony and Tripod.
heheheh....I understand...Thanks a lot about the answer! Have a good weekend!

Glad this thread got bumped. I'm graduating to neck building and this tutorial is hot.
Yep - that's pretty much what I did - I think it takes about 5 neck builds to get it all right if you are careful. I made a bunch out of 2x4s so I did not waste any maple until I got to where I could make a decent neck.

Yep - that's pretty much what I did - I think it takes about 5 neck builds to get it all right if you are careful. I made a bunch out of 2x4s so I did not waste any maple until I got to where I could make a decent neck.

Good call

Good call
I was cleaning out my project wood pile and found all of those old 2x4 necks - I counted 8 - but I know there are a few others floating around - I guess I'm a slow learner :oops:

I can't bring myself to burning them in the fire pit - too much love went into those 2x4 necks to practice everything I needed to learn; and I've learned something new from all the maple necks I've made since..

Jack, you said way back in Post #1 that you start with a 5/4" maple blank. Isn't the finished thickness right at 1"? Have I been doing it wrong all this time? Does the headstock really drop down that much?
Sorry if I missed the answer in your earlier posts.

The finished neck thickness is supposed to be around 1 in. The board I bought was sold as 5/4 but was actually less that 1 1/4 in. thick. Same is true of some 8/4 maple I bought a while back. It measured just a hair over 1 3/4 in.

traditionally here in aus the rough board size before machining is listed
ie you buy a 100x50mm DAR [4"x2"] and you know you are getting 90x45mm [10mm just under 1/2" 5" just under a quarter]

depends where you buy these days as to wether the DAR size is given or the rough board size [DAR acronym for dressed all round]

Jack, you said way back in Post #1 that you start with a 5/4" maple blank. Isn't the finished thickness right at 1"? Have I been doing it wrong all this time? Does the headstock really drop down that much?
Sorry if I missed the answer in your earlier posts.

Lumber is roughsawn on a band mill in quarters. Well, they are more like goals instead of accurate cuts. So if the bandmill guy rough cuts the lumber at 1", it is sold as 4/4 lumber. After it dries(shrinks) and is planed smooth and flat, its generally around 3/4". So generally, when you buy rough lumber you always buy it bigger so you can plane it down to the correct size.

Lumber is roughsawn on a band mill in quarters. Well, they are more like goals instead of accurate cuts. So if the bandmill guy rough cuts the lumber at 1", it is sold as 4/4 lumber. After it dries(shrinks) and is planed smooth and flat, its generally around 3/4". So generally, when you buy rough lumber you always buy it bigger so you can plane it down to the correct size.

Buy it wider than you need too - there are some undesirable spots that you may want to work around if you don't have a good chance to inspect the lumber. The processed "blanks" from Warmoth, Stumac... they might be good to go, no planing needed and all good wood, at the 1" or 13/16" (if using a different wood for the FB). I generally cut down 6/4 and 8/4 boards and buy it really cheap (like $2/bf) because of a big crack or knot - then just work around the problem area on a thicker board. What I have found on maple is that the area right next to where the wood has separated is some really great - very tight - grain: makes for a heavy neck, but that stuff is amazingly rigid maple if you can tame it.

If you only want to make 1 or 2 necks then the processed blanks may be the best way to go.

One question - What is the distance from the edge of the neck's heel to the nut on a telecaster neck? I have no reference on this.
This would help me position the fretboard and bridge. Thanks!

Based on Ed Hawleys cad drawing, it is 18-3/8"
Welcome to the forum.

http://wightman.ca/%7Ebillscheltema/dims.jpg

Based on a measurement on a Fender 21 fret neck with a dollar store tape measure I concur with the 18 3/8 in.

Based on a measurement on a Fender 21 fret neck with a dollar store tape measure I concur with the 18 3/8 in.

Awesome. Thanks! I've never built a guitar like this before. All of my usual builds are complete customs where I would draw everything out myself and have the necks and body joins custom designed (except for the 2 Jems I made).
www.lydian.ca

This is going to be fun.

Jack,please forgive my stupid question,but why does the truss rod channel have to be arched on a tele neck?It can't be routed straight?Just trying to learn from the voices of experience.Thanks.
Tom

The single action truss rod is captured between two points ....... the anchor and the adjusting nut. As the adjusting nut is tightened the portion of the rod between these two points gets shorter, straighting the rod somewhat resulting in an upward force applied to center of the neck thus reducing forward bow.

......http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/Neck%20Building/SingleActionCutaway.jpg

If the rod was in a straight channel, tightening the adjusting nut would only compress the wood at the anchor and/or nut end until the rod broke.

bassplyr53,
There is no such thing as a stupid question here. I don't get on here very much anymore, but the TDPRI is very fortunate to Jack Wells. He not only answers your question in an articulate manner, but provides a picture.

Hello, JW +
Nice thread and very good and descriptive information that inspires me and others alot.
I have a question regarding this "curved" rod installation.

Is the rod tightened (with rod screw) to get this curve or is it "press'ed" into this curve before installation, hope you understand my question, sorry for my poor english (-;

Best regards
Jompa

In the vintage style neck pictured above, the rod is first pushed through a hole at the headstock end then pushed through a hole at the heel. This forces the rod to take the curve of the channel.

genesiospinola....... Regarding the special bit, it probably could be done. In fact I think some people do that but using a large bit like that isn't something I'd want to try. I'm 66 years old and still have all of all of my fingers.


A found this Jack:http://www.eagleamerica.com/product/420-1010/best_sellers. Saver finger, i think a good tool for the work.
Cheers! ;-)

genesiospinola....... Regarding the special bit, it probably could be done. In fact I think some people do that but using a large bit like that isn't something I'd want to try. I'm 66 years old and still have all of all of my fingers.


A found this Jack:http://www.eagleamerica.com/product/420-1010/best_sellers. Saver finger, i think a good tool for the work.
Cheers! ;-)

I think that tool is for using big tools on small pieces - running a neck through a router table with a big bit for shaping the back would still be just as dangerous.

hello
I do not know if it's really the topic of this forum.
(Excuse me, but I do not often use my computer)
but I would like to know where I can found blueprint of a guitar Fender Telecaster precise enough

or possibly where I could buy it.

thank you

hello

but I would like to know where I can found blueprint of a guitar Fender Telecaster precise enough



Hey Bob, Welcome to the forum.

Check out this thread (http://www.tdpri.com/forum/tele-home-depot/157004-printable-guitar-template-pdf.html) for links to lots of PDF drawings of Teles and other guitars.

thank you

Hi Jack! quick question.. since you didn't get to the fretting part, I don't think it was mentioned.. you cut the fret slots before radiusing the fretboard where the slot's depth gets reduced on the sides.. how do you recut the slots to the proper depth? since the curved slot can not be cut on the mitter box..

Thanx!!

Here's the truss rod installation. In his book Melvyn Hiscock suggests putting the rod into plastic tubing if the proper sized tubing can be found. I couldn't find it. As an alternative he suggests soda straws. The purpose is to prevent the rod from sticking. The straws I had were a little larger in diameter than the rod so I split them lengthwise so they could wrap around the rod.

......http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/Neck%20Building/ReadyToInstall.jpg

Here's the truss rod installed and ready to be hidden.

......http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/Neck%20Building/TrussRodInstalled.jpg

After glue is applied to the sides of the filler strip it is inserted and clamped.

......http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/Neck%20Building/FilletGluedandClamped.jpg

With the anchor recessed slightly there's no chance of nicking the plane blade during the next step.

......http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/Neck%20Building/RecessedAnchor.jpg


I see that some truss rods come with a washer that goes along with the adjustable nut. What is the purpose of that washer?

Also, what was the thickness of that maple slab you started with JWells?
:confused:
:razz:

I started with a 1 in. thick maple blank. The washer is there so the adjusting nut isn't turning against the wood. Sometimes extra washers are added if you run out of adjustment.

With respect to fret slot depth, it's best to cut them a little extra deep so they will be deep enough after you radius the fretboard. If however, you fail to cut them deep enough you can cut the shallow portions deeper using the StewMac fret saw with the depth stop attachment.

......http://www.stewmac.com/product_images/1lg/5319/Depth_Stop_For_Fret_Slotting_Saws_lg.jpg

StewMac also sells a gauge that allows you to measure the depth of the slots to ensure they are deep enough before you start installing the frets.

......http://www.stewmac.com/product_images/1lg/5435/Fret_Slot_Depth_Gauge_lg.jpg

bassplayr53, you could just rout a straight (flat-bottomed) channel and use a two-way dual trussrod, but we don't need no newfangled double rods around here...

Jompa, the 3/16" steel rod is plenty flexible enought to get it in where it needs to go without prebending it.

theShay127, the washer goes under the nut so that the nut is bearing against metal instead of crushing the wood at the bottom of the countersink. Oh, Jack already answered that one.

Jack, do you have any concerns about gaps under the fret and do you fill the slots with glue? I'd be worried about cutting almost all the way through a rosewood slab leaving a bunch of Dominoes glued to the neck instead of one solid slab fingerboard.

Don't know about cutting through rosewood slabs. This thread is about a one-piece neck.

I looked over my neck plans and saw that cool half-neck diagram and finally understood the placement of the washer. Thanks Jack and Vizcaster. It was actually dumb of me to be confused by that. haha.

Jompa, the 3/16" steel rod is plenty flexible enought to get it in where it needs to go without prebending it.



That way you get the rod's elastic recovery forcing the neck into negative relief.. that's no good

I can't imagine there's much "elastic recovery" there to begin with, especially after the rod is held in there for awhile. I think of it as a cable rather than a spring. I don't know of anyone pre-bending the rods. It wouldn't be easy to do if you wanted to - the American Standard neck, for instance, has a compound curve with two different radii from the nut to the 7th fret and from there to the heel.

looks like this guy pre-bends his rods, and he's kind-of a big deal.

http://www.tdpri.com/forum/tele-home-depot/169606-1960-jazzbass-build-2.html

Preeb's an artist who does fantastic work, but we don't all have to agree with every little fanatic detail. Some guys think they hear a difference in tone from the thread pitch on their trussrod cover screws. Eric Johnson thinks having a cover on the trem cavity of a Strat ruins the tone. Some people object to having plastic sheathing on the trussrod because it's not the same as the fabric covering they used back in the day. If we're going to indulge in theoretical musings about the tension of a bent rod, then okay, "that's no good" either, because the slack rod would rattle.

Well.. if in a neck with a pre bent rod, you take half a turn at the nut, you may get a pretty dramatic effect on string action.. I don't know how a pre stressed rod won't be a problem. Elastic deformation is not time dependent, maybe it will creep but 50 years from now.
Just pre bend the dam* thing... it takes 5 minutes

when you cut the fret slots how did you make sure all of the cuts were square

when you cut the fret slots how did you make sure all of the cuts were square

Look at post #8 and # 10 of this thread

I no longer use the miter box shown earlier in this thread. Now I use the jig below along with the StewMac circular saw blade mounted in my radial saw. the StewMac fret slotting template is mounted on the underside of the jig. I made a special fence for the saw with a pin that engages the notches on the template.

......http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/Neck%20Building/FretSlottingJig.jpg

Jack,

I use something similar to this. My set up includes a sliding set of blocks that can adjust to any width of neck/nut combination. But essentially it does the same thing. I have done a lot of necks on this jig with 100% results. I have something similar for 24.75" and bass necks as well as for fingerboards that are not glued on. For all bolt on necks regardles off one-piece, slab or laminate...they all get slotted after the fingerboard is on using this jig. This delivers the best consistancy of fret location relative to the end of the neck. Oh...and you can slot a fingerboard in about 45-60 seconds with this setup.

So then your fret slots have a flat bottom and don't follow the radius of the fingerboard or do you go back and use a hand fretsaw to do this?!?

Seems like there would be alot of void under a 9.5" radius fb like the pdf I quickly did up.
http://www.wightman.ca/~billscheltema/pdf/fretslot.pdf (http://www.wightman.ca/%7Ebillscheltema/pdf/fretslot.pdf)

Bill

On Bent rods.... I believe that it is essential to prebend the rod. This is due to the rod being able to spin or not spin in the slot. Here is my theory and testing I did: If you take a long drill bit or even a long piece of truss rod and put it in a cordless drill. The drill bit can bend in the middle while still spinning smoothly at the tip. This tells me that if the rod is not ancored well, the rod can spin in a curved slot with no problem. Now..take that same set up and place a bend in the rod instead. That rod will no longer be able to spin. In the drill test, the rod flips and twists but it no longer spins smoothly. Now consider that the bend rod is now held in place on each side and top and botttom with a block of wood that does not allow it to flip/flop etc. This does not allow the drill motor to spin the rod any more. Oh..equally important seems to be to use a truss rod slot that is only big enough for the rod. If you are using a 3/16" rod...use a 3/16" bit to route the channel. While a 1/4 slot will work, it gives enough wiggle room for rod move and twist..which gives opportunity for spinning.

So why is this important? Well especially with one piece necks with heel adjusts, you have a round nut that slips into the headstock plug hole. While yes you can add teeth or prongs to secure themselves into the wood, if the rod is allowed to spin it could eventually become loose at the anchor too. The bend rod, keeps the rod from spining/moving while under heavy twists from the truss rod nut.

With quite a bit of investigation via the internet, I have seen a bunch of vintage necks that show the anchor was just a round nut with no special shape etc to them. So I have been trying a bunch of different methods and find that all seem to work equally well if the rod is bent first. The one thing I have been doing as part of this installation is using a steel pin and hammer to tap the anchor in place. This ensures the anchor is all the way in the hole and is pressed tight/diggining into the bottom of the hole (thanks Marc for the suggestion..). Then I am using a plug that is also tapped all the way in and nice and tight. With no movement in the rod side to side or backwards/forwards... you minimized a great deal of any chance of truss rod issues. The tighter the rod is encapsulated the less troubles you will have.

I supose your millage may vary, but the testing I have been doing on this suggest that it won't vary far.

So then your fret slots have a flat bottom and don't follow the radius of the fingerboard or do you go back and use a hand fretsaw to do this?!?

Bill

Yes Bill. Once done with this jig, the slots are flat on the bottom. In fact, I do this part before the fingerboard is radiused too. That way I can pre-build certain aspects of the neck and customize others as needed.

As part of my routine, I go back after the fingerboard is radiused (just before fretting) and use the hand fret saw to shape the ends of the slots to the radius of the fingerboard. I try to only the the slot depth the first time to just about the right depth in the middle. Maybe a bit deeper. So my slots just before fretting are curved to match the radius and are only just deep enough to fit the fret in. Maybe a hair more...

One more thing Jack and Bill...

I slot the fingerboard before the neck is carved. I believe there is a balancing act between allowing the wood to move and aclimate and moving to the next steps. So the neck is left square in the back and the fingerboard flat while slotting. I then move to the contour stage of neck building. I rough carve the neck and will leave the neck sit overnight before any final work is done on it.

For me building a neck is somewhat of a ritual. I do things in phases/steps and never rush a build. Because of the amount of neck builds I do, I can make a batch of necks and get them to one stage...then go back to a previous batch of necks and work on them while the new ones are aclimating etc. I can then start some new necks by rough cutting the blanks and letting them set too.

I have been building a lot of set-neck (glue in place) style units lately. They follow a similar process of letting the wood move/stop moving. They are a bit more complicated then the bolt on style but the theory is still the same. Fingerboard is slotted while flat. It is glued onto the neck while the back is still square/uncarved. The carve is done is stages.

The radius if one of the last things I do to a neck before fretting. There is so minimal amount of wood being removed during this stage that the neck is 99% stable from all the other work being completed. At this point, when you radius and level the board.. it will stay that way.

J

Hi Joe,

Just sent you an email.

Bill

Hey Jack,

That neck almost looks like pine? Is it?

BTW my Stewmac tablesaw fret sawblade is on the way.

Bill

That is a practice neck made from a 2 x 4.

I'm not sure what help is needed for building the curved channel jig. I'll go into a little more detail on how I built mine. First, I'll show the Strat neck blueprint once again.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/Neck%20Building/StratNeckBlueprint.jpg

As you can see the curve is made up of two radii..... 115 inches on the headstock end and 255 in. on the heel end. I used a 25 ft. tape measure to draw these curves on a piece of poster board. I put a screw in a board and put a weight on it then attaced the end of the tape measure to the screw. I then went to the 255 in. mark ......... aligned my pencil and swung the tape measure to draw a curve that intersected a straight line aligned with the centerline of the tape measure. I then did the same at the 115 in. mark positioning the poster board so the 115 in. mark on the tape aligned with the previous curve.

With the complete curve drawn on the poster board. I then cut it out and trace it to a piece of wood. I cut close to the line with a bandsaw then sand to the line. I then rip the piece in two giving me the two curved rails the router base rides on.

From the drawing, you can see that the centerline of the radii is 8.745 in. from the nut slot. From this centerline, the channel should go 6.745 in. toward the headstock and 9.060 toward the heel (for a headstock adjust neck....... on a heel adjust neck this dimension would be ~ 7.25 in.). Where you put the stops on your jig to determine the ends of the channel will depend on your router and the dimension of the base plate.

Since routing the channel is the first step, my jig is attached to the neck blank with screws in locations that will be cut away when the neck shape is cut.

I start the routing at the radii centerline point with the bit just touching the wood. Consider that the zero depth reference point. I then set the depth on my plunge router to make shallow passes until I have it set 0.495 in. below the zero reference point.

Here's a better picture of my channel jig. I've marked the following reference points: Nut line, End of channel, High point (radii centerline) Vintage end of channel and Modern end of channel.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/jwells393/Neck%20Building/ChannelJig.jpg

I hope this helps. I'll try to answer any other questions.

Stupid Question #1: How important is the accuracy of the curve? Couldn't you just fasten a jig that is low on the ends and high in the center, making sure to stay around 1/8" from the fretboard at the ends and 1/8" from the back of the neck in the center?

Stupid Question # 2: If I wanted to make the same jig you made, couldn't I just print the neck blueprint to scale, cut out the neck and paste it onto a 2x4, routing close and sanding to the curve line, then rip it in a table saw?

Question 1. The accuracy of the curve probably isn't that important but since the information on the curve is available, why not use something that has been working for over 60 years?

Question 2. That might work.

This thread has be superseded by the following which has all building steps in an uninterrupted form.

*Building A One Piece Neck II* (http://www.tdpri.com/forum/tele-home-depot/256935-*building-one-piece-neck-ii*.html)

dear tele fourm;
The .203" measurement is to centre of the 3/8" bit. leaving you below the nut cut @ 3 degree.
Love all the bulider threads ,and have Tele,and Strat builds on going.
This thread got my first Teles built,after building may set-neck LP styles.
love all guitars;
C.K./Vicar Guitars

Are you saying the drawing is wrong?

bit late, but for dr zaius's Q#1 I would like to link this answer Joe Desperado gave to a similar question I asked on your consolidated one piece neck build thread:

http://www.tdpri.com/forum/tele-home-depot/256935-%2Abuilding-one-piece-neck-ii%2A-2.html#post3020463

If I read the answer correctly it is that since the neck will tend to have more curvature to the bend the further out from the butt, the rod has a progressive curvature to counteract this; The more curvature the more aggresive the straightening tendency. Likely the original idea was to have a continually changing curvature, say an involute curve, but having a dual curvature allowed more practical manufacturing design (machine has gear train that profiles one radius to a point, then shifts to the other radius) without compromising strenth or performance of the truss rod unduly (the stresses at the anchor and the adjustment nut are far greater than where the two radii merge, thus this discontinuity is not the weakest link).