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

[jwells393]

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.



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



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.



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.

[jwells393]

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.



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.



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



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.

[jwells393]

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.



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



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.



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.

[jwells393]

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.



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.



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.



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

[Buckocaster51]

Great stuff Jack!

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

[Jellecaster]

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

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

[chickenpicker]

Great stuff as usual Jack.

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

[jwells393]

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.



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.



Slot sawing completed.



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.



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.

[telex]

It's nice to see someone else's approach! 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!

[jwells393]

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.



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.



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.



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



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.

[tdowns]

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.

[jwells393]

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.



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.



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.



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.



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

[Stuco]

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

[Lostheart]

This AWESOME!

[Pete Galati]

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

[Vegasrock]

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

[blacklove]

Beautiful work and really inspiring!

[Ronkirn]

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

Ron Kirn

[jwells393]

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.

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[Ronkirn]

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

Ron Kirn

[Pete Galati]

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

[jwells393]

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.

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[ehawley]

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

[jwells393]

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.

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Here's the cut slug

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

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Drilling the anchor.

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[jwells393]

Tapping the anchor.

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Threading the rod.

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

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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.

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[jwells393]

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.

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

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

[Buckocaster51]

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.

[Lostheart]

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

[jwells393]

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.

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

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

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

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[jwells393]

Planing to remove most of the exposed wood.

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

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Here's how it fits.



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

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[KevinB]

Nice! Seriously nice.

Someday I hope to be able to do this too.

[telex]

It looks like the best part is coming up!

Looks great! Keep 'em coming!

Nice anchor!

[jwells393]

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.

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

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

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

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[jwells393]

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.

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

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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.

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[jwells393]

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.

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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.

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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.

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[chickenpicker]

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.

[jwells393]

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.

[tdowns]

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

[hotgoalie11565]

Great work, Jack!

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

[maestrovert]

Absolutely killer as always Jack, & THANX !