OAC Guitar Entry 5 The NECK

The neck is just about at the "let is settle" stage. For the peghead veneers I chose three layers: thin dyed black, thicker holly, capped with Ebony. By laminating multiple layers onto the back and down the curve I increase the strength in the curve where the grain is short - it looks attractive too. The top of the fretboard and peghead will be left just black Ebony - I like the minimalistic look and there is already so much going on with the body that I don't want to gunk things up. I have a tendency to over design. Originally I was going to do Mother Of Pearl blocks with lightning bolts in the center. I think a conservative look is going to win more people over in Montreal. I am kinda kicking around the idea of doing something at the 12th fret.

I will be inlaying the Dagmar logo at the top in my usual way.(see post about Vicky to see how it's done)

The nut width will be 1 3/4". The scale length is 25". The fretboard radius is a constant 12" To achieve level and a 12" radius I bought an extruded aluminum radiused sanding block from Stew Mac - well worth the money.

The one picture shows how the tapers are achieved. I have the neck double sided taped to a tapered piece of solid cherry wood. I made this base using the planer. I simply lifted the one side of the wood up by temporarily gluing spacers onto the bottom. The spot glued spaces allowed the cherry wood to travel through the planer at the desired angle. After I simply plucked the spacers off. The taper is slight - something like 3/16 from the 3rd fret to the 12th.
When the neck is double sided taped to the tapered base I run it under my shop built overhead router and I can achieve exact tolerances quickly.

After the neck tapers are done on both the peghead and down it's length I transition sand with a 2" drum sander chucked in my drill. I true it up using a piece of banana board (flexible plywood) as a sanding block. When the transition is perfect I then glue on the veneers.

I have a pattern for the final peghead shape that I made out of 1/4" MDF. I double side tape it to the peghead and run it through the router table. The pattern also has 1/4" holes drilled into it at the machine head (tuners) locations. I set my drill press up with the right size bit and a 1/4" dowel protruding out of the drill press bed, directly under the bit. I slide the corresponding holes onto the dowel and then drill - simple and accurate. All of these tricks are revealed in Robert Benedetto's amazing book "How to build an Archtop Guitar". Anyone who wants to build a guitar should study this book - it's my bible. Bob signed it for me too!