Last Update: 12/01/07

Online Apprentice-
Finish-carve the Neck

In this lesson we will learn how to carve the neck.

Make sure you have read this lesson all the way through before beginning the lesson. A word of advice is to practice on scrap. If you have any questions, ask before you begin. The best place to ask quesions is on our "members only" newsgroup at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/onlineapprentice

First I take a felt tip pen and mark the area that needs to be removed.

Now take a chisel, file, or spoke shave and remove wood from the area marked with the felt tip pen.

Next, we make a new pair of lines to help guide the carving of the neck shape.

Remove the wood between the two new lines.

Make a sanding/shaping block out of a piece of 3/4" thick scrap wood using the templates below. These blocks will help shape the neck to the desired shape. Slide them up and down the neck to remove all the flat spots.

Here is an accurate template of a Miguel Rodriguez Jr. guitar neck shape. Print out the template. There is a 1" reference mark so you can enlarge or reduce the image to the correct size. This one is for the seventh fret position. You can make it slightly larger so it can slide up the neck.

Here is the first position template.

Here is the neck after shaping with the sanding blocks.

With a half-round file blend the side curve of the head into the neck.

Using a compass I draw a radius on the back of the head. The tip of the radius is about even with the area of the nut and the glue line of the head/neck splice.

Blend the neck and head transition with sandpaper and a scraper.

With a scraper shape the heel to its final shape. A freshly sharpened scarper works best!

Now that the neck and heel are shaped and sanded to their desired feel and appearance it is time to fill the fret ends of the fingerboard. First I give the ebony fretboard a light sanding with 180 grit sandpaper and pack the ends of the fret slots with ebony dust. Then I add some super glue using a pipette to apply just a drop to each fret end.

Now that the gap between the fret tang and the fret slots is filled you are now ready to prepare the guitar for finishing.

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