Making the neck

There are a couple of basic ways to make a guitar neck. You can carve it from a single block of mahogany or you can use a plank and cut blocks to build various parts of the neck.  The single block method is great in that all the grain will be perfectly in line, but is very wasteful.  As a result I use the plank assmebly method.

Basically we start off with a 36 inch strip of mahogany and cut three little blocks to be stacked to make the heel of the neck (the bit that attaches to the guitar). Then another part is cut at and 15 degree angle to make a "scarf" joint. This part becomes the headstock.

It's very important to have straight, quartersawn wood for the neck. 

Below I show the steps - planing the neck to get it straight and smooth, cutting the heel blocks, and glue up.

Next I make the scarf joint.  This involves cutting a 15 degree angle and then carefully planing the cut surfaces to ensure that they are perfectly smooth and square.  The cut part is flipped over and glued to the neck.  This creates the angled headstock (acoustic guitar headstocks are angled backwards away from the surface of the fretboard).

We now have a basic neck shape.  Next I use a small table top router to cut three slots up the neck.  The middle slot is for a double action truss rod - which is used to adjust the "relief" or slight bow in the neck when the strings are added.  The other two slots are for carbon fibre strips.  Carbon fiber is a newer addition to guitar bulding but is super lightweight and incredibly strong.  It provides additional rigidity to the neck, reduce any tendency for the neck to warp or twist.  All my guitars have carbon fiber inserts.  It's fairly cheap insurance.

These are glued in using epoxy and then trimmed to length.

Once the neck is constructed, I shape the neck using a range of planes, saws, sanding blocks and chisels.  This is one of the longest single tasks in guitar building.  I am trying to get a certain neck profile (shape) and thickness consistent along the length of the neck. 

Next up

Joining the neck to the body