The neck is then trimmed on the bandsaw to the correct width at the body join.
The cheeks of the fingerboard extension part are cut on the bandsaw.
The heel curve is rough cut on the bandsaw.
And the heel is then rough shaped, and the fingerboard positioned and marked for gluing.
The fingerboard is then glued with Titebond glue and clamped, being careful to keep it in the correct position.
23rd June 2006:
The sides of the neck are trimmed flush with the fingerboard, and then the fingerboard is sanded to its radius.
The positions for the side dot markers are measured out, marked and pricked with a small bradawl to guide the drill. I use 2.5mm white MoP side dots. The holes are drilled, filled with white PVA glue and the MoP dots pressed in level with the fingerboard edge.
The back of the neck is leveled close to the final thickness.
Now its time to carve the neck and the marks for the primary facets are put on the sides . . .
. . . and the back of the neck. It always amuses me, given my background, that differential calculus is used to help carve the neck shape!
The primary facets are carved using a spokeshave, cabinet scraper and various chisels. Then the secondary facets are carved.
Then the neck is "bootstrapped" using a strip of 120 grit sandpaper with strips of brown tape on the back.
Next the holes for the tuners are drilled on the drill press with a 10mm drill.
The tuners are checked for fit and then the first of the two neck bolts drilled to fit the neck to the body. Here is a view with the neck fitted . . . looking good.
And a back view.
24th - 28th June 2006:
Frets are now put onto the fingerboard. I use a fret press for up to the 13th fret, and then take the caul out of the fret press and use it with a small hammer to gently tap in frets 14 to 20. I find that taking proper attention to level and radius the fretboard, combined with the fretboard supported over almost its entire length means that there is no fret levelling required.
With all the frets in and level, I use a file to carefully level the fret ends with the fretboard edge and then to put in a 45 degree bevel.
With the frets on, I can set approximately the right neck angle with the neck attached with the top bolt, against the bridge blank in the correct place on the body. The bolt position on the tennon is marked by chalking the end of a bolt and pressing it through the bottom hole in the neck-block onto the tennon. Then the bolt hole is drilled in the tennon, followed by the hole for the connector through the tennon.
The Kingwood bridge blank is thicknessed to between 8-9mm and the saddle slots marked. They are then routed using this simple jig. I cut the slots around 6mm deep.
This is the first pinned bridge I have done and am a little nervous about it. First I drill initial bridge pin holes using a 5mm drill in the drill press. There are 5 holes as each will carry the unison pairs of strings using unslotted oversized ebony bridge-pins, and a slotted bridge. After drilling the holes I chamfered them.
The bridge is then cut to the rough shape on the bandsaw and sanded to the profile I want on the belt sander. Finally it is hand sanded with 120 grit sandpaper. To this stage it is much less fiddly than doing a pinless bridge, and you have a lot more freedom to make "interesting" shapes. The bridge at this stage weighs 25g and with the bridge-pins 30g. This is about the same as one of my pinless brisdges.
