The next part of the guitar build after shaping the body was to make the neck blank and headstock.
We are working with mostly maple for the neck, but I wanted to tie it all together with the same veneer that I used between the body and top woods.
The headstock also has a myrtle cap to match the top wood on the body, with a veneer in between that and the maple.
Making the Neck Laminates
Like most of my other builds, this guitar is getting a multi-laminate neck. This one is a little bit easier than some others because it is made of just two pieces of maple and one sheet of veneer.
First, I set up a fence on my bandsaw and ripped the maple strips to make up the neck laminates. The neck pattern I wanted to use was basically a thicker piece of maple on the two outer edges, followed by two thinner pieces of accenting maple, a half-thick piece in the middle, and fumed ipe veneers in between each.
After the rip cuts were done I set the fence to re-saw the correct thickness for the center piece of maple. A couple of runs through the planer cleaned it up nicely and got it ready for gluing.
Then I just cut some strips of veneer with an x-acto blade to go in between each piece of maple.
Quick note: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase through these links, I may earn a commission at no cost to you. Additionally, as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Any link I include is here to make it easy for you to find the tools and products that I used in the build process.
Creating the Neck Blank
To take all these pieces and make them into a neck blank, I just flip each piece up on its side.
And I re-arrange them until I get an end grain pattern like this.
Next, I did some sanding to make sure that all the gluing edges were nice and flat, then added some glue and clamps.
Once the glue dried, I cleaned up the surfaces with the jointer and planer.
Note: this is a staged picture, the jointer wasn’t on when I took it.
I didn’t get to pick out the individual pieces of maple when I ordered them, so I was pleasantly surprised by the color and figure of the thin board. It ended up really popping!
I’m looking forward to seeing how this neck looks once it’s carved and even more so after it gets some finish on it.
Making the Headstock
I worked on the headstock at the same time as the neck, re-sawing the maple and planing the myrtle to proper thicknesses.
This is the layout I decided to use for the headstock myrtle. I love the way it looks at an angle.
There isn’t really much to see with this glue up.
The next step was to cut the scarf joint angles on both the neck and the headstock while they were squared.
I cleaned the angles up with a sanding block in not too much time.
Cutting out the headstock shape was quick on the bandsaw, then I popped a small sanding drum on my drill press to sand the edges clean.
I drilled pilot holes through the headstock for each of the tuners, then I drilled the full size holes halfway through from each side.
Doing it this way prevents pretty much any chance of the wood tearing out around the holes (with the right drill bit).
Joining the Neck and Headstock
I cut the rough taper of the neck before gluing up the scarf joint because it’s easier without the headstock in the way. I cut outside the lines for this so that I have room to clean it up with the router after the fretboard is glued on.
To keep the headstock lined up while gluing, I drill a couple of holes with a small drill bit and use two of the same size bits to act as registration pins to hold the headstock in place while I clamp it up. You can’t see it in the picture, but the drill bits are in between the two blocks.
To get them out, sometimes just moving them with pliers will do the trick, other times I have to heat the bits (carefully) with a soldering iron just until the glue loosens up on the bit and not on the joint.
These holes will go away when I route for the truss rod.
Now that this glue up is done, I’m moving on to the fretboard inlay! Technically, I already did before I posted this, so stay tuned for that update soon.
Next post: Making the custom fretboard inlay
