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OK, so I have this body (finished) and this dovetail neck. Frankly, I do not know what to do next. I hear about dry fitting, etc. How is it fitted? (FB is not on yet). How is it held in place? Glue? Shims and wedges? (in the joint)?? Help!

Mike

Mike,

If the neck tenon is loose in the mortise then you will have to add a shim or two to the mortise, until the neck tenon fits snug in the mortise and the top of the neck is even with the top of the guitar. If the neck tenon is tight in the mortise then you must remove material from the tenon until you acheive the same as above. That is all you would do until the fingerboard is glued on. After the FB is on you will then fine tune the neck angle to the body by flossing with strips of 80 grit sandpaper.
Once you have the angle set you may have to add another shim or so to tighten the fit of the dovetail again, because when material is removed from the cheeks of the neck heel it loosens the dovetail joint a bit, meaning you may need to shim a bit more.

Now you can see why a majority of builders use a bolt-on system for the neck to body, it makes fitting the neck to body a bit simpler and quicker.

Hope this is clear enough to help.

Cal

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So the idea is to achieve a tight, snug fit with the proper angle, then glue the FB to the neck. Now, position the neck back in the dovetail joint. Glue only goes on the heel an bottom of FB. Correct? No glue in the dovetail joint, right?

Mike

Mike,

Glad to see Im not the only sucker for punishment in here.

I get the tenon fitting into the mortise so theres no play and I leave the top of the neck not quite flush with the top (about a credit card's thickness). When I clamp up the neck will push down until its virtually flush with the top. Once glue is set on the neck joint I fit the fretboard which gets glued to neck and upper bout. Some people fit the fretboard to the neck first and then glue up the dovetail joint.

To aid in getting a good tight fit I rub chalk on the faces of the mortise and then dry fit the tenon. The chalk will collect on high spots of the tenon and they are the areas that will need trimming. I use sanding sticks for final trimming of the tenon. If the joint is lose then glue shims onto the faces of the tenon and then start again. Youll spend alot of time mucking around with shims and sanding sticks but its part and parcel of your first M and T dovetail joint. Once the fit is good you should be able to string up the guitar to full tension without glue on the joint. The strength is in the geomtery of this joint not the glue...thats why the fit has to be perfect.

Check out posts in here on doing dovetail joints...there are a few useful tricks.

I glue up the faces of the tenon. No glue on the back of the tenon...there should be a slight gap between end of the tenon and the back of the mortise.

Good luck Martin