Official Luthiers Forum!

Hi

So the box is finished and I've moved on to the neck. I'm doing a Cumpiano style hardware neck joint (Mortice and Tennon)

I've test fitted the rough neck to the body ( no fingerboard yet) and it needs some adjustment.( Not suprising realy since both parts of the joint were cut by hand and I'm not the greatest of woodworkers - no I'm not a traditionalist - just skint !!!)

With the neck bolts just nipped up the top surface of the neck sits level with the soundboard both sides but compared to the centreline of the guitar it is misaligned to the left by about 1 degree if my calculations are right .

There are gaps at 2 oposing corners as shown in the diagram below

As far as I figure I should first remedy the gaps then remedy the angling of the neck. Obviously I need to remove material from the points shown as snug in the diagram above ( which is looking at the tennon end on ). I?m concerned that theres a risk of rounding off the corners if I just file away so I was going to make up a dummy mortice in a bit of scrap and (if the gaps check out the same ) double stick tape 80 grit sandpaper to the scrap and use it to sand the neck untill the gaps dissapear.

Does this seem like a good plan of attack or can you think of a better method ?

Thanks in advance for your help

PS 0.8 mm is just over 1/32 inchCachalote39091.4702662037

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Richard

When fitting the neck, I put the body into a guitar vise, then hold the neck with one hand in postion while flossing, or pulling sandpaper between the heel and the body ... make sure when pulling that the sandpaper is either coming out of the joint flush, or angled down, so as to not round the heel off. depending on how much material I am removing, I might start with 80, but usually 150 and 250 to finish up. This is how I would set the back angle, and then as well check for centreline and work one side as required.

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

Looks like I just became Tony Koa ...1000 posts, and to boot, got some flame koa in the mail this morning. Cant wait till I become Braz rw then huh !!!

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

Thanks for that you guys

I think thats pretty clear

Youve just stopped me wasting the evening messing around with scrap

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Richard

I've just read the Stew Mac article and Re- read Tony's posts and have realised that they are talking about adjusting either the centreline or the neck angle.

My initial problem is the fact that the cheeks aren't symetrical - you can see in the (bad) sketch that on one side there is a gap at the top whereas the other side theres a gap at the bottom.

Will the flossing also work for this situation ? I'm guessing that it probably will if the sandpaper exits via the snug side . But I thought I'd check rather than risk making things worse !Cachalote39091.8839930556

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Richard

[QUOTE=Hesh1956] 1/Dreadnought_Guitar_Kits/Instructions/I-5295.html#details]h ere[/URL]

Also I always true up the area where the mortice is/will be with a sanding block prior to attempting to fit the neck.[/QUOTE]

I discovered this the hard way. If the area around the mortise isnt flat then you'll never get the heel sitting snug.

Thanks for the info guys - got the neck trued up and ready for final adjustment once I've made the fretbaord and carved the neck.Went quicker than I expected once I got a feel for whats going on.

Thanks

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Richard

Great! Keep us posted with some pics when you can!

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Peter M.
Cornerstone Guitars
http://www.cornerstoneukes.com