Official Luthiers Forum!

Like others, I found that preparing a neck blank for my first multi-scale / fanfret instrument required a little thinking. As others have noted, the secret is to make the scarf joint as per usual, and then create the headstock face at an angle, intersecting the angled nut. Even if no one else finds it useful, I will probably come back here whenever my next multiscale is commissioned, to remind myself how I did it!

First, I worked out the detailed calculations for the fingerboard using FretFind2D (http://www.ekips.org/tools/guitar/fretfind2d/, and used the program to print out a fullscale template for my desired multiscale spec.

Then, I prepared the scarf joint on a neck blank. I make the cut on a 10" table saw, with a custom sled to hold the blank at a 15° angle. The Forrest blade leaves a very smooth finish that required very little cleanup before glue-up.

Next, I transfer the nut angle to the fingerboard face of the blank. Notice that the line on the bass side meets the intersection of the fingerboard and headstock at the extreme edge of the blank, rather than where the bass side of the nut would be. The line is then brought around to the treble side of the headstock. This defines the wedge material that must be removed from the headstock face.

Now, a lot of folks would simply remove this with a plane, but I like the precision of my table saw, so that's my usual weapon of choice, if appropriate. To make the cut, I used double-sided tape to fasten a sacrificial piece to the headstock face. I angled the blade to match the line I'd transferred around to the end of the blank -- actually, I snuck up on the angle, starting a little shy, then increasing until the blade split the line.

The neckblank will come clear of the saw, while a push stick is used to clear the sacrificial piece from the blade. Had I not stopped the saw to take pictures, the finished surface off the blade would have been clean and almost good for glue. As it was, a few minutes with a sandpaper plane left a flat, properly angled surface, ready to glue on the head plate.

This task will mess with your head the first time, but is really quite straightforward. Hopefully being able to see the sequence in pictures will give someone the confidence to go ahead.

As always, be careful around a table saw without guards. Think it through before you make the cut and keep fingers well clear.

Looks like a good way to do it but on the one I am just starting I will probably just plane it off as usual. It is always great to see someone else come up with a different plan to do these kind of tasks.

Fred

_________________
Fred Tellier
http://www.fetellierguitars.com
Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/FE-Tellier-Guitars/163451547003866

If you are going to use your table saw I would make a sled that used both slots. If your saw has only one then good day to you sir.

_________________
Michael F Smith
Goat Rock Ukulele
http://goatrockukulele.com

If I think about it too much, it stops making sense, but if you use that same sled and angle the tablesaw blade, you can cut the right angle with the first cut. But, you can't just flip the cut off around for the headstock. It takes a second cut to make that piece line up right. It just takes a few tests on scrap to find the right angle.

Mike

_________________
Mike Lindstrom

Show us a photo sequence! Remember, you want the centreline of the headstock aligned with the fingerboard.

Why?

I just did one by hand, plane and belt sander, only took about 10 minutes. Sometime I think we tend to over think some of these operations.

Fred

_________________
Fred Tellier
http://www.fetellierguitars.com
Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/FE-Tellier-Guitars/163451547003866