Official Luthiers Forum!

Hey, I'm pretty new to these forums, so excuse me if this is a fairly common or nooby question.

Very soon I'll be beginning work on my first guitar neck. I've made guitars before, all solid bodies, and I know how to handle a saw and the like. I was just wondering if there were any recommended texts that I should read before attempting this for the first time, as well as any tips you could offer for my first attempt at making a guitar neck.

Some of the things that I'm looking to know are stuff like what type of neck (Bolt on, through body), recommended materials(i.e. what sorts of materials are the best to use for the first time, what ones are usually cheap) and any type of tools that would be out of the ordinary(I have the usual tools, like a jigsaw, sander, router, and I have access to a band saw, but you never know when a job might require a tool you've never even heard of.)

P.S. Just so you know, I'm already getting Make Your Own Electric Guitar by Melvyn Hiscock.

http://www.amazon.com/Make-Your-Electri ... 471&sr=8-2

Get the book in this link.

http://www.amazon.com/Building-Electric ... pd_sim_b_2

Get this one, too.

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Old growth, shmold growth!

I use Micoplanes when making necks.


http://www.rockler.com/gallery.cfm?Offe ... 37DF6C1AA0

you can go many different ways here.
buy a body from stew mac, and make a neck,
or buy a neck and make a body, or buy the wood and make it yourself.
the wood you buy should be dry.
body doesn't matter much, alder is easy and cheap,
so is mahogany an maple.
it should be pretty wood.
bolt on neck is easier, and if you mess the neck up, you can do another one.
neck, straight grained maple is good, or mahogany.
lots of nice wood growing in austrailia.
lots for you to learn, go for it!

If you can afford one, my new favorite tool for shaping the neck is my spindle sander. I used to use a rasp, spoke shave and scrapers to shape the neck, but now it is much quicker to get it close with the spindle sander and finish it off with the scraper. Also I find a wagner safe-t-planer comes in real handy when making a neck http://www.lmii.com/CartTwo/thirdproducts.asp?CategoryName=Rout/Shape/Drill&NameProdHeader=Wagner+Safe-T-Planer

-John

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John Thiessen
http://www.iszacguitars.com

The round drum end of my 6" wide belt sander gets a lot of work when shaping a neck. Use it just like a spindle sander but it allows more movement.

Fred

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