Official Luthiers Forum!

Ok... we all know John Watkins, OLF member, Pink Guitar builder AND.... CUSTOM CNC neck maker.

John recently put his CNC skills up for sale to help OLFers develop their own custom neck specifications and precision mill them on his CNC system.

Check out his offer.

http://www.watkinsguitars.com/cnc_necks1.htm

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Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

Welcome John! I for one am very excited to work with John.

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Lance@LuthiersForum.com

That looks like a great option for the small production guys for sure....one day maybe!!

Welcome John and the very best to your business. I already know your quality and attention to detail from the fretting supplies I have from you. So I think your offer for necks is well beyond fair.

Shane

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Canada

Yep, the quality/price ratio sure will be at rendez-vous!

I wish you plenty of success John!

Serge

Guys,

I have used John's services in the past, and have nothing but good things to say about him and his work.

If you've thought about taking the step toward having parts CNC milled, John is your man!

russ38819.0958564815

Thanks, guys. This neck promotion will be the first of a number of offerings that take advantage of the power, accuracy, and flexibility of my new machine.

I look forward to helping my fellow OLFer's produce more instruments with better consistency and less headaches.

PS - I'm having my entire electrical panel replaced today to accomodate the new machine, so I'll be offline for the day in about an hour.

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John Watkins
CNC Guitar Parts

So John,
Does this mean you could now accurately reproduce my necks...mistakes and all! Congrats on the new business I wish you all the success.

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Dave Bland

remember...

"If it doesn't play in tune...it's just pretty wood"

Welcome John.

I to would love to take advantage of your CNC'd necks but like most small independents I can't justify the 1K setup fee. That is not to say it is not fair. Being an engineer in the manufacturing world I totally understand the work and programming involved. $1K is reasonable. just can't fit it into my build budget.

However if you ever decide to make a laminated stock 25.4-14 neck, you let us know I will jump to try one.
MichaelP38819.4782407407

Another option would be to do a group thing. 10 necks, including the set up fees is $200. After that it only gets cheaper. So if a group of us (I am not there yet, I want to build my own necks for a while) were to agree on some design elements maybe there would be a way to cover these costs off. Just a thought, we do many things in a community way, this could be just one more...

Shane

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Canada

[QUOTE=Hesh1956] Would you be interested in offering an off-the-shelf
commercial offering(s) that the hobbiest (or pro) could buy with out the
set-up fee? [/QUOTE]

I was going to ask the exact same thing. I don't care about the back
shape. give me a tenon and oversized headstock, and I'll be good to go!      

There are several one piece mahogany CNC necks available It would be great to see a laminated CNC available. That said I would kind of feel like I am cheating but who knows I might be able to get over it MichaelP38819.5331712963

Welcome

Mike

I'm on my first kit guitar, (yes, I'm having the time of my life) and although I definitely intend to carve a neck (or two) for the experience, I would be interested as well if John offered some spec neck (hey, that rhymes) that the "poor OLF group" could get behind.

Hmmm, wonder if the retired guitar builder would have an interest in having his necks cloned...

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Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.

[QUOTE=James Orr]I was going to ask the exact same thing. I don't care about the back
shape. give me a tenon and oversized headstock, and I'll be good to go![/QUOTE]
One of our other vendors has been offering just that for some time. His initials are ZOOT.

Hope I'm not stepping on your toes here, John--this seems quite different from what you've proposed.

Welcome John. Great idea for the builder who hates carving necks. I don't build near enough to spend the money but if i ever do, I will let you know. Also, I would be in if you offered individual necks like MichealP stated. Maybe a stock 24.9 slotted headstock also?

for what it's worth.. a $1,000 for set-up/CAD/fixture charges is VERY
reasonable. I've gotten quotes from guys who supply lots of the big
names and the norm is more like $2500 for full programming, ect, and
normally minimum runs are 24 pieces.

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John Mayes
http://www.mayesluthier.com

Thanks for the ideas and words of encouragement, guys. I'll look into the feasibility of a generic neck.

John

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John Watkins
CNC Guitar Parts

John -- a CNC service supplier who is also a builder is just what we need here.

J Mayes -- I agree $1k set-up is more than reasonable given some of the shop rates I've seen. My brother who is a CNC wiz himself said the $1k set-up fee is a bargoon, not to mention $100 per neck there after!

I like the idea of a stock 25.4" or 24.9" neck -- issue is what profile will it be?

John -- I like others have a CNC'd wish list -- should I email you?

John, what about CNC'd templates and such? A handful of custom cut acylic templates with the holes in exactly the right spot would be quite handy to someone who's jigged up in the old fashioned way(me me me!). Jigs and templates are only as good as their accuracy, and mine suffer a tad.

Would you be willing to do this stuff?

If you're thinking about long-term cnc work, this can be a bargain. Sure, it's pricey for the first 10 necks at $200 each, but after that they're atill only $100 each, which is dirt cheap for something of your own exclusive design.
A generic neck, with a rough-shaped neck and paddle headstock might attract a lot of folks for sure. There are other suppliers out there, but none that give a laminated neck, or an option of no tuner holes that I'm aware of.

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Mario, I will do (and pretty much have done) everything and anything.   

The current workload includes archtop plates, Les Paul hollow-bodies, logo inlays, bridges, fingerboards....you name it.

Just let me know what you need.

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John Watkins
CNC Guitar Parts

John--You're holding out on us. Tell us about that new CNC you got!
Nelson