Adeline's Neck Set

Things are still going kinda slow for us here with the archtop guitars, but we certainly are making progress. This week we finally got to the stage of setting the neck angles relative to the body. We did a similar job with our past guitars but this guitar varies a bit in that it has a traditional dovetail neck joint rather than the modern, simplified bolt-on neck. Fitting this type of neck joint definitely takes more time than the bolt on necks do. After cutting the initial halves of the joint, you have to continuously shim the joint to keep it tight while bringing in the proper pitch and centerlines of the neck relative to the body. Every bit of material removed for the external fit changes the internal fit and therfore requires different shim thicknesses. I'm sure that because this is my dovetail neck joint, it will take me the longest. I don't really want to talk about how much time I spent on it today alone. I got it close though and should be able to finish it up quickly Monday morning. In the first picture, you can see the Ivoroid headstock binding that I mentioned in the last blog. I didn't post any close-ups of it just because it has yet to be sanded flush and have the glue scraped clean. I will show you some better pictures once it has been cleaned up.

As you have probably noticed by now, the neck has taken on a bit more of a neck form this week. We did glue on the headstock veneer, shaped the peghead, and of course installed that peghead binding. We have done only about half of the neck carve, which in theory is to allow the neck to adjust from the relief of the missing wood while you work on the neck set. Then once the initial neck set has been completed, you can finish carving the neck, and more importantly, the heel, knowing that the inside of the heel will only need to be touched up, allowing you to now carve to final thickness. During the neck set, a significant amount of material can be removed from the inside of the heel to achieve proper pitch, so it's important to get that part right first.

In this picture above, you can see that I have the shell inlay installed. It came out a little better than my last inlay job, and before it gets finished, we will do the scribe work like you saw on my baritone which will add a some extra detail to it.

In the picture above, and directly below, you can see both halves of the dovetail joint I was talking about a bit ago. Once the mortise has been cut in the body, you don't really mess with it at all. If I'd been a little better at my neck set, this would have been completely true, but I did have to deepen the mortise a bit to make up for my ever-elongating neck tenon. All is well now. Besides, I argue it as a plus as it means there is a larger dovetail, thus STRONGER. This guitar has a neck extension similar to the classical neck, but rather than only touching the face of the guitar at the very peak of the tenon, this one will have about an inch of the extension sitting on the face of the guitar. This provides a little extra support for the higher tension of the steel strings. Past that point, we just leave enough material to support the fretboard, and to be pleasing to the eye. Or eyes, rather if you're like most of us. You may have noticed the blue coloration on the sides of the neck mortise, and that is from what's called articulate paper. AKA carbon transfer paper. This paper though is more like a pastel wax than graphite. We use it between the shims in the joint and the tenon to ensure that we achieve a tight joint along with a tight exterior fit. Simply remove the high, blue spots until enough of the surface is touching to create a secure joint. More important than this though, is actually how secure the neck seems to fit in the mortise when compressed. The blue will just help guide you to that point by showing you what's hanging up inside.