Woodworking Wednesdays | Completing the Neck

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bertrayo11 days agoPeakD5 min read

Hello there, my fellow artisans and handcrafts enthusiasts!

Welcome back to another entry on this build. We are now entering the stage of work that is all about how the instrument will look at the end of the project. Today, we are adding some metal to the area of the neck. That comes in the form of the position markers and frets. Besides, we are also rounding the neck to finish giving that part of the instrument its complete look

Let's get to it!

Position Markers

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This is an extra piece of work to add to an instrument. Usually some instrument do not get any of these. And all you do about it is related to the kind of builds you want to achieve. For example, some contests require the instruments do not get any kind of marking. This is especially important for musicians because this is like cheating. My opinion is that having them helps, but do not give you an actual advantage. A mark to have something to look at is useful, but does not solve anything.

Regardless, we are adding some markers here since the instrument is not for any contest. So we start by opening some holes along the side of the neck that is visible while holding the instrument. We mark the sides on frets 3, 5, 7, 10, 12 and 15. 12 marks the octave. We do 10 instead of 9 since it marks more important positions while playing the instrument instead of on the harmonic.

Once the holes are made, we go ahead and cut some pieces of thick wire and put them in the holes. Getting them there is also a way to make easier cutting such a thick material. When all the pieces are ready, we can remove them and apply cyanoacrylate one by one. We also tap them lightly to make them fit their place better.

This needs to rest until the glue has done its work. Then we use a file to remove some of the top portion. Finally, we use the sand block to make it even to the surface of the neck. Thus getting the final look of these markers.

Frets

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It seems we had already done a lot of work before getting the pieces of fret wire on the fretboard. We need to take the measures to cut the pieces of fret to avoid wasting too much material. Then we go over each fret using a hammer and a piece of wood to protect the fret. We need to apply enough force to have the foot of the fret get inside the slot and the fret to sit flat. The material comes in a long wire and also has a curve. We need to eliminate that.

To work better and avoid any problem, we use a piece of wood of the reverse of the neck to absorb the shock of the hammer blows. We repeat this process until all the frets are placed in their slots. The next step is to use the file to remove the material that sticks out on the sides until we have reaches the surface of the fretboard. Finally, we use the sanding block to remove the fine pat of the edges and also to create a bevel at an angle.

Rounding the Neck

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Once we have the positions markers and frets in place and worked out, we can finally start rounding the neck. We do not do it before getting the frets in place since we need to avoid any marks that will appear on the neck if we put any pressure on a rounded piece of wood.

So we make all the marks we need to have a guide and follow the pattern. Then we start removing material with a rasp, knife and a lot of other tools. First, we need to create the template we will follow at both ends of the neck. On these parts we will give it the final height, which goes on an ascending slope from head stock to heel. The idea is to cut corners. We make them by removing material and we keep removing them until we have created a curved surface. It is a process that takes a lot of time and needs a lot of attention to have a more or less symmetrical look.

Then we keep on removing material and making the slope look nice and the middle portion of the neck get all the roundness. Then we finish the whole work by taking a piece of sandpaper and refining the curve until we have achieved the task.

We can finally get to rest.

On the neck entry, we are going to work a bit more on the details of the instrument to finally get the last pieces of the build ready. And that means there will be a lot of sanding in the upcoming post. And lots of coats of sealer. Thanks a lot for reading. See you next time!