Stewart MacDonald 5295, Assembly Instructions Manual

Page: 28 / 40

stewmac.com
When the cheeks fit accurately and look good on both sides,
fit a piece of the supplied shim stock into the loose side of
the dovetail . (A bolt-on neck doesn’t require a shim, and is
not intended to fit tightly like the dovetail .) Hold the dovetail
neck into the mortise and rock the heel . It will most likely
be looser at either the top or bottom of the cheeks . File the
Tightening the dovetail joint
shim stock in a wedge-shape to fill the gap . You may need
to make more than one shim to get it right . When the shim
is fit properly . The dovetail will pull the cheeks in tightly and
the neck will stay in the body on its own .
Now that the neck is fitted, it’s time to install the remaining
frets in the fretboard extension . On your workboard, butt the
tenon against the edge of something sturdy and tall enough
to meet the underside of the fretboard extension (we used
a brick) . The entire neck and fretboard must be supported
when you hammer to avoid breaking the fretboard exten-
sion . Nip the fret ends, file them flush, and bevel them as you
did earlier; keep the extension supported here, too .
Installing the last frets
Smooth the front and back sides of the nut blank with 220-
grit sandpaper on a flat surface . Remove any irregularities
and give it a uniform thickness when measured with calipers,
slightly less thick than the original 1/4" blank . The nut slot
will be cut to match the actual thickness of the nut after
sanding .
The guitar peghead tilts back 15° from the fretboard surface .
This angle must be filed and sanded onto the bottom of the
nut . Leave the top surface of the nut untouched for now .
From a scrap of wood at least 1/2" thick, 2-3" wide, and long
enough to clamp to the peghead face, make a “saw fence” by
beveling the thin edge at 15°
(pictured) . Hold the nut blank,
beveled side down, firmly against the end of the fretboard,
butt the saw fence against it on the peghead, and clamp it
in place . Remove the nut and use the fence’s 15° edge to
guide your razor saw to cut through the peghead veneer .
Stop just short of the mahogany! Chisel away the peghead
overlay between the sawed line and the fretboard to expose
the mahogany, creating a slot for the nut . The nut should
fit snugly .
With a sharp pencil, trace the outline of the end of the
fretboard onto the nut
(pictured) . If possible, try to dupli-
cate the look of a well-made “factory” guitar nut; you can
practice on scrap wood before shaping the bone blank . Saw
away the excess bone down close to the pencil lines . Using
a smooth mill file, carefully shape the nut flush at the sides
of the neck . Round the bass and treble corners and the back
side to create a good look and feel . Shape the top of the nut
until it has an arc that matches the fretboard’s 16" arc, and
Installing the nut
measures 7/64" above the fretboard surface . This will allow
for the .038" fret height, the depth of the string slots, and a
medium action . (The action can be lowered after the guitar
has settled in) . Lightly glue the nut in place with a couple
of drops of Titebond in the mahogany slot, and a couple of
drops on the end of the fretboard . You can sand the edges
of the nut when you final-sand the neck . The string slots will
be cut during setup .
26