Stewart MacDonald 5297, Assembly Instruction Manual, Page: 25 / 42

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When the glue is dry, remove the rubber bands . The neck
must be trimmed to meet the edges of the fretboard,
without removing any of the fretboard edges or filing deep
marks into them .
To complete the peghead “diamond” a little carving is neces-
sary . Visualize the back of the neck shape continuing right up
to an imaginary line at the end of the fretboard . A chisel or a
file is best for establishing these lines, as well as for carving
the diamond into a more delicate shape (pictured) . Follow
with a half-round bastard file or a smooth mill file (pictured) .
Finish with 150, then 220-grit sandpaper and a couple of
small sanding blocks for smoothing . Always switch to the
next tool or sanding grit just before you think you need it,
to avoid overdoing it with any one tool .
KIT TIP: Neck sizes
Although the neck has been machined to reason-
ably close tolerances, plenty of extra wood has
been left to accommodate different neck sizes and
shapes . You can make tracings from the blueprint,
and cut out neck cross-section templates for check-
ing the shape of the back of the neck if you like . We
penciled the entire backside of the neck and used
our files at a slight angle along the length of the
neck (pictured) . When the pencil marks were re-
moved, or left evenly and slightly below the grain of
the mahogany, we switched to finer grit sandpaper .
Using a rasp, followed by a half-round bastard file, shape the
neck’s heel . When the heel is close to the final shape, stop .
Finalize the shape later, when you add the heel cap .
Neck shaping and fitting
Shaping the neck
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