stewmac.com
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
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 .
Installing the nut
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 .
30
