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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 . 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 shim stock in a wedge-shape to fill
Tightening the dovetail joint
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 sup-
ported when you hammer to avoid breaking the fretboard
extension . Nip the fret ends, file them flush, and bevel them
as you did earlier; keep the extension supported here, too .
Installing the last frets
cheek . Cut in the direction of the top edges . A final light,
downward pull of the sandpaper strip will clean up any
marks left by the chisel .
to side . If you need to remove a lot of wood, make two or
three passes before changing to the other cheek . The fit will
change rapidly, so check your progress frequently .
A small ledge of unsanded wood will remain on the bottom
of the heel between the sanded cheeks . Either “pull-sand” it
with the strip, or use a sharp chisel to remove it .
Wood is seldom removed from the top of the heel, but if
the neck block was mistakenly tipped forward when glued
in place, the neck may be “overset” too far away from the
body . In this case, the straightedge laid on the fretboard will
extend above the bridge . Removing wood from the top of
the heel on both the treble and bass sides equally will bring
the neck up so the straightedge comes down to the top of
the bridge (pictured) .
Use the formula in “Understanding neck angle geometry” to
determine how much wood to remove . With a sharp pencil
and a straightedge, mark the area to be chiseled away in a
straight line from the top of the heel to the zero point at the
bottom . Repeat this line on the opposite side .
The sandpaper strip described above won’t work here
because the fretboard is in the way, so you’ll need to use
a sharp chisel to remove the long taper of wood on each
Neck adjustment: tilt the neck up
Remove from shaded area
Dovetail
neck
Leave edges intact
Removing wood from the top
edge tips the neck upward
Removing wood at the bottom
edge tips the neck back
Top
view
Remove
wood here
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