how to make a good neck


Well, it was alot of work to get a neck, taken from a cheap guitar, to a nice reso-neck. So the desition was clear: The second resonator guitar well be equipped with a selfmade neck. How we start doing this you can learn in this chapter.

Note: Never forget to wear protective glasses, gloves and clothes!

First of all, we needed good quality wood. We had luck to get a sample for free. So this time the neck will be made out of maple. The best is to use a quarter-sawn piece, lucky we, we had one. Next step was to cut out a board where the grain of the wood goes almost parallel along the lenght of the future neck.

Homemade Resonator Guitar Neck Construction

Because this time we had no band saw by hand, we used a router (we have to buy a bandsaw....). The next drawing shows how we will cut the board.

Homemade Resonator Guitar Neck Construction

As i mentioned not having a band saw, we had to mill out the 15deg. angle cut, to get the head for the future neck, see next 2 pics.

Homemade Resonator Guitar Neck Construction

Homemade Resonator Guitar Neck Construction

After a mill thru, we milled the angled surface from the top, to get a smooth and flat surface ready to glue.
Finaly we bought a band saw - its faster and easier....

DIY Resonator Guitar Neck Construction

Fefore gluing, we used our new tool to get the milled out neck parts into a better shape.

DIY Resonator Guitar Neck Construction

Clampes are used to press the two angled parts together.

DIY Resonator Guitar Neck Construction

Finished "neck-body", after more than 24 houres under the above clamp - situation, the joint seems to be pretty good.

DIY Resonator Guitar Neck Construction

After gluing it is time to mill the trussrod channel.

DIY Resonator Guitar Neck Construction

Now it was time to glue on the wings for the headstock and the two blocks to get the heel of the neck

DIY Resonator Guitar Neck Construction

after shaping the neck, the extension-stick is glued on

DIY Resonator Guitar Neck Construction

to fit the extension-stick into the body and under the sound well ring some material has to be cut out