Making the guitar neck | TheSupposedStringMeister

August 2020 – For the neck I am using kohekohe timber, which is also known as New Zealand mahogany. It is a nice timber to work with and relatively light with nice grain and a slight reddish colour. The headstock should allow for the tuners to line up with the strings so they go in a straight line through the nut. I liked the look of the Gretsch Corvette headstock so redesigned that for a 3 x 3 side by side tuner solution.

Headstock design for Grover 106 locking tuners - based on Gretsch Corvette — Headstock design based on Gretsch Corvette but I am aiming for a 3 x 3 tuner lay-out instead of 2 x 4 used by Gretsch. The chosen machine heads are Grover 106 series locking tuners.

The neck blank was sawn from a solid piece of 3″x4″ kohekohe timber and has the headstock at an 11 degree angle. No photos of the blank.

Kohekohe guitar neck - truss rod channel routed — Kohekohe guitar neck – truss rod channel routed. When the little screws in the middle are fully screwed in, the frame will be concave and hence, the routed channel will at its deepest in the middle.

Kohekohe guitar neck – channel to be filled in with 6mm thick strip of wood which follows the concave shape of the channel.

Kohekohe guitar neck - gluing in 6mm thick strip of wood — Gluing in 6mm thick strip of wood

Kohekohe guitar neck - removing excess material from the glued in strip — Removing excess material from the glued in strip

Kohekohe guitar neck - all excess material removed from the glued in strip — All excess material removed from the glued in strip

September 2020 – The headstock needed a ‘veneer’ so I made some from rewarewa. The thinnest I could get to was 3mm with my sled thicknesser (which is too thick really).

Rewarewa New Zealand wood for headstock veneer — Thin ‘slices’ of rewarewa wood for headstock ‘veneer’.

Rewarewa New Zealand headstock veneer with Grover locking tuners — Just testing if the Grover locking tuners will fit

Puriri fretboard being glued onto a kohekohe neck for hollow body guitar — The puriri fretboard is being glued onto the kohekohe neck.

Paua dot markers for guitar with puriri fretboard — Using a hollow diamond core bit to cut the paua shell. The dot markers’ diameter measures just under 7mm. Every time one is cut, the bit needs to be removed from the drill press so it can be pushed out.

Guitar neck side dot markers - Making a longish bone cylinder from a piece of cow bone from the supermarket. The bone has been degreased. — For the neck side dot markers – making a longish bone cylinder from a piece of cow bone from the supermarket (the bone has been degreased). The cylinder is then cut into small pieces which are then glued into position. Here the cylinder is shown in the drill press for a final sanding. The paua fretboard markers are lying on the wooden board.

I did not take any photos of the fretboard sanding to a 12″ radius, cutting the fret slots and putting the dot markers in. So just some photos of the neck with all that done except for neck shaping and inserting the frets.

Kohekohe neck, Puriri fretboard with Paua shell dot markers on top and New Zealand cow bone markers on the side. The headstock veneer is rewarewa. — Puriri fretboard with paua dot markers on top and bone markers on the side. The whole neck is made from NZ resources: kohekohe neck, puriri fretboard, rewarewa headstock veneer, paua shell dot markers on top and NZ cow bone for side dot markers.

Puriri fretboard with Paua shell dot markers.

October 2020 – Making the logo and gluing it into the headstock.

Cutting out my logo from a piece of ebony timber

Rewarewa headstock veneer with logo

Finished shaping of the neck. Profile is quite chunky.

NZ Kohekohe guitar neck with ebony heel cover and finished with Briwax Teak Oil — Kohekohe guitar neck with ebony heel cover – Soft V profile at the lower frets, fat U at the higher at the 12th fret. Finished with a few coats of Briwax Teak Oil.

NZ Kohekohe guitar neck finished with Briwax Teak Oil — Kohekohe guitar neck with ebony heel cover and finished with Briwax Teak Oil

NZ Kohekohe guitar neck with rewarewa headstock veneer — Kohekohe guitar neck with rewarewa headstock veneer