24.9 Martin Scale Neck OEM

[sammyjit]

I have a 24.9 scale martin neck that I want to use on my 000/OM acoustic body. The neck itself is larger by about 3/32 on each side of the fret-board. I was going to rout the extra material off, but then I wondered if the wider neck was there for a reason. Is the neck wider because of the shorter scale? Would it be alright to route the extra material to the width of the fret-board? If not, I would fill it in with binding.

Sam

[ruby@magpage.com]

Sam

The neck should be as wide as the fretboard. The neck may have been made to accept a 1-3/4" wide nut, and the fretboard is cut to 1-11/16 - something like that. I might glue on the fretboard, then reshape the neck to match it. A router sounds like a scary thing to use on an odd shape like a finished neck. A block plane or a spokeshave would make short work of it, but if you are unsure of your sharpening skills, a rasp, then a file, then sandpaper will get the job done. Take long steady strokes with the rasp, and blend in the shape of the neck to feel good.

Ed

[tippie53]

Agree no router As Ed points out , sand or rasp down.
It is common for the neck to be a touch wider as you sand things down to fit. The fretboard is the key component. That you don't want to change.