Build #3: sitka/black walnut 000

[Kevin Sjostrand]

Neil
She's looking really fine. I may have missed it. What is your binding?

Kevin

[nkwak]

Curly maple

[nkwak]

I’m sanding the body smooth and have carve indentations in the “cheeks” on either side of the dovetail so that I have less material to sand away when setting the neck angle. I’ve also filed away at one side of the dovetail so that the neck is centered with the body, but now there’s obviously some play with the joint so I will require a shim. What’s the best material to use? I have some maple veneer that’s a tad too thick so can I use paper?

[Kevin Sjostrand]

Don't use paper or cardboard. I think it will compress too much. Can you scrape your veneer down to the thickness you need?
I just did my archtop dovetail and used .020 veneer. Worked out just right.

[nkwak]

Thanks, Kevin!

I found John’s neck set tutorial video and have been doing a lot of pausing and rewinding! With the shim in, the tenon is 1/16” proud of the top, but I still have set the angle. The only reason I was shaving away at the dovetail was because the neck was off center. It too is about 3/32” off center.

[Kevin Sjostrand]

I still don't totally understand the mechanics for adjusting a dovetail neck. My archtop will most likely be my only one. I find the bolt on so much easier to work and I've have to pull a couple necks off my guitars over the years and it sure is easy to do with a bolt on. And now I'm doing screw down fretboard extensions so it's even easier.

[nkwak]

Here's the video I've been poring through.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNcbA1P95KE&t=1694s

It's 9 years old but after an intial stage of flattening out the area on either side of the mortise and carving indentations into the cheeks on either side of the mortise it seems pretty simple; there are three steps:

1: Angle - the fore/rear shift of the neck that plays into the action height. Working on this is the trickiest part to me because you have to be focused on your sanding.

2: Centerline - the lateral shift of the neck. Since all the fine tuning is set you basically have to focus on one side only

3: Elevation - how deep into the mortise the dovetail tenon sits. At this is the only point where you're sanding the tenon. Unfortunately I mixed this up with step 2 but actually did this first.

Of course, I'm wracked with ADHD and OCD so I'm doing all three at once - and kind of working backwards. Somehow I appear to be really close though. The angle has a plane that sits about 3/32" above where the saddle slot will go. The centerline of the neck and body is aligned (I have a jig for that) and the top of the tenon is flush with the plane of the top of the upper bout. The dropoff on the fretboard at the upper bout even looks good.

The problem is that I can still fit the corner of a business card in at a couple of places. This is with the neck firmly seated in the joint too. This was from the sides not being flat (which I went back to) and now I've got sandpaper taped to that area so that I can hopefully whittle it down uniformly and not have to start the whole process over.

[nkwak]

I am upset with myself and sick over a series of mishaps on this build:

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I literally made a small problem into a catastrophe. I want to fix it though, but I want to do it the right way. I’ll be starting a thread in the repair subforum.

PS: please no “I told you so’s.” I know what I did wrong and am already unhappy enough with myself.

[Kevin Sjostrand]

Oh man so sorry. Mishaps happen. Do your best to fix it and move on.

[nkwak]

Thanks, Kevin. I'm hoping I can save this one but have decided to kick off the next build in order to keep from losing momentum. I'm also doing a neck reset on my first (which is a bolt on) after having learned more while setting the neck on this one. I was hoping to be able to focus more on doing setups than doing corrective surgery.