The OO project

[Kevin Sjostrand]

I think the fretboard change is a good one.

[Diane Kauffmds]

Me too.

[MaineGeezer]

Well, the quartersawn dogwood is really pretty, and it's hard and makes an excellent fingerboard, but I've recruited Diane to do a blackberry vine inlay that will look a lot better on ebony..
The motivation behind the choice of a blackberry motif is a song Jud wrote called "Blackberry Time," which won a songwriting contest someplace and has done well for hi\m. You can listen to it on his website, http://judcaswell.com

Diane has come up with some good ideas for the inlay that I think will work very well. I'm looking forward to seeing the final product; I just hope the guitar is worthy of the fingerboard!

[MaineGeezer]

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Here's a photo of the built-up neck. I put on a fairly thick head cap (about 0.110") as reinforcement for the scarf joint. I'll also try to do a volute on the back, although there won't be a lot of wood to make one from.

[jread]

The neck is looking good, that's just how I make them. Since your overlay is glued on, that should mean that your nut line is in its final place. I usually wait to glue that on later because it allows me to plane the top of the headstock if I want to move the nut line down the fretboard towards the heel, or alternately, plane the fretboard area to move the nut forward.

So assuming your nut line is in it's final position, you have plenty of room to carve a volute into the bottom of the headstock. Including the overlay, a standard paddle type headstock is 5/8" thick. I've read lots of ways to thin the headstock and none of them worked for me. Here's the two tools I use. The key for me is to sharpen them properly so you get nice smooth cuts and to plane with the grain so that you don't get wood tearing out. That is tough near the scarf because the grain switches direction. That's where i use the hand chisel. For me, the volute is the only way I could carve the neck since it allows me to come in from an angle in that area. Mine are far from perfect and each comes out differently. It seems that they end up looking "hand made" but that's the way I like them. I have no idea how Martin and others get theirs so machine looking perfect. Good luck!

I'm sure there are more efficient ways to remove the wood. Japanese saws, drill press, safe-t-paner, etc.

[MaineGeezer]

I have the advantage of having a milling machine. I can clamp it down on the front face and mill as much as I want off the back face quite easily. Total thickness is about 1-3/32" and I want 3/4" or so final thickness because I'll be be doing blind slots that don't go all the way through. I'll leave about 1/8" uncut on the bottom of the slots. (Again, having a milling machine simplifies doing that considerably.)

Yes, the end of the headplate is beveled at 15 degrees for the nut to butt against.

Thanks for the volute photos. I'm generally pretty good at 3D visualization, but for some reason visualizing a volute and how to cut it is difficult for me.

[jread]

Thanks for the volute photos. I'm generally pretty good at 3D visualization, but for some reason visualizing a volute and how to cut it is difficult for me.

Was difficult to visualize for me too at 1st. http://vintagemartin.com is a great site too see Martin's history. I would print out pictures and lay them next to the neck as I was carving.

One thing you'll want to pay attn to is where to start the ramp. Mine are never as precise as this.

[Stray Feathers]

I've done a few volutes now (more than I ever thought I would in the beginning) and although they are time consuming I like the way they look. I've found it easy to leave them too large, i.e. not remove enough wood. You may be surprised at how much wood you have to work with on your neck - looks pretty thick. After a lot of searching on line for volute plans and photos, I finally realized I had drawings for them in a couple of sets of guitar plans I had, enough to help with location and dimensions. From there, you can customize the shape of the ramp etc. Bruce W.

[MaineGeezer]

Here's a couple photos of progress on the headstock and its blind slots, and the beginning of the volute. the slots look to be of different lengths because I began to cut the lead-in channel on the treble side.

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[Diane Kauffmds]

That's a lot of work.