A pair

[Kevin Sjostrand]

Brian,
Can you give us alittle more detail on how you are doing that scarf joint headstock? It looks different.
Upside down?
Tell us more please.

Kevin

[B. Howard]

Brian,
Can you give us alittle more detail on how you are doing that scarf joint headstock? It looks different.
Upside down?
Tell us more please.

Kevin

Yes, I am trying something a little different on these necks. The first scarf joint necks I did were the traditional ones with the shaft extending through and cut at an angle that formed the lower face of the headstock with the "graft" glued on underneath. This requires a good bit of the face veneer to support the joint and the glue surface is minimal. These are based on electric necks as used by Jackson and others. The headstock graft actually comes up under the end of the fretboard. The face veneer has no structural purpose and the glue joint has almost 3 times the surface area and a better grain orientation for gluing. It also allows me to further maximize my lumber use as now the neck shaft only needs to be as wide as the 14'th fret and not the full width of the headstock.

As soon a s I get caught up around here with some other work I'll get back on these. Next will be bending sides and thicknessing the plates.

[Kevin Sjostrand]

Brian,
Would you mind showing a couple of pics showing that scarf joint after its glued up?
Thanks

Kevin

[B. Howard]

Sure , here ya go. First from the top

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From the back

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From the side

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Haven't decided if I want to carve a volute or how I want to treat the transition yet. It will become apparent to me when I have a chisel in my hand ;-)

[Kevin Sjostrand]

Thanks Brian, that is quite interesting. I'll look foward to seeing how this neck turns out.

Kevin

[Darryl Young]

That is interesting.

The technique sure provides material for a volute carving.

[B. Howard]

Got some lingering finish work to clear out but I could get a few things done on these today as well. Bent my rims. I use a hot pipe. I also do not use any molds or forms so what I bend is what I get. here is a pic of the pipe, crude but effective. Pretty is for the client, functional is for the shop.

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I start by marking the location of the center of the waist. That is the first bend. Since I am doing EIR I have soaked my wood, I like some steam for this wood. I bend with a stainless backing strap. I am doing The Grand Auditorium first. here is the first bend lined up with my bending template.

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Next the upper bout.

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[B. Howard]

Followed by the lower bout.

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While I am bending one I have another soaking and before you now it we have a pair.

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The next body is a dread but it's done just the same. and here is that pair.

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I have never used a bender like John sells so I have no idea how long this takes with one of those but including set up and tear down these two sets of rims took me about 1-1/2 hrs to bend.

[JVan]

Looking real good Brian, I personally have never used a "new age" bending machine of any kind, and don't know if I ever will, I am like you, I love working with my hands and being able to control every aspect of the bending process, the smells, the hot fingers, the lingering smell hours after the bend is done! My pipe is crude also....but it works!! and yes,1 1/2 hours is about what it takes me as well.
Keep posting!


Jeff

[B. Howard]

Man, writing about this takes me almost as long as doing it, guess that's why I eat sawdust ;-)

So next I up I thickness my back plates. This is done again with hand tools. First I scrape the joint on each side and examine it for quality and match. The entire surfaces are looked over and a side is chosen to present. It is then planed smooth with my big scraper plane and finished with my large card scraper. I do not do anything else to the outside at this time, that will all get taken care of when I get ready to finish. I find a lot of folks waste time and effort sanding to soon and to often, sand once when it's time is my way.

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One of these sets came with quite a bit of saw tracks left in it after the supplier "sanded?" it. No problem the scraper plane makes quick work of it.

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After a few passes it's good to go.

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