Steve's Guitar Making - Part 2 - Neck session 1 of 4

[MyPetKangaroo]

James May and Kermit the Frog in one person! Awesome!

[nuaurea]

thank you very much for sharing your skills with us,and what is the best glue to bond wood for your experience?

[zach0520]

Oh and thanks for the great series of videos :)

[zach0520]

This may be a stupid question but since we all know that guitars are susceptible to the damage with humidity changes why are the insides of guitar bodies finished as the outside is? Wouldn't that help protect the guitar from humidity changes? Or would it have a detrimental effect on the tone?

[Gothika777]

U would have saved alot of time if u used a block plane instead of sanding it

[1pixle]

i love the music in the backround that gets rudely interupted my the machines haha. but nice video though

[KingOfKhaos1991]

James May???

[RuokangasBrasil]

@KingOfKhaos1991 exactly

[metalmader]

kermit the frog......

[isosceles95]

hehe guitars and woodworking... two wonderful things!

[everlastingmanpascal]

thanks for the tips.

pd. you remember me Boromir from the Lords of the Rings!

[Drokthemetalband]

could you make a video showing how to make your 15 degree jig for your bandsaw

[kcin1004]

thanks man, your videos really helped

[Cojakulation]

thanx man this info is awesome. time to begin the lifelong process of guitar building!!

[soaum]

thanks for these great videos they've helped me alot. I have a question on gluing. Many people suggest that when gluing neck laminates and electric guitar body blanks that you should leave them clamped for at least 24 hours. what are your thoughts on this as in this video you remove your clamps after 45 min on the scarf joint? its a pain when theres alot of gluing to be done and few clamps (at my disposal anyway! ) to work with. thanks again!

[griffinchalk]

I'm not the person who produced the video, but white and yellow wood glues typically say that they set and can be unclamped after 45 minutes, but should not be stressed for 24 hours. Personally, I have tried to move and remove misaligned bridges glued with Titebond within 10 mintues of clamping them, and it is really difficult to do. The joint won't just come apart.

[DeadLunacy]

(PVAC)Glue is hardened after 45 min, and it is ready to be worked on. But glue is complitely hardened after couple of hours of waiting, So in instrument making u should wait for like 6-24 hours for sure and tight joint. I'm carpenter, so i work alot with glues, and of course debending on a glue. Thx

[ritter89]

Great tutorial series. Well worth watching. There's ton of information in these videos that is usually not available in books and through formal instruction. I built a few guitars with one of my friends who designed guitars for a living. However, I learned more from watching these video than I did while making guitars with my friend. He overlooked many of the key details and techniques that are thoroughly explained in this series....Nice job!

[peterm3964]

fact . A skarfed join can only attain 60 to 80% of the the original piece . If thats is not a compromise , then I dont know what is .

[griffinchalk]

Where can one verify this fact?

It is very bold to say that one method is better than another from a construction or tone aspect. It is almost like saying that a guitar made from one piece of wood is better than anything Gibson or Fender makes because they use separate necks and bodies made from different woods. The one piece and the splice are both compromises from completely different eras.

[peterm3964]

A skarfed neckto headstock join is a MAJOR compromise in tone and quality . But this is a good video

[sillykidssong]

As opposed to what kind of joint?

The scarfed joint is an acceptable joint for this application and if done properly is fine.

How can you say it is a major compromise to tone? Support your assertion, please.

[peterm3964]

A skarfe in major tone member of a musical instrument , is a compromise in tone to save cost . A guitar with single pece neck will cost more , and the tone will be better . example telecaster. stratocaster , les paul , all use one piece neck . les paul has extra wings added to headstock to carry six pe side tune machines . however the neck is not cut .

[sillykidssong]

what about the older lutes and guitars that used this method? What about Martin's old bridle joint...it is considered a masterpiece of craftsmanship....by using a two piece neck you avoid warping and cracking by allowing stress to dissipate in other ways...I am not saying you are right 100% or wrong 100%, but a true one piece neck on an acoustic have never been the only standard way of building on.

[thedonutman]

Hey, do you ever have problems with the bandsaw blade deflecting and not cutting straight? Or do you use wide blades which don't bend as much?

[bobloblaw1701]

I did, but then I bought a wider blade with fewer teeth per inch thats meant for resawing. I can resaw a 10 inch piece of hardwood now without too much difficulty. You have to take it slowly though.

[groovei]

Great videos..

Is your neck blank quartersawn or flat sawn and does it matter which you use..

Thanks

[bobloblaw1701]

Quarter sawn is best. Of all the parts of a guitar that you don't want to warp down the road, the neck is the most crucial. At times when I was using non-quartersawn wood, I would always build up the blank by laminating pieces of wood together to try and minimize and warping later.

[laiholapso]

@bobloblaw1701 nice vid man!!!

wat is the name of the intro song

[jesesiordia]

where exactly is the 15 degree angle cut supposed to start?

[bobloblaw1701]

It's not really that critical. You just need to end up with enough length in the headstock for whatever shape you decide to use. In later videos you'll see that I actually cut a lot of length of the end. So I guess the answer is, decide how long your headstock is going to be and then add an inch or two to play with and start the cut there.

[melonheed3]

steve, I bought cumpiano's book because of your vid series and this point confused me as well...until i realized that the original nut line will probably get ground off while surfacing the scarf joint...and that it can simply be redrawn and the neck scale calculation be drawn after the fact. is this correct?

[bobloblaw1701]

That's correct. The final location of nut and other lines up the neck aren't drawn until the scarf joint is finalized.

[JimmyPageWannaBe]

Why don't you surface it down to a half inch right away.

[bobloblaw1701]

The neck needs to be 3/4 while the headstock comes down to 1/2. Not sure I understand your question, but I think that's the answer.

[jonnda]

I wished I had see this before attempting to do it on the table saw with not so great results.

[oconnaugh]

There are cool people and not so cool people in this world my friend and you are cool. Benevolent for giving your time. I'm building a Flame spruce Gibson style Jumbo using your videos. I'll post a video of it when finished. Thanks.

[jakebleh]

that jig idea for cutting the neck is brilliant!

[fatbeats101]

Sounds just like Kermit the frog.

[karbetal]

i'm a guitar builder and i never knew how to make a scarf joint until now thnx

[hastie4305]

im building aguitar now, using your vids as a guide, u are a champion. hahah love the vids u inspired me.

[waibp]

amazing efforts there Steve, I salute you.

[benatbenland]

This really is very good, im making an electric, but this still helps

[weaver2109]

thanks for the video steve!

I like that scarf joint jig

[bloeregard]

yeah that was pretty smart, tho most bandsaws do have a graduated tilt table that does the same thing, tho i guess this would save on time haha.

[bobloblaw1701]

Thanks for the comment. My table does tilt, but not to the degree that I could cut a 15 degree cut like the one needed. Am I missing something here? Would your band saw allow this kind of a cut? If there's an easier way do to this, I'm sure we'd all like to know.

Steve

[bloeregard]

hmmmm, idk. mine has up to a 30 degree, but i guess that's not very common, I've seen a lot with only up to 13 or something like that, but oh well. but hey, that jig seems to do the trick huh?

[leslie8240]

Thanks Steve!! Do you think it's possible make an electric guitar neck with 17 degree(LP style) using "your way"? Many thanks

[XDBBC]

great stuff!!!!!!VERY NICE WORK

[ArmageddonX1]

Thanks for the detailed lessons.

[Mewisonfire]

Thanks alot for taking the time and effort to do these Steve, big, big inspiration!

Thom.

[daviz14862]

takes to long just buy a guitar

[fatforlife]

It is called mastering the art thus injuring yourself!

[daviz14862]

i dont speak nerd

[fatforlife]

Its not being a nerd it is just called mastering the art you sped!

[supergurlmia2]

it is called being smart

[daviz14862]

shut up ya freak

[thedonutman]

Davic, your're wrong. How old are you? 12?

Maybe you could come back and try arguing again when your mom teaches you how to use punctuation properly.

Steve: Great videos, its not 100% relevant for me, since I'm building an electric, but the neck and fretboard videos have been very useful. Thanks!

[bloeregard]

a lot of guitars just don't have what you want, or maybe they are owned by about 50,000 other ppl, so why not get a custom one that has EVERYTHING you want, and instead of paying some guy five grand to do it, just do it urself.

[fatforlife]

sexy

[bobloblaw1701]

Well thank you. It's been well documented that sawdust is nature's aphrodisiac. ;-)

[fatforlife]

i love it when people sya thank you, however can you please give me the dimensions for the neck and what block of wood you used thus ow did you know what the fret measurements were?