LUTHERIE

Step 10: Fitting the Neck

Before fretting and inlaying the fingerboard, it is necessary to join the still unfinished neck to the body to check for fit and alignment. I must say that this has been a time consuming and frustrating process, due mostly to my inexperience.

First, I needed to shape the butt-end of the heel so that it conforms to the body where it attaches. I chose to do this in a very simple, but slow, way that I had read about in several places, including Kathy Matsushita's website. It involves sticking a piece of sandpaper to the top of the body with double-sided tape and rubbing the heel back and forth until it conforms.

This process is tedious, but produces good results if done with proper attention to keeping the neck vertical at all times, so that the wear is evenly spread across the heel butt.

As I metioned in Step 8, the neck is to be attached to the body by two bolts, which were inserted through the headblock before attaching the soundbord and enclosing the body. The neck heel would then be drilled for threaded brass inserts and the neck and body would then be bolted together by inserting a small 1/4" rachet with an allen head driver through the soundhole and tightening the bolts. This had all gone fine until I began drilling the neck heel for the inserts and discovered that my benchtop Ryobi drill press was not tall enough to accomodate the neck when held vertically for drilling. Because the holes needed to be very precisely drilled to ensure that the neck would be properly aligned with the body, I ruled out the use of a hand drill. What I needed was a floor model drill press and I simply could not afford to buy one at the time. So...after much head scratching and an expletive or two. I began to plan modifying my press. First, I unclamped the adjustable work table and swung it out of the way, giving me an addtional 7 inches or so from the tip of the bit to the flat base of the press. this was still not enough, so I unbolted the column - which supports the drill head - from the base and inserted a 2 x 4 block of wood between them and bolted all back together. This gave me just enough clearance to do the job. I would not recommend this modification to anyone, but I was desperate and low on funds and, as you know, Neccessity is the Mother of Frank Zappa...

I clamped a board into my drill press vise and clamped the neck to this, using shims to adjust the alignment until it was dead level in both axis'. I then measured the depth needed for the inserts to lie just below the surface of the wood, marked this depth on the bit with masking tape and drilled my holes. When doing this, be sure to experiment with hole diameter on scrap wood to insure that your inserts will thread into the holes easily while still "biting" into the wood sufficiently.

With this very nerve-wracking job done, I breathed a little easier and moved inside to the bench to install the inserts. That's when I came upon my next problem...

...These short little inserts don't want to go in straight. Keeping them perfectly vertical while screwing them in is virtually impossible. And...once they go in crooked, the threads have already made their cuts in the wood and they want to keep going in the same way. (Expletive Deleted!) After about half and hour of cursing and trying again and again, I got them in almost straight. It does help to lube them with a little parrafin before screwing them in.

Then it was time to mate the two pieces for the first time! Although the neck is still rough, with the final shaping and sanding still to come, I wanted to check the fit and alignment of the neck-body joint.

It's a tight fit, working the rachet inside the soundhole, but soon I had both bolts tightend enough to see that the fit was pretty good. A little tweaking with a file and some sandpaper will result in a joint to be proud of.

As you can see, The heel has yet to be trimmed to length. It will be fitted with a tortoiseshell cap to match the binding.

Now that I've done this procedure once, I know that I should have done it differently. It's always that way, isn't it? In retrospect, I should have drilled the holes in the neck heel and the headblock before I assembled the body. I should have clamped them together in a vise right after gluing up the heel, before I did any further shaping of the neck, and used a hand drill. The holes would have been precisely aligned from the beginning, and I wouldn't have had to modify my drill press. Well, that's what first efforts are for, isn't it? Learning what not to do.

Of course, I could have also built my uke "Spanish Style," with the neck and headblock as one piece, and the sides neatly plugged into slots on either side. No worries about alignment at all that way, but you can never reset the neck - which is not often necessary on gut-stringed instruments anyway.

I lucked out here, despite my inexperience, and the neck and body joined up very well. Next time, it will be even better, and a lot easier!