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I went all in, buying almost 400 lbs. of defective guitar necks to turn into coat racks.  Selling them at $30 each at fall festivals in September and October.  I can officially say I'm getting tired of making coat racks out of guitar necks, but they sure look cool and I'm excited to see how many I can sell.  I love having something in my booth that you don't have to be a musician to appreciate.  Just a music lover.  Give me a holler if this looks like something you would want hanging on your wall.  I do my online sales through Reverb so customers can use whatever form of payment they want to.   These are great for cables in the music room, too.  I'm thinking about actually securing guitar wall hangers to the necks for an ultra-cool way to display guitars.

Guitar neck coat racks

I have always used oak for my necks, and at first I was always frustrated that no matter how well I sanded the wood, the oak's open pores meant that the finish was never completely smooth. After a bit of research I came across grain filler, and ordered a tin of Rustins.

Grain filler is different from wood filler, which is used to fill larger voids in wood. It comes as a thick putty which you thin down with white spirit (mineral spirits) or turpentine to the consistency of cream. You then apply it to the grain of the wood and it does a pretty good job of filling in the pores. I use the 'natural' version for oak, but they do other shades for darker woods etc.

First off, get your neck sanded down as smooth as possible. I do mine up to 320 grit at this point. Then give the neck a wipe down with white spirit to remove the wood dust.

I apply the grain filler all over the neck with my finger, rubbing it lengthways into all of the pores. Once the whole neck looks done I leave it to dry overnight.

This is what you see after the grain filler dries out. At this point I just lightly rub the excess off the surface with my thumb until I see this:

The pores are now filled in. Now it's time to lightly sand again, starting at 220 grit and working up to 600. A quick rub down with white spirit again and you're ready to start applying finish.

As you can see, the grain filler does a really good job of blending in with the wood tones. 

The same neck after an additional 6 coats of Tru-Oil, then a final 1200 grit wet sanded coat a week later. Lovely and smooth! I hope this helps.

-Richey Kay

After a few varied builds - lunchbox, Christmas tin and even a few cigar boxes, I decided to build my 'player'. Truth is I kind of felt like these builds were all experiments and it was time to get serious-ish.

Enter Jaime Garcia. This 'My Father Cigar' box is beautiful, simple and well constructed. Thin top and bottom. Although they are plywood, the tap tone was promising. It measures 10-3/8" x 7" x 2-3/8".

For this build I decided on a couple firsts for me: (1) put the tuners at the tail and (2) get a decent break angle at the bridge. The tuners weren't a challenge, just new. But getting decent bridge height was definitely breaking new ground.

For reasons unknown to me I am reluctant to cut my neck. So how do I get 3-degrees of angle? My answer came in two parts. By offsetting my neck-through entry and exit points I could get 1-1/2 degrees. And if I built a 'thickness-tapered' fretboard I could get another 1-1/2. Voila! 3 degrees and 5/8" inch of string height at the bridge.

The volume is improved over my prior builds. The sound is more guitar-like. The short of it is that Jaime is a joy to play! I'll upload a sound sample in the future.

Here are some photos of the project.

I am still quite new at all this and welcome your thoughts - even critical ones.

Cheers!
   Robert

I thought I would share a technique with you which I picked up from a great builder who is not a member CBN. I think you can argue that a 3 or 4 string CBG doesn't really need any additional neck strength, but I've  found myself making thinner necks recently, and I'd like to make sure they stand the test of time. I am also gearing up to have a go at making a 6 string from scratch so this is a technique I will need to learn sooner or later.

So, to do this you will need some mild steel bar. I got 3x13mm. A 4 metre length cost me about £4. The postage cost twice that but it was almost worth it to see the look on the delivery driver's face when he handed over a 4m long cardboard tube. You also need a router, and a bit of the correct width and depth for the bar.

I used the parallel guide on the router to slide along the side of the neck to cut the channel. I used a high speed and 4 shallow passes to get the finished depth (which needs to be a tiny bit deeper that the width of the bar)

It fits. Now time to glue it in. I used epoxy with a long curing time. Getting the glue in the channel is quite tricky.

I held the bar in place with clamps and left it overnight. Make sure you put something between the clamps and the neck so you don't glue them together!

Once the epoxy had set I lightly sanded the surface to remove any residue.

Then just glue on your fretboard as usual and you have (hopefully) a super strong bow-resistant neck that you can shape a bit more aggressively than one without a strengthening rod.

Have fun!

RK

Part 1

Part 2

So up until this point, we have the basic shape of the neck, and the fretboard is as good as done. This would be a good time to level, crown and polish the frets, if you wish. I wrote a 'how to' on that here:

This would be an ideal time to take another look at your cigar box, and cut the neck to fit neatly inside. In the below picture, I have marked out the cut on the neck to fit under the lid of the box, and allowed for room below the pickup:

Once I have made several small cuts down to my markings, I flip the neck on its side and pop the material off with a sharp chisel. Don't go right down to the line, though - it's easy to make a mistake and remove too much material. I use a rasp, file and sandpaper to neaten things up. Notice the angle on the line - this is to allow for the 'back angle' on the neck.

Now it's time to get sanding. I start with 80 grit, and work all the way up to 320 for the whole neck and headstock. Once I'm satisfied with it, I give the neck a rub down with white spirit (mineral spirits) to remove the wood dust. This will also highlight any scratches or imperfections. If you see any...yep, more sanding:

At this point, it would normally be time to start applying finish. However, I like to use oak for my necks, so I find it necessary to use grain filler to smooth over the pores of the wood, and get a smooth finish. I wrote a blog post about the process here. This adds a few more hours onto the process, plus you need to sand again, starting from 220 grit up to 600. For the end result, its worth it!

The below picture shows a grain-filled neck, with the first coat of Tru-Oil.

Nowadays I use Tru-Oil on all my necks. It's difficult to work with, compared to Danish etc, as it dries so fast. Here are my Tru-Oil tips:

1. Store the bottle upside down - you do not want the lid to sieze up! 

2. There is a foil cover on top of the bottle. Do not take it off - just make a little hole to squeeze the oil out of. This stuff dries very fast when exposed to oxygen.

3. Work on an area at a time. I apply Tru-Oil to the neck and headstock separately.

4. Wipe the oil on with a lint free cloth, give it about a minute and gently wipe off the excess with a clean cloth

5. I wait 12 hours between coats. If you live somewhere warmer than Manchester (not difficult), you might be able to get away with less.

6. Every second coat, I (very) lightly rub the surface with dry 600 grit sandpaper. Give it a wipe down before applying the next coat.

7. I generally do about 8 coats of Tru Oil. Apparently you can get a mirror shine if you do about 40, then polish, but who has time for that?!

8. About a week after the last coat, I wet sand with 1200 grit and Tru-Oil, then quickly buff it out for a silky smooth feel.

This is what you come out with:

So there you have it - a finished neck. Here are some completed pictures of the guitars these necks were made for.

I hope this has been of some use.

-Richey Kay

Part 1

OK - so we're ready to start shaping the headstock. The first job is to mask off the wood, then draw the design. I've also measured and marked out where I want the tuners to be.

The headstock is now pretty much done. I cut out the rough shape with a coping saw, then use half round rasps, files and sandpaper to neaten things up. I use a Dremel with a barrel sander to work on the curves.

Now it's time to drill out the holes for the tuners. I prefer to do this after shaping the headstock, just in case I slip up and need to radically change the design! Again, this job would be much less of a headache with a pillar drill, but I make do with what I've got :)

The shaping of the neck begins. First of all I mark a line down the centre of the neck, and another down each side about 3mm below the fretboard. This indicates the material to be removed. The first job is shaping the 'shoulders' where the headstock meets the neck with a half round rasp:

Then on to the 'heel' where the two pieces of the neck meet. Again, using a half round rasp - take it slow, a rasp can remove a lot of material in a short time:

Then I move on to the spokeshave. Get the neck securely clamped, then take off equal amounts of material from either side, making sure to stay within your markings. Once I'm happy with the basic shape, I use the spokeshave to run straight down the centre of the neck to remove a little thickness. Just a little is all that's needed - mainly to blend in the headstock transition, and give the neck a gentle taper:

Then I round everything over with the rasp, followed by a cross cut file, making sure that the scratches made by the previous tool are all gone. I then take a long strip of 60 grit (a sanding belt is good too) and run it up and down the neck using a 'shoe shining' approach - this is effective for both removing file scratches and ensuring a nice rounded profile to the neck. Just make sure you sand with the grain afterwards with the same paper to remove any cross-grain scratches!

As a recap: I recently made this video, which shows my technique for shaping a CBG neck (sped up to double speed)

Once I'm happy with the basic shape of the neck, I turn my attention to the fretboard. I gently squeeze the mother of pearl inlay dots into the holes with a dab of superglue, then file them down a little, before using 120 grit sandpaper to get them flush with the board. I sand the fretboard down to 320 grit, then apply finish. I find it much easier to get a good finish on a fretboard before the frets are in than after. After a couple of coats of oil, an hour apart, I wet sand with oil and 600 grit wet & dry to get a nice smooth, polished surface on the fretboard. I then use a utility knife to scrape the dust and oil gunk out of the slots before adding the frets:

I then use a resin mallet to hammer in the frets. A few tips on this:

1. Hammer in the fret wire from the centre outwards

2. Cut the fret wire after you've hammered in into place

3. If you aren't able to hammer the fret wire in place (one side is raised, for example), first check your slot is deep enough. If it is, use a soft jaw clamp to hold the fret in place and move on to...

4. Once the fret wire is seated to your satisfaction (i.e. flat across the surface of the fretboard), allow a small bead of superglue to wick into the bottom of the fret slot on either side. This should keep things steady while you dress the ends:

When dressing the fret ends, I use a good quality flat file and simple run it lengthways up and down the sides of the neck, first at an angle, then flat. This gives a consistent bevel on the sides of the frets, and takes those sharp edges off. Keep checking with your fingers until they've all gone. I finish up the job with sandpaper, starting at 80 grit and going up to 600. The fret ends should now be super smooth, and the higher grade sandpaper will give a bit of polish to the fret ends.

A fret end dressing file is useful to take off the tiny sharp bits on the corner of the frets. I think I saw someone mention using an emery board to do this. I haven't tried it but it sounds a good idea!

On to part 3!

I've been meaning to have a proper attempt at this for a while - all of my previous builds have used a straight neck and to be honest there's nothing at all wrong with that. A 3 or 4 string guitar doesn't really need a taper in order to be playable. I do however think a tapered neck looks more elegant, and it does feel nicer to play. I believe this would normally be done with power tools such as band saws and disc sanders. I try to do everything with hand tools. Here's how I did it:

(My usual disclaimer applies: I am by no means saying that this is the only way to do this, nor is this entirely my thoughts or my research. I consider everything I do a collaborative effort with everyone else in this community)

Another important consideration with  job is the order in which these steps are taken - there are some steps which need to be taken whilst both the fretboard and the neck are still square and true - I can't imagine trying to mark or cut the fret slots after the taper! I suppose one could use a bevel gauge but I don't have one.

So, to begin with, I measured out the fret locations in exactly the same manner as I always do. I also marked the centre line down the fretboard and marked the locations of the marker dots.

I made a couple of calculations at this point about string spacing. The neck blank was 42mm wide, so with a 12mm string spacing at the bridge there would be 3mm clearance from the string to the edge of the fretboard at either side (12+12+12+3+3=42mm). I decided to go with an 8mm spacing at the nut, as this is what I have on my 5 string banjo and it seems to work well. Therefore my total fretboard width at the nut would need to be 8+8+8+3+3=30mm I made a solid pencil line connecting the 2 points all the way down either side of the fretboard.

I decided to cut the fretboard to shape before gluing it to the neck, so that's what I did next:

To do this I clamped the piece to my bench and used a Surform, then a block plane, then a file, then 80 grit sandpaper to get right up to the pencil line. I kept sighting down the line and lying the piece on a flat surface to check for consistency.

Once I was happy with this I glued the fretboard to the neck and left it clamped overnight. Once the glue had set it was time to start shaping the neck blank to fit the fretboard. I had a couple of ideas on how to approach this, but in the end I used my #2 and #4 Continental hand stitched rasps. They remove material quickly and accurately. If you try this with a crappy cheap rasp it may end in tears.

I clamped the piece to my bench and carefully removed the wood from the neck to match the pencil line on the fretboard. Once I was happy with it I switched over to a flat file, then to sandpaper to smooth out the surface. At this stage I clamped the neck so it was sticking out from the bench so I could easily sight down it.

The process of shaping the neck by hand took over an hour, so it certainly adds time onto a build. The following day it was time to shape the back of the neck. I am a lot more well versed at this so it was a little quicker. It was slightly trickier than shaping a straight neck, however.

As usual I used a spokeshave, rasps, files to do the rough shaping, then moved onto a long strip of 60 grit paper across grain (shoe shining style). Of course after this make sure to sand over everything with the grain so as not to introduce unsightly scratches. It all turned out pretty well:

The next step was to move on to installing the frets, which was pretty much the same process as with a straight neck, only you will need to cut the fret wire at different lengths to fit the width of the neck.

I think it turned out pretty well!

Thanks for reading! If you fancy a bit of a challenge, by all means give it a go.

Richey

I don't claim to have invented this design, but here's how I make a robust neck through with a heel, leaving plenty of space under the lid for pickups/bracing etc. There are plenty of ways to go about this, and no right or wrong way. However this design helped me overcome a number of obstacles in my early builds. I will skip over quite a few basic aspects of CBG building so it might be an idea to have a grasp of scale lengths etc. first.

This article is not aimed at seasoned builders, but rather those who were just starting out. Or even more specifically, myself about 3 years ago when I started making these!

The only thing this diagram doesn't show is 'back angle', which I use on all of my builds to improve ergonomics. Just imagine the block at the front on the box is lower than the one at the back. It's that simple, and can make a big difference to how well a guitar plays. This, along with some other tips is covered in another how-to here.

So - you need a 1 metre length of hardwood, and a separate fretboard (6.5mm/1/4"). Cut the neck blank into 2 pieces. This will depend on the kind of box you are using. You want the upper piece to extend into the box by about 100mm, and the lower piece to extend roughly 40-50mm from the front of the box, creating an overlap of roughly 6"/150mm (see the picture above). You can use whatever headstock design you prefer, scarf etc.

The first job I do is cut and glue up the scarf joint. I cut the scarf using a jig and a big chop saw. Along with the Dremel and drill, these are the only power tools I use to make necks.

To glue up the scarf, I clamp the two pieces of the neck to the bench and then apply a clamp at the joint. If it slips, move the pieces back and try again. You want to get this right. Some people swear by sprinkling a little salt on the glue to stop it slipping. I haven't tried it myself. Once the glue has fully cured I slice off some material from the top side to bring the thickness of the headstock down to about 15mm.

While this is drying, time to take a look at the fretboard:

So at this point I've marked the frets using a metre ruler and Stew Mac's Fret Calculator, scored them with a knife and they're ready to slot. It is worth investing in a purpose made fret slotting saw and mitre box for this job. I've drawn a centre line and marked across the frets diagonally to place the marker dots. Carefully drill them out to the required depth. This would be much easier with a pillar drill but I don't have one.

Once the fret slots are cut, I taper the fretboard. This step is completely optional, but since trying it I have found it impossible to go back to square necks. If you want some tips on doing this, I wrote a 'how to' here. Once you're happy with the shape of the fretboard, you can add your side dots, if you wish.

In the below picture, I am gluing all of the remaining parts of the neck together; the fretboard, the lower portion of the neck that runs through the box, and the headstock 'wings' which will allow me to get a bit more creative with the design. These are made from fretboard scraps. 

I leave the neck in the clamps for 24 hours. I know many people would say this is unnecessary but I prefer to err on the side of caution. This is what it looks like after taking the clamps off. In this picture I have already used my mitre box to create a 'slope' where the two neck sections meet which will be the basis of the heel.

...and after tapering. Again, this is an optional step, and there is a 'how to' here.

So here's the neck so far. Time to get shaping - in part 2!

    This is a cool one i built for a friend who is a well respected melodian musician here in Vancouver. His name is John Krieger. He wanted me to tweak it a bit and put a double octave string for the high strings and have a strum stick fretting on it. It turned out nice and sounded really beautiful. I used a nice Punch box i found in San Diego on a business trip and piece of Mahogany for the neck. The sound holes are decorated with some cool antique napkin holders i found at a flea market. I don't have any video of how it sounded unfortunatly but i was pleased with its volume and tone.

www.wsbluesbox.wordpress.com

    Here is another angle of it. The cool stand was made by my father who makes guitar stands, hardwood guitar picks, dulcimers, Psaltery's and other cool folk instruments.