Uncle Os Posted June 22, 2006 Report Share Posted June 22, 2006 Hey All... Hope all is well for y'all. Life is good for me and mine. Welp... Here's the deal... A few months ago, I built a 'pseudo'neck jig. I built the thing to help with the straightening of a backbowed and twisted neck. It didn't work. The neck was too far gone. Since then, I've used it for two... That's right... All of TWO... Necks for fretwork. I like the idea of holding the neck with tension on it as it completely eliminates what I call the 'floating neck' if I'm doing leveling or whatnot on a neck that's relying on the truss rod to hold it completely neutral. I get good results with the truss rod, but I check for straightness *VERY* often and adjust as needed because I live in a very hot and dry climate that allows for 'zero' trustworthiness associated with the hunk of wood. Nevertheless, I feel like I'm missing something. I mean, I strap the guitar in the jig, set the pin on the headstock for the desired position (usually as straight as humanly possible) and strap it down. Then I brace underneath the neck to avoid movement while I'm workin' on the neck, if possible. But that's as far as I go with it. Can any of you guys who use neck jigs give me the step-by-step run down as to your techniques? Many thanks and appreciation for any and all guidance and suggestions. Respectfully, Cor Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SwedishLuthier Posted June 22, 2006 Report Share Posted June 22, 2006 I don’t really know what you think you are missing, but OK I first strap the guitar in place, strings on and reasonably in tune. Adjust the guitar so that the neck is aligned with the beam. Swing the jig over so that the guitar is in playing position. Tune up. Adjust the trussrod so that the neck is as straight as possible. Check the tuning during that process. When the neck is as flat as possible and the guitar in tune, dial in the zero position. Now you can swing the guitar back into working position (at least that’s how I do it) and remove the strings. My neck jig is a little different in that I use the neck support for simulating the string tension as well, compared to Dan Erlewines that use straps and jacks to simulate the tension. So I adjust my supports so that the neck is back in flat position. After that it is an ordinary fret job or what ever you want to do. The only difference I can see from the way you do it is that I don’t set the dial at the headstock. I have two of them under the neck. With your method it is theoretically possible that you get a back bow in the neck and a forward bow in the headstock when removing the strings (I have NO idea what would cause such behaviour but anyway…) and the dial will still show you zero deviation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soapbarstrat Posted June 22, 2006 Report Share Posted June 22, 2006 worth every penny : http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Video,_DVD,_so...e_Neck_Jig.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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