Headstock Experiment

[Rick500]

I had an idea for a headstock that's a little different, so I decided to give it a test run today. Ignore the too-wide tuner nut insets.

It was a good idea but I think I'm going to abandon it, for now at least. (I just made the headstock; it's not attached to a neck, so no big loss. Just scrap wood.)

It did raise a question though, which is why I'm posting. If I was going to do something like this in the future, what's a good way to go about getting the round insets exactly the same level as the part of the headstock on the right that's cut thinner? I had a tough time since the Forstner bit cut a deeper circle around the perimeter. I thought about a spade bit but didn't think it would cut cleanly enough.

[Edit: It just occurred to me that I could have cut the whole headstock the lesser thickness and added the thicker part on as an overlay...]

[Hector]

[Edit: It just occurred to me that I could have cut the whole headstock the lesser thickness and added the thicker part on as an overlay...]

you got it!!!!

[Xanthus]

Yeah, you did get it But I think that the design looks pretty sweet! Nice work, so long as the string holes aren't covered by the wood overlay you put on. That was the problem with my build, I had to recess 2 tuners (staggered Sperzels), and ended up having to thickness the whole thing again.

[Mattia]

Overlay, or a forstner bit.

[Prostheta]

I recess pretty much all of my tuner bushings using a Forstner bit which is slightly larger than the socket I use to tighten the bushings. This instrument has a radiused headstock veneer which I just recessed afterwards rather than cutting it beforehand:

This headstock was recessed without an overlay or veneer....

Much the same as THIS which is again a simple Forstner'd recess into the headstock.

This allows me to use a thicker headstock than "standard" if I want to bevel or contour the edges of the headstock for interest. I like what you've done there....it reminds me a lot of my mainstay gigging RBX bass which has a plastic overlay on the headstock. I removed it and laid glow in the dark vinyl behind the circles for the tuner bushings which looks very cool :-D

[Rick500]

Thanks, guys.

My only issue, really, was combining the recesses for the tuner bushings with the thinner carved portion of the headstock. Either one of those separately would not have presented too much of a problem, but getting the recesses to exactly the same level as the carve was tough.

This time around, I think I'm going to cut out the carved portion as I did before, and inlay some mahogany there (the headstock will be black limba). Then maybe still recess the tuner bushings, but not as deeply. (In the pic above, the thinner part of the headstock is 1/2" and the thicker portion is 11/16".)