jay5 Posted April 22, 2004 Report Share Posted April 22, 2004 OK, I have been racking my brain over a neck I am getting ready to start. I have all the pieces but I am hesitant to start as Im not sure what order to do things in. Here is a list of parts I'm using; - 27"X4"X1" maple neck blank - pre slotted, UN-radiused rosewood fretboard - enough binding to bind fretboard, not headstock - MOP Les Paul type inlays - double acting truss rod - 2 18" carbon fiber rods Now, I need to know what order would be best for assembling. I have an idea what order to do but there are some aspects of this neck that are giving me some problems. I do NOT have a bandsaw so I will be using a template and a router to cut the neck shape. Here are my questions; 1) I got an unradiused fretboard so that I could route the areas for the inlay accurately. Should I also install the binding at this time? Before I radius the boar? My insticts say yes but they have been known to be wrong. 2) Should the whole fretboard be put together (inlays/binding) before being attached to the actual neck or after. Since Im doing a binding the final dimensions of the fretboard will need to be exact, there wont be any room for trimming. 3) Should I wait to carve the back neck profile untill after the fretboard has been glued on? To me this seems like It would allow for a more stable base and prevent any possible backbow. Also, I have never radiused a fretboard so I am not sure hom much of the board I will actually need to take off thus I dont know how much of the 1" thickness of the neck itself will need to be removed to give the neck its final thickness. 4) Finally, as i said this is the first board I have radiused myself. When I am routing for the inlays which are 1/16" thick should I route exactly 1/16" deep or go more so that I dont risk taking them down to nothing at the edges. I will be using a 12" radius. Wow, for those of you who have made it through all that I really appreciate it! All the books I have talk about attaching the fingerboard after the neck has need cut and profiled and then trimming it down. Doing my own inlay/binding/radiusing has kind of thrown a wrench (or two) into that whole idea. Any info you all have woud be GREATLY appreciated. thanks to all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krazyderek Posted April 22, 2004 Report Share Posted April 22, 2004 most of what you're asking has a "yes / no" answer meaning you can pretty much do it either way you're comfortable with. personally i glue the fingerboard on when then neck is tappered but not shaped on the back. I've only done binding once but i did it before radiusing the finger board. At the widest point of the fingerboard you'll lose aprox 1/16" on the sides when radiusing the fingerboard so i guess it depends how wide you're inlay design is, but i'd wait for one of the inlay masters to answer that.. when radiusing and leveling a fingerboard don't expect to take off anything more then a 64th from the middle thickness of the board, 1/32" if your board wasn't planed properly... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jay5 Posted April 22, 2004 Author Report Share Posted April 22, 2004 Thanks Derek! That helps a lot. As far as the inlay is concerned it will be interesting to hear everyone's opinions. Thanks again Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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