doug

The thicker the headstock slab is the bigger you can make a volute. If you don't want one then 5/8" to 3/4" is plenty thick for the headstock piece. Make sure you do a good job leveling the neck before putting the fingerboard on then it will be fine. -Doug

Setch - I concur!! However, from the last post it's clear Mr. Rocket lacks tools. This may make it difficult to complete a partially constructed neck. -Doug

Send me an email, I can do it for you. -Doug

Alternatively you could make a 15" sanding block and carefully sand off the extra 1/32" because it won't take but a couple strokes with 100 grit abrasive. The reason for the long block is to keep the sides straight. Besides I found a 15" block to be good for a lot more uses than I ever though it would be. That plywood is fine. Anything stiff should work. -Doug

Here is a simple method that works really good. Give it a whirrel if you don't trust the math. Draw it full scale on a 3.5" wide piece of MDF. Start by drawing a center line lengthwise. Then add a nut line at one end. Measure to you scale length and put another line. You know the nut and string centers at the bridge. Now mark lines on center at the nut end 1 5/8" apart which is your nut width. Then at the bridge end draw the center of the 2 E strings and mark. Add 1/8" to each side and mark, they should be 2 1/2" apart. Draw a straight line from the outside nut marks, to the outside bridge marks (2 1/2"). This will be your taper. Now put a perpendicular line where the last fret and end of fingerboard will be. Now you can cut out the template and it will have the correct taper. Another thing, if the neck template you have already is for a Floyd Rose width heel already, you can just make the nut area narrower by 1/32" on each side. The resulting difference in taper is so insigificant that it means almost nothing overall. Hope that helps some. -Doug

Yeah, it will be a trade off to either fill and redrill or leave it and deal with the odd look. I think we've all made our fair share of uh-ohs, unfortunately, so use this as one of those learning experiences. For the next one use a real good brad point bit. They don't wander because of the point and sharp cutting edge. -Doug

Sound like your daughter has serious issues with that wood. Wow. Man, if that's really it then do what's best for her. I have severe reactions to cocobolo and lacewood even wearing a tyvek suit and resperator, but it only sends me to the doctor. Your daughter reacts much worse by the sounds of it. Those woods you mentioed all have different properties especially mahogany and poplar. They are easier to cut. Rosewood and padauk are very similar with respects grain structure and workability. They will splinter badly especially diagonal to the grain so a spiral cutter head or robo-sander could be a better choice for body shaping. If you invest in another saw blade, analyze what you migh use it for the most. Over the years I have found 50 - 60 tooth tripple chip blades are great for all around cutting of hard woods and exotics. Oh, NEVER use the same blade on both hard and soft woods unless you clean it like new after cutting soft stuff. By the way, why do you need a piece 20" wide? I once had a guy order a neck through neck with a 4 foot long heel...never could figure out how he would go about carrying a 7 foot guitar.... -Doug

Another opinion... Padauk is one of my favorite woods to work. An oil finish on that stuff is awesome. I have used it for many things including guitars. Admittedly the dust is rediculous, but no worse than ebony. Technique and proper blades make all the difference with regards tearout. Generally this occurs if the carbide on a saw blade is not properly ground causing one or more teeth to overhang the others by a couple thousandths, or you are using the wrong TYPE of teeth or to FEW teeth especially with crosscuts. Router bits have to be sharp all the time, as I'm sure you already know. It's always a good idea to hit them with a diamond hone often to keep that razor edge. (only the flat on the inside though!!) Yes, it can clog sandpaper however so does bloodwood, rosewood, some ebony, and several other species. Use Norton paper only or good AO "J" weight suff on rolls. Anyway, don't give up on padauk! It's wonderful. Afer a couple years it takes on a very deep petina too! -Doug

You've already figured out that overbending is key. Just be careful how you hammer them in so as not to bend them out of shape. It's actually surprisingly easy to mess that up. I haven't used a fret hammer in a long time for putting them in, but it was always something to keep a close eye on. Have fun! -Doug

True. If I were to build a bolt on guitar in my shop it would indeed be a close fit. As far as bolt on vs. set neck, well like everything else opinion rules. -Doug

Exactly! -Doug

Sorry, but when I build a bolt on, the neck doesn't come right off when I take the bolts off. A good bolt on neck should have a snug fit. If it doesn't, the neck pocket to neck heel joint wans't matched properly. Now that doesn't say that gluing in it is a good idea. I think think that wood on wood is better than having glue in there. ← Every guitar a customer has brought me thus far with a bolt on neck, the pocket has been far looser than a properly constructed set neck. There are a couple good reasons: One, the neck pocket is bigger to allow for finish thickness on the sides of the neck heel and the walls of the pocket. Second the neck was not made for that specific guitar. I have seen this over and over with Fender, Ibanez, Jackson, and numerous others. An American Telecaster I have in the shop right now has 1/8" thick polyester in the neck pocket! Rule of thumb: If you can shift the neck left to right while it's in the neck pocket, then the pocket is too wide. I'm in no way implying that Warmoth builds a substandard product. As a matter of fact they are very nice. I am certain that they would leave a neck pocket with enough space to allow the customer to apply finish to the neck and still have it fit. -Doug

Okay great! -Doug

Hmm... Well maybe someone else has seen this type. Maybe it's the picture but it looks sorta backwards to me. I mean, the "flat" face of the saddles ordinarily go toward the nut. The low E side sometimes has the saddles in backwards because those wound strings need to be longer between the nut and saddle. -Doug

There's usually a really small nut on the backside. You'll need to put a very small socket on it. Remember where the bushings go too. -Doug

Another thing is the bolt on neck pocket is much too sloppy (not a snug fit) to make an adequate glue in job. Personally I don't see how you could make it look proper either with that gap all around the heel on the top side. You certainly can shape the heel and body to look like it was made that way, but there's more to it than that. One important thing about a set neck is the neck pocket should be very snug. Less glue between the neck and body the better it will sound. -Doug

For the neck blank make a 15" long sanding block and attach 80 or 100 grit abrasive to it with spray glue. I use a block like that for all kinds of things here and there. (one can never have too many kinds of sanding blocks!) You'll be surprised at how fast you'll be able to level that neck blank by hand. Yeah, it might take you an extra 10 minutes, but it's worth it to not take the risk associated with a planer... -Doug

You might do well to buy another from a different source, and set the one you have aside for a long while to see if it will continue warping. Considering the overall time and hardware expenditure building the whole guitar, it might be your best bet for now. You'll end up with a blank for your next project. Hopefully it's warped perpendicular to the grain. If it's a single block body blank you could rip it lengthwise and glue it back together with the grain "arch" oposing one another. Once you do some basic flattening proceed to create the body and work out the rest of the uneven areas as you go. Again, I strongly suggest you sit on that piece for a long while instead. -Doug

Okay, for those of you who have purchased from Buzzsaw, how has the quality been? What about moisture content? Was it low enough so the top doesn't crack, or cause moisture lifting of the finish? Maybe you've taken the pieces and had them kiln dried at your favorite saw mill? I'm still skittish so comments would be great. You see, I'm of the opinion that I would rather pay more for a top I know is flawless right from the start then to have to worry about blemishes to cover up. -Doug

I've always figured there was something fishy about their auctions. For one, no mention of kiln drying...just "seasoned". I have, out of curiosity, inquiered about moisture content on maybe 3 items, and what they said boiled down to "no idea". Unfortunately they only posted a single top image, and now we know why. Really a bummer. This sort of thing infuriates me! It's the single reason I don't use Ebay for "guitar wood". One never knows really. Anyway, you may be able to use it if you are careful how the top gets carved. Don't go too deep. There should be some darkening colorations around the bark, so when your shaping the top take notice. If you see it don't go deeper. Also, you might be able to get away with using wood bleech to lighten the whole thing before dying it. -Doug

That's a realy great style!! Can't wait to see it finished! Don't change anything, IMHO. Tiger eye.... -Doug

I found building the table to be the most rewarding. Not in terms of build time, however the end result is a table designed for what you need it for. I have made several over the years, and each was created for versatility. You can see the current on in the shop pictures on my site Shop Pictures with router table The top is 2" thick, and I use a phenolic table inserts for each of the routers. The entire table was built from the ground up for functionality. The box surrounding the router itself has a Lexan door, and a 5" rear dust chute. I now have an overhead arm that holds a 4" dust collection port too for use when open routing. The reason for the large dust port on the bottom box is because I made a very low profile down draft table that mounts to the top. With the router removed there is a huge hole for the air to be drawn through. This thing is amazing. There is such a draft that even when sanding off the side of the table, it draws the dust right in. To the top I mounted an Incra Ultra 24. This is the most amazing fence system I have ever used, bar none. Incra One thing I can't stress enough is the need for the whole thing to be solid as a rock so when you're using it there is no stability issues. On the bottom shelf I have 80 pounds of sand in a container for sheer ballast. I can say without reservation this table is about the most used tool in the shop. The reason I built this one is because there just wasn't a product out there that could provide the versatility I wanted. Build your own, it's the only way to go! -Doug

Back to the bandsaw subject.... A couple months ago I finally picked up one of those new Jet 18x 18" bandsaws. I have to say that machine was worth every cent! It was set up pretty well right out of the crate. I had to make a few minor adjustments, mostly to suit my high standards for performance. After that it's been the BEST! It takes 137" blades which are a little longer than last year's model. The one that comes with it is pretty good, but it's a standard blade so it wore fast resawing exotics. I popped on a Timberwolf and I should get more like out of it. I prefer 3 TPI blades anyway, and the stock one was maybe 5. The fence was one of the main reasons for picking this machine. It is the best ever! It doesn't budge at all when resawing. I don't use the post thing for that, I use a solid backer so the wood doesn't wobble. I can cut veneer thin with no issues. So, the point is, if you're considering a bandsaw, pick one of these! -Doug

I've considered getting a milling machine myself. Trouble is... I don't know Jack about how to use one! What machine did you get? -Doug

I have some..... 2" x 10" x 12 feet. -Doug