{"id":363,"date":"2012-01-18T18:54:01","date_gmt":"2012-01-19T01:54:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/koentoppguitars.com\/blog\/?p=363"},"modified":"2012-04-05T10:10:22","modified_gmt":"2012-04-05T17:10:22","slug":"carving-a-guitar-neck-with-facets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/koentoppguitars.com\/blog\/carving-a-guitar-neck-with-facets\/","title":{"rendered":"Carving a Guitar Neck with Facets"},"content":{"rendered":"

Many guitar makers and guitar factories “roll” their necks. This means that they roll the shaft of the guitar neck along a sanding belt in order to achieve a round and tapered profile. I like to carve my necks with aggressive rasps and files. This is a very rewarding process. It is a visual process and tactile process. As the neck comes into shape, my strokes and movements are more “in the round” (similar to rolling over a moving sanding belt) but rolling the tool or sanding pad over the neck.<\/p>\n

I have my neck mounted in a cradle that supports the neck the entire length and allows me to carve all the way to the edge of the fingerboard and a bit further. \u00a0After the neck is thicknessed to the proper taper, I begin to shape the primary facets, the entire length of the neck. Facets allow you to easily monitor the straightness of the neck, making sure not to have high spots and low spots. When carving the initial facets, I aim to keep all the facets equal, tapering in width as the neck tapers.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Primary Neck Facets<\/p><\/div>\n

After the primary facets, the secondary facets are filed. Again, I aim to keep the facets equal. This is important when you use different neck thickneses and widths because it will alter the size of your facets. Also, carving the neck this way allows for more control over the profile of your neck. I knock all the corners off while continueing to keep the faces equal. \u00a0When this is done, the circular shape of the neck begins to show itself and if your facets were straight, your neck will be too.<\/p>\n

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Secondary Neck Facets<\/p><\/div>\n

The corners of all the facets, when removed, will more or less be the semi-finished shape of your neck. The edges can be quickly taken away by an aggressive rasp and then a sanding paddle is used to roll the neck. \u00a0I roll the neck arcross and over on both sides, pulling the circle into the sides of the fingerboard. I also use a block and roll it laterally, from nut to heal, to help maintain straightness.<\/p>\n

\"Hand<\/a>

Hand Rolled Neck<\/p><\/div>\n

As the shape of the neck comes closer I, begin to bring the headstock transition and heel into shape, using facets and blending them in to the neck shaft. Some luthiers blend the heel into the shaft simultaneously, sometimes I do this, but the radiuses used in my archtop heels are vastly different. Light and shadows during this process are your best friends. Working under a light that can roll across your neck and cast a straight shadow is one of the best ways to look at its profile. I find that taking the neck off the cradle and rolling it against a fluorescent ceiling light works really well to. With the latter, you can watch the highlighted edge roll as you rotate the neck.<\/p>\n

\"Hand<\/a>

Hand Carved Neck - Almost finished<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Many guitar makers and guitar factories “roll” their necks. This means that they roll the shaft of the guitar neck along a sanding belt in order to achieve a round and tapered profile. I like to carve my necks with aggressive rasps and files. This is a very rewarding process. It is a visual process […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":368,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/koentoppguitars.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/koentoppguitars.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/koentoppguitars.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/koentoppguitars.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/koentoppguitars.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=363"}],"version-history":[{"count":26,"href":"https:\/\/koentoppguitars.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":416,"href":"https:\/\/koentoppguitars.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363\/revisions\/416"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/koentoppguitars.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/koentoppguitars.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/koentoppguitars.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/koentoppguitars.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}