How to Build a Guitar Neck

Building your own neck can be a very challenging, but rewarding experience. By customizing your neck to suit your playing needs, you can not only save money, but personalize your instrument like no other and assure that it is unlike any other guitar in existence.

Things You'll Need

• Soft maple
• Table Saw
• Router
• Jigsaw
• Orbital Sander
• Rasp
• Fretboard
• Glue
• Clamps
• Pencil

Instructions

1. Cut a 4" by 2" piece of soft maple to a usable length for your guitar neck, which is about 24". Your guitar neck will be roughly 2.5" inches at the heel, which is located near the body and about 1.75" at the nut. Your headstock will be wider than the widest part of your neck, so the wood must be over 2 inches wide to begin or you will have to glue small pieces of wood on each side of the headstock.

2. Mark the area where the nut will be and the headstock will start. This should be 19.125" from the last fret to the nut and draw the shape of the neck on the wood itself as well. Mark two areas 2.15" from one another for the neck joint at the body and two marks at the other end at the nut mark 1.75" apart. Connect these lines on each side. This is where you will cut the wood to rough your guitar neck.

3. Draw the shape of the headstock above the nut. You can choose a standard Stratocaster shape with all of the tuners on one side, or a Gibson style headstock with three tuners on each side.

4. Cut the neck following your lines with a table saw. Be careful to follow the lines as well as you can, if you take too much material on one side, you will have to compensate on the other side.

5. Route a center cavity for the truss rod with a router. You should run your cavity to just past the nut, about 1/4" wide. Mark the center line of your neck and carefully run your router down the line. The truss rod will allow you to adjust the neck relief, which is the bow that the neck exhibits.

6. Cut the shape of your headstock with a jigsaw. This will allow you to cut around curves. Stay a bit away from your marks as controlling a jigsaw can sometimes be tricky.

7. Use an orbital sander on the neck to complete the roughing of the neck itself and the headstock.

8. Use a rasp to rough out the back of the neck. There are several choices for the back of the neck. A "D" shape is common and will have a flatter mid-section that the classic "C" shape. Playing is considered easier and faster on a D-shaped neck.

9. Use an orbital sander to finish the back of the neck to the desired thickness.

10. Glue the fretboard to the neck and use your orbital sander to take off any edges that are present after the glue dries, you want the edge of the fretboard and the neck itself to seem like one piece.

References

• Making a Guitar Neck