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Preparation of the Neck

The neck is built in one piece from maple. The fretboard is made of ebony with mother of pearl inlays. I cut the maple out of an old piece (60mm thick) using the template on the band saw. The fretboard side and the neck head were trimmed. The fretboard itself was also planed out to 6.5mm, given a fretboard radius of 12" and a saw cut for a scale length of 25".

Perlmut before loading

The mother-of-pearl inlays are fixed with superglue on a surface coated with white PLAKA. With a pointed scalpel the outline of the inlays is transferred to the color. After carefully breaking off the inlays, the mark remains where the inlay recesses are milled with a Dremel and a small router.

Perlmutt after inserting

From sanding the ebony a little dust remains, which I use, mixed with epoxy glue, to fill the mother of pearl inlays.

Pearl detail Pearl detail
Rohhals including steel bar

Before the neck contour is sawn out again, the channel for the steel rod must be milled out. This is easy to do with the parallel fence of the router. The top veneer, also a 2mm thick ebony, must be sawn out and glued on. The side facing the saddle must be at right angles to the frets and sanded accordingly.

Rohhals with headstock Insight into the nut specialist
Finish ground neck Finish ground neck

The fingerboard is glued on and the back of the neck is carved. With sandpaper the whole neck is sanded down again.

Extended headstock Headstock from behind

On this neck I used another feature from jazz guitar building. It is the head veneer extended beyond the edge of the fretboard. For this you work in a wooden wedge. The advantage is more aesthetic: if you use bindings around the headstock and the fretboard, the binding ends meet at the bottom of the nut and you get a nice binding transition.