necks

This step by step guide shows one way of making a guitar neck using a CNC router. The project uses this homemade router.

This is a step-by-step guide to scalloping your fretboard. Scalloping is the removal of wood between the frets (usually from fret 14 upwards). Some players, like Yngwie Malmsteen, favour a scalloped fretboard as it is supposed to make it easier to play fast.

The tools needed are: a round file and sandpaper for wood removal and a Dremel for polishing.

Ant Setchell shows how to convert a welding clamp into a fret press. To make the press you have to modify the jaws. The top jaw holds interchangeable fret cauls from Stew Mac (to match the fingerboard radius), the bottom jaw is a padded caul to press on the back of the neck. You would pay over $200 for a handheld fret press, but a welding clamp will cost you less than $15.

The Generic brand name is used to categorise unbranded guitar and amplifier parts.

We featured an article a while back about making your own headstock decal . Andreas Folvell produced another guide about designing a Fender style spaghetti logo to customise your parts-o-caster. The method uses the excellent (and free) Inkscape graphics program.

There are three ways of attaching the neck to the body of an electric guitar: set necks where the neck is glued to the body with a tenon joint (most Gibson guitars), through necks where the neck & body are made from the same piece of wood and bolt-on necks (most Fender guitars).

Guitar fretboards are generally curved, so when fretting a fingerboard it helps if the frets themselves are also pre-curved (to a slightly smaller radius than the fretboard itself) before you try to put them into the fingerboard.