#1 resource for Cigar Box Guitars, Free Plans, How-To, Parts & More!

Routing necks in mass

To save time on future builds, I was thinking about rough finishing about ten necks with rounded routed edges. Not knowing future box sizes and scale lengths, is it possible to finish all at same length close enough for a neck through build and not be too far off with routed edges into box?

0 members like this

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Tom T on June 17, 2018 at 10:34am

If you are building a normal "stepped" neck you have four pieces:

The headstock
The main neck piece
The through piece (which includes the heel)
The lower string hangar piece.

Obviously, you can pre-cut all of these pieces to save time. Only the through piece needs to be over length to account for box size variations.

If you standardize your scale length and heel length, you could glue the over length through piece to the neck and the headstock could be glued.

Then, you could do most of your neck shaping prior to fitting to the box.

During the actual build, you would need to cut the through piece to the correct length then fit the string hanger piece to the through piece. The neck would still need to be notched to fit flush with the top of the box.

All that bring said, the simple answer to your question is "yes" you could co a lot of pre-building of your necks prior to fitting to a specific box.

Give it a go.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Taffy Evans on June 18, 2018 at 10:37am

Hi Brent, my view is if you make your own box and settle on that as a standard, then yes you can do the same with necks, because all the fitting will be the same, especially with the same scale length.

With random boxes, I think you could only finish the necks to a certain stage, and then customise the neck from heal to tail to suit length and depth of the box. Then have a range of fingerboards fretted for different scales, then juggle the parts to suit the box.

My wife bought me a heap of cigar boxes, not knowing what she was buying, and I find I would only be able find two or three suitable for my use.

It will help you if you have a minimum standard/size box in mind, this will keep your necks "in the ball park" and easier to fit and also help keep the bridge in/or close to the sweet spot on the top.

hope this helps Taff

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Kigar on June 19, 2018 at 2:25pm

I am doing a set of three right now. I started with picking the boxes. They are all a little different, so I "assigned" a neck board to each one. Marked a box and neck 1, the next 2 etc. Then everything can be done together but adjust a little in length for the box.