This is the 5 Best Tips for Assembling Your Acoustic Guitar Neck. In this post, you’ll learn how to join the neck and fretboard perfectly without having to worry at all about the process.

Assembling the Acoustic Guitar Neck

If you build your guitar neck the way that I recommend, you’ll actually be building two different projects at the same time. The first project is the fretboard, and the second project is the neck.

Once you have both pieces, you need to bring them together for one final fitting, and join them together as one. At that point, you’ll have a couple small adjustments to make, and then you’ll have a completed acoustic guitar neck.

I’ll show you everything you need to know coming up in the post, and these tips will be super helpful when it comes time to bring these two pieces together.

See Also: Acoustic Guitar Making For Beginners

Mark Your Fretboard and Neck for Easy Alignment

The very first tip is to mark your fretboard and your neck so that you are able to align them throughout the entire project. Make marks on the edge of the fret board and anywhere along the surface of the neck so that way you can bring the two pieces back together the same way.

It’s important when you do your test fittings that you can continue to bring the pieces back together the same way. This will help you trim material, make adjustments, and carve the neck in a way that doesn’t interfere with the assembly process.

A couple of pencil marks that are made well is all you really need, just make sure that you don’t destroy them in the process of working on either of the pieces.

See Also: Laminated Guitar Necks

Test Fit all the Pieces and Make Adjustments

Many times throughout the process you want to bring your neck and fretboard together to ensure that even though the projects are going on separately, they will still come together well.

This is just a matter of taking a quick little practice break, and bringing the pieces together and checking your alignment for any deficiencies. It’s also nice to get a little break, and that will help you work better in the long run.

If you notice something not going quite right, you can make the adjustment a lot more easily when you catch it earlier in the process. The later you catch it, the more difficult it will be to reverse something that you may have done poorly.

See Also: How Taking Practice Breaks Can Help You Make Better Guitars

Do a Complete Dry Run Without Glue

When it comes time to bring the two pieces together, the most important thing that you can possibly do is a dry run. This is where you pretend like you’re gluing the two pieces together, but you don’t actually use glue.

When I say pretend, I really mean pretend. You need to have it in your mind that this is the real glue up, but know that you are not going to apply any actual glue. Use the same process, the same number of clamps, and the same everything that you would on the real job.

The point of this process is to diagnose any problems or issues that might come out before you hose your entire fretboard and neck with wood glue. If you find anything wrong, you’ll be super happy that you caught it at this point, and you can fix it before the glue up.

See Also: Top 5 Acoustic Guitar Making Books

Apply Glue to Both Pieces

One really important thing to pay attention to when you are making your project is to glue the pieces together with an even coating of glue on both sides. This is one way to ensure a very good glue joint between the two pieces.

Apply a thin layer of glue to both faces of the wood that will meet together in the center of the joint. Make this layer thin and even, and not so much that it’s running.

You also want to make sure that you don’t go so thin that it starts to dry up. Find a happy balance, and know that you’ll have a little bit of glue that squeezes out of the joint when you clamp the pieces together, but that’s completely fine.

Use a glue roller if you need to, because it can help you create a nice even later without having to worry about applying it with your fingers.

See Also: Drying Time for Wood Glue

Clamp Evenly and Wipe Excess Glue

When you bring the two pieces together, check your alignment and at the marks that you made earlier in the process to ensure you are lined up properly. This is how you ensure that the two pieces come together the way that you intended all along.

Apply clamps regularly, and as closely as possible. The point of this exercise is to create even pressure across the two pieces, not necessarily high-pressure. As you bring the clamps up to tension, you’ll see that the glue starts to squeeze out.

When this happens, wipe off as much excess as you can to prevent having to chisel it off later, and also check your joints all the way around to make sure that you have no large gaps or deficiencies that you need to address.

See Also: How to Sharpen a Chisel the Easy Way

Your Action Assignment

Now that you know these five awesome tips on assembling your guitar neck and fretboard, it’s time to get out into the shop and take action. If you’ve been thinking about building a guitar for a while, there is no better time than now.

Making a guitar is not really that much different than any other woodworking project, you just have to be prepared to have some patience, and follow directions from good book. There are several great looking guitar making books in this post if you’re interested, and they can get you a great start.

If you have any questions on assembling your guitar, please post a question and I’ll be happy to answer them. Happy building.

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