# Acoustic guitar - neck joint fixture



## difalkner (Jan 3, 2012)

Here's an interesting fixture for y'all. This is not my design but I have greatly modified and added to what I've seen. This fixture holds the neck and body so the mortise and tenon can be cut (or dovetail, if that's your choice). The templates are from Luthiers Mercantile and the rest is hardware and plywood I had on hand or picked up from Lowe's. The aluminum angle is for setting the neck angle prior to cutting the tenon. 

I cut the mortise today and will cut the tenon on the neck tomorrow or Saturday. My router of choice for this is a Bosch 1617 in a plunge base, 5/8" collar, 1/2" straight flute bit, and the mortise is 7/8" deep and 7/8" wide.

Neck mounted - 








Body mounted - 








Top view - 








Mortise -


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## cocobolo1 (Dec 31, 2015)

Oooooh! Very nice job there David. :smile:


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## Cherryville Chuck (Sep 28, 2010)

Very interesting Dave, thanks.


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## Stick486 (Jan 4, 2013)

way cool Dave..
gotta admire your think tank...


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## DesertRatTom (Jul 3, 2012)

Looks like a beauty in the works Dave. I really love the cut away design. Do you play? What material for the top, Maple?


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## Potowner1 (Feb 17, 2011)

Thanks for the pictures Dave. I am presently attending a class on building an acoustic guitar and can't believe how much work is involved. I have never owned a guitar nor do I know how to play one, but hopefully when the project is completed, I will try to learn some basic cords and maybe play at mass on Sunday's. The guitar we are building is modeled on a Martin style. If you don't mind, I would like to show this jig to our instructor. We meet every other Saturday, but this week we are all going to be in Saratoga, NY for the Northeast Woodworking Association show, so our schedule is off by 2 weeks.

BE WELL


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## gjackson52 (Jul 4, 2015)

WOW...very nice, I am currently waiting for some warm up to finish spraying an electric guitar body I have been working on. Your work is much better than mine....grats !!



Gary


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## rwl7532 (Sep 8, 2011)

DesertRatTom said:


> What material for the top, Maple?


I vote for Spruce.


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## whimsofchaz (Jun 6, 2013)

I am impressed. I wish I had the mechanical aptitude. Great stuff keep posting please


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## difalkner (Jan 3, 2012)

Had the opportunity to get to the neck this evening and cut the tenon, but only after I took the fixture apart to modify it a tiny bit. Since I only looked at photos and didn't have any plans I sort of designed it as I went. Turns out the relief for template for the neck needed to be cut back another 3/4" or so to allow the template to go far enough back. So I cut that back and then put the neck in to make the tenon. I have to say it worked pretty good, I'm pleased with the results. Tomorrow I'll fit the tenon to the mortise as they are purposely a few thousandths shy of fitting straight off the router so you can hand fit to the tolerance you desire.

Almost finished - 








Tenon completed except for final hand fitting -


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## cocobolo1 (Dec 31, 2015)

Hot damn, but that is gorgeous workmanship! :smile:


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## cocobolo1 (Dec 31, 2015)

rwl7532 said:


> I vote for Spruce.


Spruce is the usual top wood for an acoustic, gets my vote as well.


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## difalkner (Jan 3, 2012)

DesertRatTom said:


> Looks like a beauty in the works Dave. I really love the cut away design. Do you play? What material for the top, Maple?


Thanks, Tom! Yes, I play in our Praise Band at church but have been playing guitar since I was 11 (ugh, now over 50 years ago!). Here's a link to our YouTube channel if you want to listen - Airline Baptist BC Songs



Potowner1 said:


> Thanks for the pictures Dave. I am presently attending a class on building an acoustic guitar and can't believe how much work is involved. I have never owned a guitar nor do I know how to play one, but hopefully when the project is completed, I will try to learn some basic chords and maybe play at mass on Sunday's. The guitar we are building is modeled on a Martin style. If you don't mind, I would like to show this jig to our instructor. We meet every other Saturday, but this week we are all going to be in Saratoga, NY for the Northeast Woodworking Association show, so our schedule is off by 2 weeks.
> 
> BE WELL


I'd love to attend a class but none in the area so this 'class' is self-taught by me, and my student, also me, has made many mistakes! 

By all means show this to your instructor. I watched a video by Robert O'Brien to see how he built one and the templates came from LMI. I improved what I've seen in videos and photos by adding some features I haven't seen. Let me know if you have any questions about what I did or if you need additional photos, measurements, etc.



rwl7532 said:


> I vote for Spruce.


Yes, good call. I bought a billet of Sitka Spruce and resawed it to get 5 sets of pretty good sounding tops, at least they have a good tap tone. The back and sides are Honduras Mahogany, the accent pieces for the rosette and arm bevel are Walnut Burl, and I cut some Hard Rock Maple and Zebrawood for the purfling and binding. The neck is African Mahogany with Honduras Mahogany and Maple to make a stiff 5-piece neck. This is my first guitar and I hope to build many, many more.


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## difalkner (Jan 3, 2012)

Thanks for all the comments!! It has been a blast building this, for sure. My friends ask how the guitar is coming and I usually tell them I'm not building a guitar; I'm building fixtures, jigs, templates, forms... one day soon I'll build a guitar. :blink:


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## Woodmano (Apr 6, 2017)

Excellent! Can you share with us the plans of the jig?


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## difalkner (Jan 3, 2012)

Woodmano said:


> Excellent! Can you share with us the plans of the jig?


Thanks! I didn't have a plan; I just watched a video and bought the templates from LMI. The video I watched is by Robert O'Brien and he mentions that plans are available but I just figured out what I wanted and built it. Seems like I made some changes to make it work better but I don't recall what I did differently. 

Here's the video I watched -


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## RainMan 2.0 (May 6, 2014)

Very impressive system David . It's to bad there wasn't a way to support the guitar threw an opening in the spoil board so that the CNC could do it. 
Looks like you nailed it though


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## difalkner (Jan 3, 2012)

RainMan 2.0 said:


> Very impressive system David . It's to bad there wasn't a way to support the guitar threw an opening in the spoil board so that the CNC could do it.
> Looks like you nailed it though


Glad you like it, Rick! But there is a way to do it on the CNC; I made the spoilboard section removable between the frame members closest to the electrical enclosure so that I can put something tall in there and machine the end. And the main reason I did that is for things like cutting neck joints but truthfully the fixture I built works so well that I probably won't cut them on the CNC even though I could.


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