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Hi all, I know it’s been QUITE a while since my last post but the construction had been put on hold to make room for a bunch of Telecasters! (you can see the Telecaster necks in the background of the next pic)

Nonetheless, as promised here’s the post about attaching the neck to the body…..

So before I rushed through all this I decided to take my time and do it properly so I didn’t goof up too badly LOL. I laid my straight rule on the top of the body and marked a centre line. This would line up with the trussrod channel I cut into the neck. That should give me exact centre.

Next, with some careful measuring, I was able to mark the locations where the bolts needed to go. Not an easy task, given that any (I mean ANY) variance in this measurement would mean that the neck would be completely off centre. Remember that the bolts need to go through the mahogany block that’s inside the top of the body.

So with the hole locations marked, I set out to drill the holes. Thankfully my drill has one of those bubble levellers on top so drilling a straight hole wasn’t as bad as it could have been. Once the holes were drilled I stuck the bolts through to see how they lined up.

Next time we’ll install the trussrod.

Cheers!

Hi all,

Today we’ll bolt the neck to the body. I must say, I wasn’t that excited about doing this part because the book laid out instructions on doing this with a dovetail joint. If you’ve never seen one it’s ok – it’s probably the most difficult way to do this. In July of last year I was invited to visit Marc Beneteau’s shop in St. Thomas, Ontario – he’s been building acoustic guitars since 1974. The method he uses for attaching neck to the bodies is a simple bolting system. I figured if it’s worked for him for the past 35 years then it should work for me. LOL

So here I’ve found the centre line and marked out where I want the threaded inserts to be. I purchased the bolts and inserts at Home Depot. They’re the exact bolts / inserts that Marc Beneteau uses. (View his website HERE)

Next I took the threaded insert (it has threads on the inside for the bolt and the outside to screw into the neck heel) and found a drill bit slightly smaller than it. I needed to drill out enough wood to countersink the insert but not so much that its threads wouldn’t grab tightly. I wrapped a piece of tape around the bit so I knew how deep I needed to go.

So once that was done I could thread the inserts into the neck heel with a big common screw driver. Not a perfect job but it worked – and in further posts you’ll see that it actually worked better than I thought it would!

Next time we’ll put the bolts into the body.