Official Luthiers Forum!

Hi All..

As I've probably said elsewhere, the last instruments I built were around 15+ years ago, a selection of basses, telecasters etc, so I'm no newbie.

Then, there really was no internet and therefore very little in the way of forums and professionals on tap!

Here goes - Jazz bass neck, Flamed Maple, ebony fretted board, nothing fancy.

What's the best order?

Get neck blank & mark it all out
rout for truss rod channel
Cut head to shape, and cut neck to width +0.5mm
Cut fret slots in fingerboard
Cut fingerboard to shape + 0.5mm for final shaping
Glue fingerboard on
Radius the fingerboard
Put frets in
Shape neck using all sorts of tools...

Comments? Was I on the right lines?

This is my order of construction - others may do it differently. I typically do a stacked heel and angled headstock with a scarf joint. It is very important to do all operations that require square flat sides first using band or table saws. I usually work with a 3 by 7/8 mahogany blank 34 or so long.

True up sides
Cut scarf headstock joint and glue up
Cut blocks for heel and glue up
Rout truss rod channel. Rout clearance at end of channel for adjuster.
Make all the cuts for the heel that require flat square surfaces. That includes the tenon for whatever kind of joint I'm going to do
Rough cut the back of the neck to its thickness (neck will be on its side in the band saw)
Rough cut the sides of the neck from nut to heel (neck will be on the fretboard face in band saw) - neck is slightly wide at this time
Cut or rout the headstock shape
Rough shape back of neck and heel using spoke shaves, chisels, planes and other impliments of distruction
Shape, radius, slot fretboard (I do separate boards). Bind board if necessary. Install markers (note, board is final width at this point)
Fret board (I fret the board before its glued on, pressing them in). Others obviously do it later.
Install truss rod in neck, glue on fretboard.
Bring the sides of the neck to the fretboard
Final shape the neck
Add side markers
Set the neck angle
Glue on head plate, heel plate, install inlay. Drill tuner holes.

Most of the steps are shown starting a page 2 of this Les Paul style build thread.

http://www.harmonycentral.com/forum/for ... dded/page2

page 3 has some pictures of shaping the neck. page 4 has the fretting.

Good luck with your build. If you don't have it I highly recommend Melvyn Hiscock's book Make Your Own Electric Guitar He does build a thru neck bass as one of the projects

I think yes you were on the right lines. With a Fender style I like to drill the tuner holes before I slice the head to thickness. Nice clean holes that way.
I also like to shape the end of the fretboard to head before I start sanding radius.
After I radius I have to cut the slots again...I like the fret slots to be as close as I can get them (so very little if any filler is used) so my initial cut is never deep enough.

Your list modified as I would make it.

Get neck blank & mark it all out ( one side of blank very straight and that's the side used to measure for center-line/ truss-rod location and cut to length)
rout for truss rod channel
Cut head and neck to shape
Drill tuner holes
Cut fret slots
Install fret markers.
Glue fingerboard on and do the final router sizing to neck.
Slice the head to thickness and sand the transition (on Fender style)
Radius the fingerboard and rework the fret slots to desired depth.
Glue and press the frets in.
Sand/bevel fret ends.
Install side dots.
Shape neck using all sorts of tools...