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Hey all,
What is the easiest and most effective way to construct a neck joint? I bought the dovetail template from stew mac but it has been difficult for me to get the neck and body to line up. The jig is also kind of a pain. Is there a better way? Also is there a book or website you can refer me to so I can get a better explanation of the construction of the neck joint? I’m not sure how many uke builders there are in here but what kind of joints do you use in uke necks (or do you even use a joint)? Once again thanks to anyone who can help me out…..Brandon.

Well Brandon, I don't know about easiest but I use a bolt-on mortise and
tenon as per Cumpiano. It is plenty strong enough and I like the idea better
than a bolted butt joint. As far as cutting the mortise and tenon, I'm still up
in the air. Initially, I made a jig based on the one that stewmac describes
with thier neck joint routing templates but found that I didn't like it. I now
use a jig based on the one that Terry Kennedy uses to cut my neck tenon
and I love it. Works very well. I am in the middle of making a jig similiar to
the end graft jig people use but adapted to cut the mortise. It is also
vaguely similiar to the one that Robbie O'brien uses. Check out Cumpiano's
site for more info about his neck joint. I like it.

Brandon,
The dovetail is a complex join. This ain't easy.

Now with that stated, it's doable.

Basically you are making a double compound miter join in stereo, both male and female, but doing it pretty well blind.

You have to use carbon transfer or chalk or something to tell you what's touching, and what isn't.

As far as the initial setups, you'll have to work through this on your own. It's easy to sell templates, but getting those joints done is finally chisel and sandaper work.

If you want to do dovetails (there are a scant few of us) you'll basically have to figure it out. I remember this process, it took me a couple of weeks to build jigs, test, modify, and by-golly, make some nice dovetail tooling.

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Easiest joint to fabricate. That would be a bolt on butt joint.

Easiest joint to to fit to the guitar. I would say a mortise and tenon bolt on.

bolt a mortice & tenon a la Cumpiano

the ONLY way......

well, obviously not, but you know what i mean!!

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Another vote for the bolt on M&T joint.  

At one time or another I've seen all of the standard neck joints used on the uke. Most common seems to be the simple butt joint.

David Hurd has an interesting page showing how he does it:

http://www.ukuleles.com/BuildingHowTo/neck2body.html

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D..

While we're at it, here's another useful page that shows a variety of methods:

http://www.hanalima.com/building_spline.shtml

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D..

I copied my jig from the one I saw in Charles Fox's shop during his course.  It works fine with the Stew Mac templates.  Paul Woolson has made some nice mods to the same jig and it's all in the archives.
You can get the upper bout angle exactly right for the neck set you want when you build the box and then transfer angle that to the jig.  It makes setting the neck a lot easier.
A million ways to do this that all work but the bolt-on M&T with the Cumpiano barrel bolts is what has worked best for me.
Terry

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It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.