Official Luthiers Forum!

I'm workin on a neck-through solid body electric in sipo mahogany.

I don't have my own bandsaw so I gave it to a guy who would saw it at his job. He did pretty well, except for the headstock. It's not straght, it's not very good.

Should I spent hours trying to get it good with a lot of sandpaper? Or should I just cut the entire neck of at the body to make a les paul style glued in neck?

Why I whouldn't cut it off:
I want a neck through guitar
I started this guitar 17 years ago (it"s my third) and went to college, build a house, got kids while the wood was getting better. I want to use that wood.

why I would cut it off:
The headstock and neck are one piece of wood, The angle weakens it a lot and the thruss rod adjustment is at the headstock too (another weak point).
The scale is Stratocaster size and I want it to be a bit smaller.

This question made me stop working on it so much years ago. I'm picking up where I left it and I hope someone on this forum kan answer.

It looks like this (fingerboard not yet glued) I'll post details if needed to answer my question.

I'd keep it. Bad karma wasting good wood. Don't use sandpaper for any significant shaping work. There are better tools. Rasp, file, chisel, gouge, scraper. I can't see exactly what's wrong with it, so I'm not sure which ones would be best for the job.

But if you do change the scale length, make sure the bridge can adjust far enough forward, or that you don't mind losing a fret due to the pickup already being routed.

Nice looking guitar

Looks like the tuner holes are too close to the edge. Maybe you could cut the head along the holes and glue on another piece
Changing the scale length is harder....is that bridge position set already? If you can't move the bridge, you'll have to cut the neck

and this would give me a new straight line to base the shaping of the head upon. The only solid wood around the house is a piece of beech. I don't think that would be a problem.

thanks for the tips.

I would just reshape the headstock. Even if you have to add some wood, you could easily make that look pretty cool. Nice guitar!

I spend half an hour with a chisel and I think it's going to be fine without cutting pieces off. I'd never used a chisel to make a plane surface before (I'm all for curves) but it seems to be working.

If you had to scarf a whole new headstock on there, it could be done, though.

_________________
Old growth, shmold growth!

Just a thought. If you still have some of the wood you used, could you cut the existing one just inboard of the tuner holes and glue a piece back on to shape the way you want? Some dowels would add the necessary cross grain strength. Or for that matter a contrasting piece glued on. Make it look like you meant it to be there. I once drilled through a weapon I was making for someone special. Covered the mistake by inlaying some coins on the side that wasn't supposed to be drilled. For that matter, you could laminate some metal to the back side or even thin out the head, cut a metal piece to contour, and laminate another piece of wood over it. Get creative and it will look great.

I'd keep the neck and redo the headstock to suit