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I have been working on building an Archtop on and off for a very long time. I am using Benedetto's book as a guide. I am currently at the point of cutting the body mortise and neck dovetail. On page 64 of the book, it shows the dimensions for the body mortise with a slight taper from 1" to 15/16" , yet on page 87 the neck dovetail does not have a taper. It even lists it as untapered. Can this be right ? Also the body mortise shows a depth of 9/16" and the neck dovetail is only 1/2" depth. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I bought a set of templates for this, but they are Vee shaped and I would prefer to stay true to the plan. I know StewMac has them, but they are a bit pricey.

Thanks in advance,

Mike

I thought that was pretty weird, too. In addition to his book, I have the DVD series (well...mine are on VHS video). In that series, he explains why he does this. I have not re-watched the series in a very long time, but, if memory serves, it goes like this: The tenon is hardwood. The dovetail mortise socket is into softwood (spruce). His reasoning in that the hardwood tenon will compress the fibers of the softwood mortise and lock things up really tightly. Also in the video, while demonstrating this, he remembers that this particular neck block happened to be one of his last remaining pieces of mahogany, rather than spruce. He says it's still working (and it is). He dry-fits it and then points to some stains transferred from the mahogany socket to the maple dovetail tenon. Then he glues it up and clamps it home--successfully.

My thought was: The rest of us might not be so lucky. We might split our neck block inside the closed box by doing this.

Mr. Benedetto has probably built a thousand or more guitars than I have built, so who am I to second-guess him? Still...it just doesn't seem like the way I'd like to do it. ...and I haven't done it that way. You would be fine doing both mortise and tenon with the same taper, if that makes you more comfortable.

...or...make a test tenon and a softwood mortise to Benedetto's specs and clamp them home. If the test works for you, you can feel a little better about doing it on your guitar. Still seems odd and risky to me. Sorry, Mr. B. That's just the way it feels.

I think the book shows more of Mr. B's techniques rather than a step by step process.
I would never have the skill to radius a fret board freehand on a belt sander.
That being said, I would use the skills I have and use the book as a general guide.

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