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Headstock and neck marking out ~ fun - lazy - ideas đź’ˇ!   You are logged in as Guest
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estebanana

Posts: 9351
Joined: Oct. 16 2009
 

Headstock and neck marking out ~ fun... 

My take on neck/ headstock making.

I use tape and razor knife to create edges I want to work to because I smudge up pencil lines.

I had this pattern made to mark the front and back at the same time so I can saw the head stock face down and the outlines on both sides are precisely lined up. Perhaps a little overkill, but I worked with a plane ( furniture) maker to create this pattern and that was interesting. This guy makes plane kits for furniture makers.



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  REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |  Date Apr. 17 2023 10:49:38
 
estebanana

Posts: 9351
Joined: Oct. 16 2009
 

RE: Headstock and neck marking out ~... (in reply to estebanana

It’s easy to see and crisp.





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  REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |  Date Apr. 17 2023 10:51:06
 
Stu

Posts: 2522
Joined: Jan. 30 2007
From: London (the South of it), England

RE: Headstock and neck marking out ~... (in reply to estebanana

hey thats a really cool jig. the both sides at ones thing! obvoius and simple but really cool.

thanks for posting
  REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |  Date Apr. 17 2023 11:48:25
 
Firefrets

 

Posts: 111
Joined: Mar. 22 2023
 

RE: Headstock and neck marking out ~... (in reply to estebanana

I remember you getting this made. What cut out method did you settle on?
  REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |  Date Apr. 19 2023 18:39:35
 
Fawkes

 

Posts: 102
Joined: Feb. 11 2015
 

RE: Headstock and neck marking out ~... (in reply to estebanana

FWIW I have found waterjet cutting to be inexpensive and surprisingly precise.
  REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |  Date Apr. 19 2023 18:58:10
 
estebanana

Posts: 9351
Joined: Oct. 16 2009
 

RE: Headstock and neck marking out ~... (in reply to Firefrets

The machinist / designer used a CNC metal milling set up.

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  REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |  Date Apr. 20 2023 5:25:15
 
Firefrets

 

Posts: 111
Joined: Mar. 22 2023
 

RE: Headstock and neck marking out ~... (in reply to estebanana

No, I meant 'you', as in which method are you using to get her flush? I remember you weren't keen on using a router against the steel.
  REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |  Date Apr. 20 2023 9:28:37
 
estebanana

Posts: 9351
Joined: Oct. 16 2009
 

RE: Headstock and neck marking out ~... (in reply to Firefrets

quote:

ORIGINAL: Firefrets

No, I meant 'you', as in which method are you using to get her flush? I remember you weren't keen on using a router against the steel.



Who is her? She?

Yeah if you mean the tool I use to carve the headstock, I use a chisel and a knife, but rough it in with a bandsaw.

The marking in both sides allow you to put the headstock face down and cut near the line, then use a knife to cut the headstock to the line very sharply. I designed the pattern because I don’t like router work. Many people today cut the headstock with a router and while that’s a time saver and all, a lot of headstocks look DOA because they are cookie cutter. I evolved my headstock to be cut by hand, and I like that it’s necessary to cut it that way. When someone looks at it, who knows how to build, they immediately see that it’s not something you can accomplish with a router. Why is that important? It’s important because we as makers work to impress each other.

I see guitars with tons of wispy finicky line work and a router cut headstock finial and I just yawn and say poor guy doesn’t get it. It’s guts, not finicky martyrdom of marquetry that it’s about. Any fool can learn the tricks of flashy line work, and that visual noise sells a lot of guitars. But in the end the timelessness of an instrument comes from guts, not decoration. Line work is decorative and about 80% of it is shallow.

Look long and hard and Stradivari’s guitars, they are arrows of clarity released through time. A friend gave me Stewart Pollens’ book on Stradivari’s patterns which are in the museum in Cremona. I’ve studied them with great interest and looked at his sense of line and form. He puts the right amount line work on them to make them work as objects. The problem today with a great deal of guitar making ( other than flamenco guitars) is that the makers see the flat panels of the guitar as surfaces to decorate, rather than try to build the instrument so that it’s in visual agreement with itself. You can impress contemporary customers with virtuoso decoration, but if the design doesn’t have the grace and guts understood profoundly, then the decorative filigree doesn’t have meaning.


The reason I can make guitars out of orphaned backs and sides from different species of woods and it all hangs together is because I studied reductive design like Stradivari and worked to take things away as a building aesthetic, rather than add them. It’s not for everyone, but my best guitars will still look timeless when I’m long gone. And not everyone is interested that, that’s ok too.

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  REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |  Date Apr. 21 2023 15:47:18
 
Firefrets

 

Posts: 111
Joined: Mar. 22 2023
 

RE: Headstock and neck marking out ~... (in reply to estebanana

I refer to most things in the female sense, so 'she' or 'her' means the guitar in this instance. A bit like saying "She's a nice car" etc.

I don't think I've ever seen a Stradivari guitar. I just Googled now so will take a look.

Wait until you see the old girl I've added to the restoration list btw. I'll email you a few pics. She needs a lot of work, and not first in the queue either, as still need to finish that peg head, and the one from the 1700's that I think you've seen, but this one is really rare. Floral inlays ...

Your guitars are great the way they are; they're you - that's what matters most. Your personal influences and tastes are expressed to some degree in your artistry. Who cares what somebody else thinks? You can't be somebody else.

My guitars would be me. Obviously like me, they'll be incredibly handsome and charming, but falling apart around the edges, with lots of ageing, and likely to break if they fall over.
  REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |  Date Apr. 21 2023 17:52:49
 
Fawkes

 

Posts: 102
Joined: Feb. 11 2015
 

RE: Headstock and neck marking out ~... (in reply to estebanana

*lightbulb goes on* Ah it suddenly dawned on me that this operates on similar principles to a common method for marking out a violin mold and blocks that ensures agreement between back and front, with the added feature of being able to be used in a relaxed way.

The way that it's not overkill is that it smooths up a process that in its fussy aspects could tend to underscore the monotonies of instrument making. You made this process better. No one can set a value on that but you, really.
  REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |  Date Apr. 21 2023 18:16:03
 
estebanana

Posts: 9351
Joined: Oct. 16 2009
 

RE: Headstock and neck marking out ~... (in reply to Firefrets

I don’t call things he or she, I went to too much liberal arts college and was savagely beaten by gay little people and 6’4” lesbians. I just call everyone ma’am and sir.

I grew up or formed aesthetic in a violin shop with Italian violas and books. So my taste veers toward understated edges and borders.

Bring on the repair work restoration threads. Finally some meat and potatoes guitar repair.

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  REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |  Date Apr. 21 2023 18:27:58
 
Stephen Eden

 

Posts: 914
Joined: Apr. 12 2008
From: UK

RE: Headstock and neck marking out ~... (in reply to estebanana

Most of your head stock could be cut with a router and then sharpened and detailed using a chisel. It's an easy way to maintain speed, precision and crispness. All while keeping your eye in with your hand tools.

I'm not saying you should do it with a router though just that it is possible to achieve your head shape with a router and some fine tuning. Personally, I'm not much of an artist nor a romantic so these things don't bother me but I understand why you'd rather not.

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  REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |  Date Apr. 22 2023 9:52:23
 
estebanana

Posts: 9351
Joined: Oct. 16 2009
 

RE: Headstock and neck marking out ~... (in reply to Stephen Eden

I know what you mean and I have done that, and I may use the pattern to make a router pattern, but I just don’t like routing as much as knife work

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  REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |  Date Apr. 22 2023 10:43:58
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