Tenor Guitar Neck

 As mentioned earlier, this tenor guitar will have a Spanish neck joint to the body. This means that the sides will be tucked into heel slots on the side of the neck where it joins with the body of the guitar.

Read more about neck construction here.

These heel slots are cut 12-3/4" from the nut, 90° to the center line of the neck and 11/16" deep. I am left with about a 9/16" of wood in the middle of the neck.

The truss rod is 7/16" thick, so there isn't much room for error..... This is probably why a different neck joint is used with truss rods....

 The truss rod will be accessible from the sound hole for future adjustments.

Since this is a Spanish heel joint, there will be a shelf on the end of this neck block the thickness of the soundboard.

I will have to rout my truss rod channel deep enough so the soundboard will lay flat to the neck when I attach both of them together. 

This is probably another reason why other neck joints are done with truss rods.

Using a router table and a test piece, I rout a shallow channel to check for depth and alignment.

I used a 3/8" straight bit to rout the 7/16" wide channel in successive passes till I reached my desired depth. 

 Once the channel was cut, i chiseled out the shelf for my soundbaord.....

 Check if it is level....

 Drop in the truss rod and dry fit all pieces....

 Now that I have a shelf on my neck I have a gap over the truss rod to cover down the middle of the neck.

Good thing I didn't burn all my scrap wood....
note the end of my scrap wood is charred.

 Plain it to thickness....

 ....and width.....

 Check for accuracy....

 All good....

 Trim off the end...

Next, I use a heel nibbler on my table saw to rough cut the heel.... huge time saver... Thanks Hana Lima 'Ia!

 Once the heel is roughed out, I epoxied the truss rod into the channel, then glued the scrap piece in to cover the truss rod.

This should prevent any glue squeeze out that can ruin the truss rod function.

(Note to self: Next time don't use a plastic container with epoxy. I think my tray started to melt or something... the smell was kind of nauseating.)





Next up.... Fret board........