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This is what Cumpiano uses:

http://www.amazon.com/Stafast-Products- ... B003F093MS

For a mortise & tenion neck joint. I've done one dovetail, the rest have used this type of fastener.
There are several similiar types that will also work.

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A man hears what he wants to hear, and disreguards the rest. Paul Simon

When you ask about cutting the "slot", it looks like the truss rod slot is already cut, so I think you're referring to the mortise cavity in the heel block which accepts the tenon on the neck. If so, the way I do that is to use a jig (I bought mine, but you can buy the plans cheaply and make it) which uses a template with which you route the mortise. A separate part of the jig sets the neck angle and cuts the tenon. My jig is the one Jon Simpson makes (you can see it in action on YouTube), but if I had known about Robbie Obrien's jig I would have gone with that instead. Robbie's jig plans can be purchased from LMII and you can buy the hardware kit for it (but could build it cheaper using your own hardware).
LMII sells the neck bolts that are basically furniture bolts (and that's what I use), but it adds another step in that you must drill the holes in the future tenon part of your neck blank before you route the tenon. Or you can use "threaded inserts" like the ones any hardware store carries and drill them into the end grain. I don't do that anymore because you can easily split the neck wood if you don't do the insert hole just right (with your woodworking chops, that probably wouldn't be an issue for you and it's an easier way to go). You obviously then need to "transfer" those holes to the mortised heel block so you can slip the bolts through and in to the neck.
One more thing...and it's just my $0.02 (probably not worth half of that). That cutaway looks wicked tight and if you haven't done any bending, you may make yourself a heap of scrapwood. Practice, practice, practice bending those sides before you cut out your soundboard!

All right so I softened the curve of the cutout out after reading what you said and looking across the room at it. It was a lil sharp. I think this shape should be easier to bend.



I'm looking into the other things you mentioned now.

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In order to make an apple pie from scratch you must first invent the universe.
- Carl Sagan

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I think that will be much easier, and still looks nice and has good access to the upper frets. Looks like a nice top.

LMI sells neck bolt hardware, I got mine from them.

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Phil

http://www.oleninstruments.com

"Those who tilt at windmills are only considered insane by those who can't see the dragon."

Got my bracing strips cut out today. I made them a hair wider than the plans said to allow sanding. I'm gonna be working on my bending templates this week. Also while I was working on the strips I stopped for a second to look at my choices for router bits and discovered I got a couple trim bits that just need a smaller pilot bearing. Yay!!!!

_________________
In order to make an apple pie from scratch you must first invent the universe.
- Carl Sagan

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Good work!

I got bored so I decided to mark everything up. I carefully measured the template and used my fresh cut cedar strips to figure out where everything went and the angle. Don't worry I'm gonna smooth out the surface before gluing anything down. Note that I haven't marked the side tone bars. I'm still playing with the idea of F holes instead of the traditional O, or D. I've been doing a lot of reading and looking at other acoustic/electrics and I think I can pull it off with some careful adjusting of size and length. I also marked where O hole goes any way, that way if I decide it's not gonna work or it sounds like crap I can always patch them and cut the O hole out. So no worries. Also after making my side bender template and tracing one half on the soundboard and realizing one I would have to work backwards and two if I'm already bending one side with a cutout might as well do both. And that's what I wanted to begin with.

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In order to make an apple pie from scratch you must first invent the universe.
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Here's what I got so far.

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In order to make an apple pie from scratch you must first invent the universe.
- Carl Sagan

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I'm not qualified to advise, but if you go with the double cutaway, I think you're going to want to reinforce that neck block area.

Once again, don't take my word for it, but I think the bridge patch could be a bit bigger(?).

Did you leave the finger braces off on purpose?

You could extend the soundhole braces all the way to the neck block to stiffen it a bit. I would probably put carbon butress braces in it if it was me, though.

Sent from my GT-S5830 using Tapatalk 2

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"I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it."
Pablo Picasso

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Would you guys be able to post some example pics of what you mean by reinforcing the neck block area. And yea my bridge patch will be a lil bigger I was just drawing it out as the size on the plans as a reference point to mark the other braces.

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In order to make an apple pie from scratch you must first invent the universe.
- Carl Sagan

Check out F.O.F. Custom guitars on Facebook.

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I can always go back to single cutout if it would be easier to do.

_________________
In order to make an apple pie from scratch you must first invent the universe.
- Carl Sagan

Check out F.O.F. Custom guitars on Facebook.

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Would you be talking about the braces marked in the pic? I can extend them to further up the body closer the neck block? The only problem with that is they aren't but 2mm tall off the body and wouldn't help much so I would have to use taller bracing.

_________________
In order to make an apple pie from scratch you must first invent the universe.
- Carl Sagan

Check out F.O.F. Custom guitars on Facebook.

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Those soundhole braces don't have to be flat grafts. They can be taller, more substantial braces, and you could extend them up the the headblock. Once again, I'm not qualified to offer a great deal of advice but I'm interested to know myself actually as I'll be doing something similar on my next guitar. I'm not sure whether you should notch and cap them like the x brace intersection or whether that would weaken the UTB too much(?). Hopefully someone else can advise.

Personally, I'd recommend sticking to one cutaway. But what do I know?

That's a good question. And I've been looking for pictures for while now on cutout acoustic bracing and I have not seen a single pic. Now I've seen pics of plans that had the cutout as an option but as far as I could tell there wasn't any change in the bracing. So yea, any body got any ideas on how to proceed in the right way for a double cutout? And since I will be losing mass on the neck block by cutting short to Thinline size, should I extend it a lil further in towards the bottom making longer?

_________________
In order to make an apple pie from scratch you must first invent the universe.
- Carl Sagan

Check out F.O.F. Custom guitars on Facebook.

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Here's what I meant. Buttress braces:


And extended soundhole braces to form an A frame type thing with the neck block:

_________________
"I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it."
Pablo Picasso

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Looks good, I see now but do the sound hole braces need to be notched with the UTB. I can't really tell by your pic.

_________________
In order to make an apple pie from scratch you must first invent the universe.
- Carl Sagan

Check out F.O.F. Custom guitars on Facebook.

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Search for "buttresses" and see what comes up.

Yes, I half lapped them, as you do on the x brace.

_________________
"I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it."
Pablo Picasso

https://www.facebook.com/FenskeGuitars

Went out and bought a super small router bit today to cut my sound hole out. Final design is one cutout. I decided not to experiment with F holes due to my inexperience. But I did decide on this instead. I know that the sound hole should be a lil smaller since I'm going with the thinline 2 3/4inch deep sides. So here's what I did. I moved the sound hole up 4mm from where the plans say, ( this will make the fretboard hang about 1-2 mm) then I partially eclipsed the sound hole. I still have plenty of spund hole left. I plan to brace part of the eclipsed area just enough to add a hot rail. Now if this doesn't work or sounds crappy I can always remove the hotrail and finish cutting out the hole.

I had a question before I star cutting tomorrow. When I start cutting out I should leave about a 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch extra room all the way around right? Also should a make my neck or tail block longer?

_________________
In order to make an apple pie from scratch you must first invent the universe.
- Carl Sagan

Check out F.O.F. Custom guitars on Facebook.

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Jeremy, I can't speak to the eclipsed sound hole or the hot rail, but if you're going to rout a rosette into the sound board, don't cut the sound hole out yet. You will probably want to rout the rosette first, because you use a small post as the anchor-point for your circle cutting jig. You then use that same jig after the rosette is installed, to cut out the sound hole.

I was actually gonna go with out a rosette, or use a water slide one. I've also been toying around with the idea of making some Lil triangles around both the top circle and inner circle to mimic a sun an moon.
Or doing some kind of engraving. I've been looking for some kind of liquid mother of pearl to fill my engraving but so far I keep finding nail polish. I don't don't think I could cut the MOP without making it look bad. As far as the pickup and eclipse that's just something to toy with, I can easily fix it right the way it should be.

_________________
In order to make an apple pie from scratch you must first invent the universe.
- Carl Sagan

Check out F.O.F. Custom guitars on Facebook.

Www.fofcustomguitar.weebly.com

Check out the product called Inlace. It's colored epoxy to use as a liquid inlay type product. Sold online or through Woodcraft.

Ok so I was looking at the eclipsed hole and I see that it takes too much of the sound hole. So I took a ruler and drew a straight line across with enough space to play with and it takes up less than 1/3 of the original hole size and I can extend that horizontal line at least 3-4mm or more on each side giving it more pronounced D shape and adding to the size of the sound hole. That should give me the projection I'll need with a shallower guitar. Also the extended soundhole braces I need to make to help support the cutout. How thick do I make them? I've got my X and UTB braces at 8mm, will 8mm work?

_________________
In order to make an apple pie from scratch you must first invent the universe.
- Carl Sagan

Check out F.O.F. Custom guitars on Facebook.

Www.fofcustomguitar.weebly.com