Official Luthiers Forum!

Well as some my previous posts have alluded to, I am attempting my 1st cutaway. My question, do you glue the neck block in or out of the mold. I glued the front of the neck block out of the mold taking care to keep it square and on center. But gluing the cutaway seems to be more difficult. It square and fits much better in the mold but there really is no room for the clamps. Some descriptions of pics of how others do it would be great.

Thanks
Richard

I made separate 'neck block gluing cauls' for my guitars this year - I used to glue the blocks in the mold, but found these worked much better, and faster for setup. They are simply 6 inch tall plywood cauls that have the upper bout curve, about 8 inches wide, sanded into them. i can then clamp each half of the guitars sides in dry, then clamp in the block. When doing a cutaway, if possible, i like to use a single long side to be able to get the top side to reach all the way to the treble side of the neck joint. I glue this side to the neck block first. The neck block needs to be altered on the treble side to get the cutaway closer to the side of the neck joint. Since you are then gluing the bottom guitar side to the side of the neck block where there is end grain, I use epoxy, and simply stuff some into the joint while the sides are in the mold, and then wrap the side and neck block with fibre tape to hold it in place while the glue sets. No clamps are required if the fit is good.

_________________
Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"