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I'm curious is anyone around here has a favorite trick for doing this. I'm a huge fan or taking scribing measurements to transfer them for a perfect fit. Aside for perhaps tracing, what have you found luck with? I have several bodies sitting around that need bolt on necks. Theoretically I could do this with CNC, but I enjoy doing things the old fashioned way as well (I cut dovetails by hand for fun.) I can't wait to hear what you guys have come up with! It's nice being around clever people!

Thanks!

I don't quite understand the actual question.....

Are you asking about figuring out what neck geometry you will need to get it to come out right?

Are you asking how we make and shape necks by hand?

How to fit a bolt on neck....

Or... just how to make a neck to go on an instrument that's already built... like replacing a broken Taylor guitar neck or something....

I mean I more or less build every neck to fit up to it's body - I just start with my own drawing of what I want so that I don't hose it all up by forgetting my plan and doing things like getting the scale length wrong or the neck/fretboard joint at the wrong fret and having the bridge end up crossing the center of the X-brace....

If it's in the last category... I suppose I would start out by figuring out what the needed scale length was and the necessary width of the fretboard to match up with the string spacing on the bridge... Match up the heel profile, pick a string spacing at the nut and go from there....

I have built multiple necks for a few of my guitars in different scale lengths for experiment, which have started neck construction with a finished body with bridge installed. First I figure out scale lengths that will make the neck joint line up at a specific fret at the body joint. From there I build the rough blank( I use a birdbeak joint at the headstock)and I cut my tenon and drill for my bolts. Then, with the neck blank bolted on, making sure my center line lines up with the bridge, I can mark for my nut position, width , and draw a line from the outer bridge pin holes to where those strings would line up at the nut. I use a 1/8" inset at the nut, so that line is 1/8" in from my nut width. At the body joint I use 3/16" inset, so I mark 3/16" out from the lines that I drew and can now draw my final dimension of the neck onto the blank. From there it is simply making the fretboard to fit that and then shaping to your desired profile. If you aren't sure where to get the scale length info, I use the scale length calculator on StewMac's website.