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Good Day, I'm just starting one that will finally involve the cutaway attachment that I made a number of years ago for my Fox Bender. It will be a Venetian type out of Curly Maple with a D type heel. I'm thinking it should be pretty straight forward but I would be happy to hear some input from the brotherhood.

I've made up a dedicated cutaway half of a mould for one of my models and ready to go from there. I will thin the sides to .080 and take the cutaway area down a little more to .060 or so. I do have some SS2. In making and gluing the neck block I do want the fingerboard edge to be flush with the side. At least at the neck/body joint. I'm not sure how far the taper of the FB will follow the contour of body? I thing that would depend on the neck block? So the neck block on the cutaway side of the centre line should be FB width divided by 2 (at the 14th fret) minus the thickness of the side and add .010 or so. Once the FB is glued onto the neck I would then start shaping the heel to follow the body and thin the side (the extra .010) to meet the FB?

Another question would be, using the cutaway attachment, would I bend the waist and cutaway simultaneously?

How's that sound. What could possibly go wrong, right! haha

Any advice would be welcome. Thanks.

Cheers,
Danny

That's exactly how I calculate the width of the neck block on the cutaway side, including adding back 0.010".

I'm wondering if it is necessary or good to thin the maple to 0.060. The rosewood and mahogany Venetian cutaways I've done were 0.080" thick and I used SSII. I don't have experience doing tight bends of curly maple for cutaways though. If the maple bends smoothly, it seems it would be fine, but if it ripples or makes facets, you might not have a lot of leeway for sanding it flat.

In my case, the taper of the fretboard follows the side to a little past the 15th fret before the side starts to diverge away into the curve of the cutaway.

_________________
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We sand the neck block on the cutaway side to have the exact angle of the fingerboard. It helps to cut a slot in the mold so that when making the frame, you can extend the side past the block. The non cutaway side can butt against it, and if you make your neck joint go straight down instead of the French heel or whatever it may actually be called, the joint is covered and you don't need to mitre.

We don't add the .010, as once the neck blank is fitted there is just a bit if wiggle room to locate the fingerboard perfectly smooth.

The neck blank is sanded down to meet the body, we don't sand the body to meet the neck...

Oh, and be real careful of that dang corner. It's easy to dump it when sanding or chip it...

Thanks Guys. Jay - I'm pretty sure this wood won't be very cranky and I've never used SS2. I'll do a tester at .080. I know what you mean leaving some thickness. It always amazes me when I hear about some 1937 Martin that has .040 sides. Some room for thought there.

Thanks Ed. That's the look I'm going for. Without the corner boo boo. Funny. I was looking around today and it would appear you are in some pretty good company... I have a goal. haha

I can see why you would sand the neck to meet the body, but what about the FB. If it's bound, there's not a lot of wiggle room.

Great looking Guitar BTW. Looks like a very nicely cut piece of Wenge? Thanks for the great photos.

Wenge we cut ourselves, too!

We can usually do gooderer than that.



A clean join there gets especially difficult with a gloss coat.

Not sure what you mean about the fingerboard.

While the neck blank is still in its untapered state (pretend this one has its truss rod slot and is angled and attached by whatever your normal method)

Line up fret board exactly...

And pin it's location in your normal way (we use 1/16" welding rod through the slots in 4 spots so it can't slide during glueing).

Then, cut off the excess leaving a bit of room on the cutaway sides heel, carve your neck but make sure you don't touch the extra bit, then reattach your neck, sand the heel flush to the sides and blend into the heel.

That's our process and it seems to work ok.

That's great Ed! Thanks for the photos. That makes a bit more clear. I owe you one.

Eh no worries, eh!