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Hi

Making my first neck and guess what... ive encountered a problem. (Not a massive suprise to me )

Its for a OM acoustic 14 fret 25.5" scale

It was going well but cut the neck a little thin and have been trying to sand out dents and get smoother but not really sure whether to go any further

Its now measuring 16mm around the third fret and about 19mm around the 9th fret...
The truss rod channel is 9.5mn deep
And the fretboard is 7mm thick

Am worried about the truss rod maybe breaking through or the neck or its to thin to be comfortable in the hand


Heres a pic of the dents
Any advice would be great

Conversion for imperial persons
3rd fret 0.62"
9th fret 0.74"
Fretboard 0.27"
Channel 0.37"

Cheers

Is the fingerboard on?

As for dents, wet a paper towel, get a clothes iron, place wet towel over dents, and see how much they will steam out. It can surprise you.

Hi mf

No fretboards not on yet. ..didnt know about the steam technique will give it a go

As for thickness do you reckon is it still ok

Cheers

I caution you with a thin neck for a different reason. The temptation whey you are making your first necks is to leave it more D shape than V or C. You just can't imagine that you really are going to carve so much of it away. I'm not talking D shape because you prefer that feel, I mean an exaggerated D with a real flat at the back a beefy shoulders. One of my sweetest sounding little L-00 inspired guitars has just such a neck. It is a real disappointment. It's not unplayable, but five years later I wonder what I was thinking when I carved that neck. The guitar would be ten times better if I had done a proper neck carve.
Now, add to that caution about not carving too much and not exposing the truss rod. I can see from your picture that that neck has a wide flat with heavy shoulders. Unless it is a lap steel guitar, I don't think you will like that very much as a player. I would consider that you have a lot of carving yet to do, and you seem worried at this point about surface imperfections.
So, bottom line, don't let an error in neck thickness dictate the carving of a neck. As a player, the neck is what you first notice about a guitar. Make sure the profile is right. If you expose the truss rod, then that neck was never meant to go on a guitar.

Good advice thanks.. would like to keep shaping and its wider than the fretboard at the moment so can bring the shoulders in and get rid of the flat back..
But how much stock dies the trussrod need before break through. .
Want to persevere as need to learn and if i make another at this stage the next one may have other issues ..who knows

So the neck is .62" now without the fingerboard? That's about .89" with the fingerboard. I prefer necks about .82" total at the first fret. That is only moderately thin. You could go thinner, however I suggest you stop at .78-.79" or so if you're new to this. There's a bit of room for shaping yet.

As rlrhett pointed out, it's too D shaped now. The shoulders need to be carved back. (unless you prefer a flat back neck for some reason) The part of the neck over the truss rod slot won't be affected, much. Practice on scrap if you are unsure.

You can always use a compression rod if you are worried.

Thanks Greg

So alls not lost then.. thats where this forum comes into it own...i have no real experience yet so no idea what to gauge against with things like thickness..if i type into google about neck thicknesses and i will loose a couple of hours and still get none the wiser

Thanks for the advice will persevere

Are you using templates for your neck shape? Using a series of templates to determine the neck shape whether D, C or V shaped is a good way to have a consistent neck shape and it also takes the guess work out of shaping the neck. If you have a plan a set of templates are easy to make.

_________________
http://www.cushmanguitars.com/.

A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way.
Mark Twain

No not got any templates Cush.. your right i need to get something sorted. ..i like the look of the template machine thing that you press down and it pushes up rods so you can see shape..dunno what there called

Profile guage.

Thanks thats the one

Find a neck you like as a starting point. Using the guage, carve the profile into the first fret area.

Find the profile at the 10th fret and carve that, smoothing into the heel transition.

Carefully join the two sections.

That's how I do it.

Use the profile guage to check for symmetry by turning it back and forth...

Good advice mf ..thanks going to check it against a Martin neck but think im already to thin for it but will see

If you find a neck shape you like and want to repeat the shape a set of templates can be handy to have on hand. Here are a few of mine one for F style mandolin and one for guitar. Real easy to use and make carving much easier.

_________________
http://www.cushmanguitars.com/.

A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way.
Mark Twain

Yes, do this.

It sounds like your neck is as thin as it can safely be. I would draw a center line on the back of the neck. I would then carve the neck to shape being sure to preserve the center line. That way you are unlikely to carve the neck to thin.

_________________
http://www.cushmanguitars.com/.

A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way.
Mark Twain

You will want at least 0.125" between your truss rod and the back of the neck - DAMHIKT

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"