Have I Found the Best Way to Build a Neck Through Guitar? | CNC Woodworking

[@Repsolwhite]

my heart definitely stopped the moment I saw that spindle travel over the fret board too! Well done Mike!

[@WoodshopMike]

🤣🤣🤣 I checked the tool path soooo many times! Thank you! 😃

[@BoneheadGuitars]

Awesome. Someday I want a CNC machine.

[@WoodshopMike]

Thank you! The CNC is definitely a fun tool to have in the shop 😃

[@jeffhampton6972]

Holy heck, this is great! I'm a hobbyist guitar maker who's looking to get more into this, and you video was both inspiring and very informative. Thanks!

[@WoodshopMike]

Thank you very much! Happy to help if I can👍👍

[@timothycreasy2161]

I never knew making an guitar required so many steps and so much time !! But it is coming along nicely. 🤘✌️

[@WoodshopMike]

There are much easier styles to make, but that's not how I roll 🤣. Thank you sir! (Just wait until I get into the next guitar build 😃)

[@billboy7390]

Very impressive worK with the CNC. You are a very good at designing what will be one nice guitar.

[@WoodshopMike]

Thank you! It's been a fun challenge thinking through the process. I've built a few other varieties of this guitar (semi-hollow and carved back and top solid body) before having access to a CNC for this one. They've all been fun builds😃

[@michaelmenkes7233]

not bad for first time. Its all about order of operations. Hot tip: fretboard goes on AFTER you've set the wings to the neck and carved out the body. This also gives you the ability to adjust the heights if things didn't align.

[@WoodshopMike]

Thank you! This isn't the first guitar I've built, just the first one I've done a video on. Thanks for the tip, I've seen folks do it both ways, but I understand the benefits of your approach. Thanks for watching, have a good one

[@cd0u50c9]

Not necessarily. Manufacturers like Warwick have the fingerboard on the central portion of the neck thru before the wings are glued on, but equally that's a mass produced process.

[@TyroAbecedarian]

Fantastic work!. I love the project. I have a CNC as well sot it's great to see how you create such a nice project. I am planning out a neck through semi-hollow. I would love to hear any tips you might have

[@WoodshopMike]

Thank you, I'm glad you loved the project! I built this same guitar as a neck thru semi-hollow, but the top and back were both drop tops so you couldn't tell it was a neck thru from appearances. It's a bit more involved, but only in the sense that you have to double check a lot more 😀 Is there anything in particular your unsure about with the process? Regards, Mike

[@corywillis3560]

Do you have the next step in this journey posted by chance? Id love to see the finished product

[@WoodshopMike]

I sure do! It's the one that's mentioned at the end of the video 👍 Here's a link to the full playlist for the project kzbin.info/aero/PLsy-TxTOlb0aKZszrzG8bj3gGtvV9JvnQ Cheers!

[@Tarheelfoodie828]

Man you’ve been doing this since Highschool. You’re amazing at what you do!! Way to rep J-Rob and Cab Co. in a good way!

[@WoodshopMike]

Thank you! 👊👊

[@EdBender]

I never saw the need to align body and wings. Just cut the wings as big rectangles, glue them to the sides of the body, and THEN shape the body as a whole. As for gluing the fretboard and placing the frets so early: a pro luthier once told me that should be last on the list. If you screw up ANYTHING else in the process, you lose your fretboard (usually expensive wood), your frets (can be expensive too if good quality SS) and most likely your trussrod will be difficult to recover. In other words, you lose all the work done to the neck if something goes wrong with the body. Sounded smart to me. The only way to salvage that would be to dump the neckthrough idea, cut the neck out, and do another regular guitar with that neck. Good video. sometimes I wish I had a router, but on the other hand I build for hobby, so what's the sense in doing cookie-cutter guitars to me? The only PITA is neck shaping, a router would be good for consistent neck profiles. Wish you luck!

[@robertboughton11]

Nice job on the guitar

[@WoodshopMike]

Thank you so much!

[@markhendrix745]

Would love to see you and the wife doing some more christmas projects

[@WoodshopMike]

Those were fun. Not sure when we'll get back to those though😃

[@markhendrix745]

@@WoodshopMike no time better then the present

[@mareDBS]

To me, the most interesting part is how you successfully align the guitar (front and back sides). I need to learn how to do this on Shaper Origin

[@WoodshopMike]

Thanks! It made assembly so much easier😃. The shaper origin is a very cool tool, I'm confident it can handle this kind of task!

[@robertmizek3315]

Nice approach Mike. I’ve never seen the dog-bone method used before and it’s really innovative. There are a whole bunch of opportunities to use it besides guitar bodies. Your whole process approach is extremely well thought out and your work holding choices are perfectly suited to maintain positional accuracy and allow aggressive cuts if desired without worry of the body shifting. Bob Mizek, Roberts Luthiery

[@WoodshopMike]

Thank you so much Bob! I really enjoyed thinking through the work holding and operational sequences. Cheers!

[@kenburnette1121]

Nice work!

[@WoodshopMike]

Thanks! 👊👊

[@T0tenkampf]

Pretty interesting...makes me wonder if using an actual bowtie shape can be slightly offset from the cavity and thus be used like a sort of draw pin / wedge clamp to really suck the sides into the neck. Well, I know it can be done, I guess the question is if its worth the effort

[@WoodshopMike]

Thanks! I'm pretty happy with this solution. It sure beats babying the glue up and hoping nothing slips outta place! I had pretty good clamping from the dog bone shape, not sure how much more a bowtie would help to lock things down, but it certainly wouldn't hurt.

[@lokispeicher8103]

Truss Rod?

[@WoodshopMike]

Yep there's one in there! I showed that in the neck making video👍

[@HoshijiroTS336]

I'm confused. I thought neck through guitars were made from one single piece of wood.. Neck and body both one piece. So the same piece of wood goes all the way through the guitar. Hence the term "neck through".

[@WoodshopMike]

The neck does go all the way through the body👍

[@gordontall2441]

Yeah I will never be able to afford any of those machines.

[@WoodshopMike]

I've been slowly building my shop out over the past 20 years, buying used tools of craigslist and upgrading as I could. It's been an endeavor for sure but even without my current setup this guitar can build built with a router, bandsaw, and a couple hand tools. That's how I built my first 4 guitars.