For those of you that have been following along for a while, you have been waiting for this one. Its time for me to make my own guitar necks, and get Hayley Guitars rolling.
I’m using Maple for these necks. This maple has some nice figure in it that I believe will look great once some finish is applied. My construction methods aren’t too different from many others. I started out by cutting out the rough outline on the bandsaw. I’m making sure to keep it oversized at this point. This will allow me to attach my template and route it to the exact shape. Using my truss rod routing jig and a straight cutting bit, I cut the truss rod slot. (here’s the bit I used) Now, on to the fretboard.
Using a couple of mesquite fretboard blanks I had prepared earlier, I laid out my centerlines, and all the fret locations. Then using a Fret Slotting Saw, and a homemade jig to keep things square, I cut all the fret slots as well as the nut slot. Time to glue the fretboard in place. After the glue had dried, I trimmed off the excess, and routed it flush with the neck. A little sanding on a belt sander removes some thickness from the headstock and makes a nice transition from the freboard. Now, using some PSA sandpaper on a radius block, I sanded a 14″ Radius into the fretboard. This goes pretty quick if you start out with a very coarse grit. Time to add the frets. This was a matter of cutting the frets to size and tapping them into place. Now for the carving.
I like to start out with a spokeshave to remove the bulk of the material. Then I switch to a Japanese Saw Rasp, followed up by other various rasps and files, finally by a ton of hand sanding. This takes most of the time. There’s so much sanding at this point, but the results are well worth it.
I cant wait to get these necks on some guitar bodies. Oh wait, I better go make those bodies first. Thanks for stopping by.

Affiliate Links to some of the products used
Freud 1/4″ Downcutting Spiral Bit – https://amzn.to/2S7EfBn
Saw Rasp – https://amzn.to/2WobJuT
Mirka PSA Sandpaper – https://amzn.to/2WmJ09q
Radius Sanding Block – https://amzn.to/2B476Nw