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1960s style SC or TC neck build

It seems that a few years ago there were plenty of

manufacturers who produced very good quality necks that
were pretty close to vintage specifications and for a
reasonable price. Fender over the years have produced a few
types of neck, firstly the one piece maple with skunk stripe,
this was followed by the slab-board neck in the very early '60s
with the truss rod installed in the more conventional way
under the fretboard, then the veneer rosewood fretboard which
as the name suggests was a lot thinner than the slab-board, the
fretboard neck join followed the same 7-1/4inch curve as the
playing surface.
From a personal point of view I have always liked the
veneered fretboard type of neck, there is a number of theories
as to why Fender chose to build necks like this. I have seen
slab-board necks that have developed a back bow some
people suggest that this is due to the dense nature and
thickness of the brazilian rosewood, using thinner veneers
avoided this but the more likely reason is that it was a thrifty
move by Fender. Anyhow Fender had now satisfied the
bequest of musicians by incorporating a rosewood fretboard
which didn't show up unsightly playing wear stains. But for
those players who still favoured maple necks Fender did
produce maple veneer necks for a short while in 1968 and
1969 before re-introducing the one piece neck with skunk
stripe.
Just over the last few years the prices of really good quality
aftermarket necks has risen dramaticaly and a lot of the so
called "vintage" ones are quite far off the mark, for a start the
truss rod nut is always low compared to a genuine vintage
neck, none use genuine brazilian rosewood and I always have
issues with the appearance of the clay dots.
Building a neck from scratch is a time consuming painstaking
process and it HAS to be right, it's the heart of the guitar,
vintage necks were hand built, hand carved and hand sanded,
modern machines can do wonderful things but I don't think
they can replicate the tactile nature in which old guitar necks
were made.
Anyhow I digress! In nearly all my guitar builds I will build
my own neck but recently decided to concentrate on
producing veneer board necks and put together some jigs to
help me manufacture them accurately, so below is a picture
book of how I do it.

.
 Here's a picture I found on the web of a couple of Fender
necks that have been sawn down the middle to show the truss
rod curve, the top is a '50s/one piece maple neck and the
bottom a later '70s neck with bullet truss rod adjusted from the
headstock end. The truss rod is a 3/16" steel rod set in a
curved channel. By modern standards this is considered one of
the more basic designs, tightening the rod forces it to
straighten and hence give the neck a back bow. If the neck
develops a natural back bow there's nothing you can do about
it. More modern dual action truss rods can bend the neck both
ways.
 Here are three neck blanks being cut, these are pretty plain
maple blanks, I didn't want to spend too much money on
fancy woods if I was only going to produce fire wood at the
end of it!

Reducing them to the correct thickness. It's very easy

nowadays to look at Fender guitars as just electric guitars but
I always thought that the method of construction and design
was quite revolutionary, while other manufacturers were
producing more traditional instruments Leo looked at the
construction of the electric guitar in a completely new light
 and almost took it out of the hands of luthiers, designing
something that could easily be mass produced.

Tidying up the plan shape, one small and one large headstock,
I think it's pretty unanimous that CBS models are considered
poorer quality, but I have to say that I do like the large
headstock. If I had the money a late '60s four bolt neck Strat
would be my weapon of choice!

Three neck blanks routed to shape.

Drilling the tuner holes, a basic looking jig but it does the job
well, it's screwed into waste wood and once the headstock is
trimmed to thickness the temporary screw holes are removed.
Well now I'm getting to the specialist bit, this picture gives a
clue to the jig that I've built to produce the necks accurately,
installing the truss rod is quite an exacting process and I built
this jig to ensure total accuracy. As the rod is installed on a
curve both the adjustment nut and anchor point must be fitted
at an angle hence the steel guide block has a 3/8" hole set at
an angle.
 Once the nut clearance hole is drilled I insert a tube with a
3/16th hole for the truss rod, so using the jig both holes are at
the correct angle and in the right place, something that's very
much down to luck if you try it free hand!
 ....And the anchor barrel at the fixed end of the truss rod is
also drilled at the same angle. It's important to get these angles
correct to allow the truss rod to work correctly and without
putting undue strain on the anchor points.
A full view of the jig and its functions, really everything to
get the truss rod correctly installed including the curved
varying depth slot
...And the slot cut, the neck is firmly clamped in the jig the
only variable is getting the channel the correct depth which
can be done with the router depth stop. These were the first
necks I have built using this jig and I was very pleased with
the results, all the "guess work" has been taken out of the
process.
Everything lines up perfectly. Making the truss rod a tight fit
in the channel which is vital for smooth effective operation, a
truss rod that isn't tight may rattle and not apply the correct
force or enough force to bend the neck.
Cutting the 11/32 UNF thread, Ummm yeah I know I should
get a proper die wrench but a G-clamp serves the purpose!
The anchor barrel is threaded and to prevent it unscrewing the
end is peened over.
The completed truss rod ready to install.
....And trial fitted
The three necks laid out with fretboards and filler strips cut
ready to glue in over the truss rods.
The truss rods in place. Rather un-technical but the rods were
oiled and sleeved with drinking straws! This prevents any
glue sticking to them and ensures smooth operation. Also the
filler strips cut to profile and ready to glue in, it's important
that they fit tightly to the top of the metal rod which ensures
that they work effectivly.
 Rough trimming the headstock thickness, well worth taking
extra care at this stage with your left and right, measure twice
cut once... AND yes I do have an unintentionaly partly built
left handed neck under my bench..Grrrr!

Using my router table to cut the correct thickness for the

headstock.
 One of the advantages of making veneer type curved
fretboards is that you can get two from one blank, time to use
the widest newest bandsaw blade that you have, If I can't get
hold of genuine old brazilian rosewood that comes up from
time to time on ebay, ebony is a very good alternative, some
red dye will turn any brown streaks red'ish and make it look
pretty convincing.
 The necks with truss rod filler strips glued in and a simple
clamping jig to curve the fretboards to the 7-1/4" radius, they
were thoroughly steamed for a good while then clamped for a
few days. I've since modified this technique to sand the boards
to the correct curve, I'll update this page with pictures of the
tool I've made to do this
The curved fretboards.
Gluing the boards on the neck using a clamping caul, I use an
epoxy glue for this which is the generally accepted method as
most standard wood glues are water based and in this case can
cause the wood to expand and bend the neck. I've had this
happen with slabboard necks I'm not sure if it would with a
veneer neck but it's not worth the risk.

My recently made fret cutting jig, makes the job accurate and
easy, leaving the neck profile square makes it even simpler.
 Using a drill press to press the frets in, I don't know why but
sometimes it seems easier with a hammer and sometimes with
a press, it's also worth going over the fret slots with a
triangular file especially in harder woods like ebony just to
give the frets an easier start, it also ensures that the frets seat
nicely to the fretboard surface. Don't forget to fit and finish
the marker dots first! And this is the main reason why I leave
profiling the back of the neck until last, it's far easier to fit the
frets when the neck sits firmly on the bench.

All the frets fitted, I always have a close look at each fret after
its been pressed in also another look when they're all done, if
any look slightly high a tap with a hammer finishes things off.
I have no fixed rules when it comes to using glue on frets,
wood is so variable and to a certain extent fret wire can be, so
I tend to see how things go. With this neck the frets seated
VERY well with no tendency to lift at all. When it comes to
using glue I don't thinK there are any hard or fast rules,
generally at the least I will "wick" superglue on to the edge of
each fret.
Not a very good picture but just to demonstrate my very basic
approach to shaping the neck profile. I've tried various
machine tools like large quarter round router cutters and band-
sawing some of the shape, but at this late stage of manufacture
I kind of like the security of doing it by hand. So it may look a
bit of a long-winded method but I'm safe in the knowledge
that the neck won't turn into firewood just because of one slip!
Before I get going with the spoke shave I cut the waste fret
wire from the ends of the frets and roughly file them down to
within say a 16th of the fretboard edge, I don't want to risk
knocking them out of place when shaping the neck.
 A few hours later and here's an almost finished neck (with a
Daphne blue SC body) This is not the maple cap neck, it's one
of the other rosewood veneer necks. Still plenty more hours of
work to do, fret end finishing, stoning the frets flat and re
crowning, nut fitting, lacquering, I guess there's a reason why
necks aren't cheep anymore!
The relic'd headstock

Fretboard wear
 
And the back of the neck, this is the later large headstock type
neck with maple board with a heavy relic finish