Below, two necks trimmed for the scarf joint.  One has glue and has the pieces positioned ready to cramp.

put em togedder

When the pieces are roughly aligned, the cramp is added and the pieces can be jammed in.

Cramp on scarf

The cramp is the perfect size for the scarf joint, leaving the gluey oozey  edges clear of the cramp.  The gap in the cramp is the thickness of the head without rosewood lamination.

cramp clamp

joint and cramp

The cramp determines the thickness. The thicker part to the left will be planed away.

The cramp determines the thickness. The thicker part to the left will be planed away.

Below: planing for thickness of head

planing for thickness of head

during planing

Below:  The side is planed square. See the joint quality.

plane the side

2 necks

The scarf joint, properly done is a really strong joint, a great (humble) alternative to the V joint.

A V joint

The V Joint.  It’s a sort of show-off joint. It adds time to the construction of the guitar for sure.  The alternative scarf joint is certainly easier and quicker.  However, the V Joint is, well… sexier, and challenging.

Everything needs to be planned.  The V has to fit, the shoulders must touch, the angle for the head needs to be set.  It starts with the angle of the head.  Here are a couple necks with a 10 degree angle.

Then, a centerline is drawn.

Next the V is drawn on the slant, centered of course on the centerline.

The places where the joint will be are marked with pencil and then knife.

Then rough cut near to the line with a saw.  Trimming to the line will be done with files, chisels, and knifes. Mostly chisel work.  After doing both sides neck and head, top and bottom, male and female, yin and yang, I start fine fitting.

Here I’m test fitting; making sure that the joint fits, and the edges of the head and neck align and mugging for the camera.  I’m so vain.  Perhaps that’s why it’s called the V joint.

Yep.  Looks aligned nicely. 

Let’s look at the joint.  Pretty good fit. A little nick near the vertex of the V.  :(

The shoulders kiss.

But it needs to be tight!  No light can come through.  So I hold it up to my eye while pressing the joint together to see if light comes through.  It is hard to get every part of the joint closed perfectly.

And when it’s ready it gets glued on this jig, which holds the angle while the web clamp draws the pieces together.

It’s hot hide glue and it squeezes out of the joint.  Hide glue draws the pieces together as it shrinks, but it needs the joint to fit really well.  The next morning I can unclamp.

You can see where the glued came out of the joint and the entire area needs to be cleaned up, before it looks like the first picture in this post.

trimmed up V joint

…. so, the above pictures shows the joint after the neck is trimmed to thickness and the volute is now flush with the back of the head.

The rosette has a function…  it isolates the soundhole from cracks. Other than that, they are decorative!  Here is a collection of some rosettes…  just for some ideas.  Let me know if a material intrigues your or if there are any elements that you like particularly positive or negative.

-Steve

Before:

After:

For the full dazzle in close-up, click the pic.