Time to try a tilted headstock neck through. Tips and videos please

[tjclem]

With the exception of build #3 I have always built bolt on's with Fender style headstocks. I didn't want to experiment on a customers bass but It is time to build myself a fretted 5 so I want to try a neck through with a tilted headstock.

I started going through U-Tube videos this morning. Are there any you all have found helpful?

Any tips tricks and advice would be great. Thanks all.....t

 

[Gilmourisgod]

Check out recent posts by @Bruce Johnson on router fixtures, including one for cutting angled headstocks. I am making my first neckthrough, did the headstock with a very simple jig similar in concept (but not quality!) To Bruce's jig. Mine was only a 5 degree headstock angle, so it has no scarf joint.
Router Planing Fixtures

 

[HaMMerHeD]

Hey Tom.

I have built a series of jigs to help me with scarf joints. One for routing the scarf bevel into the neck and headstock pieces, one other for gluing it together, and one for thinning the headstock after it's glued up.

Scarf bevel jig:

Pretty simple sled jig. I set mine at 15 degrees.

Gluing jig:

You apply glue to the mating surfaces, clamp them firmly to the jig to immobilize them, and then clamp them together. The vertical stays are glued to the pine base board, and then screwed in from behind.

Headstock thicknessing jig:

Also quite simple. A router with a riser plate removes the extra stock. The angled piece is actually a piece of alder...a cut-off from a body I made a few years ago. It's glued to the birch ply base plate and then screwed in from behind.

It's the most repeatable and reliable system I've come up with for this process. The biggest downside is that if I want to use something other than 15 degrees, I have to make a whole new set of jigs....which I am currently doing for 12.5 degrees. The only other downside I've experienced is that I have to make the neck blank several inches longer, since I cut the headstock portion of square, rather than attempt to use a table saw jig to cut the 15 degree taper (because I don't have a table saw).

Edit:
It seems like it would be relatively simple to make all three of these jigs adjustable for angle. But...I don't know that I care to make the effort, as I don't change the angle often.

 

[Gilmourisgod]

Gotta love Luthiers Corner, Ask, and you Shall Receive. This place is a goldmine.

 

[tjclem]

Thanks some cool stuff to look at.

 

[Gilmourisgod]

Here's my rather pathetic little jig for the same purpose. It worked OK for a one-off, but suffered from a lack of a way to clamp the end of the neck beam more firmly in a way that wouldn't interfere with a router. You are seeing the top face of the neck beam here. I was relying on the rear clamp and double-stick tape to hold the neck down which worked out..... not so good. The top headstock face turned out very slightly out of square to the neck beam, so I had to re-do it. @Bruce Johnson method of having the two vertical sides mounted on sliding tracks that allow the end to be clamped from the sides is obviously superior in retrospect.

And here's the equally simple jig for flattening the back of the headstock after the wings were glued on. I have a volute, so I did a series of "stepped" passes to approximate the volute shape.

 

[I-Am-The-Slime]

Cleaned up with a sanding block (and after this 120 grit sticky-back stuck to a flat slate slab)

Aligned with toothpicks

And all clamped up

 

[T_Bone_TL]

@HaMMerHeD - note that if you are willing to follow @I-Am-The-Slime down the $20 (-ish) pullsaw path (knowing that you'll be cleaning it up with the router jig, so it does not need to be perfect) you could save most of those extra inches without buying a tablesawrlus. Even ye olde coping saw (not my first choice for this cut, though I do find it quite a versatile one to reach for) would do better (waste-wise) than a 90 degree shaved twice.