Making a Guitar Neck and Fretboard By Hand

Watch me show you how I built an electric guitar neck and fretboard by hand real quick.

List of Essential Guitar Making Tools:
Notched Straight edge
Leveling Beam
Fret End Dressing File
Triangular Fret Dressing File
Nut Slotting File Set
Fret Scale Ruler

Tools I Use:

Camera Gear I Use:

Logo by Tim Lautensack

Music:
New Year - Bad Snacks
Summer in the Neighborhood - Bad Snacks
Wallflowers - Bad Snacks

[meghanwartman]

I’m currently working on making a guitar completely by hand for the first time and I’m just starting to move onto building the neck so the timing for this video was perfect!

[karlvonpackal]

Super cool trick I learned from Crimson Guitars! Use masking tape and superglue rather than double sided tape! One piece tape to top item, one piece tape to bottom item, super glue together, when done just pull it off, masking tape has less tack to deal with... if only it was an original idea.

[davekimball]

Fantastic work, can't imagine how your neck work will only get better from here and this was awesome work.

[garretalfert]

Thanks for the detailed description about what goes into building a fretboard. Really helpful. I already commented on the foureyes channel when your collab was first announced: I really like that the two of you banded together. You both are my most favorite Youtubers and I think this is a match made in heaven. Keep up the great work and looking forward to double the amount of puns in the future.

[HugTheLoveBear]

Hey mate great stuff, you are hands down my favourite Youtuber and I hope you grow and prosper to the level that you deserve. My personal favourite video is the skateboard make. It's short, simple has great music and got me hooked on you made me watch every other video of yours and I believe I have gone back to it at least 12 times. Have a great one and I look forward to more puns.

[davidm]

Well I love both channels so whatever works for them, makes them stronger and keep on producing great videos gets my vote

[marcdinsmore]

Recently thinking about a side hustle/ new career. Engineer by trade. Musician by heart. EXCELLENT intro vid!

[mcclane]

I've just made my first neck...ftom plywood (don't ask!) Encountered many of the same issues, but yours looks great👍

[DevinTrierMaker]

Fret end cutters! Clever trick to make your own. What a ton of work - kudos on the build!

[Jinnuksuk]

One thing most luthiers don't provide in their videos is mistakes. An essential step in mastering your skills. I think I speak for everyone when I say Thank you for showing us what not to do. And glad that your neck turned out nicely.
This had me wondering though if you could intentionally add slight dents or non intrusive markers to feel where in the neck you are instead of having to look down to see where you're fretting.

[bgreg]

Great video! As a woodworker of 40+ years and someone who knows next to nothing about playing a guitar, I have always been fascinated by the woodworking aspect of guitars and would love to try making one! Thank you for sharing the process!

[ATthemusician]

I just finished my first guitar, which was a completely unique design. I didn't have a small enough flush trim bit so I had to chisel the truss rod channel, which took about 6 hours. Definitely recommend getting a jig for a router. I also did a multiscale neck, what I did was create the fretboard on the marzguitar workbench on FreeCAD, and then convert to SVG and print it using inkscape. Then I put painters tape on the fretboard and super glued the paper template onto the taped fretboard and you easily peel it off when done with cutting the slots. It intonates perfectly and feels great, although I could have shaped the neck a little thinner.

[CharlesWebb-enzn]

This video was very helpful, I have been a musician and a carpenter my whole life. I have been planning my first guitar build for about a year now. I was planning on having a neck made for the body, but this video answered so many questions.

[TotalBoat]

we'll watch you build anything on any channel. Don't stop now!

[mortenjohansen]

Not boring at all. Nice fret wire bender, good solution to an overpriced problem. Haven't built a complete neck yet but done quite a few repairs and refrets, I found that a set of radiused blocks matching the neck with just space for some wadding felt and some large speed clamps and again wadding on the fretboard will hold the neck still and prevent ''bounce'' if using a hammer. I later converted a vicegrip for fret instalation, the bonous of this was that with practise I had very little leveling to do. I made the vicegrip so that I can change the fret side to suit the radius. So only on acustics do I need a hammer for the 6 frets from the 12th after that I use a clamp and radiused block through the sound hole.

[bevanward]

Awesome as always hope the collaboration works well for you. Is amazing material for those of us on the other side. Most appreciated!! Bless

[stefanoangrisano]

Great work! If I may add a couple of things...
- I cut my fret slots a bit wider and use CA glue to set the frets in, by doing so the fretboard doesn't tend to warp over time - this obviously doesn't happen on electric guitar necks, but can be a pain in the *** on classical / acoustic guitars where the lower part of the fretboard is not supported by the neck;
- maybe your design doesn't require it, but on strat-style guitars having the fretboard extend a little bit beyond the neck allows for an extra fret;
- recrowning frets after levelling using a triangular file can be tedious, if you get a recrowning file you can save a lot of time - and they're not too expensive.
Thanks for the hint on grinding the cutter to cut fret ends, I hadn't thought about it. ;o)

[GarethFlatlands]

Thanks, very helpful video. When I went on a bass building course, we used a router with a roundover bit to do the lions share of the neck shaping. It left a small ridge along the back of the neck, and the fine tuning was done with one of the round files you used, along with a saw rasp to 'join up' the shaped neck ends. It worked great, and even a woodworking novice like me was able to do it with minimal supervision.

[tvabroderenmic]

I really love the fusion betwewn you and chris! You truly have an eye for details!

[rustyaxelrod]

Not bored at all! Most of the neck making videos are about using a machine. Only a handful are about hand shaping. I would like to see some discussion about profiles and radius options. Thanks for posting 👍