Grand Angus Project, Part 2: Shaping the head

My objective going in to today was to complete 2 things; shape the headstock and glue the neck to the body. It turned out the template I had for the neck shape was slightly too small, which made it difficult to use. So, rather than just trace the outline, I used the template as a guide and drew the shape on the headstock in pencil.

The first step was to get the rough shape cut out, before starting to make it pretty. I used a triangle file to cut out the dip in the middle, then clamped the neck to the little work bench to do the edges.

With the neck in place I used a jigsaw to cut the (very) rough outline (thanks for the loan, Stu!). This worked fine, although I stayed well away from the lines which left me with a fair bit to file and sand. That was intentional, because I'm not particularly confident with the jigsaw.

Once the rough cutting was done I used a bastard file to get the shape closer to the finished product. I filed almost to the line at several places along each of the curved sections before attacking it with sandpaper. I used 240 grit sandpaper, which left the surface a lot smoother than I expected.

The shape was too awkward to use a sanding block, so I would pinch the sandpaper between my thumb and the wood and use my other hand to drag the paper through, which resulted in clean smooth strokes along the natural curve. This took a while (read: hours!), but the result was quite good. See below, the right hand side after sanding and the left hand side after filing but before sanding

With the right hand side complete, I attacked the left. The challenge was now not just making the sides curve smoothly, but make the curvature symmetrical. Or at least, as close to symmetrical as I was able.

The left side probably took a little longer than the right. As well as the issue of trying to get it to match the right hand side, I also found that my sanding hadn't been particularly even on this side and the shape at the back edge was quite a bit different to the front, so I had to spend some time doing a bit of cleanup work there. No biggie though. In the end, I was pretty happy with the way it turned out.


It's not a perfect replica; if you were to compare it to a legitimate Gibson headstock you'll see the curvature has a lower profile on mine. I'm not terribly concerned about that, though. I'm actually pretty chuffed with the way it came out, considering my lack of knowledge or experience about this sort of thing.

Anyway, once the headstock was finished it was time to glue the neck. This was the part that I had been least looking forward to in the lead up to this project, as screwing up here could ruin the whole thing. I was therefore pretty relieved when I first placed the neck in to the slot in the body; it fit like a glove. Beautifully snug with no room for movement meant that I couldn't possibly screw up the left/right alignment of the neck. All I had to do was make sure the tang (or tenon) was flat against the body.

To prepare for gluing, I lay some cardboard over the work bench where the guitar will be lying to protect from surface imprints on the guitar when it's clamped. I then lathered the neck cavity with wood glue. A point on the glue I'm using, it's some stuff I picked up from Bunnings that's supposed to be epic strong, but I admit I have some concerns. I consider this as possibly a weak link that may reveal it's ugly head later on... Fingers crossed, hey!?

With the glue in place it was time to place the neck. It was a big moment. I was a bit excited, if I'm honest. I placed the neck in the cavity, making sure it was tight and flat. I then placed another piece of cardboard over the end of the fingerboard and a piece of scrap wood on top of that as a surface for the clamp.

I clamped the bit of scrap wood and the underside of the bench, making a sort of bench-cardboard-guitar-neck-cardboard-wood sandwich, and proceeded to clean up the leaking glue (of which there was plenty).

I did have a bit of a moment where I was concerned the neck might not be in there flat, so I unclamped to check, but I think that was just paranoia. I re-clamped and have now left it to set overnight.

I am pleased I got done everything I wanted to today. Once the neck is set the next step will be to tape over everything I don't want paint on. To do a good job of that means spending the time to do it properly, so I might tackle that task tomorrow. After that will be time to paint. Unlikely I'll get to that this weekend - maybe next week! That will likely be the biggest adventure of all.