Hofner score

[Daniel_J]

Actually, Doc, the heel is the tenon. That's the way Hofner (and violin builders) set their necks to the body.
You just have to rout and carve the neck block so it will be the negative of the heel. You'll definitely need to build a template, but there's always some hand work involve in joints like that.

Hofner is very proud to advertise the fact that their instruments have "hand fitted necks", and they should be because it really involves some experience crafsmanship to get it just right. The chinese made series they offer nowadays have a simple, template driven, dovetail joint.
A quick image search and I found this: http://sbmac.typepad.com/scotts_guitar_blog/images/hofnermontage.jpg

You can clearly see the neck joint. Just rout the neck block the shape of the heel. It's really not all that hard, you just have to think through the process very careful and do some testing on scrap.

[drbassman]

I see.  Well, having never carved a tenon by hand, this will definitely be a first for me.  Your right about practicing on scraps, I do it all the time now having learned from experience that experience is a great teacher!!!

What about my idea of building the tenon from a separate piece of maple and gluing it into place?  That would give me plenty of opportunity to get it right without screwing up the neck!

[drbassman]

OK Daniel,
I looked at the neck again and your are right on target.  There is addition wood in the heel to accommodate the carving of the tenon.  So, adding a piece would not really work as the heel would end up too deep and out of proportion.

So, I am considering my first carving, after some practice on scrap.  I probably will do a straight tenon rather than dovetail just to keep my nerves in check.  I am not a woodcarver at all, so this is going to be a significant challenge as it is!  I have a friend who builds hollow body archtops with straight tenons and I think I can handle that as a first experience. 

Now to decide how deep the tenon should be.  The neck block isn't too deep, so I assume I shouldn't go into it more than 60% or so.  Make sense?

[Dave W]

You should do a pictorial on this.

[drbassman]

You should do a pictorial on this.

I'll do that, starting with the carving and gluing.

[Daniel_J]

Checking the picture of the Hofner you posted I can see the neck to body joint is between the 16th and 17th fret.
You can do the same to determine how deep the tenon should be.

You should be fine with a straight tenon, but I think it would be less work to do like Hofner and keep the neck as it is and carve the neck block acording to the shape of the heel.

[drbassman]

Checking the picture of the Hofner you posted I can see the neck to body joint is between the 16th and 17th fret.
You can do the same to determine how deep the tenon should be.

You should be fine with a straight tenon, but I think it would be less work to do like Hofner and keep the neck as it is and carve the neck block acording to the shape of the heel.

Yeah, you're probably right.  Now I have to give myself carving lessons!  Any suggestions how I should start?  I may not even have the proper tools, I'm entering into the twiloght zone here.............

[Daniel_J]

You can start by building a template and use the router on some scrap and see how it goes. The tricky part would be to attach the template to the body correctly so the neck be aligned to the center line and get the right amount of space to align the fretboard to the bridge height.

When I do set-necks with Gibson style tenon and mortise joints I always set my template so I can rout a very tight joint. Then I use a sharp chisel to do some fine tunning, usually in the tenon.

You can ask your friend to show you how he does the neck joints in his archtops so you can have an idea about the process and see how you can approach it.

I wish I had pictures to show you how I've done it in some of my projects, but I don't have the habit to take pictures while working. I was planing to take pictures of one of my project so I could post a kind of a step-by-step pictorial here, but I lost my camera, so that's gonna have to wait.

[drbassman]

I sure wish I could have routed the tenon in before the tongue and fret board was glued on!  Oh well, we'll see.

[Basshappi]

Thanks guys!  This is the look I'm going for in terms of the hardware.............



This is the color I'll probably shoot for...................



I love the tort pickguard!

I don't know Doc, that two-color burst is perty dern awesome (especially with that pearloid pg)!

[Pilgrim]

I like the pearloid better, but then I'm fond of bright, shiny objects.

[drbassman]

I like the pearloid better, but then I'm fond of bright, shiny objects.

Me too, but I'm very found of tort for it's old vintage look.  We'll see when the time comes..........

[drbassman]

OK, now we start.  The first order of business is to fix a piece of the tiger maple veneer that chipped off over the years.



First, I cleaned it out with a scraper and will level it with a file.  I have some veneer that is a close match and being under the neck heel, it will hardly be noticeable.

[drbassman]

Finally had some time to get into the shop!  I gluded the top on a couple weeks ago using my spool clamps.  They worked great!  Here's what I did............

Decided to do a Taylor style bolt on neck, so I drill the block and neck together and installed screws with epoxy.  Fits really nice.  I might countersink the neck heel just a mm or so into the side, but right now it looks good sitting on the top of the side.










I also routed the top for my binding.  Used the cheapo SM router tool for archtops.  Technique is important, but it does work for a mere $40.





More in the next post!

[drbassman]

I have a small problem with the top of my Hofner.  It had some paper tape over the middle seam that has been on there for probably 40 years.  And, you guessed it, when I removed the tape, the wood had aged more on the edges and not at all under the tape.....



I had to soak it with water for quite a while and it was a bear to remove.  Ended up sanding off the last little bit.  So, I got my bleaching kit out and bleached the top, hoping for some lightening of the untaped areas.  We'll see how it goes.