The Gouzouki Project - Carving the Back of the Neck

Some more new tools arrived 😃. A spokeshave, to help carve the round shape on the back of the neck, and a new, decent quality tenon saw because a bad workman always blames his tools and I definitely messed up cutting the tenon in an earlier blog entry because of my old saw - nothing to do with me, honestly!

I was dreading shaping the back of the neck, but actually really enjoyed this part.

Basically, you carve progressively smaller facets; so I marked up down the back and sides of the neck for the first facet and then took that off using a combination of spokeshave, chisel and rasp. Once again, it's really important to keep the centreline reference, so it all stay symetrical.

Once that was done, you take further facets off until it approaches a round shape and then I used sand paper to get it properly smoothed. The best thing I found was a piece cut off a spare belt sander belt and then used it almost like you do when drying your back with a towel, so it kept a consistent shape on both sides.

The heel shape just sort of came naturally by creating a smooth transition from neck to body.

Once the shape was there, I used progressively finer sandpaper to get it smooth. I’ll save the finest one for just before I start finishing it.

I couldn’t resist taking some photos comparing the old and new necks, and they illustrate quite well the thinner bouzouki neck.

The Gouzouki Project - Installing the Frets

When I removed the old frets, I carefully kept them in the same order, so that I knew the higher end ones would fit. Each fret needed a slight curvature to be put back into it and I did this very carefully by supporting one edge in the vice and a bit of finger pressure on the other end, moving progressively down the length of it. Not conventional but it seemed to work OK.

The method of installing is to tap each edge in to the slot to locate it and then work from the centre back out to the edges. Then I snipped off the fret wire close to the edge of the board, using the modified flush-cutting pincers. I supported the neck really well under each location.

The next specialist tool I've bought is this fret hammer. It has a hard and soft face and the white face is a kind of "dead-weight". Not sure how that works, but they went in well!

All of the frets now installed and glinting in the sun!

Once all done, I filed the fret ends level with the fingerboard and then put a bevel on the end of each one so my fingers don’t catch on them.

When I’ve put a straight edge along the tops of the frets they all seem fairly well aligned, so hopefully this recycling experiment will be successful.

Couldn't resist refitting the neck again to see how it looks 😀

The Gouzouki Project - Fingerboard Profiling and Dot Markers

Two final jobs to do before I can install the frets now

The first is to gently plane and sand a curve across the fingerboard. I spent a while getting the plane blade super sharp last weekend in preparation and then basically planed two very shallow facets on each side. Then sanded with a big flat sanding block I made. It’s only maybe 1 - 1.5 mm shallower on the sides but that equates near enough to the right radius of curve. Then I recut the fret slots to make sure the edges were deep enough.

Next I marked out the locations of the position dots and carefully drilled shallow holes using a brad point drill to keep accurate.

Then I did the same thing on the side of the fretboard, but these are shallow 2mm dia holes.

The side markers are made from 2mm plastic rod. A blob of super glue in each hole, then push the rod in and snip off.

Same with the fret markers but they were bought dots (mother of pearl I think but I can't honestly remember!)

Then everything is carefully trimmed and sanded back flush - looking lovely!

The Gouzouki Project - Making the Fingerboard

I had originally intended adapting the original Faith fingerboard but, when I removed it, I realised that it really wasn't in good enough condition. To be fair, I've steamed it off twice, plus it had already had one neck repair attempt before that, so not surprising that it was a bit out of shape.

So I had bought a rosewood blank to make a new fingerboard. I could have bought a pre-slotted fingerboard, but decided that I should build from scratch to have a practice. The scale length of the gouzouki will be the same as the original guitar, so all of the fret spacings will be copied from that.

I did decide to re-use the original frets though as a) they had very little wear, b) I would have to level and re-profile new frets anyway, and c) the new neck is narrower than the original so I knew they would be wide enough.

Removing the frets was just a case of getting a sharp chisel undermeath and gently easing them out. The last photo shows the difference in neck width.

Now to make the new fingerboard, the first stage was to put the blank through the thicknesser and bring it down to the correct thickness. This really brought the grain pattern out nicely. Before and after shown below.

Then I planed one edge straight and square to use as the reference edge.

I clamped the old and new fingerboards to the bench, ensuring that the existing fret slots were pependicular to the new board and then used a square and a sharp craft knife to transfer each fret position across to the centre of the new board.

Then I used a small engineer's square to mark off the fret positions against the reference edge.

Time to introduce another new tool! The fret slots really need to be cut to a very precise width and depth, so I invested in a specialist fret saw with an adjustable depth gauge. I cut the slots VERY carefully, using the square as a "fence" to start. 

I love that point where you have made someting and it starts to look "proper", as if you had bought it ready made from someone!

Laying the new fretboard on the guitar, I carefully marked out the shape. It's more complicated than either a guitar or a bouzouki, which would both have straight, tapering edges. Because I am converting this, it needs to transition from a bouzouki width in the neck to a guitar width on the body (otherwise you would be able to see the unfinished body alongside the fretboard on the guitar). You can see the transition clearly on the photo below.

Then off to the bandsaw and, with some careful sanding after, I took the shape down to a fraction outside the finished size. That will allow me to sand back the neck and fingerboard to get a smooth finish at the boundary between the two. 

You can also see here that I extended the fingerboard down to meet the soundhole and finished it in a matching curve, which was to cover a piece of the top that had been damaged.

I'm pretty pleased with how that shape worked out to be honest. I spent a lot of time thinking that one through and pretty sure I came up with the best design compromise.

Now down a well practised part of glueing the fingerboard to the neck, using the clamps I made ages ago. 

Now it is definitely starting to look like a proper instrument again!