Neck Pocketing

One last picture of the baritone before I take it apart:


I figured I might as well pull the trigger now since I had to do it anyway. I wanted the neck so I could use it to help get the neck pocket just so. More importantly, I want to sell the body on eBay so I can use the money to buy more tools. It provides me an opportunity for a glimpse into the future of this guitar and how it will look w/ the neck on anyway:

Not too exciting but hopefully that will change. The body came out a little asymmetrical but rather than mess it up any more, I said what any good great guitar maker says when he makes a mistake, "I dunno... I kinda like it that way." Ultimately, I decided it looked better to have it reversed from how it is in the picture. The slight asymmetry and the fact that all my sanding narrowed the waist a little makes it looks a little more strat-like that I had planned. I dunno... I kinda like it that way.

Since I was doing some work anyway, I drew the outline of the neck pocket by using my carpenters square to draw some lines on there as a guide to keep it true and tracing the heel of the neck on there where it seemed like it should go:


Of course, I measured when I was done to make sure it was the proper dimensions. It just so happens I was dead on. I guess you do get lucky every now and again. When I get a chance I will take it out back use my jigsaw to cut it out. Probably at that point I will have the bridge placement and pickup routs figured out too but for now I'm still waiting for all of that too be delivered. I really don't need them to line it all up on the template since I have it all worked out on paper already but it gives me a little more confidence to be able to trace some things and to be working w/ them and the template correctly.

I should mention that I finished up shaping w/ a drum sander on my hand drill. Worked like a charm and hogged out the wood surprisingly fast. I didn't take any pictures because that part of the process is a secret.