Making a Mortise and Tenon Neck Joint

In this video I outline my process for making a mortise and tenon neck joint with a floating fingerboard. I show my tips and tricks along with the templates and jigs I've found to be really useful for making numerous types of neck joints.
If you have any insight to add or have any questions put them in the comments below!
Hope you enjoy!
-Zach

Пікірлер: 30

  • @amirgad4635
    @amirgad46353 жыл бұрын

    Would be interesting to see how you go about making a bolt on arrangement on this type of instrument. Great videos!

  • @treehouseguitars

    @treehouseguitars

    3 жыл бұрын

    Thanks Amir! I do plan on doing a future video on the bolting process for this type of neck joint as well as a couple others. Thanks for following along! :) -Zach

  • @rickeydenler2385
    @rickeydenler23852 жыл бұрын

    Nice video i learned from it for sure i am making tools for my first build from scratch Were did you get the clear templete and the router bit you used ? Thanks .

  • @redtreecollectiveguitars

    @redtreecollectiveguitars

    2 жыл бұрын

    Glad you like it! I made the two templates out of acrylic. The opaque one has actually been thinned down so that I don’t have to adjust my router between the body and neck. This way my mortise ends up slightly deeper than the tenon. When making the acrylic templates I just made sure to file/sand them slowly until I got to where I wanted. The width and depth of the tenon doesn’t matter much unless you are needing to fit barrel bolts into the tenon. The router bit is just a 1/2” diameter x 1” length template bit so it copies your acrylic templates perfectly (unlike using a guide bushing in a router base). Hopefully that explanation wasn’t too confusing. Let me know if you have other questions. :) -Zach

  • @timduyck8850
    @timduyck88502 жыл бұрын

    Hey Zach! Wonderful video, as are your guitars! I'm thinking about doing a bolt on elevated fretboard on my next 'Avalanche' steelstring in maccassar ebony. Could you help me out with the relation between the three contact points of your neck set templates? Are they in a straight line towards eachother or tilted backwards to compensate for string pressure? Are they on a certain height? Big thanks in advance and happy building!

  • @redtreecollectiveguitars

    @redtreecollectiveguitars

    2 жыл бұрын

    Hey Tim! Thanks :) Yeah, I'd be happy to help - so the angle of the neck (up and down AND side to side) is established before routing the mortise and tenon. I flatten an area on the body just a bit bigger than the heel, then I have a jig above my belt sander that has micro adjustments in every direction which basically allows me to dial in the correct neck angle. Then once I have the angle I sand it to the length (plus tenon). This way the router templates for the mortise and tenon are registering on the mating surfaces of the heel and body. There are also stops on the jigs that line them up perpendicular to the top and the top surface of the neck. Does that make sense? Let me know if you have any questions. :) -Zach

  • @docsiltanen
    @docsiltanen3 жыл бұрын

    Hey Zach… that seems like a very well thought out method for using the router templates to get the shapes exact… I'm curious to see how you bolt this on….. I haven't seen this type of neck joint before… looks very solid just as is..could it also be glues in place rather than bolted ?

  • @treehouseguitars

    @treehouseguitars

    3 жыл бұрын

    Thanks Don! That will likely be a future video. ;) I’ll attach the neck with two bolts through the heel block - I’d imagine you could glue it, but that would make it much less serviceable. I’m a fan of fully bolt-on necks because if the guitar ever needs a neck reset or it needs the neck removed for whatever reason it’s as simple as taking the bolts off.

  • @docsiltanen

    @docsiltanen

    3 жыл бұрын

    @@treehouseguitars makes perfect sense … i know my Everett could benefit from a reset of the neck but its a massive job and finding the right shop to do it is difficult, were it a lot on it wouldn't be as huge an issue ...

  • @treehouseguitars

    @treehouseguitars

    3 жыл бұрын

    @@docsiltanen Yeah exactly. Bummer!

  • @joloka

    @joloka

    Жыл бұрын

    @@treehouseguitars I still don‘t understand how you use bolts here. Looking forward to a next video showing this.

  • @treehouseguitars

    @treehouseguitars

    Жыл бұрын

    @@joloka - Check out the two part video series we did on executing the bolt-on neck joint. It’s very detailed and it should answer any questions you may have. :)

  • @hereasafanofallsorts5164
    @hereasafanofallsorts51644 ай бұрын

    Hi - thanks for the Video - how did you make the templates accurate - what did you use to route the acrylic ?

  • @redtreecollectiveguitars

    @redtreecollectiveguitars

    4 ай бұрын

    Great question - I just carefully score the acrylic with an x-acto knife then drill out most of the material and file/sand up to my scored lines. I use calipers to bring the cutouts in my templates to the dimensions I want. So I really don’t do it in any fancy way, just carefully by hand. A CNC would make quick work of an accurate acrylic routing guide! :) -Zach

  • @hereasafanofallsorts5164

    @hereasafanofallsorts5164

    4 ай бұрын

    @redtreecollectiveguitars Hi , Thanks for the reply . That's great to know - a CNC would be marvellous for all sorts, but it's reassuring to know that it's not mandatory and that there is no need to spend a fortune on shop bought templates - your work is amazing and I love that it's CNC free - I'm building my first guitar atm so your videos are a huge help - thanks again

  • @redtreecollectiveguitars

    @redtreecollectiveguitars

    4 ай бұрын

    I’m glad you’re getting something out of our videos! :) Definitely no need for a CNC machine to make accurate jigs. Just careful attention to detail!

  • @hereasafanofallsorts5164

    @hereasafanofallsorts5164

    3 ай бұрын

    Hi - Can I ask you one more question ? I see people all over KZread with neck angle jigs for routing the neck angle in the tenon and shoulders of the neck where it meets the body - am I correct in saying that with your method of routing the tenon - where the tenon routing template is screwed to the end of the tenon - it does away with the need for a jig altogether as you are routing off of the angle of the end of the tenon and therefore routing the correct angle in the shoulders also - it seems so simple and effective and yet people go to all this trouble of assembling a giant jig to achieve the same outcome - am I missing something ?@@redtreecollectiveguitars

  • @redtreecollectiveguitars

    @redtreecollectiveguitars

    3 ай бұрын

    @@hereasafanofallsorts5164- Haha, yes you are correct! No big jig necessary. The correct angle is achieved before routing the tenon therefore a parallel rout gives you the same angle and usually perfect heel cheeks. I’m not sure why this isn’t the norm in the industry honestly - it only makes sense. -Z

  • @lynpugs
    @lynpugsАй бұрын

    are the contact points on your neck template all protrude an equal distance?

  • @zachlefebvre4825

    @zachlefebvre4825

    Ай бұрын

    No, otherwise a straightedge would work. The protrusion that contacts where the bridge goes is the same as the neck joint protrusion, but the one that’s at the nut is 2mm bigger. That means the headstock will be slightly tipped towards the back of the guitar… if that makes sense. This makes the strings at just the right height over the top (about 12mm).

  • @lynpugs

    @lynpugs

    Ай бұрын

    @@zachlefebvre4825 Thank you very much

  • @gregoryreffner2939
    @gregoryreffner29399 ай бұрын

    Where did you get your templates from?

  • @zachlefebvre4825

    @zachlefebvre4825

    9 ай бұрын

    Hey! Not sure which templates you mean. I made all of them - the scale length templates were duplicated from a CNCed fretboard template, mortise and tenon routing jigs I made by drilling out acrylic and filing/sanding it to my lines/dimensions. Does that answer your question?

  • @crabejoss
    @crabejoss Жыл бұрын

    Hey i don't get it. I presume it will be a bolt-on neck isn't it ? But how will you screw through the neck block with a closed box with fholes???

  • @treehouseguitars

    @treehouseguitars

    Жыл бұрын

    Great observation! Yes, all my guitars have fully bolt-on neck joints with no glue. With these guitars (with F-holes, not round soundholes) I use a long tool through the end pin hole to tighten the bolts. The bolts fit through the soundport on the side. Hope that answers your question!

  • @crabejoss

    @crabejoss

    Жыл бұрын

    @@treehouseguitars it blows my mind... perhaps, we need an extra video for seeing that in real, words didn't help me so much...

  • @redtreecollectiveguitars

    @redtreecollectiveguitars

    Жыл бұрын

    I (Eric) have posted a video on here for you in response to this question. kzread.info/dash/bejne/ZoZhm82NptS5f5c.html

  • @crabejoss

    @crabejoss

    Жыл бұрын

    @@redtreecollectiveguitars yeah! Already Saw it today. Tx for sharing your knowleges