Longest time spent on a dovetail neck joint

[kiwigeo]

Okay.....its been 3 days now and Im still f***ng around with the dovetail M and T neck joint on the 12 string. Its just like the classic table with the wobbly leg..you adjust the leg you think is the odd one out and end up with a wobble on another leg.

Im spending so much time out in the workshop working on this bldi guitar my wife thinks I have a lover.

[matthew]

is it a parallel edged dovetail or tapered?

[kiwigeo]

is it a parallel edged dovetail or tapered?

It's the full Monty...ie a double half blind dovetail Mortise and Tenon. I guess that equates to a tapered dovetail in answer to your query.

Im getting there.....getting the hang of this joint is a matter of getting to know your enemy.

[WaddyT]

I did the same thing with a V-Joint on a neck. Tweaked it until it didn't even resemble the original cut. Then I finally got it to fit, glued it up, added the heel stack, had the bright idea to make a sled for cutting the side slots (Spanish Heel - Classical) on a table saw, and buggered it up beyond recognition. Guess I'll be trying another V-Joint.

[kiwigeo]

Some pics of the instrument in question. First pic of the body and neck ready to go. Second pic of the body with one coat of neat Z-poxy finishing resin applied.

[matthew]

Fitting the dovetail, do you remove wood from the neck, or the block ... or both?

[kiwigeo]

I only remove wood from the neck tenon, never the mortise.

[matthew]

When fitting a double bass neck, I do the opposite. I only remove wood from the block, not the harder neck tenon itself. The logic is that the block is softer and easier to work.

I use strips of paper coated in chalk slid down along the edges of the mortise when the thing is assembled. I slide out the paper and shave off where the chalk marks the block.

[kiwigeo]

Working the tenon seems to be the norm in the guitar world. Both the mortise and tenon are mahogany. Its easier gluing shims onto a tenon than into a mortise. Ditto for getting shims around the bottom of the tenon.