The Best Tool You Can Possibly Use For Shaping A Guitar Neck 

Oh man ! You guys made me lol. Anvils and dynamite. ACME : A Company that Makes Everything. The road-runner would be proud.

Really love and appreciate your youtube channel. Such dedication and knowledge has helped me ease into guitar building with more confidence. Thank you ! Stay safe my friend.

Very informative vid, Matt. Thanx!!!

Your dead head sander somehow seems incomplete without a dead head sticker. ;)

I would love to know what the type/size, etc. of that router table bit you're using for the first roundover! What a great idea! Thanks in advance.

Super cool man! what size round over bit do I need?

I found you from Dylans trip to see you. Since then I've been checking out your videos. They have proved to be priceless for me. I am just starting to do full builds. I've repaired them and messed around with them for years. Im an artist and want to transfer my art to guitars. I definitely need help and have found so many videos you have very helpful. I just wanted to stop and take a minute to thank you.

Loving this channel. Subscribed.

Carved my last neck with a homemade drawknife. Definitly looking into 7/8 round over bit. Thanks, will now smash and subscribe

Great stuff! Time for me to re-up my Patreon support. It lapsed when our credit cards expired and I was just too lazy to renew. But I'll do that today. Keep on making sawdust.

I was inspired by your dead head last year and built one from a grizzly sander that was sitting dormant. I haven't ruined any necks yet but it is very easy to remove to much material. I also used it to flush SS frets to edge of the board on a couple necks. To be totally honest I have trouble watching both ends of the neck at once. But I've got 5 strat style necks to do and that should get me dialed in. Great video Matt and Chris!

You always have great videos with great content.

As always thanks for sharing. Quick one for ya. Whats the bandsaw blade you use in your other vids where you are cutting the neck? Also curious why you are using the router table and not the pin router in this vid? Thanks

That's one hell of a knuckle remover! Keep it safe Matt.

-def on my bucket list!

What diameter is the round over bit you use for roughing in necks? Looks like a nice way to do that!

I have used several different methods of shaping my guitar necks. My router table is by far the fastest and easiest method I have regularly used but it isn’t the cheapest. The cheapest method I have ever used to round the back of a neck was to clamp the neck blank so that half of it was hanging off my workbench. I then draped a strip of sand paper over the back of the neck, grabbed both ends, and shaped a rounded back by alternately pulling the ends of the sandpaper up and down. I eventually had to swing the neck 180 degrees, reclamp, and continue sanding the other half of the neck. As long as you’re reasonably careful and regularly check the profile of the neck, this method works fine. It is, however, quite a slow way of doing things. A spoke shave is the second cheapest method I’ve used but I frankly think using a strip of sandpaper produces a better quality of neck. While spoke shaves are relatively cheap, they are still more expensive than a strip of sandpaper. Spoke shaves remove more wood per pass than does a strip of sandpaper. This speeds things up but also makes it much easier to destroy a neck if the spoke shave slips. Plus, one of my friends mistakenly thought the spoke shave on my workbench was a medieval torture device. Next, I used a hand router to make necks. While this method was relatively inexpensive and fast, I think it has the greatest potential of screwing up a neck. Hand routers are prone to occasionally move in directions other than the ones we would prefer. Given the nature of power tools, it only takes a split second for a hand router to slip and destroy a neck. Jigs, templates, and solid clamping methods help minimize the risk but I found that I was inevitably destroying a few necks no matter how careful I was. Things just get more expensive from there. Router tables and specialized machines can quickly produce good quality necks but they are relatively expensive. Most people who are just learning to build guitars or who build guitars as a hobby don’t have access to a great deal of expensive and/or specialized machinery. They usually end up using cheaper and slower methods such as those discussed above. I typically recommend that people who are new to guitar building start with those kinds of methods for a variety of reasons. One major reason is that they tend to be far more readily available to the average person. A second major reason is that it can be very useful to be skilled using such methods if your expensive machine has broken down or your power has gone out. I’m presently building my first electric ukulele. I wasn’t quite sure about how I wanted the neck to turn out. I decided to use slower hand building techniques because this allows me to better notice small issues that may be developing and to make changes as I go. Thus, I am using the hand sanding method to shape the curved back of the neck despite the fact my router table is just a few feet away. I’m certain that I will use my router table on any future electric ukuleles I might build but I prefer slower hand methods for prototyping.

New pin router next, know your busy w/ other shit but...the suspense, hopefully before ya get into the next class series. That sander makes quick work of the bulk excess in the neck. What rough board size do you start w/ on neck blanks, 8/4?

Great as always you guys thanks

Thanks so much for showing all your secrets!

I always thought "dead head" referred to the person doing the sanding :) Seriously though, thanks for doing this video, its really great to see how you guys have ironed out a lot of the process for guitar building.

Looking great my dudes!

Hey Matt… what material did you cover the plywood with for the back of the belt to run over ? I would think there would be a lot of friction build up there ???

If you look carefully about where the knuckles of your left hand are when using your sander (7:20-8:00), is that static electricity arcing on the frame? Cool vid, thanks!!

What size of round over bit do you use in the router

router table would be time saver. im goin ham with rasp files. is taht a 1" roundover?

This is insane! When I tried to build a couple guitars a few years ago I spent hours scrapping it with a wood file. LoL.

What size is the router bit to get the nice curve thank you! Loved the video

You should see the "dead head" sanders we used at Gibson. We roll necks very similar to the way you do it.

You're right, in the 1950's, ACME tools and machines were used in the Wile E Coyote Road Runner cartoons.

Love my deadhead sander. Not hard to make. A&H abrasives are excellent. Matt are those bolt on necks?

I rough round mine with the front wheel of a five dollar sears garage sale belt sander with 60 grit belt, then use a cut 60 grit belt like shinning the toe of a boot, works great then fine tune with 80 and 120 ect hand paper. It's cheap any way, with great results.

my strategy for building my (much smaller) sanding station was to buy the belts and discs first then build around those..

What radius of cutter u use on table? Great as allways!

You have alot of tools I don't have room for (or money) I've reshaped a couple necks on cheep guitars using files foam Sanders and long strips of sandpaper like when yourdrying your back. It took a while

nice setup matt ...uniformity every time great idea for mass construction ...u need to throw a clip of the coyote an anvils from acme to fill in the crowd who missed the joke

overhead shot of that process would be cool, im still using the old belt sander, strap that thing down to the bench LOL..

Boy, that sander is a cool device.

I like that sander! I've watched guys shape them by hand and it definitely looks like too much work!👍😎🎸🎶

what is the ruuter bit size?

Hey Matt! How much do the custom belts set you back?

Great Velvet Jones reference

I mentioned Oslong Sandpaper & Discs before, but try some 3M Resinite Floor Paper for quick wood removal. I use 80 Grit, but they make a 60 Grit, 100 and 150. This Sandpaper is specifically made for Rapid wood removal. It's what the Hardwood Floor Man uses because it's made to Cut. Wrap a piece around a 1×2 board, a 5 gallon bucket stir stick or anything that suits You. You won't believe how quickly it cuts and how long it lasts. God Bless Y'all. Jimmy in NC....

great video, great commentary and great pro tips ... if you're a professional woodworker or guitar builder and you can figure out to build you're own deadhead sander ... switch professions ...

where did you get the graphite paper/sheet for the platen?

Say Matt, what diameter was that router bit?

Matt, any idea on what number is your bit on the router table for the back of the neck.Hi from Greece

Reminds me of the specialty sanders we used @ the furniture factory, years ago.

I didn't check all of the comments, but could you please try a different camera angle next time? Your arm was right in front of the head where you were shaping the neck, both times. Great job on that machine mod! I didn't know you could get custom length sanding belts! I think you gave me some good ideas!! Thanks much!! --gary

The router is a great tip to give you a head start!.Is that a 1" roundover bit? I wish there was a cool trick like that for angled headstock necks, lol

Hey Matt. Are your necks tapered in thickness? Or the same thickness from end to end.

Hey Texas Toast guys, Phil McKnight gave you guys a favorable plug on his show yesterday.

But how do you get the neck depth slope along the neck with this method (thicker at the heal and shallower at the headstock)? Obviously this bit gives you even neck depth.

Would the copy carver machine work for shaping the necks. Seems like it would eliminate human error and you're only setting up 1 machine. another bonus is that you might be able to set up several necks at a time and all at different shapes?

So cool machine Matt, looks easy!! Is easy???🤔🤔 Love it

That is slicker than snot on a Door knob!

It seems like the length from volute to heel is somewhat set, though, to a 16-fret neck design. Not a problem for the majority of your work, but what about 14- or even 12-fret lengths. Straight from the router table to hand shaping?

Hey man, What size of that Bit for router the Neck? Thanx dude 😊👍🏽

Congrats on making Phil McKnights list yesterday. Well deserved recognition.

Waiting to see that Mockingbird bass in the back!

Made me think back to woodworking days. I'm bet I could find a Horizontal Belt Sander (table mounted) and build out the extra surface area; on the back side. Hmmmmm.....

7/8 round over bit, $26 at local mom and pop hardware store. Going to retire Beaver Cleaver the homemade drawknife, maybe sharpen him one more time, put him in an ornate frame with a light Thanks again.

So I guess you'd have to go with another method for a neck with an angled headstock, right? Since it wouldn't have a completely flat surface to use to slide down the router table. Also, do y'all use the same type of poly on necks that you use on the bodies?

I saw somebody do this with a grinder mounted on a swinging arm to make the neck shape

Power tools are heaven👼

🔥🔥🔥

I need your t shirt asap 🤣

Gibson use a similar sander to shape 335 necks. You can see it in recent videos. Strikes me as odd since they have a rather large CNC setup, but that’s Gibson for ya!

I don’t even have to start the video to Write dead-head sander (I always thougth a deadhead was something else😁)

And this is how we hand build guitars. No really... all entirely by hand ;-) .... I'm jealous, you have some great tools.

I agree, the DH sander is the best

You need to make a neck contour jig.

That 3&3 headstock had no angle? Is angled headstock even needed?

Nice process and a cool machine. Did anyone have to get carried home from 'C'B'?

Matt, you should do stand up. I have so many questions but not tonight, honey.

Matt has all the way cool power tools!

What about Reshaping a P bass neck to a thinner profile.

I am a little confused. Why don't you press the frets on the fretboard without the neck then glue the board to the neck?

Acme... lol That was a good one. :)

Some people pay damn good money for those burn marks. It makes them play better, or something.

Nice arm

Don’t you guys have tilt linishers in the states ? Kinda shocked you had to fabricate your own and also had to find custom belts. We have these in high school woodwork classes here in Australia.

"Just a little tiny bit of hand sanding" yeah right, just a little tiny teeny weeny little bit.

Velvet Jones School of Luttery

"They're just concentrating on dynamite and anvils, now" 😜😁😄🤣😂

Cool sander, but it needs a tie-dyed paint job.

If I send you my guitar neck can you shape it asymmetrically?

Mayb uv seen it , phil mcknight gav u guy s props in his last night vid was 10 hi-end guitar brands u may not kno about . Cool beans .

Matt. I am the biggest tool to ever shape a guitar neck. Oh wait. You said “best”.. ok, yeah. That’s probably a deadhead sander.

shinto japanese saw plane takes stock off quick and is a no power way to get it done.

I think it'd be enlightening to see what the DHS looks like when the belt is off. 😀

You mentioned a few times that yours isn’t a real dead head sander and that you’d get into why, but I never caught what made yours not a real dead head sander.

Damn near impossible to get parts for their trebuchets... I recall a drunken old acme salesman that was a regular at my local pub. Always getting himself thrown out...

BEEP BEEP!!! HAHAHAHAHAHA

Why not just use a rasp. I can get a neck done it 20-30 minutes with my rasp and bladder sander.

Beep! Beep! 😂

You get, after several minutes, to the climax of the show, to the point of the whole thing, and your arm is completely covering what you are doing.

I would be hesitant to use any acme products after seeing how poorly they have worked for wile e coyote.

dynamite and anvils...HAHAHAHAHA

Please don't say patience.