neck order

[Hugh Anderson]

When building a slotted peg-head, scarf joinetd neck, in which order do you do stuff?

[Chuck Tweedy]

It is a bit of a long list of tasks to go over here without forgetting something.
Do you have Cumpiano & Natelson? It's covered in there quite well (other than cutting of the nut end of the headstock veneer)

[Alan Carruth]

The general rule is to do the hardest thing first. Depending on your level of experience and tooling, and a bunch of other details, the hardest thing in your build might be different from mine. I can tell you how I'd go about it, but that might not be your preference.

I'd start with a long piece to make the neck shaft and headstock. Since I usually build up the heel in the Classical manner I'd allow wood for those blocks at the ends. I'd mark out and cut the headstock off quite long, and clamp the two pieces t the bench to to plane off the scarf surface. The extra length of the head allows for some leeway if you have trouble leveling the surface (I'm thinking about my students here), gives you something to clamp onto while you plane, and can be used for the heel laminates. Be sure to leave extra length at both ends just in case: it can be difficult to predict exactly where the scarf will end up, since you don't know how much you'll trim off in planing. Once the two pieces are glues together, you can measure everything from the break.

Once you get the head glued to the neck shaft you can cut the blocks to stack up from the ends, and laminate the heel. I use Titebond 3 for this, in case the neck ever has to get steamed off. If you're making a Classical with a slotted neck you can use any glue you want.

Some folks have more trouble fitting the dovetail than getting the scarf in the right place, and would do better to cut the dovetail first. When I use a V-joint (almost all the time these days) that's the order I use, since I seldom trim off as much as a millimeter at the head end fitting the V. I can fit the mortise, pin the fingerboard and trim the neck to width, and then fit the V-joint, with any 'slop' showing at the nut end where it won't matter too much.

[Brad Heinzen]

Don't know if this is what you're after, but for traditional CGs, I do the following:

Cut the scarf joint and the heel stack.
Glue the above together at one time.
Detail the face of the headstock, and glue on the faceplate.
Carve the heel (leaving the neck shaft squared up), slipper foot, and cut the side slots.
After body/neck assembly and binding, I work the peghead as follows - first cut the outline, then drill the tuner holes, then cut the slots.
After the fretboard goes on, I complete the neck carving, and detail everything out.

I'm sure there are many ways to do this, but this works with my building style and sequence.

[Hugh Anderson]

Thanks, it's been 10 guitars since I've done a slotted parlor. I remembered having done something wrong,but not what it was. Glued the peghead before planing it, I think. I'll print out this page and tape it to the plans.