Neck and Tail Block...

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Mahogany Neck and Tail/End Blocks

Pictured are the Mahogany neck and tail blocks.  Before gluing to the sides I need to add a reinforcement piece of wood to the tail block.  There are different methods for this on the internet.  Some route a channel and inlay the piece, others glue it to the surface without a channel, some put it on the side of the block that mates to the rim, others on the opposite toward the inside of the guitar.

There's a slight radius on the tail block side that is glued to the rim.  I decided not to mess with that and just put my inlay on the opposite side.

It seems the important thing is the grain pattern.  When standing on it's end (as if glued to the sides) you can see the Mahogany grain pattern will be horizontal - as is the grain pattern of the sides.  The reinforcement addition should have the grain pattern perpendicular to the Mahogany piece.  This will help stabilize the block of wood in case I ever drop my finished guitar.

I was shocked when I learned that if a guitar is ever dropped on it's strap end pin the sides can have a tendency to split... possibly all the way to the neck!  If you've seen the beating my other guitars have taken over the years you can understand how this news terrified me.  John Hall, from Blues Creek Guitars explains this in more detail.  Watch the video below if you're interested.

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Neck and Tailblock ready
to be glued to the sides.

Well... It's official - I threw my first major hissy-fit of the project!  For whatever reason, the Mahogany got away from me while routing out my inlay channel and gouged out a wider path than I wanted.  After a cooling down period I decided "no big deal - I'll just square it up and put a wider reinforcement in than I was planning on."  Being much more careful with the router I just widened the channel, applied the Titebond, clamped it up, and everything turned out peachy.  The reinforcement inlay is shown to the right.

It was now time to glue the blocks to the sides.  All of my center-lines were marked out and ready to go.  The neck block is especially critical when marking out the center-lines.  The center-line needs to be located off of the neck center-line - not the center of the neck block.

Again, if interested, see John Hall's quick tip:

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Rim with neck and tail blocks glued.
Starting to resemble a guitar!

The blocks were glued to the sides and I breathed a sigh of relief for the night.  All of my center-lines were lined up, the rim ends came together tight and square, and no Titebond fingerprints all over my nice Makore wood.  As you can see in the picture... it's starting to look like a guitar.

The next step is to start sanding the top and bottom rim edges, and the blocks, close to the correct radius.  They'll be sanded with more precision after the kerfing and side braces are installed.  Hopefully, I'll get that done by early next week.