Setting the Neck on a Somogyi Guitar
Before starting my apprenticeship with Ervin Somogyi, I didn’t have anyone teaching me how to make guitars. I learned a lot from books, online, and just figuring things out on my own. Although learning in this way had its challenges, it was helpful in developing problem solving skills and confidence. The way I was doing the neck setting is an interesting example of this. I figured out a way of doing it that worked for me, using the tools I had available, and I haven’t yet come across anyone else doing it in this way. That is interesting to contrast with the way I learned recently here at Ervin Somogyi’s workshop.
In my old workshop I had a small milling machine. I was enjoying the precision it’s capable of, and looking for more ways to use it. It turns out that it is an effective tool for setting a neck.
First I transferred my desired neck angle onto a bevel gauge.
Then I put the bevel gauge into the vice on the mill, and indicated on that to set the angle of the vice to the desired angle of the neck.
Then I milled the tenon. The angle of the vice should cut the cheeks so that when they are contacting the body, the neck is at the correct angle. The milling machine also allows precise control over the depth of cut, to get the tenon to fit snugly into the mortice.
After milling the tenon, I undercut the cheeks with a dovetail bit, so that only the outside of the joint is contacting the body.
There is a little bit of hand work to adjust the height, so that the neck sits flush with the body, and then a bit of flossing to conform the cheeks to the curved surface of the rim.
This is an interesting contrast to the way it’s done at Ervin’s shop.
Here at the Somogyi workshop, you start with a tenon cut a bit oversized, and the cheeks square to the top surface of the neck. Then you basically have at it with hand tools until the neck set is good.
For both methods, the fretboard must line up with the cutaway if there is one, the angle of the neck must aim at a certain height over the soundboard, the 14th/12th fret must line up with the edge of the body, all while keeping a tight fit of the tenon, keeping the fretboard centred over the truss rod and lined up with the headstock, and the truss rod channel centred on the centreline of the body.
The approach with the milling machine is not more accurate, faster, or better, just a different way of accomplishing the same thing. For me it has been a great learning experience to develop my hand skills so I don’t have to rely on a milling machine, or jig.