Going Bespoke: The Neck

When we left my new Fylde guitar before the holidays, the neck was really just a Honduras Mahogany club sandwich - a single piece of wood, sliced into three and glued together with some black dyed boxwood inserts, awaiting the insertion of its truss rod...





Seeing as the instrument's body is currently at the beauty salon, enjoying multiple coats of lacquer, work has been focused on transforming the neck into a much more familiar shape. Firstly, it is 'rough shaped' (notice, incidentally, that the truss rod has now been inserted and the fingerboard is in place).





Here's one we made earlier... This is what the neck assembly looks like now that it has been rough shaped. It's now ready for fine-tuning and this is something that Roger Bucknall does the traditional way - by hand, employing craft, experience and, he tells me, a lot of love!




First, the heel is cut to shape...




As is the headstock...




Then the neck itself comes under the knife - a drawknife, to be precise. In a world where most guitar necks are shaped by machine - using CAD technology in some instances - it's great to see this level of craftmanship going into an instrument. Having played virtually the whole Fylde range, I can tell you that their necks are some of the most comfortable and natural feeling I've ever experienced. Just the right width with a very subtle 'V' that sits nicely in the gap between the left hand thumb and forefinger...




So there you have it - pretty soon the fingerboard will be fretted and the neck attached to the body, the bridge will be put into place and the final fittings will be added. There's probably no need to tell you that I literally can't wait to make some music with this new instrument!