Building a Telecaster styled guitar neck: shaping the back of the neck

. . . and the fun begins . . . freehand shaping . . . maybe my favorite part. I started shaping my necks, the birch one first, then the maple one. The birch is my #2, so I will take what I learn from it to my #1. So far, both necks are guitar quality, so this project is headed toward being over budget by a factor of two, but who can say no to a couple of custom shop Tele's. Shaping is a do-or-die process. I used my standby 10" round/flat Nicholson rasp and a really handy four-faced rasp from Lee Valley that has since disappeared from recent catalogs. With rasps, save some money and go with quality first. You can't go wrong with either of these brands. It is important to use a jig to stabilize the neck so both sides can be worked freely and easily without imbalanced rasping from one side to the other. Like they say when carving a duck, start with a block of wood and remove anything that doesn't look like a duck. Simple enough.

I like a neck that is asymmetrical, being fuller on the lower side and thinner on the upper side under the hook of my thumb. Also, I chose to taper (thin) the neck about 3/32" as you go up the frets to the heel. The roasted maple skunk stripe blended perfectly with the lighter coloured wood in both cases. Shaping is best done a bit at a time . . . shape . . . sand . . . shelf . . . do something else for a while . . . lather, rinse, and repeat. Being over aggressive can make expensive firewood.