Which end are you going to have the Truss Rod access @boo? 

🙏🎶🎸🙂

Posted by: @russ

Which end are you going to have the Truss Rod access

@russ Headstock end on both of them. 

Posted by: @boo

@russ Headstock end on both of them.

Let me know how you get on with it @boo. That's how I'd like to do it but I haven't found any YouTube footage of anyone demonstrating how to create the access like Fender do it. 

🎸🎶🙏🙂

@russ I made one for this T-type a while ago, same principle to do an S-type at the headstock end. I may have some more photos, I'll have a look. 

https://guitarmaking.co.uk/community/showcase-electric/spalted-telecaster-bolt-on-neck/#post-38

@russ I haven’t got any photos of when I drilled the truss rod access hole in the headstock. Once I had routed the truss rod slot, all I did was eyeball the hole it with a long drill bit. 
There is another way of doing it but it’s not as tricky. I made a T-type neck (which is almost the same as a Strat neck) and just routed all the way through the nut area to give access with an alan key for the truss rod. I think I might use this method again this time. You basically have a larger access hole, rather than a more small and precise one. The fretboard and nut go over the big access hole. It looks a bit different than a normal Strat/Tele headstock but I quite like it. Obviously if you were making one for a customer who wanted the traditional kind, then you would have to make the effort to drill the smaller hole. 

@russ this particular neck is a hybrid nut construction because at the time I only had a fretboard without a Fender style nut slot. This fretboard was cut for a Gibson/Bandsman style with an angled headstock but because I was making a parallel headstock, I had to compromise and make the two work together. You will see what I mean with more pictures. Even if you use a fretboard with the Fender style nut slot, it would cover the slot in the same way. 

Here you can see I used applied a Gibson style nut instead of the usual Fender style. 

Cheers @boo. Much appreciated. That's been very helpful. 

🙂🙏🎶🎸

Once marked out, I set my router up for routing the truss rod slot. The adjustment end of the truss rod is slightly wider than the rest of it so I have to route the slot slightly wider there too. 

I’ve made the decision to route past the end of the fretboard, into the headstock instead of drilling a hole. 

Rough cut on the bandsaw. 

I have a routing pattern/template for a Strat neck and instead of using it for routing these necks, I’ve made another template from it. I’ll keep the original as a master to make more when I inevitably damage this one. 

Attached my new template/pattern to the neck and routed off the excess to leave a perfect neck shape. 

Time to remove the template/pattern and the neck from the worktop, CAREFULLY! 😆

I have two router tear outs and both of them are on the back side of the headstock. I was thinking about repairing them but I’m just going to sand and blend them into the shape instead. If I was building this for someone else, I would repair it but I’m just making these for fun, so I’m not. 😝

Drilled the tuner holes. 

Surface routed the headstock to depth. 

I don’t think a a black or white scratchplate is gonna cut it, I think I’ll order a gold mirrored one. 

@boo agreed. I personally think the white looks better than the black but a gold one would be awesome. 🙂