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Assembly

Basic Assembly

The major parts of the instrument are the neck, fretboard, sides, back and top.  In general, it is best to keep the parts separate as long as possible.  This way, the problems caused by messing up a part are limited.  The basic idea is to make a 'kit' of parts and then assemble them.  Every book on the subject seems to have a slightly different approach and I know of no one correct approach - I suspect every builder has a unique approach that suits his or her preferences and sense of aesthetics.  I like to start with the neck.

Neck

The neck is made from a 3" wide piece of stock.  It should be extremely straight and even-grained.  The neck is in compression and bending when the instrument is strung, so any flaw in the structure of the neck can cause it to twist or deform in some other way that makes the instrument hard to play.  The ideal piece of wood is quarter-sawn.  If you don't have access to quarter-sawn wood, there are a couple good alternatives:

 

Classical guitars use nylon strings.  These strings need less tension to bring them to the correct pitch so the necks are under less stress than necks on steel string guitars.  Often, classical guitars do not use truss rods or any other kind of neck reinforcement.  I tend to use a graphite truss rod, though I can't honestly say that I have evaluated the effectiveness. 

An alternative to using a truss rod is to laminate different woods to make the neck blank.  A strip of rosewood or some other stiff hardwood in the center of the neck increases stiffness, adds an aesthetic feature and allows you to use smaller (cheaper) pieces of wood for the neck.

	Here is the neck blank of a small classical guitar being glued together.  It is important to apply a constant force over the gluing surface, so there are lots of clamps.  The neck is made of a relatively soft mahogany and the reinforcement is Brazilian cherry.  There are also thin strips of maple for color contrast.
	Here is a pair of neck blanks for small classical guitars.  The 15 degree headstock scarf has been cut and the heel blocks are being glued on.  Again, it is important to apply a constant pressure over the gluing area, so there are lots of clamps.
	There is no such thing as too many Quick-Grips.  The small ones are particularly handy for guitar-making.  A smaller number of the medium-sized ones is also a good idea.
	Headstock scarf joint being glued using a simple fixture to hold the desired 15 degree angle.
	Completed neck blank with rough-sawn heel block, headstock and slots cut to accept sides.
	Rough shaping of heel block.
	Laying out final sizes on the rough-cut neck.  Note that this neck is for a child-sized guitar (22" scale length).  The 1 3/4" nut width is significantly smaller than used for full-sized instruments.  A typical nut width is 2" - 2 1/8".
	Gluing on the headstock veneer.  This veneer was cut from a rejected rosewood guitar back.  The back had a slight crack that made it useless (cheap).  The discarded back yielded several veneers.
	Gluing on a bookmatched koa headstock veneer.  This was cut from a small piece of scrap koa salvaged from a piece of furniture.
	Bookmatched koa headstock veneer trimmed to rough shape.
	Headstock being drilled for tuners.
	Decorative dots being inlaid into the headstock.  The light dots are wavy maple cut from a piece of firewood and the dark dots are rosewood.
	Headstock slots roughed out using a drill press.  The edges will be cleaned up with a sharp chisel and a fine rasp.