Neck profile templates

[fender3x]

I have bought a couple of necks from PB for projects over the years, including a J-bass profile neck that was a special order...and has become my favorite neck. Most recently I got a Tele neck. It's currently curing with what I hope is the final clear coat. When I got it I was immediately struck by two things. First, it was a thing of beauty. The maple fingerboard is has this lovely curly figuring, while the back has a bit of flame. Second, it was quite thick. No thicker than a traditional 1950s Tele neck, but thicker than I am used to, so I decided to thin it a bit. I didn't have a model for what I wanted, so I went looking for templates. Stew Mac, of course, sells some, but there wasn't a lot of variety. You can make one out of cardboard from PDF neck templates...but those are flimsy and I am never sure I have cut them properly.

I settled on these:



They are made by a California luthier named Dan Noceti. He makes all of the profiles that have been issued by Fender and sells them on Etsy.

https://www.etsy.com/shop/NocetiCust...m_page=listing

I have been meaning to get around for this posting. His service was fast. The templates are made of thick plastic and worked great. Price was reasonable and the shipping was quick. YMMV in ordering from Australia or Europe, but at least in the US I had a good experience.

[Trevor Davies]

Those templates look good. I also like their router carriage! Oh, I should not have looked!

[fender3x]

Yeah the router carriage is nice...particularly if you are going to build a lot of necks. I think it would be overkill for me. It took me about two hours to re-radius a neck with a sanding block, which is fine if you are only doing it once ;-)

What I particularly like about Dan's shop is that he has designed his luthier tools to be made mostly from 3D printed parts, making them relatively easy for him to replicate. I had seen people do that to make the parts for the guitar, but a 3D printer allows him to do small runs of all kinds of templates, and tools... (Picture me looking up and scratching my chin).