I've begun work on Vasu's cutaway crossover guitar and Vasu recommended I post more detailed progress photos. Hope you all don't find these terribly boring!
The first step of any build is preparing the neck. First I plane 3 sides flat and square, slightly tricky with this figured Spanish cedar we chose but a sharp low angle plane produces excellent results
Next the scarf joint is cut, cleaned with a block plane, glued, then the head is planed to thickness
Then a channel is routed to accept the carbon fiber reinforcement. I normally use QS rock maple for this but due to the figured neck and high tension carbon strings we plan to fit the guitar with I thought something a bit stronger in the neck might be best.
Next the Brazilian rosewood head plate (cut from the same board as the fingerboard and bridge) and the heel are glued and cut to shape
Now I remove the waste from the neck and clean with a block plane
The tricky part of making the neck... cutting some precise slots and rabbets for the neck to accept the sides. the base side rib will be fitted with a wedge while a rabbet is cut on the treble side to glue the rib flush with the fretboard.
(this is a 2mm deep saw cut for the cutaway rabbet)
and finally I rough out the heel, I took some inspiration from the late Tom Doerr for the heel design. This isn't the final shape, the final carve will be similar but it will remain oversized until the neck is carved
Now to carve the headstock crest, drill and slot the head, and cut the string ramps!