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I'm building another archtop (I've made a couple before), and I'm getting close to gluing on the neck and prepping for finish.

One of the challenges I had on my prior archtops is getting the finish satisfactory in the area beneath the neck extension. The first 1-1/2" or so is fitted tightly to the top, but then the neck extension rolls up and away from the top like the typical Benedetto extension. In the past, there's been no real way to apply finish neatly in the tight area beneath the extension when I spray. The finish tends to become very uneven, and it's difficult to sand and impossible to buff.

How do you get a nice finish in this area? This guitar will have something like a sunburst finish, so I'll need to apply color in that area as well. Should I finish the underside of the extension and the soundboard before I glue the neck on?

Most of the cantilever necks I see here don't really have much if any finish in the area you mention.

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Brian

You never know what you are capable of until you actually try.

https://www.howardguitarsdelaware.com/

For this reason, I quickly went to finishing the neck & body separately. Makes everything easier imo.

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Dave
Milton, ON

Thank you, Brian and Dave.

Dave, if you glue the neck after finish, do you have any problems getting the cutaway edge of the neck and cutaway to align perfectly? I can sand them into perfect alignment before finishing, but as the finish builds separately on both parts, I would anticipate a tiny ridge in the finish where the two meet. If so, perhaps it would make sense to finish separately, glue on the neck, then add another coat or two in that area before sanding and buffing that edge. But if there's no ridge, then just doing it all separately sounds like a pretty slick solution.

I understand your concern, but I never had a problem. I used a bolt on neck but a good dovetail should register just as precisely (ie hold firmly without glue) so you could unmask both mortice & tenon 3/4 of the way through finishing, dry fit & do some leveling of the seam at that point, then disassemble/remask/finish coat etc through buff out before final ass'y. (You'll have to floss the joint of overspray a bit after finishing, but no big deal.) I always thought the trade off of feeling that seam a bit was well worth the benefits of doing them separately. (In theory, with a glued joint, you could drop fill the seam after glueing & eliminate the seam) (Make SURE the masked area on the body is smaller than the width of the heel ! ..... go ahead, ask me how I know this )

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Dave
Milton, ON

Dave, that is extremely helpful. Thank you!

I am re-building a 1933 Gibson L-00 that has an elevated fretboard like on an archtop. It badly needed a neck set - really badly - so I had to install a wedge on top of the extension. The picture shows the wedge installed, and you can easily see the bare spot on the top that is under the fretboard that sticks about 3/4" off the wedge to the right. With a light, you can see that the area under the extension is also bare:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/ruby1638/ ... 6344222304


So bare is OK and hardly noticeable, even on a black guitar.

Ed