Up in the Repair Shop our luthiers get unique requests from customers on a daily basis. Whether it’s something standard like swapping pickups, to a neck reset and a complete refret, the shop is more than willing to make musical dreams come true. Cut to a recent request to thin down a neck on one of our customer’s favorite guitars. Originally the guitar had been built with a wider neck profile and nut width, but over the years the customer had grown to want something thinner and narrower. Jim jumped in and, of course, build a custom jig to get the job done. Scroll through the photos below of routing, carving and refinishing this neck.

Here’s Jim lining up his custom jig that’s attached to the fingerboard with double stick tape.

Clamping everything down to make sure nothing slips while doing the routing.

Here’s a close up showing just how much material Jim will remove from both sides.

Let the routing begin!

The beauty of this setup is that the router removes both the neck, the fingerboard and the frets.

Making multiple passes to ensure a clean edge

Hand carving of the neck to create a new profile based on the customer’s specs is done. Followed by finishing

Final look at the newly refinished neck!

Here’s a close up on the original nut, showing just how much material has been removed from both sides!

Head on over to the Repair Page to get in touch with our expert team of luthiers!