The Head Block
The features of this design are:
1. No special jigs are required to route the mortice into the guitar body or the tenon into the neck.
2. The fretboard is supported all the way to the upper face brace.
3. In addition to the truss rod there are 2 carbon fibre strips and a neck splice that extend across the neck joint.
4. There is no need to adjust the “yaw” of the neck. As the head block is held straight during construction of the body, the neck will be straight.
5. The pitch of the neck is easily adjusted with the central laminate prior to the outer laminates being fitted.
The head block is made from the same pieces of timber used for laminating the neck.
Make a perspex template for the head block with the following dimensions:
Use 3 pieces of 20 mm timber large enough to accommodate the template. Using double sided sticky tape stick them together with one straight edge aligned. Draw the template on one side and cut all three pieces on a band saw. Remove the middle piece that will form the mortice and draw the spacer shape with the second template and cut it out.
Route a 8 mm wide x 11 mm deep channel on the inner upper sides of the outer head block pieces. Glue the assembly together to form the head block.
Drill 2 holes 30 mm apart through the central piece using a drill press.
Fit the central portion of the neck into the head block, mark the positions of the holes just drilled, and drill, fit and super glue 2 gizmos into the neck as shown.
Glue and clamp the head block to the sides as shown. It is helpful to clamp a straight edge at 90 degrees to the top of the guitars to ensure that the head block is exactly vertical to the top plane of the guitar and to prevent it slipping before the glue dries.
The head block is held true in the mold during construction using a 20 mm strip of timber and two dowels.
Alan Lloyd Guitars
