John Coogan Guitar Repairs

The timber chosen for the neck and body is sapele - the reason for this is cost and avaialbility. I can buy a 9" x 2" x 12' rough sawn sapele board in my local builders supplier for about €35 - a honduran mahogony or similar body blank would cost me much more than that and that's just for a body blank. Here I've thicknessed the body blank, seasoned inside for a few weeks before jointing and gluing together.

I'm using an old wooden jack plane - the blade has been rounded over to make it a very effective scrub plane. I got this from a fried who found it in an old property he was renovating - great to get it back to work.

The scarf joint must mate perfectly to the headstock. Spritz some water on there and make sure there is contact at all points.

The headstock is glued on to the neck scarf joint - I used gorilla wood glue at first but when I tested the joint after drying over night it came straight off - back to titebond original!

Removing the excess from the headstock glue up

A piece of 1" sapele added to make up the heel.

The scarf joint planed flat

I added biscuits to the scarf joint - I don't think this was necessary but I did it anyway