Tom Berghan - Posted - 04/30/2017:  11:42:51

I bought  a really nice little parlor classical guitar for playing early to mid 19th century music (nylon strings & ladder bracing) . . . Stephen Foster period.  I loved the sound of this guitar and the longer scale of this parlor guitar is perfect at 25.6 inches. (I don't like short or average scale lengths . . . I like long)

But the action was too high and the neck was bit of baseball bat with an extreme D profile.  But I do not like a D profile . . . I wanted a C profile.

I consulted my good friend and luthier Dan Knowles of Paris Tennessee.  He advised me to buy some welding tip cleaners, a horseshoer's rasp, a bottle of tung oil, and various grades of sandpaper.

1) NUT SLOTS: The welding tips were the perfect tool for me because they take material off  very slowly preventing me from going too far too quickly. A set of cleaners is about $3.50 and I measured each one with my micrometer and then labeled them individually.  

2) SADDLE: I sanded the bottom of the saddle slowly until it too was the perfect height.

3) NECK PROFILE: This was the scary part.  I secured the guitar on a work-bench and after watching several YouTube videos of luthiers shaping necks . . . I took the rasp to the neck.  By the way, the horseshoer's rasp (also known as a Farrier's rasp) cost about $20.  The Horseshoer's rasp is intended for horse hooves so it is not very aggressive and perfect for me because it will not remove a lot of material with each pass.  The first cut was scary!!!  I went slowly and I gained more confidence as I went along.  I stopped often to see how it felt to my left hand.  I did not use any templates, I simply felt my way as I went and it worked really well.  The neck profile is now custom fit to my hand exactly.  It is not simply a C profile . . .it is fit to my hand very precisely!

4) FINISH:  I sanded and polished the neck and then finished it with tung oil . . . about 5 coats and hand buffed between every coat.

The guitar now plays like a dream and I did it all myself!  I feel very empowered!    Thank you Dan for the great instructions!

Edited by - Tom Berghan on 04/30/2017 18:17:04