HTS Make Tail Block

Tail Blocks are a very important part of an Acoustic / Jazz Guitar, they provide support to the two joined sides as well as provide an anchoring point for a guitar strap. to hold the instrument from.

This is a guitar we are building and we are showing the tail block manufacturing component here.

Time to manufacture approx 30 minutes.

We draw an end line just inside the edge, this is so we can have a clean cut on our end grain.

Draw the second cut line.

This hofner had a broken neck socket and shattered top.

It has a tail block that is curvature shaped, 60mm wide and 15mm thick.

This poor old 1950's Gibson, Unfortunatley this was another repairers idea of fixing the guitar, cutting a hole through the top of a vintage instrument.

It has a square tailblock, 86mm wide by 12mm thick

This 12 string Maton, was having its main X brace replaced.

The tail block is 75mm wide 20mm thick

This Cole clark came in for a new top.

It has a tail block 45mm wide by 15mm thick and its made from two stacked pieces.

Epiphone came in for a neck block failure.

The tailblock is 13mm thick by 70mm wide with rolled edges.

Back to ours, clearly you can see you are not locked into any design constraint, just what works for you.

The old saying, here is one I did earlier.

Typically I make them 80mm wide by 20mm thick and I like to bevel the edges for an aesthetic look.

A piece of dressed Mahogany, this one is 21.27mm thick, I find anything in the 19-23mm range ideal.

I personally like around 80mm of length.

Using a dropsaw, I chop the old engrain section away.