Putting burl top on a neck thru instrument

[KAOSBass]

I am building a neck-thru bass, I am gonna try something new with this one. I've done tops on the wings but always left the neck stripe, now I wanna try to cover the entire face of the bass with it. What kind of techniques do you guys have for getting the "neck pocket/fingerboard" cut out accurately?

[JSPguitars]

Templates. You'll have to route the neck thru blank down right after the fingerboard to the end of the neck. Figure out the thickness of the burl top and go from there. I'm sure there are better ways to do it, but I just did somewhat the same thing even though it was a set-in neck, there was the space (2-3") after the fingerboard where the neck blank was sticking up above the rest of the body. I just made a template and routed it down flat to the body after the fingerboard.

[erikbojerik]

I would first joint & glue up the top (assuming it's bookmatched), then transfer the outline of the end of the fingerboard onto the top. Cut it out on a bandsaw but leave some extra to remove by hand. Chisels & sanding blocks should get you there.

Another option is to have the top and the planed surface of the neck blank on the same plane, then lay the fingerboard down over your top.