Neck through construction started

[Stringwalker]

So, I found a nice wood source nearby to start my build and I bought all of the neck wood. It's all cut, squared, planed and glued up. I'm using flame maple and a paduk center for the neck construction. Its 2 1/2' thick x 2 1/4" wide x 5' right now. So far, so good.

Now, here's where I'm a little stumped. So far, I have a mahogany slab that is roughly 1 3/4" thick and a book matched 5a flame maple top that is 3/4" thick and was previously glued by the previous owner I purchased it from. I don't want to have the neck wood show on top but rather use the maple as a cap. I'm trying to figure out how to proceed from here. I know I have to plane down the mahogany 3/4" to make the body total thickness to 1 3/4" with the maple top. I'm also thinking I will need to plane the section of the neck that will be glued to the mahogany under the maple to accommodate it's thickness so it can lay flat on top. Will this make the neck weak or unstable? Is there a better solution?

So, I'm thinking I need to make templates of the body shape for the bottom half,(mahogany) taking into account of the neck width, rough cut out the body shape of the mahogany first, square of the sides to be glued then glue it to the neck, plane down the center section of the neck, rough cut the maple, glue the maple on top and the use a tracer bit and route the top and bottom using my full body template I made.

Sorry for all the novice questions, this is my first neck through build and I had to go with a figured top I don't want to cut up. Oh Brudda!!!

Thanks for any insight or advice.

 

[Stringwalker]

Bump.

Anyone?

 

[Musiclogic]

There are a number of neck through builds that document the compolete process, you just need to use the search. If your neck is 2 1/4" wide it's too narrow for anything over 16mm spacing at the bridge.

 

[JayGunn]

I suggest you thin out the maple top to about 1/4" to 3/8". That leaves a lot more 'meat' in the neck-through laminations that actually provide the stiffness bridge-to-nut.

 

[Stringwalker]

There are a number of neck through builds that document the compolete process, you just need to use the search. If your neck is 2 1/4" wide it's too narrow for anything over 16mm spacing at the bridge.

I can still add another laminate to the neck if you think it should be wider. I can rip the paduk down and add another maple laminate in the center to make it at least 1/2"-3/4" wider.

Thanks for the advice. Sorry I'm learning as I go here and expect to make some mistakes. I'm hoping to get some guidance from you fine builders.

@ Jay Gunn: I may opt out of using this top just because I have no way of thinning it out out w/o wasting alot of wood. I have to go back a refigure out my plans before I go forward.

Thanks for the help.