Advanced Neck Construction: The Bird's Beak
In this course, Luthier Ramon Tristani of Tristani Guitars, shows how to expertly execute the incredibly beautiful and structurally sound peghead to neck joint known as the Bird’s Beak.
Buy Now $184.80 77 Lessons 11:30:13
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Course Introduction
About This Course
Do you want to learn how to do one of the most common peghead to neck joints ever used in the history of lutherie? The Bird’s Beak has been used for centuries and is most commonly associated with Martin Guitar necks. Ramon Tristani has been doing this joint on his guitars for years and has come up with a very straightforward step by step method to make this joint. This course includes so much more information than just how to make the Bird’s beak joint. It is a complete neck construction course that uses the Bird’s Beak as its foundation and the entire neck construction process is built around this goal. The course also includes plans for several simple jigs used to make the Bird’s Beak joint.
Learn about:
- Tools and supplies for each step
- Neck joint geometry and layout
- Simple jigs to make the Bird’s Beak Joint
- Stock preparation
- Neck reinforcement
- Router jig for neck shaping
- Peghead shaping and tuner hole drilling
- Headstock binding
- Mortise and tenon bolt on neck joint
- Neck angle
- Fretboard slotting, tapering and binding
Please read the FAQ page before beginning. To begin just register/login and purchase the video lessons. Due to the large files sizes, this is a stream only course. After purchasing you may view the video lessons as many times as you like.
I am excited about this course. I have tinkered with making this joint several times from the Greven info, but never been satisfied. Elaine
Feedback
×I have been going through the bird peak parts of the course and really like it. In the past I have read articles and looked at web sites with descriptions of the joint. I understand how it goes together but I never tried as I am not really knowledgeable with complex visible joinery. I always looked at the precision of some of the cuts and never convinced myself that I could do it. Ramon describes the technique to make the precise square surfaces required. He clearly laid out where precision was required. His instruction was detailed enough to show the directions needed to make the fine cuts chisel cuts without blow out. I have a 0 parlor coming up after I finished my current project and plan to follow the instructions. It is a perfect neck for that guitar. John
I am excited about this course. I have tinkered with making this joint several times from the Greven info, but never been satisfied. Elaine
I just finished watching the entire thing. Excellent course; very well thought out and presented. I recommend anyone considering to make this joint to get the course. Taylor
I watched most of the course over the Thanksgiving break. Fantastic material, and great presentation. Lots of good practical pointers / reminders in there on fine control of chisels and the logical sequence to cut a fine joint like this. Eric
I've been working on my Bird's Beak necks following Ray's course (thank you Ray!). Over the last week I've made two different headstocks to fit a neck blank as practice. Last weekend I did one after the classic Fleta shape. Eric
The Bird’s Beak course is excellent, just like all the other courses I have purchased from your site. Russ
I just completed my first birds beak joint using the course from Ramon Tristani and Robbie. This post is to thank Ramon for all the help he gave me. I would not have had this turn out near as well without his advice, Any time I had an issue he was right there to help. I still have some clean up and fitting issues but nothing major. Ramon is a great guy, and again I can't thank him enough. I look forward to any future courses he may be involved with. Ray
I learned so much about jig and fixture design and construction from it. In addition to the birds beak joint and neck construction methods. Larry
Chapter 1 • Headstock Routing Jig
About this course
4:25
Lesson 1:
Intro
0:52
Lesson 2:
Tools and Materials
5:52
Lesson 3:
Drilling the jig walls
6:27
Lesson 4:
The inner ramps
3:02
Lesson 5:
The clamping wedges
3:19
Lesson 6:
Routing box assembly
18:50
Lesson 7:
Making the template
12:48
Lesson 8:
Calibrating the router box
13:00
Chapter 2 • The Ramp
Lesson 1:
Tools and Materials
3:29
Lesson 2:
Tips and things
2:49
Lesson 3:
Ramp top preparation
4:17
Lesson 4:
Ramp wall preparation
2:48
Lesson 5:
Ramp jig assembly
9:42
Chapter 3 • Stock Preparation
Lesson 1:
Introduction
3:26
Lesson 2:
Making bindings
5:25
Lesson 3:
The headstock veneer
6:28
Lesson 4:
The fingerboard
3:48
Lesson 5:
The neck components
22:08
Chapter 4 • Initial Layouts
Lesson 1:
Intro
1:51
Lesson 2:
Tools and Supplies
2:50
Lesson 3:
Centerline Layouts
6:29
Lesson 4:
Scale layouts
4:03
Lesson 5:
Heel Layouts
4:02
Lesson 6:
Birds Beak layouts
7:32
Lesson 7:
Fingerboard Layouts
2:10
Lesson 8:
Headstock Layouts
3:57
Chapter 5 • The Heel Block
Lesson 1:
Intro
1:10
Lesson 2:
Preparation
5:04
Lesson 3:
Dry Clamping Explanation
5:35
Lesson 4:
Assembly
7:19
Lesson 5:
Heel Block Location
15:12
Chapter 6 • The Bird’s Beak Joint
Lesson 1:
Intro
2:49
Lesson 2:
Adding neck thickness
11:27
Lesson 3:
Setting the headstock angle
3:12
Lesson 4:
Routing the mortise
14:32
Lesson 5:
Cutting the beak
24:31
Lesson 6:
Trimming the beak
34:31
Lesson 7:
Fitting the tenon
7:49
Lesson 8:
Planing the neck
11:34
Lesson 9:
Final fitting
12:08
Chapter 7 • Headstock Construction
Lesson 1:
Headstock veneer installation
10:29
Lesson 2:
Shaping the Headstock
6:05
Lesson 3:
Tuner holes
3:29
Lesson 4:
Headstock Bindings Overview
4:01
Lesson 5:
Binding channels
3:16
Lesson 6:
Binding Installation
17:06
Lesson 7:
Cleaning the Bindings
8:49
Chapter 8 • Neck Reinforcement
Lesson 1:
Intro
3:14
Lesson 2:
Router table setup
4:15
Chapter 9 • Shaping the Neck
Lesson 1:
Intro
2:52
Lesson 2:
Router jig walkthrough
7:47
Lesson 3:
Jig Setup
11:46
Lesson 4:
Routing the neck profile
7:56
Chapter 10 • Heel Block Completion
Lesson 1:
Installing Heel Block
4:35
Lesson 2:
Setting the neck angle
7:51
Lesson 3:
Cutting the tenon
16:29
Lesson 4:
Drilling for hardware
7:42
Lesson 5:
Installing the hardware
8:42
Chapter 11 • Neck Reinforcement
Lesson 1:
Installation
11:09
Lesson 2:
Neck relief
6:36
Chapter 12 • The Fingerboard
Lesson 1:
Intro
1:18
Lesson 2:
Layout
12:41
Lesson 3:
Fret slots
11:34
Lesson 4:
The nut slot
1:12
Lesson 5:
Tapering
5:34
Lesson 6:
Binding Channels
2:35
Lesson 7:
Installing bindings
19:36
Lesson 8:
Cleanup and thicknessing
7:13
Lesson 9:
Installing the fingerboard
11:04
Chapter 13 • Shaping
Lesson 1:
Intro
1:01
Lesson 2:
Shaping the heel
32:32
Lesson 3:
Shaping the beak
33:59
Lesson 4:
Beak to neck transition
25:37
Lesson 5:
Headstock Transition
15:17
Chapter 14 • Completion
Lesson 1:
Installing the heastock
8:27
Lesson 2:
Final sanding
20:58
Lesson 3:
Retrospective and final thoughts
2:44