The Charles Fox Guitar-Building Method, Part Two

by Mark French

Originally published in American Lutherie #140, 2020

See also,
A Guitar Is Born: Attending Charles Fox’s Hands-On Guitar Making Course by Mark French
The Charles Fox Guitar-Building Method, Part One by Mark French
The Charles Fox Guitar-Building Method, Part Three by Mark French
The Charles Fox Guitar-Building Method, Part Four by Mark French
The Charles Fox Guitar-Building Method, Part Five by Mark French
The Charles Fox Guitar-Building Method, Part Six by Mark French


There are four major subassemblies in Charles’ guitar design. The separately completed rim, soundboard, and back are assembled to create the body, to which the completed neck is then fitted and attached. Given that the design process has highlighted and resolved all their relationships, they can each be considered individually, and created either serially, in any sequence, or simultaneously.

Starting the Neck
At first glance, Charles’ neck follows a fairly standard design, but it incorporates features that make it work better. One characteristic of Charles’ instruments is that many features and dimensions are shared across different body shapes (“Production Techniques for the Custom Luthier,” AL#110). One of these is the neck. Since most of Charles’ instruments share the same 25.5˝ scale, they can use the same 12-fret or 14-fret necks. The only visible difference is their heel depths, as shown in Photo 1. Even then, there are only two different depths.