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While carving on the headstock and neck, I found myself doing hand to hand combat. How do you guys hold the neck? I've already chipped my heel cap during this process. The neck's taper doesn't allow it to be held in my vise, which has straight jaws. Do you use a tapered piece of wood on each side? I found a guitar repair vise at Stew-Mac and have read about something called a Parrot Vise. Does anybody use one of these vises that could offer an opinon?
Clinton

I don't have a parrot vise but have and industrial dule axis piviot 6" vise that I built soft jaws for. One set of jaws are padded leather to conform to ill-regular shapes and the other are plywood cork lined.. I could not get by with out this vise. Well I could and did for a couple years, but would not want to MichaelP38846.5345601852

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Tickle your guitar daily, and it'll tickle you back.

I have a parrott vise and it's been very useful. I also have a Veritas pattern
makers vise with "swivel' jaws. It's very good for holding odd shaped pieces.
-C

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Freeborn Guitars
and home of BeauGuard©

I don't either. I don't drink, smoke, cuss, or anything like that. Well.....I do indulge in a little Breyer's Ice Cream every now and then. And Haagen Dasz, and Ben&Jerry's, and Cheez-it, and.....well, you get the picture.

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

John--that is ONE handsome neck!
Is the rear of the peghead faced with 2 (two) seperate pieces? That's How it looks to me. Are me two (2) eyes playing tricks on me?

SK

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From Nacogdoches...the oldest town in Texas.

http://www.stephenkinnaird.com

Thanks Steve, both the front and back have overlays with a strip of sapwood down the center. African Blackwood.

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Tickle your guitar daily, and it'll tickle you back.

I just bought a Wilton woodworking vise, and it's great. It'll eventually hold a jig similar to the one John posted.

Now, about that neck. Photos, story? That's gorgeous.

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Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.

Here's the story so far. Actually it is bound now but I don't have the pictures posted yet.

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Tickle your guitar daily, and it'll tickle you back.

Here's the vise I use:

Gun Stock Vise

Both of the heads pivot 360? and it holds odd shaped stuff great. Can be found at Woodcraft as well as others.

John

Thats a neat solution and I love the neck.

John, you have a picture with the title "Binding Cut" which appears to be a different guitar...what is that? Honduran RW? SE Asian RW?

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Yeah, changed some HTML and appearantly I had two photos with the same name, but that is Honduran Rosewood. Really nice stuff, a real pingy tap tone.

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Tickle your guitar daily, and it'll tickle you back.

Mine is pretty much like Johns, but instead of having to use clamps, I have threaded knobs that at each end that lock wooden levers to clamp the neck - they are always right there !!! No need to go get clamps.

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

I like the clamp/vise that Sylvan Wells has posted on his site. I made one just like it, only I downsized it using a smaller pipe clamps...and I use it a lot. I suppose it's more intended for a guitar body, but I don't see why you couldn't adapt it to hold a neck in place. I also like that it can taken down and set-up at another locale.
http://www.wellsguitars.com/Articles/Guitar_Holder.htm

Mine are women and smoking, oh wait vises - rrrrrrrrrright -
Cheers
Charliewood

I have the Stewmac vise. Don't know what I'd do without it. I also got their little vise for working on nuts and saddles. I clamp the little vise in the big vise to hold it up at a good working height.

I also use a neck mounting fixture like the one pictured.

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Todd Rose
Ithaca, NY

https://www.dreamingrosesecobnb.com/todds-art-music

https://www.facebook.com/ToddRoseGuitars/

I have the parrot vise (well the one from grizzly which is the same thing)
and it is a indispensable tool for me.

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John Mayes
http://www.mayesluthier.com

Grizzly has the parrot vise at a very reasonable price(~$50) The SM repair vise is around $120. John, your contraption to hold your neck is just what I was looking for ! Gotta love the OLF and the ideas that come from this forum. Paul, does your vise loosen up when swiveling as Todd suggested?

Thanks everyone! Clinton

Clinton,

Looks like you've found what you need, but here are a couple of "quick and dirty" clamping solutions: First, if you've got a couple of screw clamps, you can combine them with your "normal" vise in creative ways to hold a guitar neck. For instance, you can clamp the tail end of screw clamp in the vise, cover the thread of the screw clamp with a protective cloth, and you've got a useful vise extention. Also, you can put a second screw vise in, and perpendicular to, the first, and you've got a method to clamp the headstock. Be sure to pad the jaws.

You can also modify your vise by cutting an appropriate sized piece of plywood to fit one vise jaw, then glue half a dowel, cut lengthwise, to the ply and you've got a pivoting jaw. You'll probably need to make some cutouts in the ply to fit over your vise's screw mechanism--just be sure to leave some "wiggle room."

Further to Carlton's suggestion regarding the piece of plywood, you can simply round the back of the ply piece. I have a piece of thick leather glued to the inside face of the plywood which wraps around the neck, padding it from the vice jaws and bottom.

        The stew mac one looks just like what I was told was a carver's vise... which sells for around $100 or so at Japan woodworkers in my neck of the country. What's the difference?

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"Preoccupation with an effect gives it power and enhances the error"
from "Your Owner's Manual" by Burt Hotchkiss.

if you do repair work the catch straps are rather vital; clients don't appreciate having neatly spaced square notches in the back of their necks.

i also added a very large rubber band around the "towers" to take up the backlash. makes operations smoother and quicker.

years ago s-m sold exactly the same vises as the woodworking houses and charged an extra $30 or so. it was a bit of a no-brainer which to buy. but eventually i guess the penny dropped and they put in the mods mentioned above to justify the price differential, and they are probably worth it now.

the parrot vise is just a cheap copy of what used to be sold as the "versa vise" for around $150, and which came with both a clamp-on movable base and a screw down base. i haven't seen much less used one of the new cheaper ones but do get a lot of use out of my old expensive(!@#$%&?) one. have often thought of getting a set of the pivoting jaws sold for the parrot to use in mine.crazymanmichael38847.4565509259

[QUOTE=crazymanmichael] have often thought of getting a set of the pivoting jaws sold for the parrot to use in mine.[/QUOTE]
I bought a set for my Versa-Vise. As with many products nowdays, they needed some work--very sharp edges on the aluminum; the rubber pads started to come unglued almost immediately. Did some filing and gluing, and they work fine. Personally, I'm very glad I got a Versa-Vise before they went out of business--consider how much it would cost now!