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My First Neck


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Hi folks yesterday I just began my first neck for a custom JEM I'm making. I bought a 2 pcs alder body from a VIP member here 6 months ago, he's very busy so I decided to make my first one also cuz after translated a lot of tutorial from project for Progettochitarra.com I must try something!!! LOL

Neck is a scarf joint 14 degree angled headstock from 1 pc 1/4 sawn hard maple. Ebony fretboard. Vine inlay with purpleheart stem. Double action truss rod. Dunlop 6105 fretwire.

I know I posted here saying I couldn't make a scarf joint but it was more cheaper so and I went for it as my first attempt.

For ebony a guy offered me a black asian ebony fretboard 5 years air dried for 12$. What do you think about? Will it be fine or is better african ebony?

BTW the first pictures of the progress:

after the cut of the angle (band saw) and planing (sorry no picture)

the glueing

IbanezGian003.jpg

I use blockbuster card too :D

clamping with 2 spare blocks with angle cutted

http://www.absinthium.it/JEM/IbanezGian006.jpg

and the neck clamped and left to cure

http://www.absinthium.it/JEM/IbanezGian007.jpg

Today I begin with the rasp and the plane.

:D

Edit: I corrected a lot of writing errors B)

ADMIN EDIT- Please re-read the rules regarding pics in posts:

http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.php?showtopic=11235

Thanks.

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Damn I wish I had the confidence to build a neck, thats just what My Project needs.

btw I can't seem to get the first two images?

Anyway although Im still a newbe I think that as long as you've got decent wood for the neck you dont need to worry too much about the fretboard and if its been dried for 5 years its not very likely two have many problems with it.

Takecare and good luck with your project

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I just fixed the pictures :D

Damn I wish I had the confidence to build a neck, thats just what My Project needs.

It seemed a monstrous thing to me too. I still am a bit afraid but I'm going. Keep with you a lot of patience, care and attention to details. Yes a bit of understanding on how to use tools and with guitar technique construction too. But definitively it isn't impossible. Everyone began with a first neck, then there is this great board where you can ask or search :D

For asian ebony it is a very good board. Well aged but the grain seems to me more near a good straight grain rosewood than a black ebony. I never heard to speak about its tonal quality so I am a bit undecided about. Did anyone try it?

Thanks

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I haven't tried the Asian Ebony. It is not actually Ebony from what I understand, but it is very hard and dense. Gilmer had a wide piece that was full of greens pinks and tans that I thought was great looking. When I looked at what they had other pieces didn't have the same look. I think it did remind me of a hard Rosewood, both in looks( only lighter in color) and texture. I will watch for a report on how it turns out for you. I am still looking at using some, hopefully for acoustic sets.

Peace, Rich

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I just have the board in hand and... yes it seems a very close grain rosewood. Very dense and hard but if I compare it with gabon ebony they don't seem to have the same grain. It's a very good quality board but it isn't the ebony for what I have experience of. I think the sound will be near rosewood than ebony. I still am undecided.

Ok I have time till truss rod installation to decide :D

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  • 2 months later...

It's been a while since I began to build my first neck. I waited a long time for a double acting truss rod and an ebony fingerboard from LMI.

The fretboard slotting on that gabon ebony board was a real pain in the arse!!! That stuff is hard rock!!!

BTW after 3 hours I was able to slot it B)

DSCF0017.JPG

Here and here you can see some steps during slotting.

And this is the neck clamped.

I found the installation of the truss rod more easy of what I thought about but on the other side I didn't believe it was so hard to work with ebony :D

This is my fisrt build of ever and I have to say that you must pay so attention to all measures but with a bit of patience and attention, it's not so scary.... ok ok I didn't do the vine inlay and fretting yet :D I will let you know (btw I did fret my Strat neck a while ago and the job was good).

Let me know what do you think.

Gian

:D

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Doing good so far bro, and there is no better way to learn than jump right in the fire.. lol Some things I noticed from what your doing.

- Looks like your using a 3/4" piece of maple, which is great for the neck part, but from the picture it seems like the headstock is also 3/4". It would have been much easier to have planed or bandsawed the wood to 1/2" for the headstock before it was glued on. I learned this the hard way myself too. lol

- Your scarf joint clamping method could get you into trouble if you get glue on the wood blocks your using. I know, i've learned the hard way. Wax paper will help though. Nothing wrong with the way you did it, but Martin Koch has a much better method in his book. You should at least check it out.

Great start though.. looks great.

Matt V

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I hope you end up enjoying building necks. I think many people are a bit unsure of it when starting out. I think it's my favorite part of building a guitar.

One other thing to consider on that part that Matt was talking about:

What I sometimes do is just leave it at 3/4 inch. That way, the scarf joint ends up being farther back in the neck (hopefully adding strength). For some people, it's easier to take off the excess peghead area before gluing and for some it's just as easy to leave it and remove it after it has cured.

I've also done it another way - cut the peghead portion down to 5/8" (roughly) and then glue it to the neck stock. It's less work to do the peghead but the scarf joint is closer to the nut. I don't do it this way any more (actually I never used a neck made this way - they went to the scrap bin) but I have seen others do it this way. The 5/8 measurement varies - don't take it literally.

When you buy an angled headstock blank from warmoth, you get something closer to the first method (and they take of some of the excess for you).

I also like to rout the truss rod channel after the peghead has been glued on. Just my preference though.

Anyway - keep the pics coming. I love seeing new necks being built! Looks good!

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when cutting a scarf joint, is there enough wood there to volute? im getting ready to build a bolt on neck for an old project and am really curious

Generally yes, plenty. All my necks are scarfed, and they all have volutes. I'm not positive a 3/4" thick blank would have enough to do a big-ish volute, but I'm too lazy to check. Draw the headstock area to scale and look for yourself.

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One other thing to consider on that part that Matt was talking about:

What I sometimes do is just leave it at 3/4 inch. That way, the scarf joint ends up being farther back in the neck (hopefully adding strength). For some people, it's easier to take off the excess peghead area before gluing and for some it's just as easy to leave it and remove it after it has cured.

It's what I thought and I did. That way you have the scarf beginning just under the second fret and this looks like more strenght to me (the Ibanez ones are done the same way). Then I have to bandsaw 4 - 5 mm from the headstock area and sand flat the back.

I didn't know about martin Koch method, btw I had not problems using block that way. When I did route the truss rod channel i wasn't able to notice the joint. It seemed like one piece maple :D

Where can I find that info guitarfrenzy?

Thanks everyone for your comments.

Gian

Edited by gun
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Hi folks, this week end I did continue to work.

Here you can see a step of radiusing. Again so hard on ebony!!!

Here I am taking some measurments from a real JEM and here you can see a moment when I had to attach a 1/4" piece of maple at the end of the headstock cuz I be wrong on the headstock length :D

Then I used a ball bearing router bit to shape the actual neck and headstock. So I can start to see something. The neck still has 5 mm than the right lenght.... just to see how it looks on the body.

manicoJem_002.jpg

I'm writing this post while i'm taking a break on the vine inlay. I'm a total newbie and it's so difficult!!! BTW with some filling I believe I will end up with a fairly good result... i hope :D

For filling what is your advice? I'm going to use epoxy: ebony powder and epoxy mixed in? Or dyed black epoxy? I have the LMI aniline dye. Will it work?

The inlay flush for approx 0,012 - 0,015 inch, is it too much?

Gian

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Hey Gian, looks like you're making good steady progress everything looks very neat. For me i don't use epoxy around inlays as i find it's too viscous, i use water thin CA glue as you can fill the gap with dust and just drip the glue in until it won't soak any more up. You may have to repeat this process again to fill up gaps that didn't completely fill the first time but i do find this method means you don't end up in a glue'y dusty mess :D

Jem

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Too late..... I paid very attention to mix properly the epoxy, I have to wait another 8 hours and I will see how it dries. I hope no problems. Maybe CA would be better cuz is more easy to fill th gaps. I mixed some powder and black dye in. I will show you pix when I will level and..... yeah I did some progress :D

Gian

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