SwedishLuthier Posted July 11, 2014 Report Share Posted July 11, 2014 OK, I'm not one of the best when it comes to build threads, but as I already does this in a lokal guitar forum for the customer I might at well share with you guys too. This is a build based on my NorthStar body. However it is going to be a headless guitar with compound scale (fanned frets) and 8-Stings. Oh, and compound radius too. Here's a drawing Body wood, Brazilian cedar Body top, Masur Birch, a quite common birch burl in Finland and Sweden Neck is going to be multi laminated, with a lot of things going on, but mainly maple with mahogany stringer The customer got to choose from one of these striped mahogany fretboards Body being glued up EDIT:Forgot, hardware from fellow Swede Ola Strandberg and it will also have an EndurNeck profile, that Ola is kind enough to let me license for this build. Or anyone that just pay his quite reasonable fee. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SwedishLuthier Posted July 11, 2014 Author Report Share Posted July 11, 2014 Body left to dry while I turn my attention to the top. First clean it up a bit on the planer The burl makes the birch extremely hard. So hard, in fact, that the band saw didn't had enough power to complete the job. So I had to hand saw it, quite a bit of work... After even more cleaning up with the Wagner Safe-T and the planer: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SwedishLuthier Posted July 11, 2014 Author Report Share Posted July 11, 2014 Starting to work on the fretboard. For custom compound scales I print the CAD and glue it to the board Clamp the board to a table, clamp a steel ruler right up to the printed line, score the wood with a sharp knife. I then continue with to a thin saw. This saw is thinner than the fret saw, so thin that it tracks the knife cut good but wide enough to give the fret saw enough guidance later on And then it's time for the fret saw Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SwedishLuthier Posted July 11, 2014 Author Report Share Posted July 11, 2014 Cutting of the excess 1 Cutting of the excess 2 A bit of cleaning up on the belt sander and you can see what fretboard the customer chose Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SwedishLuthier Posted July 11, 2014 Author Report Share Posted July 11, 2014 Fret board cornea rounded over I use the router table, a flush trim bit and a template with a 16mm radius I rout for the truss rod on the router table, first the narrower 6mm rout all along the truss rod length. and then a 8 mm bit for the adjustment nut of the trussrod a nice and tight fit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SwedishLuthier Posted July 11, 2014 Author Report Share Posted July 11, 2014 As I have more compound radius fretboards coming up I decided it was finally time to build a radius jig. I opted for the on-top-of-the-router-table-version. As it was the first test I did a very "ghetto" style hinge.That will be upgraded before next use. 16-20" radius done in a few minutes. On the other hand it took me three hours to build the jig... Here you can see how the bit sits inside a tube that steers the jig. The surface of the fretboard is a bit rough, bit I don't think it takes more than a few minutes of sanding to clean this up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SwedishLuthier Posted July 11, 2014 Author Report Share Posted July 11, 2014 OH, this is how I made the neck blank (totally forgot to share that): I glue thin maple and walnut veneers, 0.5mm thick to 0.5mm thick graphite, one on each side. This is the mahogany used. I almost feel bad using a flame mahogany for this... I then glue the thin laminates to the mahogany. The square steel tubes are used as clamping cauls throughout the process to ensure perfecty straight pieces. I now have pre-fab stringers with thin brown, thin black, thin white, 5mm brown, thin white, thin black and finally thin brown color. Two of those get laminated between flame maple. the walnut didn't became as visible as I had hoped, but I think it turned out pretty good anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SwedishLuthier Posted July 11, 2014 Author Report Share Posted July 11, 2014 I mark the outline of the body on the neck blank I drill and use a forester bit to make divits for the hardware to rest inside A bit of cleaning up on the other side. That Festool count sink (is that the right name) gotta be the best in the word. It centers perfectly and always leave a totally smooth bevel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SwedishLuthier Posted July 11, 2014 Author Report Share Posted July 11, 2014 Caulk in the truss rod slot to stop any vibrations. Tape to make sure I don't get caulk on the wood as that will stop the wood from adhering. Press the truss rod in, remove excess caulk, remove tape Now the freeboard is being glued to the neck blank in the usual fashion, using small nails in the fet slots as guides I use a LMII aluminum beam as clamping caul. This is after all the clamps have been removed. I always use epoxy for fretboards as I don't want to have any water there that can potentially cup the fretboard. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SwedishLuthier Posted July 11, 2014 Author Report Share Posted July 11, 2014 A quick trip to the band saw to remove most of the excess And another trip to the router table to clean everything up 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted July 11, 2014 Report Share Posted July 11, 2014 Peter! How cool to see one of your builds! Thanks for sharing this. SR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RestorationAD Posted July 11, 2014 Report Share Posted July 11, 2014 Excellent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KnightroExpress Posted July 11, 2014 Report Share Posted July 11, 2014 Awesome! I can't wait to see more Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Workingman Posted July 12, 2014 Report Share Posted July 12, 2014 I always enjoy your builds. Question, are you going to treat the fretboard in anyway? I wonder as I have always thought that mahogany was too soft for a fretboard. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SwedishLuthier Posted July 12, 2014 Author Report Share Posted July 12, 2014 Oh, my bad, Striped ebony, not mahogany! I don't think I would trust mahogany to hold the frets in and certainly not to stand up to the wear and tear of long time fretboard action. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SwedishLuthier Posted July 12, 2014 Author Report Share Posted July 12, 2014 A bit more work done I glue the top with a new toy, the LMI Plate Joining jig. I will write a review of this tool when I'm done testing it but I can give away the biggest benefit compared to my old method of clamping batons to the work bench and gluing the tops there: I can put the workpiece away while curing and free up the space on my bench for other work Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SwedishLuthier Posted July 12, 2014 Author Report Share Posted July 12, 2014 And then its time for fret markers. The customer only wants side markers as the fretboard looks so nice. A center finder ruler is great for finding the right spot A simple makeshift jig for drilling all holes in a straight line I'm using 4mm aluminium dots. I cut those from a rod, glue them in with super glue and use a small hammer to tap them in place Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SwedishLuthier Posted July 12, 2014 Author Report Share Posted July 12, 2014 Fast forward in time (about two hours for the glue in the top joint to dry). I band saw the top to rough size and shape and sand the gluing surface completely flat. Titebond! Looks a bit like a christmas gingerbread... and lots of clamps Now that has to cure over night. Next step is to sand the top to final thickness, levelness and smoothness (lots of "-ness" there). Then sit back and wait for the hardware to arrive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pan_kara Posted July 12, 2014 Report Share Posted July 12, 2014 Love the top resawing setup actually, love everyting else too Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SwedishLuthier Posted July 12, 2014 Author Report Share Posted July 12, 2014 Love the top resawing setup Yeah, less is more, or something like that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted July 13, 2014 Report Share Posted July 13, 2014 I totally forgot that I had some spalted Masur Birch to ping to you Peter! Yipes. The stuff I have is far softer than the "normal" Birch because of the spalting. Love that neck blank. Pinstripes are always a classy touch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PTU 7's. Posted July 15, 2014 Report Share Posted July 15, 2014 Wow, awesome work! Such a very nice top and fretboard. Looking forward for more pictures. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
verhoevenc Posted July 15, 2014 Report Share Posted July 15, 2014 Dang you and your easy access to masur birch!!!! Gorgeous! Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SwedishLuthier Posted July 17, 2014 Author Report Share Posted July 17, 2014 I totally forgot that I had some spalted Masur Birch to ping to you Peter! Yipes. The stuff I have is far softer than the "normal" Birch because of the spalting. Love that neck blank. Pinstripes are always a classy touch. Thanks, I had also totally forgot about that. Well you'll have to bring those and yourself over to Stockholm some time! Wow, awesome work! Such a very nice top and fretboard. Looking forward for more pictures. Thanks! Dang you and your easy access to masur birch!!!! Gorgeous! Chris Thanks! Thats one of the few benefits from living in cold scandinavia... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SwedishLuthier Posted July 17, 2014 Author Report Share Posted July 17, 2014 Body cleaned up, from out of the clamps via band sawing to sanded with robo sander and top sanded smooth and wetted with naphtha Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.