sirspens Posted February 14, 2016 Report Share Posted February 14, 2016 (edited) While waiting on tools and supplies for Bob's Your Uncle, and with my girlfriend out of town for the weekend, I had a crazy idea last night... Take a simple guitar design, use what I have available to me, and see how much I can get done in a weekend. This is in no small part because I am honestly a bit scared about Bob's Your Uncle being the first guitar I do a bunch of stuff to. Parameters & Limitations: Access to a planer that can only handle 12.5" wide board, have a neck laying around that I bought a while back when I was trying to figure out how necks are built, want to (mostly) use hardware I have laying around. And, mostly, keep it simple. I stayed up late last night designing the guitar. Went to the lumber yard first thing this morning, got some wood and headed over to the hackerspace. I laser cut a template on some scrap plywood I found laying around. Cut it out on the band saw, sanded the rough edged. I didn't get any pictures of that. But here it is ready to get cut to size with my router table.... And after being cut... I actually went ahead and made two bodies while I was at it, then chose the best one to keep moving forward with (the other one I can work on later). I decided to go with just one pick-up and a volume knob. I thought to myself, "I have literally never used a tone knob before. Lose the tone knob!" I decided to try out an arm relief... The body that is getting set aside had some chips taken out during the routing process. I'm not sure what caused the problem. I had it sanded within a millimeter, but it happened. I guess I get to learn how to fill a chip! I routed out the pick-up cavity (I'm going to do some kind of filtertron, TV Jones, something) and drilled a hole to ground the hardtail bridge. I cut out a control cavity, template I made while at the hackerspace this morning. I may not have left enough space for screws? We will see. I also found some scrap acrylic to use for the cavity cover. Also... I made an oops when routing out the control cavity cover plate recess. Cut out the neck pocket, which was a bigger pain in the ass than I thought it would be.... Even though I made a template based on the neck and the neck was just ever so loose in the template.... the cut is way way too tight. So, the neck doesn't fit. And I have spent the last two hours sanding that damn neck pocket. I still can't shove it in there. So, I called it an end for day 1 of my weekend build. My goal is to get the guitar ready to be finished by the end of the weekend. I think I am well on my way there, but I need to get that neck to fit. Here is the end of the day: Also, where does one find fine grit random orbital sander paper? The box stores nor Woodcraft have it. I'm at a bit of a loss. Edited February 14, 2016 by sirspens missing picture Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
killemall8 Posted February 14, 2016 Report Share Posted February 14, 2016 Even though that neck has a finish on it already, you are probably better off sanding hte sides of the neck than the neck pocket. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
verhoevenc Posted February 14, 2016 Report Share Posted February 14, 2016 You have access to a laser cutter!? Screw messing with the neck, re-cut the template with a wider pocket and re-route it. If you have access to that level of accuracy why not take advantage of it. Everything SHOULD line up perfectly again with lasered stuff. Chris 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sirspens Posted February 15, 2016 Author Report Share Posted February 15, 2016 I figured out what the problem was with the neck. Fixed it. But now the neck doesn't work in another way.... ugh. Necks. The bearing router bit I used for the neck was an old one I inherited when I was given a shitty craftsman router a few years ago. It is only a half-inch deep bit, so it took several passes to route out the neck pocket. I think the bearing on the bit is just ever so slightly bigger than the bit, so the pocked basically steps in as it goes down. I fixed that and the neck slid in beautifully. More to come. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guitaraxz Posted February 15, 2016 Report Share Posted February 15, 2016 5 hours ago, verhoevenc said: You have access to a laser cutter!? Screw messing with the neck, re-cut the template with a wider pocket and re-route it. If you have access to that level of accuracy why not take advantage of it. Everything SHOULD line up perfectly again with lasered stuff. Chris Yes. I once ran into a similar problem and did exactly that. First I put the neck in, as far as it would go, then stuck on the new template.......That assured me that it was in the right spot. It worked. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sirspens Posted February 15, 2016 Author Report Share Posted February 15, 2016 Day 2. As I mentioned in the last post, I figured out what was going on with the neck. Fixed that. And it slips in very nicely. And to make things even better, though it is kind of hard to tell from this photo, the neck is straight with the body center line. So, success there. I drilled out the jack hole, which took FOREVER. Literally, I had to charge my cordless drill, which started out with a full charge, to finish drilling it out. As you can see from the last picture, I half-inch round-overed all the edges, and blended them in. The bridge is ready to go on, but I don't have the holes drilled out yet. I took the finish off the neck and reshaped the headstock. This is actually a neck from Rondo Music I bought forever ago when I was just trying to figure out how to build a neck and the sizing and all that kind of stuff. So, here is the new problem with the neck... It sat in great, but when I got it bolted down it sits with a bit of an angle. There it is from each side. If it were sitting in there correctly, the center of the fretboard would be sitting about 1/4" above the body. The way it is, it is just a bit above 0.3". And there is enough angle that by the time you get the bridge position, it is just under 0.55". Which would be a bit high even if I were doing some kind of TOM setup, which I am not. I am using a hardtail bridge. I'm not sure what the problem is. I was tired by the time I got to this point. So I called the weekend. I'm going to have to figure it out later. I made a lot of progress for the weekend. And I did a LOT of things wrong, which has provided a good learning experience. I can't wait to learn what I have done wrong with the neck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sirspens Posted February 15, 2016 Author Report Share Posted February 15, 2016 I should also mention, I sat down with the guitar for a few minutes, as if I were playing it. And for it being a small guitar, it is actually really comfortable. The high sharp body bulge along with the arm relief fits (me, at least) really well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
curtisa Posted February 15, 2016 Report Share Posted February 15, 2016 24 minutes ago, sirspens said: So, here is the new problem with the neck... It sat in great, but when I got it bolted down it sits with a bit of an angle. There it is from each side. If it were sitting in there correctly, the center of the fretboard would be sitting about 1/4" above the body. The way it is, it is just a bit above 0.3". And there is enough angle that by the time you get the bridge position, it is just under 0.55". Which would be a bit high even if I were doing some kind of TOM setup, which I am not. I am using a hardtail bridge. Remove the neck and check to see if you've trapped some debris under the back of the pocket that may be stopping the neck being pulled down flush. Check also that the holes in the neck have been drilled deep enough to accept the two back bolts - maybe they're bottoming out inside the neck before they've had a chance to seat the neck properly? Neck pocket looks like it is routed with an uneven floor. There's a slight downward step where the pocket meets the body. Check the floor of the neck pocket to make sure it's not making the neck sit with a slight falling angle. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sirspens Posted February 15, 2016 Author Report Share Posted February 15, 2016 17 hours ago, curtisa said: Neck pocket looks like it is routed with an uneven floor. There's a slight downward step where the pocket meets the body. Check the floor of the neck pocket to make sure it's not making the neck sit with a slight falling angle. Good call. I was so tired by the end of the day I didn't see that. But the close up pictures sure help. I'll look into this more this evening. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
a2k Posted February 16, 2016 Report Share Posted February 16, 2016 Dude! I love this. Great way to sharpen your skills and make some low-consequence mistakes. Tear-outs are a bitch, aren't they? Amazing progress for two days worth of work. I'd have a hard time keeping the breaks on and not rushing through things. That said, I'm seriously considering making a 100% standard Jazz bass as my next project as a skill building exercise (well, that and I have a color scheme I can't get out of my head). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted February 16, 2016 Report Share Posted February 16, 2016 This is a great thread! Drilling out the hole for the Jack can be a real pain. I use a stepped drill if I can. Also a spade drill, but those are a bit vicious at times. I'd be interested what other people use. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
curtisa Posted February 16, 2016 Report Share Posted February 16, 2016 Forstner bits for that kind of drilling. Spade bit is way too rough. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KnightroExpress Posted February 16, 2016 Report Share Posted February 16, 2016 Forstners here as well. Cool build, by the way! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted February 16, 2016 Report Share Posted February 16, 2016 And Forstners here too. SR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sirspens Posted February 16, 2016 Author Report Share Posted February 16, 2016 Yeah. I used a forstner. A spade bit would scare me for that kind of work. @a2k and @Andyjr1515, thank you very much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sirspens Posted February 18, 2016 Author Report Share Posted February 18, 2016 I'm going to try to get the neck straightened out on this thing and then prep it for painting (fill and sand) this weekend. Any advice on lacquer spray paint with good color selection? StewMac is a bit worthless there. I have found brands in Europe, but having trouble with something available in the US. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KnightroExpress Posted February 18, 2016 Report Share Posted February 18, 2016 ReRanch is a pretty well-regarded source, they specialize in classic guitar colors. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sirspens Posted February 19, 2016 Author Report Share Posted February 19, 2016 14 hours ago, KnightroExpress said: ReRanch is a pretty well-regarded source, they specialize in classic guitar colors. Thank you! I'll give them a look. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sirspens Posted February 20, 2016 Author Report Share Posted February 20, 2016 So I went ahead and made a new template for cutting the neck pocket. This time I took it out beyond the edge of neck pocket so my router base can't fall off anything. Learning! Here it is with the second body, which I still need to patch up the chip-out on. Got the pickup in for one of the two guitars yesterday... A TV Jones Power'Tron Plus. For the other guitar I am using a GFS Nashville Filter'tron style, which is supposed to have a very similar sound to the Power'tron Plus, with a Thunderbird style chrome pickup ring. I am interested to see if the TV Jones sounds $100 better than the GFS. I am also thinking about finishes. I couldn't come up with a color that I liked for this design. But I was browsing around and found some translucent (note: not transparent) colored acrylic in various bright colors. I thought that might make a pretty interesting pickguard which I could use to add color to the guitar, going with a light cream or even white body. I might be completely wrong about it, but that is what I am thinking right now. As for now, I am behind on a website I am building, so I might have to take a few weekend off and get that thing done. I am 99% done, and every little thing I fix breaks two other things. Why does that always happen? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KnightroExpress Posted February 21, 2016 Report Share Posted February 21, 2016 I think the cream and orange combo would look really cool. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted February 21, 2016 Report Share Posted February 21, 2016 The white and blue one looks good to me, however it might be because those are the colours of the Finnish flag :-D 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sirspens Posted February 27, 2016 Author Report Share Posted February 27, 2016 (edited) On 2/18/2016 at 8:10 AM, KnightroExpress said: asdfasdasdfasdfasdf Edited February 27, 2016 by sirspens It won't let me not do this Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2.5itim Posted February 27, 2016 Report Share Posted February 27, 2016 It's done that to me a couple times, accidentally quote someone and then won't let you delete it 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sirspens Posted February 27, 2016 Author Report Share Posted February 27, 2016 Sorry about the above post. No matter what computer I got on, it wouldn't let me type anything in the comment box. It just had that. And I couldn't change it. Then when I went to edit it, I couldn't change it there either. Nor delete it. On to my point for posting... I have a question about finishing.... My guitar body is mahogany. If I have it filled and sanded well, and I use an instrument grade lacquer finish, does it really matter what kind of spray paint I use to achieve the color layer? I'm sure there are certain types of paint I wouldn't want to use, because they would never dry properly, but what are the limits here? Do I have to use a lacquer color layer? Or can I use something more readily available in a wider color range, then finish with a few layers of lacquer? I appreciate your help! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sirspens Posted February 27, 2016 Author Report Share Posted February 27, 2016 1 minute ago, 2.5itim said: It's done that to me a couple times, accidentally quote someone and then won't let you delete it Yeah. I spent 20 minutes and tried two different computers. Refreshed the page. Loaded it different ways. Cleared my cache. Just wouldn't do anything but that. Weird. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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