First Build, so many lessons learned

[beltjones]

Fretboard markers and side dots are in and sanded flush. I used black abalone for both. I've sanded the fretboard up to 400 so far, but I'm going to go all the way to 2000 and then use some synthetic steel wool to get an almost mirror-like surface without any finish. 

In the meantime, after sanding padauk for about 15 minutes it looks like a few bags of cheetos were detonated in my garage.

[beltjones]

Question for the brain trust:

Is it a total rookie move / amateur mistake to skip sanding and, once tuner / bridge holes are drilled and the frets leveled to string it up and see if it plays? Or do you save that until the very end when everything is sanded, polished, and soldered?

[Prostheta]

If it doesn't affect the process, it's no problem to dry fit and check for alignment. There's nothing worse than spending hours on finish sanding only to find that something went tits up and you need to dive back in with the sharp pointy tool things.

[ScottR]

It is actually smart as Carl says. More of us should do that.

SR

[Prostheta]

The only not smart thing is that you might have to remove the bridge stud bushings, press-fit tuner bushings, etc. so bear that in mind. I prefer to insert those once.

 

[beltjones]

I burnished the fretboard to a glassy 2000 grit.



And hammered in frets. 

[ScottR]

Are you sure this is your first guitar?

SR

[beltjones]

2 hours ago, ScottR said:

Are you sure this is your first guitar?

SR

Thanks man.

I've done a couple of parts builds with Warmoth stuff, but that's it. This has been a totally new adventure. 

[beltjones]

Oh man, I almost forgot. I hammered the first few frets in before I remembered that I wanted to use a little titebond in each fret slot. At that point I wasn't sure whether to glue the rest of them in, or just keep it consistent. I did the rest sans glue, and then realized that several (like 40%) of the fret ends were a little loose. So I had to mask everything off and seep super glue into the fret ends and then clamp them. I think it's ok now, but next time I won't forget the titebond.

[curtisa]

Titebond won't have much holding power on frets, It's possible that the moisture content in the glue causes the fibres in the fretboard to expand, which closes the slots up slightly, gripping the frets tighter. But actual adhesion between wood and metal due to the glue itself will be minimal.

Superglue seeped into the fret ends is all I usually do.

[beltjones]

The super glue seems to be good enough for now. 

My skills as a photographer are terrible, but the neck carve is going well so far. 

I've taken about 1/4 lb of material off and I'm just getting started. I might take off a full pound by the time I'm finished, which would put this guitar somewhere south of 10lbs when I'm finished, which would be amazing (and is now also the goal, officially).

[Prostheta]

How's the carve going? I'm sure that you're dipping back into it again here and there. Slow and steady, lots of measuring and eyeballing from all angles. Your hands are the final gauge.

[beltjones]

It's slow going. I'm taking material off near the nut / first fret and then blending the rest of the neck to match. I'm sure I'm taking much longer than necessary, but it's fun and I don't want to mess anything up.

[Andyjr1515]

11 hours ago, beltjones said:

It's slow going. I'm taking material off near the nut / first fret and then blending the rest of the neck to match. I'm sure I'm taking much longer than necessary, but it's fun and I don't want to mess anything up.

There's no such thing as taking longer than necessary...always best to creep up on the final shape. It's very easy to take material off and it's pretty impossible to put it back

What tools are you using for the carve? Oh, and that's not a trick question - there's no right and wrong. Just interested what other folks use.

[beltjones]

12 hours ago, Andyjr1515 said:

There's no such thing as taking longer than necessary...always best to creep up on the final shape. It's very easy to take material off and it's pretty impossible to put it back

What tools are you using for the carve? Oh, and that's not a trick question - there's no right and wrong. Just interested what other folks use.

Thanks for the confirmation on going slow. I'm seeing that this is one of the most satisfying parts of the build so far, so I'm fine with taking my time with it.

I'm using a Japanese saw file, spokeshave, half round file, and card scrapers so far. 

[ScottR]

5 hours ago, beltjones said:

Thanks for the confirmation on going slow. I'm seeing that this is one of the most satisfying parts of the build so far, so I'm fine with taking my time with it.

I'm using a Japanese saw file, spokeshave, half round file, and card scrapers so far. 

 

17 hours ago, Andyjr1515 said:

There's no such thing as taking longer than necessary...always best to creep up on the final shape. It's very easy to take material off and it's pretty impossible to put it back

Andy's observation is nuts on, as is yours. Carving a neck just rocks!

SR

[beltjones]

The neck carve is coming along, albeit slowly.


I have some numbers I'm shooting for, ~.830" at first fret, .910" at 12th fret, 1.000" at 15th to 19th. 

Right now the first fret is about 1.100" thick, and it goes up from there. I'm basically going slowly, like taking a tenth of an inch of the back of the neck off at the first fret, then blending the rest and getting it to a point where I think it's a nicely shaped neck (but still too thick). So I'm intentionally getting about 10 neck's worth of practice with this one neck (it started out at about 1.75" thick from nut to 19th fret), and hopefully I'll be pretty decent by the time I get down to the final dimensions. Then I'll shape the volute to it's final thickness and work on the back carve where the back of the neck meets the body.

[Prostheta]

You're approaching the target dimensions carefully which is good. Is the heel transition going to be gradual like that or shaped further still?

[beltjones]

50 minutes ago, Prostheta said:

You're approaching the target dimensions carefully which is good. Is the heel transition going to be gradual like that or shaped further still?

I'm definitely going to work on that heel transition. I'm not sure how the final shape will come out, though.

[Mr Natural]

for a first build- this is really coming along nicely. 

neck carving to me is like the zen moment of the whole build. just breathe, relax, take your time, chill out. easy as it goes. 

bonus points awarded on the pic above if that is a beer frig, double points for having within arms reach of the workbench. 

[Andyjr1515]

That's coming on great. 

What I find is that it is the side haunch shape that makes the biggest difference to the playing feel as it progresses - where required - from a flat topped D shape to a U to C and even, in my own preference, heading towards a soft V. 

For builds for other people, I use a joiners profile gauge and get the owners to give me the shapes of their 'favourite neck'.  While all guitars have their own feel, it generally offers at least a familiarity of feel to the player.

Do you have a specific shape you are aiming for?

[beltjones]

6 hours ago, Andyjr1515 said:

That's coming on great. 

What I find is that it is the side haunch shape that makes the biggest difference to the playing feel as it progresses - where required - from a flat topped D shape to a U to C and even, in my own preference, heading towards a soft V. 

For builds for other people, I use a joiners profile gauge and get the owners to give me the shapes of their 'favourite neck'.  While all guitars have their own feel, it generally offers at least a familiarity of feel to the player.

Do you have a specific shape you are aiming for?

I want somewhere between a sharp C and a soft V. I had a Dean Timecapsule Z once upon a time that sounded like crap but had a wonderful neck. I don't have profile cutouts for it but I'm shooting for my recollection of what that neck felt like.

[Jadaegd]

Please keep updating !!

[beltjones]

Here's what I'm basically doing to carve the neck. I'll pick a spot that's too thick, in this case the 15th fret which is about 1.25" right now (1.000" is the goal), and file away a bit of material, usually about 1/16" to 1/8". 



Then I'll blend that spot in to the rest of the neck using files and cabinet scrapers.


Like I said, it's slow going, but I feel like I'm getting some good experience.

[Andyjr1515]

16 hours ago, beltjones said:

Here's what I'm basically doing to carve the neck. I'll pick a spot that's too thick, in this case the 15th fret which is about 1.25" right now (1.000" is the goal), and file away a bit of material, usually about 1/16" to 1/8". 



Then I'll blend that spot in to the rest of the neck using files and cabinet scrapers.


Like I said, it's slow going, but I feel like I'm getting some good experience.

That's pretty much how I do it too for tweaking the overall thickness.  For the shape of the haunches, I generally just do full length sweeps of the cabinet scraper too, with lots of stop and see how it feels moments. When I'm getting close, I get the profile templates out so I can be a bit more specific.