Here Goes Nothing - First Time Build

[n8caster]

Upon further investigation my neck is indeed too narrow toward the heel. Here's what happened...

When I made my template I knew that the width at the nut and bottom of the neck needed to be accurate so I checked the dimensions in my model and sanded them to exact width. When I realized my neck was too long I cut off an inch from the bottom of the neck, and in doing so the heel was moved to a thinner part of the neck. I didn't realize this at the time, so now I've got an extra skinny neck.

So what do we do about this? 

I set up an experiment by placing the bridge 25.5 inches from the nut and pulling some thread into position to see how the E strings would lay on the fretboard:

 

 

 

Apologies for the difficult-to-see orange thread (it was the first string I could find). As you can see with the E strings approximately at the correct spacing at the nut and then pulled through their saddles, the strings will indeed be very close to the edge of the board in the upper positions. 

Here are my options moving forward:

     1. Just live with it. The guitar will be perfectly playable up through the 17th fret or so, and I'm not exactly a shredder who spends a lot of time in the upper register. This is my first build after all, and this would give it a little "character".

     2. Find a bridge with narrow string spacing. I did some preliminary research and couldn't find any tremolo bridges narrower than 2-1/16" spacing. If I could find a bridge with 2" spacing I would be golden. Anyone seen something like this? 

     3. Laminate some wedge-shaped strips of wood to the side of the neck. I haven't carved the neck profile yet, so this is likely doable, but there may be some interesting cosmetic results. This would also be challenging for me to pull off accurately with the tools I have at my disposal.

     4. Make a new neck. Yikes. 

 

What do you think? Is there something I'm not thinking of? I'm definitely open to suggestions!

 

Edited April 30, 2020 by n8caster

[Norris]

9 minutes ago, n8caster said:

Laminate some wedge-shaped strips of wood to the side of the neck. I haven't carved the neck profile yet, so this is likely doable, but there may be some interesting cosmetic results. This would also be challenging for me to pull off accurately with the tools I have at my disposal

This would probably be my choice. Maybe choose a contrasting wood (maple?), and slim it towards the nut end to get a consistent width of "binding"

[ScottR]

Do you have any fretboard off-cuts left? It is common to cut strips from the fretboard blank, cut the slots, and then glue the strips back on as a blind binding. If not, I'd go with @Norris's suggestion.

SR

[n8caster]

4 minutes ago, Norris said:

Maybe choose a contrasting wood (maple?), and slim it towards the nut end to get a consistent width of "binding"

I've been thinking a lot about this option. Since the width at the nut is currently correct, the maple "binding" would taper off toward the nut. I honestly think this would be a cool look, but it's definitely not the kind of aesthetic I originally had in mind for this build. 

There are two alternatives for laminating. 

     a) First glue up maple and rosewood in the correct thicknesses, make wedges from that assembly, and then glue those to the neck. This would give the most natural look, but if not done accurately there would be some odd looking spots. For example, you'd likely see where the rosewood isn't the exact thickness of the original board on the heel of the neck. 

     b) Slim the neck down further at the nut end. I could then add the "binding" in a consistent thickness all the way down the neck. 

Both of these would be pretty challenging, but I might be able to pull them off. Ultimately, though, I'd still have a neck made with some compromises.

 

Overall I think I'm leaning towards installing the neck and bridge as is now, and then building a new neck for the guitar a few months from now when it's easier to run out and get supplies. It would be easy enough to re-route the neck pocket to accept a wider neck, and I can use this neck as my practice run. This will also give me a chance to see what I like and dislike about my neck (in terms of shape and thickness) and make other adjustments.

 

 

[n8caster]

16 minutes ago, ScottR said:

Do you have any fretboard off-cuts left? It is common to cut strips from the fretboard blank, cut the slots, and then glue the strips back on as a blind binding. If not, I'd go with @Norris's suggestion.

SR

Yes, but unfortunately I cut fret slots in before rough-cutting the board to shape, so the offcuts are slotted. I might be able to salvage them or glue them so the slots are aligned accurately.

[Bizman62]

I was thinking about laminating as well and my thoughts were pretty similar to yours.

a) wedge shaped add-ons would look cool but they'd have to be super accurate.

b) was my solution to that but as you say there's challenge involved with that as well, something I didn't think about. It can be done and we have an example from the last year or so here on the forums but the headstock "shoulders" can be problematic.

So what to do? I came up with a solution

c) cut along the orange lines continuing all through the headstock and add contrasting veneers - or several of varying widths and colours if you prefer! The dark red lines are just for clarifying the idea, it could as well be purpleheart with a bright green 0.55 mm veneer to for accentuating the transition.

[n8caster]

2 hours ago, Bizman62 said:

c) cut along the orange lines continuing all through the headstock and add contrasting veneers - or several of varying widths and colours if you prefer! The dark red lines are just for clarifying the idea, it could as well be purpleheart with a bright green 0.55 mm veneer to for accentuating the transition.

This would certainly make a bit of a statement! 

[curtisa]

If you have any maple left over from the neck what could be interesting is to do @Bizman62's suggested re-shaping of the neck taper, and glue on maple to the edges of the fretboard and neck sides to get the overall neck width back to the intended dimensions. Once shaped and finished it would look like the rosewood fretboard was sitting in a 'tray' of maple, with the maple wrapping around the edges of the rosewood. And you'd get bound/blind fret slots to boot.

[komodo]

I would: 1)plane a piece of maple down to the exact thickness of the neck maple. 2) plane a piece of rosewood down and glue that onto the maple 3) rip that in half 4) glue those to the side of the neck. The result will mean that you won’t see a ton of ‘fix’ when you are shaping the neck.

Making a new neck, considering this one a prototype is really the best choice and not crazy. Otherwise it will bug you later.  

[komodo]

I’ve got a fret board that didn’t get used, it didn’t turn it exactly as I had imagined. I’d be glad to send it to you if you want it.  Check page 5 in the Black Queen thread. It’s a Gaboon ebony 25” scale, and has a star field of glow in the dark stars. I redid one with silver wire and inlay instead. I’ve got all kinds if clean maple too if you need a neck blank. I’ve also got an unslotted or shaped Pau Ferro fret board that looks pretty close to rosewood, a bit lighter brown. If you are up to another one from scratch. It looks like you have decent hardware, might as well?

[Gogzs]

I would do either what @komodo said, or I would narrow it down all the way to the nut so it misses equally much (3-4mm) along the whole length on each side. Then I'd glue 3-4 mm thick maple veneers on the sides. You'll get a nice binding along the whole length and when you carve the neck it won't look like you messed up.

Whatever method you think you can pull off, pull it off. It will eat you alive when it's all done and playableish instead fully playable