ESDictor

Thanks for all the info!

One more question ... does the neck need to be any wider than normal?

Thanks,

Evan

Assuming the answer to the topic question is Yes, I have a couple more questions ...

Thinlines generally have a string-thru design. Is this the way to handle a 12-string?

Any special pickup requirements, or are regular pickups ok?

Thanks,

Evan

After weeks of getting sidetracked by various forms of life (earthquakes, hurricanes, giant monsters, etc), today I finished building a jig to radius a fretboard. My design is suspect, and the execution of that design is shoddy, but I think it could work.

Here's a video that shows it a little better, but not much

Main (12th Fret) inlay done now to full depth

The other marked frets (3,5,7, etc) will have a series of 4 dots of various sizes to look like bubbles ... same material as the shark

Next weekend I'll be scratch-building (hopefully start to finish) a fretboard radiusing jig. I'm basing the design off stuff I've seen online, but I have no physical plans ... just winging it.

Wish me luck ;-)

So, I know that I still have a long way to go with my Jazz Bass build, but certain events have transpired to get me thinking about my build #2. The first of those is that the first body blank I bought for the Jazz Bass was actually too small (alder), so I already have a blank. The second thing was last night, when I was looking around on Gilmer Woodand saw that they had some bocote bookmatched tops, which happens to be one of my favorite woods (probably second only to ziricote with cocobolo rounding out the top 3). So here's the plan:

12-String Tele Thinline

Body Wood: Alder with Bocote top

Neck: Maple with either ziricote or ebony fretboard

Pickup Configuration: 2 Humbuckers

My goal has always been to build guitars that I can use for needs that my current guitars can't fulfill, so a 12-string was one of those.

Everything else on the guitar is undecided, but I figured I'd check here now just in case there's something I should be considering that I'm not.

Thanks,

Evan

The inlay area on the neck is only partially done, so I'll get it full depth during the week.

I didn't do a great job of making a snug fit, but I saved a bunch of sawdust for patches.

Hopefully it will come out ok.

Today I got started on the inlay. I created the shape, printed it and double-taped it down to the material. Then I used a dremel to cut out the shape and divide it into 3 pieces.

Tomorrow is the hard part, when I will route the inlay shape into the fretboard.

Looks like probably no guitar progress next weekend, but for a good reason ...

NON-GUITAR STUFF BELOW

I ordered this stuff for making a new workbench that will arrive this week. I also ordered the same kinda stuff but for shelves as well. Next weekend should be spent building a new workbench and a stand for my sander (from the shelf things) and some shelves for other stuff in the garage to give me some extra space.

The workbench will be 5'x30", which is the biggest I can make it that will fit in my space. I'll put the planer on the old workbench, which will still have the router table, and I'll have that whole new workbench for actually working on the guitar. I'm very excited about the whole thing.

Also buying a circular saw, mostly for making the workbench/shelves, but I have a feeling it could come in handy elsewhere.

So my wife tells me, "if you aren't buying a neck already made, I think you should do a special design [inlay] on it."

I came up with something "special," and I ordered a bunch of faux turquoise from LMI to do it. I'm a little worried about doing something non-standard on my first build, but I know better than to piss her off when she's letting me spend all this money

The order from LMI is due Monday so probably no work this weekend.

On a side note, my daughter started bass lessons a few weeks ago, so I bought her a new bass (Squier Jaguar Short Scale).

Who knows, maybe she'll wind up with this Jazz Bass too eventually.

Evan

Quick note: I know this is kinda a boring build (slow, straightforward, and not interesting as far as woods or hardware), but I'm keeping things updated here mostly so if someone sees me making a horrible mistake that hopefully I can find out and correct it before it's too late.

Anyway, this week I picked up a Dremel 4000 and some accessories/attachment in preparation for doing the inlay next weekend.

I also bought a 12" long 1/4" drill bit to handle some of the stuff I couldn't do with a normal bit ... such as:

Truss Rod adjustment access hole

And wire conduits

There was some surface texture, so I called a guitar shop that I trust and he had me bring it in. He used some sort of compound on it and it cleaned it up, so I guess it was all surface after all. Thanks for all the help everyone.

So today I cut the truss rod slot and made some modifications to the headstock to recover from a bad tear-out while routing the shape.

I bought 2 iron L-Beams just for this purpose and used double-sided tape to hold the neck down

Then I squared off the ends of the channel ... still not sure how I'm going to drill that hole for adjustments

I had posted elsewhere that I was planning to reshape the Fender-esque headstock to something different to recover from my tear-out, so here was the plan and the result ...

Did that 100% with the oscillating belt/spindle sander, thinking there was less chance of a problem using that.

I kinda like how it came out ...

It could be that the finish itself got scuffed up by the material on the case. I had something similar when I brought my guitars back from Korea to the US. All I did was get polish the guitar and it was good again.

I was thinking maybe it would just clean/polish out, but wanted to check here with the picture beforehand just in case I should avoid that.

Looking at the receipt, I also now realize it's a 2002, not 2004 Les Paul.

Not bug spray … not sure what. I have the original receipt, so I'll contact Gibson and see what they say.

Thanks

Is that a nitro finish? Probably blush. Blush comes from it being too humid when you spray and moisture getting trapped in the finish. Get "blush eraser" and spray it with that. It's essentially just solvents. Softens the finish allowing the moisture to escape. Keep in mind though, it'll up your cure time though! You've just resoftened your finish.

Chris

It's a Gibson Les Paul Studio .. so whatever they finished them with in 2004. I did just relocate from South Florida (humidity capital of the world) to NY, so not sure how that affects things.

I was looking at my les paul for the first time in a while last night and noticed this strange haze on the body finish. Any clue what this is (dirt, etc?) and how to clean/remove it?

Well, Father's Day brought me a Ridgid 13" Planer, so I was able to get some work done (I was using a router to plane the neck, but it was taking forever). I will be altering the Fender-style neck to something different due to a horrific tear-out, but I'm still making progress.

Reshaping around a defect can sometimes end up being really ace. Sometimes not.

Since you've had two seperate tear outs, I'd step back and check your bits and your method. The last thing you want is another tear out.

To be 100% honest, I really don't have a "method" ... and I'm not sure how to check if I'm doing this the wrong way. I'm just glad/lucky I didn't have any tear-outs like that on the body.

The neck was so thick that I was able to plane it down and the blemish on the side is now gone. I'm considering a few different ways to handle the headstock, one of which is reshaping it to a more unique take on the Fender headstock like this:

This is also called the divorce Litmus test. If your marriage can support your guitar habit you likely have no greater issues.

Amen!

For the control cavity, 1.5" is a typical depth on most fender models. You can go shallower if your parts allow for it.

Thanks. I am travelling this weekend, but will be working again this Saturday. All this information is very helpful.

Standard Fender routs are 5/8 inch for the neck and the pickups on most models

Thank you very much for that information Mr Hiscock. I have owned your book for about 11-12 years and it was a primary inspiration in my doing this project.

Evan

I believe that ESDictor ment "painted" like the neck has some opaque colour on it like this:

Or am I wrong?

You are 100% correct. I have had a few mishaps while working on my neck, and I'd like to hide them if possible. I was always planning to paint the guitar a solid color, so I was just checking if there was some rule against (heh) painting a neck

Thanks .. I was hoping it was something like that. I know my Gibson SG has the neck painted to match the body