govtmule

First set neck build....obviously inspired by the Billy-Bo. I’ve been working on this one off and on for quite a while. I’ve changed my mind on the pickups, controls, tailpiece, and finish multiple times so I guess I won’t say anything about that since it’s likely to change before I finish J It’ll will have a Wilkinson roller bridge, ebony fretboard, open backed Sperzel Trim-Lok tuners, and a zero fret. Raw Sipo body Glued up and drum sanded

All necks fretted and fret ends nipped and filed flush

Those look great ! Would love to see a build thread if you have the time...

Absolutely love it.

Awesome.....great job !!

Thanks for the heads up demonx. I would have thought these things would be more useful.

I'm going to an auction this Saturday and I see that this "sign maker" is one of the advertised items: My experience with these auctions so far is that these more specialized things go pretty cheap. Is anyone interested in trying to work out a trade if I can get this thing at a good price ? I'd be interested in pickups, lumber, tools, just about anything. Give me a shout if you're interested. Steve

Awesome job Osorio ! How do those P-Rails sound ?

It's kind of an experiment to see if I can iron out a process that I can repeat. The wood was a free score from a local mill so I'm not out much. Hopefully they turn out alright.

Thanks for the input Charlie.

Thanks for the input SR...Progress has been super slow lately. I'm trying to start a side business that has been taking most of my free time. I had another pickguard design that I liked a lot better. It wrapped around the neck pocket on the bass side and followed the lines of the body a lot like a Jazzmaster's pickguard. It would require some hand finishing to complete the 90 degree inside corner and the goal with this batch is to produce a guitar and a process that is easily and quickly repeatable. I'm trying to remove bottlenecks.

Finally, a little more progress. I cut and beveled all the pickguards. Here's a quick mockup to show the direction I'm going. I noticed after taking the picture that the pickguard was misaligned. It actually will sit a bit higher on the body, more towards the bass side, than this picture shows.

I like B the best as a body shape but I think that C goes better with the headstock shape.

I'm curious, why the glaze coat ? Thanks, Steve

If you want to give some dental bits a shot and didn't have any luck with your own dentist shoot me a PM and I'll hook you up with some. Steve

Yep, makes sense. I'd like to have a guide template similar to Ryan's that would keep me from accidentally routing too far into the heel or headstock. But with using this bit the template will obviously need to be underneath the face down neck. Then to get the bearing to ride on the template and not the neck, the bit will take too deep a cut I bet. You mention that you cleaned up a few details at the heel and volute with paper. Did you just eyeball the entry and exit points of your routes and then clean up the heel and headstock transitions with paper ?

Do you have any pictures of your procedure ? I planned to do this with some large roundover bits that I got at an auction but after looking at them closer they were a smaller radius that I would have liked to use. I wanted to do something similar to what Ryan Martin at Becker Guitars is doing. here :

It did get "finished" but in a hurry because I wanted to move on to other projects. I finished it with black rattle can nitro without pore filling and it shows. Finish is pretty rough. I actually play this guitar quite a bit because I really like how the neck feels. And this is my first Alder body and I have to say that I really like the sound of it acoustically. When not plugged in the guitar actually rings pretty loud and long. The pickguard experiment was a failure though. I cut it free hand and formed the edge bevel freehand with a razor.....not the way I would suggest doing it and the results are crappy....obviously.

All neck pockets routed and necks mounted. Next step is to finalize the pickguard design and route for the pickups and electronics.

Looking great !

Thanks, the jig is a pig and a half. I used 2 pieces of 2' X 3' 3/4" MDF for the base...it weighs a bit too much. As far as my approach goes, the big difference has been prior planning. Each night that I know I'm going to get some shop time I plan ahead what I'm going to try and get done. Partly because I want to maximize progress but mostly because once I have a tool or jig setup I do all six guitars. If I screw something up....it's times six. I should have been doing this all along. Repeating the same process six times has really not added as much additional time as I thought it would. If you can build one guitar from start to finish in 2 months it will definitely not take you 12 months to build six. Most of the time dedicated to a build, for me anyway, has proven to be in planning and setup. I have really tried to build processes and jigs with this build that I can re-use in all of my future builds regardless of design.

Thanks a lot for the heads up.

I routed the first neck pocket with the new jig. I'm satisfied with the results pretty much. Here's why the corners of the tenon are chopped off haphazardly. The original neck tenon is squared off and the neck pocket has radiused corners of course. I didn't square off the end of the pocket or radius the corners of the tenon because I planned the length of the tenon so that it falls in the bridge pickup cavity location. Most of it will be routed away. And in order to get the tenon to slide in the pocket I have to clip the corners. Since it will be routed away, I just sanded them off until the neck slipped into place. Awkward camera angle, sorry. Starting to look like a guitar though.

Finished my neck pocket jig...

Gotcha....thanks Neil.