pshupe

Back on the CNC machine and cut the pup cavities - and gluing on the fret board. I went with Hot Hide Glue, which is a big PITA when working by yourself in a cool work environment. I had to make sure I had everything all setup and within quick reach. It worked out OK but it's stressfull trying to work so fast. I was slow the first try and the glue gelled up very quick. I turned the heat up in the shop and got out the heat gun and the second try was a success. Cheers Peter.

Thanks. Yeah I'm liking the Ziricote. I bought a big chunk and re-sawed 8 boards from it. They ended up being as cheap as EI Rosewood. I think it goes well with the black limba and white limba. Cheers Peter.

yeah - I know one guy that does extremely well, another I think does pretty well, and a couple that are getting by. A couple are young guys starting early and building a good clientele so they will probably do well eventually but it's a long road with no guarantees. Cheers Peter.

I CNC'd the veneer for the head stock. glued up - and out of the clamps. Time to put the wings on. The nice thing about the V groove as the joint is very stable. I only needed two clamps. Usually I use every clamp I own. I cut close to the line on the bandsaw and sanded even closer with my spindle sander then used my carbide spiral template bit to finish up using the template. Flipped it over and finished up - This is the first time I will get a good look at the wing joint and it looks great. The joint wasted perfect prior to glue up but the pressure from the clamps and the glue seemed to pull everything really nice and tight. I also cut some covers as well. CAD first - I had some left over 3 ply vintage pick guard material and got just enough to get the pickguard and truss rod cover. cut on CNC and tapered with a template on my router table. Next time I think I will use a V bit in my CNC and then not have to make the template. truss rod cover - and a quick mock-up - Cheers Peter.

onto frets - I have a fret tang nipper but it still leaves a little burr on the back. I decided to spend the time and file that flat. It was quite easy with a small file. I cut them all to length first and sorted in my numbered fret block. With the binding on and the sanding complete I checked the depth of my slots so I wouldn't bottom any frets out. The slots were just deep enough. I have a little caul with a brass insert of the correct radius to press them in using my drill press. I pressed them all in without issue. and side dots - All done ready for glue up. I guess I'd better get the wings on. Cheers Peter.

Thanks Andyjr1515 - it's a fun hobby. I wish I could build that quickly. Maybe if I ditch my day job but then how would I pay for building guitars? I have a few friends that build custom guitars for a living and I have better tools. I joke with them that I couldn't afford to build guitars if I built guitars for a living. They totally agree with me. It's sad actually. Similarly with musicians. Very few are full time. Currently it's a hobby but could see it turn into a semi-retirement gig. I do build a couple to a few guitars a year for people I meet on forums, or local friends. Cheers Peter.

Thanks mistermikev but... this build took me the better part of two years. I just finished it up and found this forum recently and thought I'd post up the build over the course of a couple weeks. If I didn't have a full time job, part time job, family, and a house I could've probably completed this build much quicker. This guitar is also for me, so other client builds always take precedent. Cheers Peter.

I got some budget cellulose nitrate inlays and had to file and fit each one individually. They were all a bit oversized. I got out some files and put my nut vise in my guitar vise and spent a bit of time cleaning up the inlays and pockets so they fit nice and snug. Didn't take too long once I stayed at it. I glued in the inlays and used my aluminum radius beam to clamp them into the radius'd slots. They ended up being just slightly proud of the top so shouldn't take much sanding to get them flush. end view - I taped some wax paper to my radius beam and double stick taped the board to some plywood. Next up was binding. I use my bench vise and a tapered caul. I'm going to extend the frets over the binding so there will be no nibs and I can bind before fretting. I haven't sanded the inlays flush yet and thought I would sand the binding down flush to the top at the same time. I double face taped some 60 grit on my sanding beam and stuck my board to my Fret Radius Jig and marked the tops with yellow pencil to check my progress. Ran through the grids and worked my way up to 800. It went pretty quick. I also wiped the inlays and board with acetone to age the inlays slightly and give them a little bit of a gold tinge. Cheers Peter.

Next up - fretboard. Again with the CAD and Fusion CAM model. I wanted to have the trap inlay bottoms routed to the same radius as the top. I was able to easily model it like that but getting a tool path to actually cut it was challenging. I bought a nice Ziricote board and thicknessed it before putting it on the CNC machine. and ran the tool paths. I have a tiny little end mill to cut the slots and am always anxious when doing this procedure but it turned out well. The bit is 0.023" in diameter with a cutting depth of 0.10" and a quick mockup. Looks good. Now I can fit my cellulose nitrate inlays. Cheers Peter.

I also checked the depths and locations for controls - If I haven't discuss this yet I have a small CNC machine so I will carve the heel and most of the neck on the CNC machine. Again back to CAD. Overall model - Inside my CAM package to set up toolpaths - and simulated carve inside the same CAM software - Then place the neck in the CNC and cross your fingers. - This is the first real look at the scarf joint close up - looks pretty good. Cheers Peter.

The tapering of the wings. This worked very well and pretty low stress as with the thickness sander it goes as slow as I like. I marked the tops with yellow pencil and when the pencil was gone the tapering was done. Easy Peasy! marked and shims added - Thickness sanded - Finished the taper - I made up some templates for the wings. The wiring channel, control cavity cover, and switch cavity are routed parallel to the top and the control cavity is routed parallel to the front face but routed from the back. I made up some templates and used another shim for the control cavity. The others got routed flush. I mocked up the wings and marked where they will go - Cheers Peter.

I'm not sure what you mean by is the grain direction parallel with the body of the neck? The neck through is pretty much quartersawn after laminating. A little sneak peak to how the wings glued up. Yes there is a neck angle about 3 degrees and my headstock is at 11 degrees. Here is a cad file - I think it is shown above as well - The neck angle was worked out based on my bridge and my preferred bridge height. I probably should have had it a little bit more as will become evident in later posts. Regards Peter.

I'm done with needing the nechthrough to be square so I can thickness the body, neck, and headstock to roughly the correct thickness. I just do this on the bandsaw with the neck through standing upright. I made a little MDF template for the top profile of the neck from the body end to the end of the nut and used the router table to match the template. If you notice the different machines, you have a keen eye. I teach a Con Ed course at a local college and then sign up for the wood working shop space time for a fraction of the price to use the larger tools, Onto the wings again. I made a template for the body as well so I can layout the wings in the right location. They are offset a bit top to bottom. I also made a couple of head stock templates and used the router table to shape the head stock. and sliced up a small piece of black limba for the veneer. I also thicknessed the wings to the correct width at the body join. They are tapered so I have to come up with a good way to taper them later. I decided to taper the wings using my thickness sander and shims to keep the angles correct. I figured I could also use the template to route the final shape. I thought I could keep them square and make it easier to clamp them into the neck through V joint first then shape them. Cheers Peter.

I'm not so sure about the sustain concerns. The glue joints are extremely tight and thin. Also it's a pretty small break in the contiguous neck under 1/4" of fret board material. I can say one thing for sure I will not be able to hear any difference. So black limba it is for the wings. Found a nice piece at the local exotic wood store. Lots of character. and a crude mock-up - So while I have this big square block I want to machine what I can with the nice square corners. Apparently back in the 60's they used a V-bit probably in a shaper to route a channel in the neck through and then cut a similar V in the wings. I assume to give more gluing surface and for ease of clamping. I found a bit to do the job, after some research on the correct angle. But first a CAD plan, per usual. and the V-bit purchased from Tools Today - I cut a notch out of the neck through so I knew where to stop the V-bit route and took small passes until I was at the desired depth. and an end shot with the bit - So time to think about the wings and how the wiring channel and control cavity will be laid out. Back to CAD - Cheers Peter.

Very nice. What is flexi-ply? Very interesting build. Cheers Peter.

If I was smarter I would have run the carbon fibre rods straight out the head stock because there will be a veneer covering it anyway and also a truss rod cover as well. But I guess there are always learning points for next time. Cheers Peter.

A quick mock up and try to figure out how to glue this up without any noticeable joints. the first one was easy - the second not so much and it started to slip but worked out OK. and onto the bandsaw to cut the headstock angle I figured I'd put some extra reinforcing in this neck because I wasn't completely sure about that scarf joint. So I added some carbon reinforcing rods and cut in a two way truss rod. I like the ones from Stew Mac. Cheers Peter.

I decided to go with a scarf joint even though there is no physical need to do so. I have seen some really cool looking guitars with highlighted scarf joints and figured I'd put one in. It's not even going to be the same angle as the head stock but should look cool. I also made up a little block of the same laminate for the scarf joint. Glued it up and planed it - and now for the crazy part. Cut a perfectly good neck blank. plane the surfaces - Cheers Peter.

Jointed, planed, ripped, rinse and repeat until all the right sized pieces come together. Glue up - and joint the fret board surface - Cut the body angle, which I have a little jig for my bandsaw - Cheers Peter.

Once I decided on the plan view I had to figure out how thick of a one piece laminate neck through I needed. Back to the computer - Looks like 3" side will be lots. The nice thing about laminated necks is that I can take flat sawn boards and rip them to width, 3" wide, and flip them up making them quarter sawn. So off to the exotic wood store, which is named Exotic Woods. Picked up some white limba and I had some walnut kicking around already. Regards Peter.

Yes - I bought a set from a forum member over at the other place. They should be interesting. Feel free to steal anything you find helpful. I've stolen most from others. I agree. It's unfortunate they were such a bust back in the day. I made a Futura type guitar last year and I really liked the look of it. It was an unfinished kind of kit, I guess. Back limba body and honduran mahogany neck and braz fret board. I've got another one about 1/2 done and would like to do a Flying V and Explorer at some point. Cheers Peter.

Hello - everyone. Just found this forum through a friend on another forum. I started a build a while back and wanted to share it here. I am a hobby builder and a friend, who has since past away, got me in to building about 7 years ago. I have a full time gig as a trainer for Autodesk products for Architects and Engineers so have lots of CAD experience. My MO is CAD heavy and I marvel at the builds that seem to just be free hand and hand tools. This will take a while as I do not have a lot of spare time right now but I will be putting up lots of pics and showing my process. All comments and tips are very much appreciated where I could do something better or different. I very much like the golden era of Gibson, and Fender for that matter, guitars. My first build was something similar to a vintage Les Paul standard, my next a mid 50's LP JR. As I did more research on this era I was really struck by the modernistic guitars from the late 50's and the introduction of the Firebird by a car designer around 1963. As far as construction practices I want to be somewhat faithful to the original but the woods will be radically different. I always start with CAD - I downloaded some free drawings online and purchased a set as well. My design will be neckthrough like the originals so I just laid out the CAD dwg to get a sense of the size of rough materials I will purchase. I will be doing a laminate neck and I seem to gravitate towards skunk stripe necks for some reason. So I'm thinking walnut skunk stripe in white limba neck through. I thought maybe walnut or possibly black limba wings. Cheers Peter.