Building JS-7 copy

[RGGR]

It's time for me to route the trem cavity. I still haven't heard back from Floyd Rose or AP Int...(or whatever that company is called)....concerning the distance between lock nut and trem studs on OFR 7.

Don't think it's proper customer service from either company.

On Rich's site, by accident I did find the Edge Manual

that Marcel mentioned to me some posts up.

First have to attach the neck and then it's routing time.

[RGGR]

Did some more work on neck this week. Had to bring it to right thickness. Shooting for 19mm at 1st fret and 21mm at 12th fret with Wizard type profile. Knowing there was little room for error, I took care not taking too much off at a time.

Funny thing though......everytime I thought I had taken enough off, I discovered I still had couple of mm to go.

Repeated process over and over again. First rough shaved layer off.....with course shave or spokeshave......then on to finer grit shave and to follow up with sand paper. Smoothed everything out again.....measure.......darn, still some mm to go.

Go to step 1.

Next neck I would do things much faster, but as this is my first neck I took little more care. Think I have done 5-6 necks in process, I guess.

Volute is also tricky area. First try it was a wide as first 1.5 frets. I guess I was bit scared taking too much off at first. But all looks great now.

Smoothed small area down to 2000 grit sandpaper and neck feels as good as my factory Prestige neck. Scared me bit, how good it felt.

Wooooowiieee!!!!

Edited February 25, 2005 by RGGR

[jammy]

We need some pictures

[RGGR]

With shaping of neck done (pics will follow soon), it is time to concentrate on the fretting. Ieeeks!

This weekend made little trip to Vox Humana (voxhumana.nl) to pick up some fretwire and some necessary screws.

With building guitars it's again no different from previous projects (read: building cars/airplanes) that the little stuff (screws, bolds, nuts) are always rediculous expensive in comparison to other parts (pickups, trems, etc).

Picked-up some Dunlop 6150 fret wire. (Guys from Vox Humana pre-bended wire for me. Great service!!) First was going for 6105 wire but looking at it, it had too much of a vintage "flimpsy" feel to it. Jumbo fret wire was bit too Jumbo, and I settled for the 6150.

Have done some reading up on fretting part.....and this is what I understand so far.

1. Take unfretted neck.......(flat sanded fretboard)

2. Crank up trussrod a bit, so neck bows up a little. (cat's back so to say)

3. Sand flat again. (in process sand down middle part of neck a bit.)

4. Install fret wire........in process neck will bow up little further (think cat's back again)

5. Loose trussrod.....(bow will spring back bit)

7. Level frets

8. Install strings.....and in process neck will bow down a tid bit by string tension.

At least this is what I understand from the process so far.

First some work has to be done on body. Will test fit neck to body and measure location of trem and pup cavities. Then can continue shaping front of body, and do test string up and decide where to put the off set fret markers on fretboard.

Didn't buddha say- the journey is more important then the destination??? ;-)

Edited March 7, 2005 by RGGR

[RGGR]

As promised.

One more

Last one

With neck shaping completed it's currently sanded down to 180 grit and will be brought to 2000 grit with necessary tung oil pampering.

For first try I'm rather pleased with it.

Although I have to say that if I would turn this into a business this neck would have come to $15,879,- (Figuring the amount of time it cost me to get to this point.)

Edited March 7, 2005 by RGGR

[jammy]

It looks great

[GuitarMaestro]

Looks really good except for the volute. I know the problem very well: It is quite hard to get a clean transition from the neck contour into the volute. In your case it looks as if their is a little "valley" between the neck and the volute. Very hard to get the volute to just rise out of the neck shape without having that deeper spot in between....but I think you can still improve that! I succeded in the end to....hehe

[RGGR]

In your case it looks as if their is a little "valley" between the neck and the volute. Very hard to get the volute to just rise out of the neck shape without having that deeper spot in between....

Shot quick snap shot of transition area. Smooth enough, Marcel??

I think it's the light in the other pics that makes it look like that.

There is an other issue with volute though.....The transition area from headstock to volute has little smaller radius (more tight) than on regular Ibanez. Happened when I cut out neck profile with bandsaw and went little to far down with it.

It doesn't really bother me too much. Doesn't have to be exact factory copy. I think it looks sharp this way.

And yes, fretboard has to be sanded down 1.5mm or so. First have to install fretmarkers.

Edited March 8, 2005 by RGGR

[RGGR]

Did some more work on horns today. Things are looking very nice, I'm almost ready for first layer of primer.

The white on the body are just some dabs of filler that hasn't been sanded away completely.

Edited March 10, 2005 by RGGR

[Maiden69]

Getting there! I still think like Maestro, is not that the volute is not good, is just that it looks too bulky and the transition to it is too sharpe. looks here at the bottom for a nice volute! See how it turns up in a radius, not straight.

I just found this one too, very nice and not too big. another one

[RGGR]

Size does matter, I guess.

Maiden, I see what you mean. Good comment.

I compaired the volute of JS-7 neck again with my regular RG2550....and see I can take little of front.......where the radius of the curve leading up to the volute from headstock will be bit less tight. More easier transition. In process it will also take bit of the top (as summit will fall back 1.5mm or so) and whole will look bit less bulky.

Good suggestion. Not that I'm not happy with it though,........but sometimes you got to go the extra mile to please the crowds.

Did I hear the words stained headstock??????

Edited March 10, 2005 by RGGR

[Maiden69]

Good suggestion. Not that I'm not happy with it though,........but sometimes you got to go the extra mile to please the crowds.

←

Don't ever do something to please the crowd... We are here to make suggestions and in my case take suggestions of my work to make it better, and sometimes a few pair of eyes see things better than just my own. I might be pleased with the result, and because of it I wouldn't see a flaw in it, but when somebody point it out... Then I realized that it could be improved upon! Just like when I had finished my guitar and everybody told that it would look better with the blue headstock, I was pleased with the results, but when i saw the difference, I was more pleased that I heard the comments made.

[RGGR]

I'm with you on this Maiden. Suggestions made by Marcel and you got me thinking.

I had second look at volute and compaired it with my regular Ibanez RG.

Did notice there was some room for improvement, specially in area where headstock transitions into volute. To sand this down a bit I needed something with right curvature.

(The misses was outta town, so had to come up with something else. )

Checked couple of bottles and cans......and settled for a Duplicolor spray can. It perfectly matched the curve on the back of my RG neck.

With double sided sticky tape I taped some 180 grit sandpaper onto it and slowly got to work. After couple of passes it looked pretty darn good. Finished up with some 280 grit....

Other view

View from the top

All in all may be bit more bulky than regular RG.......but I like it.

Edited March 11, 2005 by RGGR

[Digideus]

hey, thats much better! I like the idea of a volute just for piece of mind. the idea of that much wood at what most people believe is the weakest point of the headstock is reassuring.

Nice wood as well.

[RGGR]

And can someone tell me where these limba blanks come from that seem to show up misteriously at my house...

[GuitarMaestro]

@RGGR: You were definately right that your first pictures made the volute look badly executed. But now that you improved it still looks better although it was flawless before. That said I am no big fan of volutes at all. I did a little one on my seven string, but I still think it was not necessary. For necks that are laminated with bubinga/wenge strips the volute is not needed I think....at least the bubinga stripes I used were so damn though I doubt they could ever break.

[RGGR]

Thanks for the compliments, Maestro. I must have to say it's a tricky area though.....

To volute or not to volute......that's the ????

That said I am no big fan of volutes at all. I did a little one on my seven string, but I still think it was not necessary. For necks that are laminated with bubinga/wenge strips the volute is not needed I think....at least the bubinga stripes I used were so damn though I doubt they could ever break.

I do believe that the topnut area of Ibanez (or other thin neck guitar for that matter) is potential weak area. You have this only have 17mm of wood, the trussrod channel.....sometimes even the topnut screws going through neck. This CAN lead to trouble, as can be seen on some older type Ibanez necks where they have developed cracks.

But in the end it's all what you used to I guess. I learned (still learning, though) to playing on laminated, volute enriched, thin Ibanez RG neck. So now I dig them.

I will chose thin Ibanez type necks over baseball LP style necks any time,

I will chose volute over non volute

I would choose screw in from top FR locknut over screw throughneck FR top locknut.

and I will chose laminated necks over one piece (laminated with nice bubinga, ebony or wenge looks better too, I think)

And if it wasn't so darn much work, I would probably prefer home made over store bought. But I must tell you building a guitar is bloody fun thing to do.

Edited March 11, 2005 by RGGR

[Maiden69]

I think that the volutes are not too necesary on some cases, but I have come to like it very much, and I think they looks sexy on the guitar neck when done propertly.

[RGGR]

A volute defintely adds area of interest and complication on guitar neck.

[GuitarMaestro]

I do believe that the topnut area of Ibanez (or other thin neck guitar for that matter) is potential weak area. You have this only have 17mm of wood, the trussrod channel.....sometimes even the topnut screws going through neck. This CAN lead to trouble, as can be seen on some older type Ibanez necks where they have developed cracks.

True. I was to cowardly as well and added the volute. However I feel that with Bubinga/Wenge strips the volute is not necessary. That stuff is so damn tough that you can barely break the bubinga laminates alone. Additionally I never dropped a guitar and I don't plan to do so....hehe....But it definately makes the neck even tougher and that's certainly not bad thing as long as it does not look bad, which you managed to avoid with great success.

[RGGR]

Routing question. The following pic is pic from Ibanez J.Custom. This Mahogany body guitar is normally equiped with AirNorten (n) and ToneZone (br) pickups.

As can be seen in pic....and what I know of AN pickups. That electric wire leaving the pick-ups.....will be on top side of guitar. What makes sense, as on pic can be seen that on this J-Custom an additional channel is routed under the pup, to accomodate this wire.

I suspect this wire is leaving the pup cavity on the top (on pic) directly into the control cavity in back of guitar.

My question is now about the TZ (br) pup. Looking at pic......the wire leaving the TZ should be leaving the pup in the middle......as this would make sense looking at channel routed for it.

My question now.....(as I don't have TZ pup to confirm this....).........has TZ pup this wire leaving in middle of pup........or is there other reason for this specific routing under the pup cavity.

Why is this done.......to leave more wood under the pups......or is there other reason.

As I like this solution, you could also route the pup cavities little deeper, to not have to deal with wire issues, correct???

Edited March 13, 2005 by RGGR

[Maiden69]

I really don't know why it was done like that because the amount of wood left is minimal and wouldn't have any effect on tone! I will say that the person doing this guitar is no too good at this. If you look closely on the top of the guitar, you can see the lines from the sanding drum (or knifes) on the planner. Anybody that have done this knows that before staining you have to make sure that the maple is smooth as a babys butt (no Micheal Jackson comment here!) and this is a mistake I did when I did my first scraps.

[RGGR]

With weather outside being awesome, I decided to sanded neck down to 400 grit. Gave it good rub down with some old cotton undies.....and applied first coat of Tung Oil.

Darn......does the figure in the wood speak up suddenly. Nice.

Color of maple changed from this milky white, to this lusty gold.

For those intereste, this is the process I'm kinda sorta following.

http://riflestocks.tripod.com/fgrain.html

It's not really my aim to fill-in the pores of the wenge. Just want to achieve nice smooth finish.

I also noticed that every little inconsistancy in wood suddenly shows up, so I spotted few areas that need some more attention. Sanded them out/smooth with 180-280-400 grit and applied new layer of tung oil (doesn't need much, few dabs....)

Edited March 16, 2005 by RGGR

[CudBucket]

I will say that the person doing this guitar is no too good at this.  If you look closely on the top of the guitar, you can see the lines from the sanding drum (or knifes) on the planner.

Where do you see this? I don't see any lines. Mayber you mistaking artifacts caused by the digital compression of the image in the post.

[RGGR]

Where do you see this? I don't see any lines.

I was surprise too when Maiden pointed this out. And I guess you have to be through a process of staining a top before to see these small things.

And yes, when inspecting picture closely you can see these small hair lines running on the body (East to West), as Maiden pointed out caused by the blades of the planer.