asm Posted December 10, 2004 Author Report Share Posted December 10, 2004 (edited) 10 weeks later i come back to this, lol, not very inspiring Sorry for not having pics during this section, didnt have access to the camera for the day. i routed 3 channels, 2 for the graphite reinforcement rods i got from Lmii, and the stewmac hot rod truss rod. i didnt have a handheld router, so i set a jig up on my mini shaper table, drilled a similar small hole for entry of the router bit, then just took about 1/16" passes till it got done ( a long time ). then, when testing the depth of the channel with a small test piece of graphite (about 3"), it got stuck in the channel and i couldnt get it out. what a nightmare, i had to drill it out then break pieces of it off with a chisel and dremel tool. took about 3 hrs for that fun adventure. stuff is insanely hard, its like a mix of carbon fiber and steel. kills the sharp edges on tools. so when that was done it was time to pop in the graphite rods for gluing. i used Smith's All Wood Epoxy like i used for the scarf joint which turned out pretty nice. Except this time i didnt use any dust since its hidden. the right side rod went in great, nice and right below the surface. the left one was a major pain, when pushing it in, it would never seat all the way down, so i pulled it back out, scraped some epoxy out, then clamped it back in to try and press it in. helped alot but still sticking out about 3/16". so i just left it to deal with later. used a bit to much epoxy, i cleaned up alot of it but still got alot all over the place. i used a piece of tape to mask off the truss rod channel so no epoxy would run in and cause problems/more work later down the road. close up of the excess epoxy and graphite rod exposed: time to sand this neck flat. used a piece of 1/4" plexi i had laying around. adhesed (sp?) 2 pieces of 180 grit Klingspor paper down using Super 77 then went to work. Edited December 10, 2004 by asm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xebryusguitars Posted December 10, 2004 Report Share Posted December 10, 2004 haha ive been following this project and the pics dont even work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asm Posted December 10, 2004 Author Report Share Posted December 10, 2004 (edited) about 15min into sanding. YUM! cancer cocktail! epoxy, ebony, and graphite dust, a 3in1 combo! about an hr of sanding later. now were getting somewhere. pretty and smooooth! cut off some of the way-excess waste off the headstock, starting to look like a neck now! (not really though) next problem to tackle is where to scarf joint monstrosity was...this should be interesting. Edited December 10, 2004 by asm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xebryusguitars Posted December 10, 2004 Report Share Posted December 10, 2004 heh dont worry about it, its worth the wait Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asm Posted December 10, 2004 Author Report Share Posted December 10, 2004 (edited) went pretty smooth, definately looking alot straighter: distance shot, not bad not bad. little more sanding with 320 on a block truss rod loosely fitted in: access hole hacked out, since this pic its been cleaned up alot more, will have pics tomm. due to obvious access problems, i had to order a different truss rod, one with a 1/8" allen head in the rod, so i dont have to worry about fitting a socket in the cavity. the new rod came in this afternoon, so tommorrow i'll silicone it in, glue on fingerboard, and take some pics of the back cavity plate i routed. Stay tuned! Edited December 10, 2004 by asm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rob Posted December 10, 2004 Report Share Posted December 10, 2004 lookin' good! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devon Headen Posted December 11, 2004 Report Share Posted December 11, 2004 Looking nice. In this pic it looks like the edges of your neck are really wavy Is that just an optical illusion, or are you gonna straighten it up? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asm Posted December 11, 2004 Author Report Share Posted December 11, 2004 (edited) lol. i just rough cut the neck out. deciding on wether to final cut the neck with the fingerboard glued on or leave it off. what do you think? also having problems getting the nut in there nice and flat on all sides. major pain and i just keep getting it lower in the channel, can you use a spacer *under* the nut or does it need to be a solid piece? thx t Edited December 11, 2004 by asm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xebryusguitars Posted December 11, 2004 Report Share Posted December 11, 2004 Well if you're not confident that nothing will happen while trying to make it perfect, than i would suggest to keep it off just incase you mess up the neck and the fingerboard will be stuck on something that you cant use . but seeing how far and well you've done i would doubt that to happen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westhemann Posted December 11, 2004 Report Share Posted December 11, 2004 deciding on wether to final cut the neck with the fingerboard glued on or leave it off. what do you think? glue the fingerboard on first. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devon Headen Posted December 11, 2004 Report Share Posted December 11, 2004 I guess you could go either way, whichever suits you. I, personally, do the edges of the neck first, then glue on the fingerboard and trim it to size. Since your neck is solid ebony anyway, I don't see how either way is going to save and work. I guess you could shim the nut, I've heard of people doing it before, but it seems unproffesional on a brand new instrument to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asm Posted December 11, 2004 Author Report Share Posted December 11, 2004 thx for the reply wes and dev. i guess i have to buy a black horn knife blank now, cause the nut i got from lmii is big, and still isnt going to be high enough. great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devon Headen Posted December 12, 2004 Report Share Posted December 12, 2004 After thinking about it, I think if you used the right material for the shim, it could look classy. I'm guessing messing around the nut will alter the tone a bit, but that's not always bad. Brass or Stainless steel could look really good and contrast. Maybe even a piece of abalone. But to get it to look good, you'd need a uniform thickness, and all that would do is raise the nut. It wouldn't help levelling it out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel Sorbera Posted December 12, 2004 Report Share Posted December 12, 2004 You should build It out of a solid peice of cocobolo(EXTREMELY close to brazilion rosewood) even looks better than rosewood but costs a TON less. A peice of brazilion rosewood the size of a guitar body would cost about $2000 dollars. It is VERY pricy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asm Posted December 12, 2004 Author Report Share Posted December 12, 2004 After thinking about it, I think if you used the right material for the shim, it could look classy. I'm guessing messing around the nut will alter the tone a bit, but that's not always bad. Brass or Stainless steel could look really good and contrast. Maybe even a piece of abalone. But to get it to look good, you'd need a uniform thickness, and all that would do is raise the nut. It wouldn't help levelling it out. well, im using binding on the neck and headstock, and continuing it over the nut sides, so anything below the nut wont be seen, nor will the side of the nut for the most part. but i still dont want to skimp. custom made nut here i come. glued my fretboard on tonight. have pics tomm. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asm Posted December 19, 2004 Author Report Share Posted December 19, 2004 (edited) allright, back to work... heres the neck glued up. i used my radius sanding block as a clamp, then made up a few other small ones out of scrap, and then made a ghetto radius on them with the end of the belt sander. just needed a bit of radius, so when i clamp i could get a little better pressure evenly since the board is allready radiused. heres a close up of the glue line dried. i was getting worried here for a bit, since i didnt use much glue cause i didnt want it running in the truss rod channel. thought that it might not be glued down on the edges of some random spots... we'll see in a bit. i keep having problems with getting the nut channel flat, been probably one of the hardest things for me so far during construction, and i just keep getting deeper and deeper in the channel. but im pretty sure i got it flat this time. this isnt final sanded though, just rough felt out. excess of fretboard and neck width cut out on the bandsaw. still a 1/16th or so from the final shape all the way around, was just trying to get a halfway decent straight line on it... starting to look pretty hot Edited December 19, 2004 by asm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asm Posted December 19, 2004 Author Report Share Posted December 19, 2004 (edited) wow, that glue line turned out alot better than i thought. looks real nice. blends in so beautifully, looks so great i think ill cover it up with binding. another angle from the headstock... made a little elevated neck holder, using 2 of the radius blocks i made to hold it flat. i had a Shurform laying around i never used for another project. tested it out to give it a try and it worked amazingly great. just like a cheese grater, pulled the ebony off evenly in nice slivers. heres a couple shots of the neck in progress. i turned the neck around when doing the other side. so i would get the same body movement while carving so it would be nearly even. havent started work on the scarf joint volute just yet... Edited December 19, 2004 by asm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asm Posted December 19, 2004 Author Report Share Posted December 19, 2004 (edited) neck volute roughed carved by hand tools. i used a small curved blade to help not take to much material off and still be detailed. rough sanded, neck joint dissapeared. which is really nice not to have to worry about. rough back carved shape and volute. next i have to figure out how the joint is going to fit in the body. so the block area will be cut and shaped, another few inches of radiused carved neck back. also have to take a little off of the back of the headstock around the nut end. will try to incorp that into the volute valley... stay tuned. Edited December 19, 2004 by asm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swirlslave Posted December 19, 2004 Report Share Posted December 19, 2004 Its shaping up really nice, keep it up !!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Primal Posted December 19, 2004 Report Share Posted December 19, 2004 i keep having problems with getting the nut channel flat, been probably one of the hardest things for me so far during construction, and i just keep getting deeper and deeper in the channel. but im pretty sure i got it flat this time. this isnt final sanded though, just rough felt out. Thats one of the biggest problems I had when I was building my bass. What tools did you use for the nut channel? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asm Posted December 19, 2004 Author Report Share Posted December 19, 2004 yeh, i know thats my problem. didnt do it correctly. would have been best to make a jig then pass perpendicular with the nut with a 7/32" flat router bit for the channel. but nooo. i had to make the line, then hold it against the bandsaw to cut down for the depth, then sand the rest to that depth line. man, now looking back i cant believe i did that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westhemann Posted December 19, 2004 Report Share Posted December 19, 2004 hey asm i have a suggestion for you if you want it...next time you install a truss rod,wrap it in just a thin layer of cling wrap....then you can get your glue coverage without worrying about glue interfering with the rod Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asm Posted December 20, 2004 Author Report Share Posted December 20, 2004 thanks wes. i actually siliconed it in there. so its nice and flat and suspended in silicone. but seriously, do i even need a neck made out of ebony, 2 graphite support rods, AND a truss rod? id rather not have a truss rod if i didnt have to. could it be a problem down the line maybe? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westhemann Posted December 20, 2004 Report Share Posted December 20, 2004 you need a truss rod for adjustment...all the other stuff is optional. but i like necks to be super stiff...it seems like the notes just spring off them Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asm Posted December 20, 2004 Author Report Share Posted December 20, 2004 hey, when i was messing around with the rod in the channel, upon turning it would do less side to side straightening and more of a spreading of the rods vertically. ive seen a few old acoustics or archtops where the rod busted thru the fretboard. getting kinda scared here. or am i just paranoid? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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