dash Posted July 7, 2006 Report Share Posted July 7, 2006 (edited) you could use aluminium like swedish luthier does, look cool too. cheers darren Edited July 7, 2006 by dash Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mickguard Posted July 7, 2006 Author Report Share Posted July 7, 2006 you could use aluminium like swedish luthier does, look cool too. cheers darren I was thinking of aluminum too, and I can get that in rods, which might end up being easier to work with. The other idea I have is to use some scrap maple I have here --I'm thinking that it'd shouldn't be a problem to have that on the edge of the board (except I'd have to find a way to add finish to it). Might look nice in contrast to the ebony too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
badsnap Posted July 7, 2006 Report Share Posted July 7, 2006 I 'd imagine that leaving maple unfinished (maybe just oiled) could give you a really cool vintage type look after a few years of usage...food for thought from another lover of well played looking instruments...Rog Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mickguard Posted July 7, 2006 Author Report Share Posted July 7, 2006 I 'd imagine that leaving maple unfinished (maybe just oiled) could give you a really cool vintage type look after a few years of usage...food for thought from another lover of well played looking instruments...Rog Nothing like a little grime to make things come alive, I say The main thing I'm trying to work out with the maple idea is how to make smaller circles for the upper frets....don't know if it's possible. But maybe I can switch to a similar color dowel for those... Luckily I've got an old fretboard to practice on, see if I'm able to pull this off... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brian d Posted July 7, 2006 Report Share Posted July 7, 2006 Hey there Mickguard, keep in mind that if you cut circles out of wooden dowel, you'll have end grain flat surfaces. nothing wrong with that...unless you want to see slab or quarter grain. BTW, I also love those Gretsch fb inlays, but I think it needs a bound board to really get the look. Regards, Brian Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mickguard Posted July 8, 2006 Author Report Share Posted July 8, 2006 BTW, I also love those Gretsch fb inlays, but I think it needs a bound board to really get the look. The other thing I'm wondering is if I'm using two different types of wood and they move differently, am I going to run into problems? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brian d Posted July 8, 2006 Report Share Posted July 8, 2006 I have an Ovation which has an ebony board with maple inlays which has gone from its manufacture in the States, to Australia, to extreme humidity in Israel for a few years and back to mild Melbourne weather with no problem with the different woods. The soundboard, on the other hand, didn't fare as well. Good luck witht he build. Brian. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mickguard Posted July 9, 2006 Author Report Share Posted July 9, 2006 I'm saving the fancy side marker idea for the ash neck but for now I'm going to concentrate on the Junior guitar... Today I sanded the fretboard down close to its final thickness. Then I made the slots for the dot markers --I decided to go with dot markers that run along the bass side, where I'll be able to see them by glancing down. They should roughly fall between the E and A strings. I used the router fitted with the edge guide to do that, this way all of the holes are the same distance from the edge of the fretboard. The difficult part was getting them centered in the frets, but I think that worked out pretty well. One problem I had though was that toward the end I wasn't routing the holes deep enough, didn't notice it until after I took a break (glad I took a break)--so I had to reroute the holes. Which means on a couple of them, the holes got 'stretched' a bit. I should be able to fill those with ebony dust and glue though. I ended up going deeper --that is, the holes are deeper than the dots --instead of mounting the dots so they stick up a bit. I figure since I have to take off more of the fretboard, the dots should end up close to the top anyway. Hope that isn't a mistake! I'm trying to decide which will be easier for me to work with --superglue or epoxy. With epoxy I can build the dots up from behind to get them even with the board. With superglue, though, I'm thinking I can make a 'bed' of ebony dust then drop the glue on from the top --that should wick in and bond with the dust, making everything solid and level, right? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mickguard Posted July 10, 2006 Author Report Share Posted July 10, 2006 Actually... This morning I looked at the fretboard again...trying to figure out what went wrong when I was routing for the dots. in fact, I pretty much screwed up the sanding part...most of it looks okay, but there's one part that dips lower than the rest --it's the end of the fretboard on the bass side. I'm not really sure if the board can be rescued now....mostly because I'm about at the limit of the fret slots on that side. So if I take any more off, I won't be able to get the frets in... So I'm looking at having to take this fretboard off and trying again. In the meantime, maybe I can figure out how I screwed up the sanding this badly? I thought I was being pretty even about it. Maybe I should have done all this off the neck --that is trimmed the fretboard and sanded it before I glued it on (that would have opened up other difficulties, of course... ) Of course, this is why I ordered a pre-radiused board, so I could avoid this part for my first neck --LMII sent me these mega-thick boards that were impossible to use out of the box. Definitely the last time I ever order from them. Back to the drawing board... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mickguard Posted July 11, 2006 Author Report Share Posted July 11, 2006 Back to the drawing board... Luckily I'm not the type who gives up easily (of course, anyone's who's ever argued with me already knows that ) I've been measuring and drawing lines and it might not be as bad as I thought. Most of it is pretty even --although there's a definite slope downward from the first fret to the upper frets. For some reason though the last two or three frets on the bass side came out much thinner than on the treble side. I'm assuming this all comes from bad sanding technique...maybe I was trying to go to fast? I was using 150 grit --I'm going to try a higher grit this time out. Judging from the fret slots (I cut off a piece of fretwire and pushed just the edge of the tang in) I might have to make the 22nd fret slot a little deeper but the others look okay, as long as I can avoid sanding them any further. Worse comes to worse, I'll have to take this board off and try again. That is why I bought two boards, after all. (LMI has offered to replace or refund the boards, if I send them back-- even the board I'm in the process of destroying...but it's not worth it to ship them back. Still, pretty nice of them to offer.) In the meantime, all of a sudden I have this huge urge to go out and BUY a guitar I'm thinking I need a semi anyway Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drak Posted July 11, 2006 Report Share Posted July 11, 2006 You shouldn't be so hard on yourself, this is what learning is all about, making mistakes, learning thru your mistakes, and getting gradually better at it, it's a perfectly natural process and your moving faster than you probably realize already. Remember the old rule that getting there is half the fun, and you'll look back on this time with fond memories in a few years, so relax and enjoy the learning process, and don't expect perfection right off the bat. You really think Bob Benedetto one fine day many years ago went out and bought a bunch of tools and out of nowhere a gorgeous archtop sprouted out in a few weeks? No. Bob screwed up big time when he was first starting out, as we all do, as is natural. BTW, a problem I run into with superglue for repairs is that it's so hard, when you try to level it out, the surrounding wood (which is much softer) sands out much faster than the very hard CA glue, so I don't like using CA glue much for repairs when I have to sand it back flush with the wood, it can sometimes be rather difficult. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mickguard Posted July 12, 2006 Author Report Share Posted July 12, 2006 You shouldn't be so hard on yourself, this is what learning is all about, making mistakes, learning thru your mistakes, and getting gradually better at it, it's a perfectly natural process and your moving faster than you probably realize already. Well, there's a reason why I ordered two boards...although I didn't think I'd screw up this badly. I admit it has me pretty discouraged. Part of it is that this part of the build requires a lot of precision --more than I can offer. It's just not in my nature. Remember the old rule that getting there is half the fun, and you'll look back on this time with fond memories in a few years, so relax and enjoy the learning process, and don't expect perfection right off the bat. That's another part of it --I'm not really enjoying building the neck ...or more accurately, the fretboard part. It's just too nerve-wracking for me and goes too much against my personality. For me, it's just a hurdle keeping me from the fun part --carving, shaping. So I'll try again with the other fretboard (the first one is not salvageable...at least not after what I did to it yesterday ). This one isn't as thick, so I won't have to risk sanding it like that. I'm tempted to bring it to a carpenter I know who has a thickness sander --I'd be able to take the little bit off the bottom that it needs. In the future though, I'm going to work with pre-fretted fretboards. Even if that gives me fewer options (I really wanted a zero fret for this guitar and I really wanted a narrow profile). For the ash guitar, I'm just going to punt the neck --I still have a telecaster neck here, I can use that! And for now, I need a break, need to do other things...for a few days, for a few weeks, we'll see. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mickguard Posted July 13, 2006 Author Report Share Posted July 13, 2006 Today I pulled off the fretboard I botched ...it was just too far gone to fix. Shame, but that's the way it goes. I'm just not willing to abandon this project. (The ash guitar is on indefinite hold however!) It taught me one thing, though --I'm just not precise enough, and probably never will be, for certain aspects of this. Like getting a fretboard perfectly level (and probably fretting too--although at least with frets, you can pull them out and start again, right?) I'm entertaining the idea of finding a friendly luthier to do this part for me--throw a little money at it, make the problem go away. Dunno how much that would cost though--any ideas? I'm thinking that I can mount the other fretboard I have here --it's closer to the proper thickness (but not as pretty as the other one, that's why I chose the other first). So assuming it's glued on properly and all, in theory I don't need to do anymore to it? I'm afraid of sandpaper now, you see...But does the board need to be sanded anyway, like with higher grains -- for example, I could start at 1000 grit and go to 2000 (and I have some of those StewMac micro finishing pads too). That won't take off any significant amount of the fretboard, so I shouldn't run into the same problem I just had right? If this is true, then I can see myself being able to install the frets at least. That would be enough to allow me to carve the neck. And after that, presumably I could take the finished guitar and bring it to a luthier/tech to have the frets properly dressed? Does this sound like a plan? (Think I'll post the fretboard sanding question in the main section too) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drak Posted July 13, 2006 Report Share Posted July 13, 2006 I don't do necks because I simply have no interest in building them, and never have. Don't feel obligated to build necks if it goes against your nature just to prove something to yourself or someone else, do it because you want to do it, and don't do it if you don't feel like doing it. I don't do inlays for pretty much the same reason, I'm simply not a detail person, I don't have the patience for that stuff, so I stick to what I know I enjoy doing, and I'm perfectly happy that way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mickguard Posted July 14, 2006 Author Report Share Posted July 14, 2006 Don't feel obligated to build necks if it goes against your nature just to prove something to yourself or someone else, do it because you want to do it, and don't do it if you don't feel like doing it. Well, there are parts I like and parts I don't like. The carving part is an extraordinary experience, and I really don't want to give that up. I mean, I've only done one practice neck so far, but the whole experience of feeling that neck take shape was very cool. On the other hand, I have no problem shopping out the fretboard, which I see as a precision step, but not necessarily part of the personalization of a guitar (not talking about inlays). I might have found a luthier in the area who'll help me on this one though. But a big part of learning to build a neck is the freedom it offers me --I'm interested in a non-standard neck--I'm basically trying to emulate the pencil neck of my old Gibson, which has a width at the nut of only 39 mm! (that's 1.53 inches). And yet, it has the nicest string spread of any guitar I've ever played...I've been trying to figure out why... I'm hoping that by adding the carbon fiber tubes and a little extra width at the nut (40.5 mm), I'll overcome the major problem with the Gibson --it's just not rigid enough. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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