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Purple Heart Neck Through


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Very nice - cool design, and nice workmanship.

I'd like to see you bind and mitre joint that little wave on the end of the fretboard - that would look even sharper.

Yes I have thought about binding the end of the fingerboard, and I might do a test on one to see haow I like it. Thanks for the kind words............

Mike :D

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Once I have made the final shpe of the neck, and before I radious the fretboard is when I do the binding.

I use the stew mac router base and my dremel, but you can use a regular router as well. I determine how thick I want my binding to be, and then route out the required spce needed. To create th actual binding I glue up the wood that will be the binding, and in this case purpleheart and curly maple. The curly maple piece is 1/4"x3/4" and the purpleheart is 3/4"x3/4". After the glue is dry I square up th piece and the run it through my planer to get the curly maple to thickness I want. Then I cut it in half on the table saw, and glue it in place. Take care to mask off all areas you don't want glu to get on. Also make sure to leave yourself enough room to clean out the clue that will get into the fret kerf. This is very important to do, because trying to do this afterwards is not at all fun not to mention super time consuming. I learned this the hard way!!!!!!! :D

well this is how I do my bindings if you have any more questions on the subject feel free to send me a mesage.

Well, rather than me learn through spoon-feeding, let's give it a whirl eh?

I'll be sure to let you know how much I mess* up.

*f, etc.

Prostheta how goes the binding????????

Like to see some pics if you have any.

Mike :D

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Sorry Mike, I haven't gotten around to it yet. I need to saw some wood down to make a few neck blanks, plus my purpleheart is in big old 3' x 4' planks at the moment so I need to work out how I'm cutting it down before nibbling away small bits. My current project is a set neck Explorer to be finished in white, so I'm only working with mahogany and maple right now. I think I'll save the purpleheart for my Dinky.

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You have me a bit confused.

"To create th actual binding I glue up the wood that will be the binding, and in this case purpleheart and curly maple. The curly maple piece is 1/4"x3/4" and the purpleheart is 3/4"x3/4". After the glue is dry I square up th piece and the run it through my planer to get the curly maple to thickness I want. Then I cut it in half on the table saw, and glue it in place"

You glue a 1/4"x 3/4" Maple and 3/4"x 3/4" Purpleheart? Then you square and thickness the figured maple with a planer. Then cut it in half? I am confused by the dimensions. It sounds very different than the way I slice up binding. This is what I do. I usually just rip to thickness(.08" final is ripped ruff at .125") then rip to a tad over 1/4" tall. I stack them together on edge and run them through my sander (to clean up blade scatches), and then lay them side by side flat to clean up the faces. 1.5"x1.5"x32" "block yeilds a little over 40 strips. When I go for thinner binding I will rip to .05" and take it down with my sander from there (I can get good result down to .02", any thinner (never less than .01") and I have to really use fine grit paper).

Peace,Rich

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Sorry Mike, I haven't gotten around to it yet. I need to saw some wood down to make a few neck blanks, plus my purpleheart is in big old 3' x 4' planks at the moment so I need to work out how I'm cutting it down before nibbling away small bits. My current project is a set neck Explorer to be finished in white, so I'm only working with mahogany and maple right now. I think I'll save the purpleheart for my Dinky.

Sound good do you have any pics of your work in progress?

have a good one and I'll talk to you later.

Mike :D

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  • 2 weeks later...

Sorry Mike, I haven't gotten around to it yet. I need to saw some wood down to make a few neck blanks, plus my purpleheart is in big old 3' x 4' planks at the moment so I need to work out how I'm cutting it down before nibbling away small bits. My current project is a set neck Explorer to be finished in white, so I'm only working with mahogany and maple right now. I think I'll save the purpleheart for my Dinky.

Sound good do you have any pics of your work in progress?

have a good one and I'll talk to you later.

Mike :D

Thanks Mike - I'll post pictures once I'm further into the build.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Just to let you know Mike, I have four projects in progress right now. I took a different slant on your method of binding the edges of the fretboard with wood, and I've made a laminated fingerboard with 1cm purpleheart and 2mm strips of flamed maple which I'm dyeing black/purple. Will most probably finish the edges of the board with more maple. This is the Les Paul I'm building for my wife (LR Baggs TOM, chambered to hell and back).

I drafted this up in TurboCAD last week.

This is where I am up to on my other Les Paul build....binding is becoming seriously addictive, and making it can be stressful but rewarding!!

Edited by Prostheta
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Just to let you know Mike, I have four projects in progress right now. I took a different slant on your method of binding the edges of the fretboard with wood, and I've made a laminated fingerboard with 1cm purpleheart and 2mm strips of flamed maple which I'm dyeing black/purple. Will most probably finish the edges of the board with more maple. This is the Les Paul I'm building for my wife (LR Baggs TOM, chambered to hell and back).

I drafted this up in TurboCAD last week.

This is where I am up to on my other Les Paul build....binding is becoming seriously addictive, and making it can be stressful but rewarding!!

Looks good man cain't wait to see it finished.........nice work!!!!

Mike :D

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Thanks :-)

I've decided to build four "minor" projects to teach myself individual disciplines before jumping into the expensive stuff :-)

Purpleheart set neck Les Paul - fretboard binding, top carving, neck angle calculation.

Walnut Iceman - body binding on tight curves, neck angle calculation

Koa Telecaster - veneering, body binding, maple necks and trad. truss rods.

The other is a neck-through V for a laugh.

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  • 10 months later...

I absolutely love this guitar! I could see it being a big seller in the stores.

One question. Are you using a UV blocker in your clear coat? I'd hate to see that purple turn brown over time. I made a solid purple heart guitar with a solid purple heart fretboard. I hardcoated the board with the same UV blocker I used on the body to keep everything nice and purple. I'm not big on hardcoated fretboards but it turned out nice.

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