bvalentine Posted January 7, 2007 Report Share Posted January 7, 2007 (edited) Nevermind Edited January 11, 2007 by bvalentine Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
manquesa Posted January 7, 2007 Report Share Posted January 7, 2007 Looks good. Since it's a practice build, i'd also practice carving the contours on the body as well. Also, I don't see any reason for you to not go ahead and start on the real thing, but if you wanna keep practicing go for it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
low end fuzz Posted January 7, 2007 Report Share Posted January 7, 2007 practice makes perfect! you mentioned that you left more on the neck until after the fb is on; do yourself a favour and put on the fb before you shape the neck. its a lot easier to put clamps on flat surfaces; you should practice another one with a pine finger baord, and then give it a sweet paint job and like do the fb black and you could have a great present for someones wall! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bvalentine Posted January 8, 2007 Author Report Share Posted January 8, 2007 i'd also practice carving the contours on the body as well.Yes, I do intend to carve the body contours but I figure it would be easier to do the pickup cavity & neck pocket routing first while the top is still flat. put on the fb before you shape the neck. Yes, good tip there. The only reason I went ahead and carved the back was because I knew I wasnt going to use it. I'm off today, so I'm going out in search of a good piece of maple. (cant find a hard wood dealer in town). Fingers cross. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doeringer Posted January 8, 2007 Report Share Posted January 8, 2007 Kudos on the work AND the Pine for Practice choice! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bvalentine Posted January 9, 2007 Author Report Share Posted January 9, 2007 O.k UPDATE!! Yesterday I drove out to the only hardwood dealer in town's shop and picked up a plank of hard maple for my neck. I had to buy a 24ft plank (which is ridiculous) but they were able to run it through the planner for me. Oh well, I guess I have plently of wood to screw up on. I got home and cut off about 35in to work with. Here is a picture next to my pine proto-type practice neck. (please note that the maple plank is not wrapping around on the sides, that is just the grain fooling ya). Now, the neck that I am basing this off of is an 80's baby dean short-scale neck. Before I left the house I measured the thickness (of the Dean's neck) with my digi-capiler. Then I measured the wood at the dealer and was disappointed that they did not have anything thicker to work with. But, cosidering that the Dean neck was measured with a fret board on... I figure buy the time I get a fret board attached to my maple, I will have enough thickness to work with. (Somebody PLEASE tell my I will have enough to work with ). Here is the thickness of the maple I bought: They did have short pieces of Rosewood I could have bought. But after giving it some thought I decided for my first project I should just put my pride to the side and order a fretted neck board from stewie-mac or all parts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
biliousfrog Posted January 9, 2007 Report Share Posted January 9, 2007 It might be worth cutting the board up & making a 3-part laminate neck which, if done properly, will give you some extra strength & stability plus you can make the neck as deep as needed. I'll let the more experienced folkes instruct you further but a flat sawn neck might not be the best option. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bvalentine Posted January 9, 2007 Author Report Share Posted January 9, 2007 but a flat sawn neck might not be the best option. You might be right. My stomach it turning a bit. But when I was in the store everything measured out ok when I added the fretboard width . If this doesnt work out I'll just order something. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaam Posted January 10, 2007 Report Share Posted January 10, 2007 I know of a "couple" of flatsawn maple fender necks that work just fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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