tim_ado Posted July 18, 2007 Report Share Posted July 18, 2007 i think that with this bild less is more it has the whole natural look going on with it i would only bind it u were going to do it with wood DONT DO PLASTIC PLEASE!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattharris75 Posted July 23, 2007 Author Report Share Posted July 23, 2007 OK Tim, no plastic binding. I was only considering it for protection of the headstock. But right now I doubt i'm going to bind the headstock. However, I did cut my binding channels for the fretboard this weekend. Because of how my neck is constructed (fender style nut slot) and the stage of construction that I am at (already have the headstock laminate glued on) I had to be very careful with where I begun/ended the route. So, i've left myself a bit of chizeling to do on the headstock end. I've gotten one side cleaned up and will clean up the other side tonight and possibly glue everything up. The binding channel wasn't too difficult. The two 12" radius cauls that I made and double-side-taped to the fretboard worked well, holding it flat on the router table and square to the router bit. Should have pictures of the bound neck in the next few days depending on whether or not I decide to sand the binding flush before taking pics. Could be this weekend in that case. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattharris75 Posted July 28, 2007 Author Report Share Posted July 28, 2007 Here are a couple of pictures of the fretboard with curly Koa binding. I was having trouble taking a picture of everything with the poor lighting. With naphtha on it, the binding had great contrast to the maple of the neck and the curl really popped. I'm sure daylight would allow me to take a picture much more indicative of how it truly looks. The first shot shows the whole neck, and the link shows a picture, slightly blurry but with much better contrast, from a different angle. I'm really happy with how the binding looks I think it's going to be really sharp once it's got a tru oil finish on it. Another Angle With More Contrast The next question is, how do I get the glue out of the fret slots? I got a large percentage of it out using a toothpick before it dried, but wasn't able to get all of it. I was going to try an x-acto knife, any other tips or tricks? I'm still thinking I can get this thing done by Christmas. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erikbojerik Posted July 28, 2007 Report Share Posted July 28, 2007 The next question is, how do I get the glue out of the fret slots? Looking great Matt! I don't go for too many StewMac hand tools, but one that I did go for, and use pretty often, is their fret slot cleaning tool. http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Fretting_suppl...aning_Tool.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Posted July 28, 2007 Report Share Posted July 28, 2007 The next question is, how do I get the glue out of the fret slots? Looking great Matt! I don't go for too many StewMac hand tools, but one that I did go for, and use pretty often, is their fret slot cleaning tool. http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Fretting_suppl...aning_Tool.html I use this tool as well. It's extremely helpful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattharris75 Posted July 28, 2007 Author Report Share Posted July 28, 2007 Thanks for the recommendation guys. I had thought (hoped) I was done ordering from stew mac for this build, but this isn't the first time i've thought that. Oh well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattharris75 Posted July 28, 2007 Author Report Share Posted July 28, 2007 (edited) OK, spent some time sanding the fretboard/binding this morning. It's good up to 400 grit, need to get some 600 for it and then it will be good to go. Also decided over the past few weeks to keep putting coats of tru oil on my pickup cover. I really wanted to test and see if I could get the kind of look I wanted on the guitar body with just tru oil, or whether I was going to have to use lacquer. As you can see in these pictures it is thick and glassy. There are probably 35 coats of oil on it, and it's been dry sanded to 12000 grit with micro mesh papers. It's always nice to do a moku-up and see where you stand, gives you a little confidence and motivation to keep moving. One small issue I have that I haven't figured out yet: My scrimshaw inlay disk in the headstock, which is filled with black epoxy. The epoxy isn't completely opaque, so you can see the small white ridges of plastic underneath the letters now that I have sanded the headstock completely smooth. Any idea what I can do to fix that? I put some naphtha on it to see what it will look like under a finish and you can still see the ridges. I assume the headstock will be tru oiled like the rest of the guitar. How would tru oil react to using a black permanent marker on top of the epoxy? I will certainly test this if I decide to do it, just wanted to see if anyone had tried something as absurd as this. Picture 1 Picture 2 Picture 3 Picture 4 Edited July 28, 2007 by mattharris75 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben Posted July 28, 2007 Report Share Posted July 28, 2007 Looking great!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattharris75 Posted July 29, 2007 Author Report Share Posted July 29, 2007 Thanks Ben. Got some more work done tonight. Placed and drilled the neck ferrules and screws for the neck. Because two of the ferrules/screws are on a slope I had to recess them slightly deeper, and so those two screws were cut a bit shorter just to be safe. Everything seems to align properly and it is quite solid. It's looking more like a guitar every day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattharris75 Posted August 13, 2007 Author Report Share Posted August 13, 2007 (edited) Finally got around to messing with the fretting of the neck. I built my own fret bender and gave that a whirl. Because the notch for the fret tang was too wide I couldn't get quite the radius I needed on the fret wire. It looked to be dead on 12", but I couldn't get it any tighter. I decided to go ahead and cut the frets and try pressing one in regardless. I used a dremel to get rid of the tang under the binding and used the stew mac fret press and caul. It worked perfectly except for the fact that the unsupported fret ends didn't sit down 100% flat. It's very close but not good enough. So, now it looks like I need to fix my fret bender and make sure all the frets are radius'ed tighter than 12" before I move ahead and make a major mistake. Will bending the wire after its been cut present any problems? Progress has been a bit slow in recent weeks with the beginning of football practice keeping me busy (I'm a coach). I initially thought that being done by Christmas would be a breeze but as the small setbacks begin to pile up and I have less and less free time, i'm beginning to doubt this timeline. Edited August 13, 2007 by mattharris75 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rsguitar Posted August 14, 2007 Report Share Posted August 14, 2007 Really nice work and very clean. Keep up the good work. Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hector Posted August 14, 2007 Report Share Posted August 14, 2007 So, now it looks like I need to fix my fret bender and make sure all the frets are radius'ed tighter than 12" before I move ahead and make a major mistake. Will bending the wire after its been cut present any problems? yes. you should make the radius tighter and I think that bending the wire after is been cut will be way harder then to radius it before cutting. if you bend before cutting you should get a more consistent result. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattharris75 Posted August 19, 2007 Author Report Share Posted August 19, 2007 So, I think I'm going to order some new fret wire and pull out the one fret that I pressed in. No reason to rush it or doing anything halfway at this point. Especially since fret wire is so cheap. While I've been debating and messing with this issue I managed to get a few of the small things done that I needed to do on the body. I finally got all the remaining holes drilled, including the cavity cover screws, the strap button holes, and what is sure to be the most controversial; the string thru hole cover. I made this little cover to go over the string thru holes, which weren't 100% perfect. There were other options to fix this, but I really thought it would be neat to have one more little custom feature on the guitar. Now I've just got to figure out a good way to do the counter sinks for these tiny little screws. Once I finally get my new frets delivered I'll get those installed and carve the neck. It seems like I've been nervously anticipating that task for months now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WezV Posted August 19, 2007 Report Share Posted August 19, 2007 the string through cover looks good - probably be better recessed a bit... but i do think its woth getting a couple of small magnets for it. having to unscrew it to change a string will annoy you eventually. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattharris75 Posted August 19, 2007 Author Report Share Posted August 19, 2007 Yeah, I considered recessing the cover, and it would look neat, but I decided to save that for the next build. It's really not as thick as the picture makes it appear either. It's right at .18" thick. As far as the magnets go, while that would be cool, I really don't change strings often so I'm not too concerned about the inconvenience of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WezV Posted August 19, 2007 Report Share Posted August 19, 2007 As far as the magnets go, while that would be cool, I really don't change strings often so I'm not too concerned about the inconvenience of it. i knew you were gonna say that before i even suggested it - but i garantee there will be one day when you really want to change strings but dont have a screwdriver handy... you will see!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattharris75 Posted August 19, 2007 Author Report Share Posted August 19, 2007 And when that day arrives, Wez, I will return to this thread and announce to the whole online community that you were right all along. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WezV Posted August 19, 2007 Report Share Posted August 19, 2007 as long as you do!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattharris75 Posted August 26, 2007 Author Report Share Posted August 26, 2007 Finally got a little time to work on the guitar, and got the neck fretted. Jumbo wire. Turned out pretty good, and with the fret pressing caul and fret tang nippers everything went fairly smoothly. I discovered that fretting the neck is no place for cutting corners. However, my $5 set of harbor freight end nippers that I modified on the belt sander worked quite well for cutting the excess ends of the frets off. Maybe in a couple of weeks i'll have time to get the neck rough carved, then it will all be a matter of finish sanding everything and a few little details before starting the finishing process. I've wavered back and forth quite a bit about how I am going to finish the body, but right now i'm leaning toward nitro. As glossy as I got the pickup cover with tru oil, i'd really like to have that super glassy look over this walnut that nitro will provide. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Posted August 26, 2007 Report Share Posted August 26, 2007 Excellent work! Just make sure to cover up that orange padding on your guitar stand if you go with nitro, I'm quite positive the stuff is not any good for it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattharris75 Posted August 26, 2007 Author Report Share Posted August 26, 2007 Yeah, I remember reading that a while back. This stand is actually for another guitar. I've got another stand that has foam padding rather than surgical rubber tubing that I will end up using for it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattharris75 Posted September 13, 2007 Author Report Share Posted September 13, 2007 I've been really really busy lately and haven't had much time or energy to work on the guitar, but I have managed to get a few small things done. And, finally, I got a little time to work on carving the neck. I ended up just using a surform and rasp. I found that using the rasp at an angle and sliding it lengthwise up and down the neck was a good way to have a fair amount of control when shaping the profile. Obviously there is still more work to be done, but it certainly looks like a neck now, and I'm pretty happy with it thus far. It is funny that during this process certain parts of building the guitar that seemed quite daunting ultimately have been some of the easiest parts, while some of the things that I took for granted as being easy have turned out to be the most difficult. Quite the learning experience! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattharris75 Posted October 10, 2007 Author Report Share Posted October 10, 2007 I've been extremely busy lately, but I've found enough time to get the neck sanded to 320 and get the finishing started. This is tru oil, currently with 8 coats on it. I imagine i'll go up to about 12 coats, but i'm going to play it by ear. The pores are close to being filled at this point. I've used 0000 steel wool dipped in naphtha to level sand after every couple of coats of oil, and that's worked very well. I still haven't decided if i'm ultimately going to keep it glossy, and even polish it with micro mesh papers, or go with a more matte finish. I'm also still up in the air about finishing the body. Should I go with lacquer or tru oil or some other finish?...I just can't seem to decide. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Posted October 10, 2007 Report Share Posted October 10, 2007 Lookin' good! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattharris75 Posted November 8, 2007 Author Report Share Posted November 8, 2007 Life's been busy. Haven't had much time to work on the guitar, but I have slowly managed to accumulate 25 or so coats of tru oil on the neck. Last night I polished it using micro mesh papers all the way through the grits. This is the result. I should have a little more free time now to try to focus on getting the remaining details done so I can start putting a finish on the body. Back of the headstock Front of the headstock You can see in the last picture my little mistake gluing on one of the headstock wings. All part of the learning process I suppose. It's possible I can still get this thing done by Christmas, but i'm 90% sure i'm going with a nitro finish rather than tru oil, so waiting for that to cure will make the Christmas deadline somewhat questionable. It will be finished when it is finished, I suppose. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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