Walnut Explorer In-progress

[guitar2005]

That neck is looking really awesome! The only thing I find a little odd is how the spalted veneer doesn't completely cover the volute. Are you planning on adding another veneer to get full coverage?

+ 1

You gonna fix that? Now's the time.

Other than that, its looks real slick. Congratulations on a nice job.

Edited January 12, 2008 by guitar2005

[guitar2005]

I would personally have left finishing until the last minute, especially after fretting as you may find the neck profile needs adjusting to your taste, or the face of the heel may need fine tuning once you add hardware into the equation (especially with a neck angle). At least you can sand through the oil if you have to do this.

The heel looks great, BTW - which seems like a really sad thing to be noticing as a third party :-\

Yeah, but sanding the oil is a real bitch. The sandpaper will load up quicker than if there was no finish on there.

[ByronBlack]

So, I've fixed the spalted veneer - I took it off completely and will be replacing with a matching walnut veneer.

Todays Progress:

It was time to clean up and sand the fretboard, heres me using my radiused sanding block. I went through the grits upto 800grit

Once it was sanded to an almost mirror finish, I wiped on a little bit of oil to help lubricate the fretboard, it really brings out the richness of the wood and feels really silky, I can't wait to get the chance to play it. (This pic was when it was wet, it looks a lot better dry and feels great)

While that was drying, it was time to turn my attentions to the body. It was quite 'rounded' and didn't really have the look of a real rock/metal explorer, so it was out with the ROS and 80 grit to sharpen up the edges, this worked remarkably well.

Then it was time to sand the body all the way up to 400grit to receive the first sealer coat:

And here's the body at the end of todays work with a single shellac sealer coat:

Tomorrow, I'll be putting another shellac coat, and then wet sand to aid in filling the grain, I should be receiving my finishing product (Arm R Seal) during the week and that will be used to give a nice strong but natural protective finish.

I'll also be sanding and sorting out the new headstock veneer as well as applying another coat of oil to the back of the neck, I'm going to leave the fretting until monday (The mrs' is at work and this will allow me to concentrate without getting nagged about something or the other).

[Prostheta]

Agreed about the excessive roundover. It looks a lot more "ESP-ey" with a tighter edge radius. Looking sharp!!

That piece of wood at the top of the neck pocket looks very odd. It doesn't extend that far out on my bolt-on LTD EXP, it kind of peters out mid 19th/20th fret.

[ByronBlack]

I know what you mean about the neck pocket, I thought it was a little odd when I first bought it I think the guy that made it clearly had too much material in that area prior to routing the pocket, but its fine though, it seems to support the neck well and doesn't seem to get in the way. When I start my next one I'll have a more traditional neck pocket - unless I go for a set-neck that is.

[killemall8]

ya, it looks a million times better more sharp like that. looked wierd the other way.

[ByronBlack]

Some more progress today. I seemed to bogged down with quite fiddly tasks at the momet, they seem to take a long time and don't show much for a lot of time and effort, but atleast it's getting done.

Here's what I've completed today:

- Headstock venneer cut/filed to shape and blended in

- Headstock edges sanded smooth

- Dot markers inlayed and sanded flash

- Neck flattened

- Second coat of oil added to neck

- Body wet-sanded and given a second coat of shellac

- Truss-rod rattle fixed

I checked the neck yesterday with a straight edge and was quite annoyed when I discovered that it had a slight bow in the middle, so I had spend some time getting this down so the neck was flat, I then had to re-sand the neck a second time after I forgot to put the inlays in first, doh! I havn't lost much in thickness though so it's all fine, just very tedious and not particularly pleasant sanding this rosewood.

Here's some pics of todays work:

Headstock veneer (front) brought to shape and sanded

Completed headstock veneer, makes it look a lot nicer now that you can't see the joint lines

Inlays installed and sanded

Body wet-sanded and then given a second of shellac - it's starting to have a nice satin sheen, should look better when sanded to 2000 and the first coats of oil go on

[ByronBlack]

Fretting was the order of the day this afternoon. 'twas easier than expected.

The pics:

Essential tool kit: Fret bending pliars (for radius), fret cutters, fretting hammer and the most crucial to the success of this operation; a bounty chocolate bar

Frets cut to slightly over length:

First few tentatively put in place:

All frets installed and trimmed to fingerboard:

Just got to level, crown polish and dress!

[Prostheta]

BLEGH. Bounty bars. Disgusting.

Where did you install it anyway? I can't see it anywhere. Well, however well you install them they always fall out after 24-48 hours anyway, sans coconut.

By the way Byron - before you go spending loads on tools from Stewmac (and probably getting screwed on VAT and import via DHL who automatically declare everything) you should do a bit of asking around as the tools aren't that special you know? I got a hard nylon/soft face hammer from B&Q for a few quid which does the job of a fret hammer admirably. Pull saws for fretting you can score from Axminster who are normally expensive but are cheaper than buying from the US. Fret nippers can be made from some end-cutters ground flat-to-almost-concave on the face. I use a pair of Stanleys for this.

This is looking a very nice build man. I like it a lot. In fact, I like your bench a lot too.

Good luck with the Bounty bar tomorrow.

Edited January 15, 2008 by Prostheta

[ByronBlack]

Hi prostheta - I used the bounty to lubricate the slots, that coconut oil is pure quality! :-)

As for the tools - you can see in the photo that I've already bought them (and from stewmacs). Luckily for both of my stew-mac orders I've not got any import duty bills, so I've been quite lucky in that respect. I did consider adapting some regular pliers but just bought the stew-macs ones to save the hassle, but for anyone with a little time on their hands, your advice is very sound!

I use axminster a lot (carpentry has been my main hobby for the last few years) and have a number of their japanese pull-saws, one in particular is the perfect width for fretboard slotting - I actually used it a little on this fret job to deepen a couple of the slots as they were a little shallow after the various flattening processes.

If you like the bench, here's a thread with some more photo's and some explanation of how I built it (you can also see some of my other projects, including a table that was featured in a national woodworking magazine - my only claim to fame :-)!):

http://lumberjocks.com/projects/2874

It was quite hard-work to make it, but it's an absolute god send, out of my entire workshop, it's definitely my most used tool, even more so than the machinery. I intend to make a host of jigs and holders for it to make guitar building a little easier. For anyone new to guitar making, I would highly recommend building a good sturdy workbench as your first task.

[Daniel Sorbera]

I hope you didn't hurt the neck while hammering, that rest doesn't look like it's supporting it at all.

FWIW I always press my frets in, a small investment in tools ($20 1 ton arbor press) and your on your way to much easier/quicker/more uniform fret jobs. It can be done both ways with excellent results, but I've found that pressing them in yields better results with less effort.

One thing that worries me about your build is the area where the nut sits. It could be an optical illusion from the pictures, but it looks very wide and unevenly so. what width nut are you putting in there?

It's looking great so far, I really like the offset dots on the neck, I get tired of seeing them in the center all the time ya know?

Those benches really are nice! I have one that my grandpa built ages ago and it's solid as a rock and the perfect depth for clamp solid bodies down and being able to work around them.

[ByronBlack]

I seem to have lost the reply I just wrote..

Daniel, I was basically saying that although not in the photo, I have a couple of support blocks that I use to support the neck during the hammering process.

As for the nut-slot, it's a regular width nut, the slot is uneven - this is just the veneer thats on the front it doesn't effect the nut, the uneven area will be covered with a truss-rod cover and should look very neat/clean, well, thats the plan

The workbench was a great project it weighs an absolute ton and doesn't budge, well worth the time and effort to put one together. It's quite handy for sanding and routing too, with the bench-dog holes I can pretty much clamp anything of any shape, so working on guitar bodies is very easy.

[jmrentis]

Very nice work, looks like it coming out very nicely. Although you've already responded to this, I just wanted to second prostheta's suggestion in finding tools elsewhere than stewmac, at least for certain items. At least in the future when you need to replace some tools, check around as suggested I've found most of my tools outside of luthiery shops, which saved a load of loot. Certain items, which I probably still could find elsewhere or make I bought from stewmac like the fret press cauls and slot deepening blade for my bound fingerboard. Anyhow, great stuff, that necks looks great! Keep up the progress and best of luck! J

Daniel- Where can I grab a one ton arbor press for $20?! I've been watching harbor freights ads for a sale on theirs, they are cheap to begin with, but since I have a little work before I press, I was waiting. I just checked and they are finally on sale it looks like, which is truly amazing timing, but the one tons are still $32 on sale. Thanks. J

[Daniel Sorbera]

I got mine from harbor freight maybe a year or so ago and it was $20, I guess that deal is no longer current if you couldn't find it.

[jmrentis]

Cool, no worries! Compared to around $100 at STewmac, I'm happy to pay $32. Probably pickup a little mini vise for nut shaping while I'm there. Thanks again. J

[ByronBlack]

Todays task was to file, bevel and level the frets:

Filing of the sharp bits from the trimming:

Here's a tool I made to present the file at a 35deg angle to bevel the ends of the frets:

It's just held in a groove with three wood-screws.

A piece of cloth is attached to the underside as not to damage the frets.

nicely bevelled fret ends, these still require to be dressed and have the sharp edges either side of the bevel removed, I'll be adapting one of the many cheap triangle files I have for this task.

Frets now levelled (using my radius block)

Tomorrow, I'll be adapting yet another triangle file (larger one) to use for the crowning, then using my little fret-dressing stick I got from stewmacs I'll start the initial polish. I'll have to drill the tuner holes as well I suppose and the pilot holes for the neck screws, then I can concentrate on the body!

[Prostheta]

Good work. Cheap ol' bastard file from a hardware shop eh? Burketts here in Lincoln have a box full i'm going to raid for that very purpose!

[Jon]

Good work. Looks exactly like the fret bevel tool I made.

[Bass-Man43]

How did you level your frets with a radiusig block, jsut out of curiosity?

[ByronBlack]

Pros - aye, just a cheap old file that has been sitting around the lab at work for a while so I thought I'd re-home it and put it to use, it's a little rougher than I would have liked, but gets the ends bevelled quickly and accurately.

Bass-Man - I just double taped some abrasive to the radius block, and ran this up and down the neck until all the frets were level, I used the pen ink on top of the fret method to ensure flatness. (And a straight edge of course).

[ByronBlack]

Tonights task was to crown and dress the frets after yesterdays levelling.

I adapted a triangle file for this purpose by grinding a safe edge on one side, this worked to a degree, but I shall definitely be investing in a decent stew-mac crowning file for future work. All in all it took me just over 2 and half hours to do this work, I used the stew-mac plastic abrasive belt dressing tool to smooth out the filing scratches and to get them to a decent smoothness, the final shine was brought out by various grades of steel wool.

Here's the pic of the completed fret-job:

It's hard to photograph the shine properly, but they have come up like mirrors, which is quite surprising as they looked rough throughout this whole crowning process, but the final rubbing out with the steel wool really makes a big difference.

[ngaa]

Bass-Man - I just double taped some abrasive to the radius block, and ran this up and down the neck until all the frets were level, I used the pen ink on top of the fret method to ensure flatness. (And a straight edge of course).

By abrasive do you mean sandpaper? if so what grit?

and if not please explain?

[ByronBlack]

Bass-Man - I just double taped some abrasive to the radius block, and ran this up and down the neck until all the frets were level, I used the pen ink on top of the fret method to ensure flatness. (And a straight edge of course).

By abrasive do you mean sandpaper? if so what grit?

and if not please explain?

Yes, just sandpaper - in the same way you would flatten a fingerboard, I think I used either 320 or 400

[ByronBlack]

Completion is near!

It's been quite a productive saturday, I managed to knock off early from work and get motoring on with the explorer.

I've managed to get the neck attached, the bridge installed, the nut fitted, the machine-heads installed, and I even managed to get the wiring complete. I've only wired in a single humbucker so far just to see if the wiring works.

Wiring completed (just have a ground issue to sort) with the bridge pickup installed - sounds great on my new little modded valve head! (I just need to make a new cab for it)

So there we are. I need to dismantle it and start the sanding/finishing process, there are a few set-up tweaks that I need to make, the action is a little high at the heel so I need to alter the neck angle a little, but it's only off by about a mm so I'm pleased with that, the neck plays really nicely, although strangely I find the profile a little heavy even though it's a template of one I used to enjoy - I must have gotten used to a thinner profile on my other guitars, I need to alter this a little with some gentle sanding.

It's a shame having to take it all apart again to finish because it's such fun playing it, it sounds better than I thought it would and plays surprisingly well off the bat without a setup, so thats encouraging.

While this is in the finishing process, I'll be starting work on the maple guitar, and also making another neck for a third project, I was back at my old home (mums house) last week and found a really old guitar that I forgot I had in the garage, it's a complete wreck, but I can salvage the body and the truss-rod and use this as a basis for a new project!

[tim290280]

Have to say I really liked the way your explorer has come together.

What electrics are you going to use in it?