Chonker Posted June 9, 2008 Report Share Posted June 9, 2008 (edited) Work so far: Design done, I'll be working straight from the dimensions from this cad drawing (pardon the square edges on the body, I had an argument with the curve tool). Woods: Maple neck blank, Basswood wings, Rosewood fretboard. Bit plain but they were fairly cheap and I'm sortof expecting to screw it up at some point! Fretboard slotted, body wings rough cut I've got all the hardware, modifying a bass trussrod to length but hit a problem with that as it's an imperial thread and my Tap/Die sets are all metric. Have recieved the magnetic pickup and also a set of wilkinson style graphtech ghost saddles with the associated electronis. Edited June 9, 2008 by Chonker Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DGW Posted June 9, 2008 Report Share Posted June 9, 2008 What's up with that fretboard? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael.Speer Posted June 9, 2008 Report Share Posted June 9, 2008 What's up with that fretboard? its a fanned fretboard go read up on ormsbys latest build about them waht scale lengths are u using? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
avengers63 Posted June 9, 2008 Report Share Posted June 9, 2008 What's up with that fretboard? its a fanned fretboard go read up on ormsbys latest build about them waht scale lengths are u using? No no no.... we gotta support his naming convention for whatever trademark he's trying to establish. It's not fanned, it's Multi-Scale. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zyonsdream Posted June 9, 2008 Report Share Posted June 9, 2008 I vote for multi-scale being the official term for this fret board. However, with the build, that cut in the headstock seems drastic and could cause flexing issues, just my observations but I'd pay some attention to that area before making any cuts. I know it's just a cad picture but like you said, you'll be following your cad measurements. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chonker Posted June 9, 2008 Author Report Share Posted June 9, 2008 Yea it is a slight concern I guess, I was going for the parker fly style head where a couple of strings span fresh air, I think it looks really elegant and wanted to incorporate it, I guess parker's are made of quite exotic stuff though. I'll probably tone it down slightly, bring it further out and increade the diameter of the cut. I've been referring to it as "compound scale" but I really don't know what I'm talking about The high end scale is 635mm and the low end is 725mm. (25" - 28.5" ish) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bygde Posted June 9, 2008 Report Share Posted June 9, 2008 However, with the build, that cut in the headstock seems drastic and could cause flexing issues, just my observations but I'd pay some attention to that area before making any cuts. I know it's just a cad picture but like you said, you'll be following your cad measurements. The headstock reminds me a lot of Blackmachine's headstocks, but they have even less material in that area, and it seems to work for them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anderekel Posted June 9, 2008 Report Share Posted June 9, 2008 Compound scale, I like that. Good choice on the whole usin' cheaper, but still good, woods on the first build, that's what I'm doin' and am glad I did lol. Lookin' good so far, can't wait to see the progress. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xanthus Posted June 9, 2008 Report Share Posted June 9, 2008 I'm a fan of the "minimal wood" headstock. This one looks like it should be fun! Good luck. I hope you don't run into any knots/voids when cutting out the wings. Some areas look pretty hairy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bmth Builder Posted June 9, 2008 Report Share Posted June 9, 2008 8 string compound scale for a first build? I like it! I like the parker fly head stocks but not really the blackmachines, they just look a bit weird. I do like strings that span air though, does look cool when done right. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael.Speer Posted June 9, 2008 Report Share Posted June 9, 2008 The headstock reminds me a lot of Blackmachine's headstocks, but they have even less material in that area, and it seems to work for them. yeah i heard that they reinforce them with something though really like that shape too and btw this is starting to look a lot like the build i had planned for next ill have to think of something new now.. keep up the good work Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chonker Posted June 9, 2008 Author Report Share Posted June 9, 2008 8 string compound scale for a first build? I like it! I like the parker fly head stocks but not really the blackmachines, they just look a bit weird. I do like strings that span air though, does look cool when done right. Hehe, well there's no point in making something I could just go and buy! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chonker Posted June 9, 2008 Author Report Share Posted June 9, 2008 Did a bit more today, cut the fingerboard to shape and radiused and started cutting in the headangle. I also had a go at the "melt solder into holes drilled in the fingerboard" method of inlay as suggested on the front page tutorials, seemed like a nice idea and I have the bits lying around, I wish I hadn't though as I'm not at all happy with it Not really sure where to go from here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael.Speer Posted June 9, 2008 Report Share Posted June 9, 2008 what arent u happy about with them? do u think we can get some more pics? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chonker Posted June 9, 2008 Author Report Share Posted June 9, 2008 Well they're not really very round, and they've come out different sizes. Tried to photograph them but it didn't work, but I've just found macro mode on my camera! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kenny Posted June 9, 2008 Report Share Posted June 9, 2008 why not redrill them and get some type of stock from a hardware store, nothing is set in stone (or wood in this case) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chonker Posted June 10, 2008 Author Report Share Posted June 10, 2008 Run out of money to spend on it at the moment so it'll have to wait, I'll probably just cut down some aluminium bar stock. Today I finished planing the head angle into the top face, I've also roughly cut the neck sides out and had a quick go at carving the neck. How thin can I go with the neck? The trussrod channel's got to be 10mm deep and the fretboard's 9.2mm thick in the centre so already that's going to be chunkier than my ibanez 7string's neck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bygde Posted June 11, 2008 Report Share Posted June 11, 2008 Yes, the neck will be chunky! From what I've heard, most fingerboards are around 6mm thick. Could be wrong though, but from what I have measured on my guitars, it's around 6mm. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geo Posted June 11, 2008 Report Share Posted June 11, 2008 (edited) Yeah, that's REALLY thick!!! 1/4" is about the thickest I have seen/would ever want. Perhaps since it's so thick, you should give it a pretty small radius so it's more comfortable to play? For neck thickness, I go with 1/2" under the first few frets. When you add the fingerboard, it's a total thickness of 3/4", which feels good to me. I would say you could make your actual neck thinner, since your FB will be thicker and thus make up the difference in strength; but with insufficient wood under the truss rod (carving the neck way thin), your rod might force its way out the back! Alternatively: perhaps you could cut most of the truss rod channel in the neck and some of it in the underside of the fingerboard. Then you could carve the neck thinner and the truss rod would still have plenty of wood behind it. Edited June 11, 2008 by Geo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chonker Posted June 11, 2008 Author Report Share Posted June 11, 2008 I like the idea of cutting part of the trussrod channel into the fingerboard itself, good idea. I've already put a 12" radius on the fretboard, it's so thick in the middle because it's so wide I guess, otherwise there wont be room on the sides to fit the position dots. I've also kept it quite thick because I'm trying to get away with not having a neck angle, my bridge saddles are really quite low profile. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chonker Posted June 12, 2008 Author Report Share Posted June 12, 2008 Got a bunch more done, picked up a die to sort the trussrod out too turns out it isn't imperial it's metric but with an odd .8 thread pitch Trussrod channel routed, head profile finished and roughly cut out, tuning post holes drilled. Rough carved neck (loads of carving still to do though) I just routed the trussrod channel to 10mm in the end to save time/headaches, will just have to deal with the chunky neck, can still take a little bit off the back of the fretboard to make it a wee bit thinner. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chonker Posted June 14, 2008 Author Report Share Posted June 14, 2008 Fixed the inlays today, used a bit of 1/4" aluminium, much better, nice and round and even. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chonker Posted June 14, 2008 Author Report Share Posted June 14, 2008 Actually, I don't think it was quite as big as 1/4" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ricky Anderson Posted June 15, 2008 Report Share Posted June 15, 2008 @ Dino: It's strange that you don't know that kind of multiscale fretboard, since you live in the US, and you're a guitar builder Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ricky Anderson Posted June 15, 2008 Report Share Posted June 15, 2008 (edited) And look at novax guitar, they called it fanned frets, but I believe it's multiscale... Edited June 15, 2008 by Ricky Anderson Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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