Walnut & White Limba Lpjr

[avengers63]

"The first cut is the deepest..."

Heel & headstock transition roughed out. Now it's time to make a mess with the spokeshave.

Seems OK for a first effort. Let's sand it up from 60 to 220 and smooth things out. THEN we'll see how it really feels.

This thing is FAT. It really fills up my hand. I have huge hands, so that's not a bad thing. Before I sanded it down I felt it up quite a bit. I was nervous about taking off too much for fear of either going through the truss rod channel or making the bottom of the channel too thin. Again, it all works out because I have big hands, so a fat neck will work for me.

[Metalhead28]

Edit:

I should just wait for more pictures....

[avengers63]

You're gonna want to clamp that neck somewhere where you can tip the spokeshave down over the side.

Yea... it took me all of one cut to realize I needed to clamp it over the edge.

Tuner holes laid out, drilled, and test fit.

[wood is good]

You should get a digital caliper. It lets you know exactly where you are, and you can measure before you carve so you know how much you can take off before you get the to TR cavity.

[Xanthus]

The use of the "It's A Girl" pencil is probably better than the ubiquitous "shoe shot."

Lookin' good so far

[avengers63]

The use of the "It's A Girl" pencil is probably better than the ubiquitous "shoe shot."

I always find it interesting what some folks notice when we see the WIP pics.

[Mitch]

The use of the "It's A Girl" pencil is probably better than the ubiquitous "shoe shot."

I always find it interesting what some folks notice when we see the WIP pics.

It's okay. I use my little sisters pink bang on the door protractor all the time.

[avengers63]

TIME TO FRET!

everything together

hammered in

trimmed & beveled

[Narcissism]

Looks like a neck. I'm impressed! Makes me think i can do it

[IPA or death]

This thing is FAT. It really fills up my hand. I have huge hands, so that's not a bad thing. Before I sanded it down I felt it up quite a bit. I was nervous about taking off too much for fear of either going through the truss rod channel or making the bottom of the channel too thin. Again, it all works out because I have big hands, so a fat neck will work for me.

I'm the world's worst for not wanting to go too far, going on and applying the finish, and realizing I didn't go far enough. That's a huge pain in the ass; playing a guitar for a few weeks and feeling the neck is just too big. Then you have to strip the finish off, reshape, and try your best to match the finish once you're satisfied with the new slimmer neck. I guess what I'm suggesting is please don't be like me :D . I think I've finally learned to get dimensions from a neck I really like and not stop until I'm there.

You've got a nice guitar going there though. Keep up the good work.

[westhemann]

I'm the world's worst for not wanting to go too far, going on and applying the finish, and realizing I didn't go far enough. That's a huge pain in the ass; playing a guitar for a few weeks and feeling the neck is just too big. Then you have to strip the finish off, reshape, and try your best to match the finish once you're satisfied with the new slimmer neck.

Been there,done that...and I agree 100%.

If you think it is thick without frets,strings,and finish,just wait....it will feel much thicker when you are strung up.

[ihocky2]

As said, if you think it is big now, once everything is together you'll wish you had made it thinner. For a first neck, it is not a bad idea to take the build as far as you can, put the neck on and the bridge and do a quick setup and just pluck around for a little bit. You'll figure out quickly waht you need to do, if anything, and before it is too late.

[RestorationAD]

+1

Play'em before you finish'em... seems crazy but actually saves work.

[avengers63]

I'll take that advise and run with it. I'll have the body done on Monday, so I can to a test run then. Thanks for the heads-up.

[guernica]

...newb question: ..in the fretting pictures, you have a couple of pieces of lumber cut and labeled "fret bender". Im guessing that you lay a full length piece of fretwire between those and .....clamp them? ...please excuse the niavity, ...just trying to learn... ...also, is there a tutorial for that somewhere? ...seems like a good way to bend wire on the cheap..

thanks

[SJE-Guitars]

...newb question: ..in the fretting pictures, you have a couple of pieces of lumber cut and labeled "fret bender". Im guessing that you lay a full length piece of fretwire between those and .....clamp them? ...please excuse the niavity, ...just trying to learn... ...also, is there a tutorial for that somewhere? ...seems like a good way to bend wire on the cheap..

thanks

if you take a look on the Project guitar home page in the tutorial sections you'll find it. It's basically a piece of wood cut on a radius which then has a slot cut in it - you then insert the tang of the fret wire into the slot and bend it to the radius. Personally speaking I tried it and didn't think it was very effective - I knocked up one of the Stewmac type fret wire bender with 2 bearings, 3 bolts n nuts, a piece of plywood and a piece of wood cut circular using a door knob installer bit - it's a bit more effort but for me it makes a far better job of bending the wire.

Nice looking neck there - are you going to shape the top of the headstock more or will it be left as is?

When you did the hammering of the frets with you use a sandbag to cushion the neck? It makes the hammering of frets so much easier as the neck doesn't bounce the impact of the hammer is absorbed fully. If not try it next time and see the difference!

[avengers63]

Nice looking neck there - are you going to shape the top of the headstock more or will it be left as is?

When you did the hammering of the frets with you use a sandbag to cushion the neck? It makes the hammering of frets so much easier as the neck doesn't bounce the impact of the hammer is absorbed fully. If not try it next time and see the difference!

The headstock is going to stay exactly like it is. It's a LPjr, which is minimal & simplistic. I picked out the headstock to maintain the minimalism. Plus, as it's my first one, I wanted to keep things as simple as possible.

For the fretting, I had a towel that was folded a couple of times underneath it. I let the headstock drape over the edge of the table so the neck would lay flat. It got more tricky as I moved towards the edges, but I figured it out. I used a 12oz deadblow hammer with a brass head, so most of the impact should have been transfered to the fret already. Maybe I'll try the beanbag thing in the future.

[westhemann]

http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_0...p;sName=Hammers

I use this one...the plastic tip is effective and does not dent the frets,helping prevent recrowning and leveling.

[guernica]

...newb question: ..in the fretting pictures, you have a couple of pieces of lumber cut and labeled "fret bender". Im guessing that you lay a full length piece of fretwire between those and .....clamp them? ...please excuse the niavity, ...just trying to learn... ...also, is there a tutorial for that somewhere? ...seems like a good way to bend wire on the cheap..

thanks

if you take a look on the Project guitar home page in the tutorial sections you'll find it. It's basically a piece of wood cut on a radius which then has a slot cut in it - you then insert the tang of the fret wire into the slot and bend it to the radius. Personally speaking I tried it and didn't think it was very effective - I knocked up one of the Stewmac type fret wire bender with 2 bearings, 3 bolts n nuts, a piece of plywood and a piece of wood cut circular using a door knob installer bit - it's a bit more effort but for me it makes a far better job of bending the wire.

...thanks very much

[SJE-Guitars]

The headstock is going to stay exactly like it is. It's a LPjr, which is minimal & simplistic. I picked out the headstock to maintain the minimalism. Plus, as it's my first one, I wanted to keep things as simple as possible.

For the fretting, I had a towel that was folded a couple of times underneath it. I let the headstock drape over the edge of the table so the neck would lay flat. It got more tricky as I moved towards the edges, but I figured it out. I used a 12oz deadblow hammer with a brass head, so most of the impact should have been transfered to the fret already. Maybe I'll try the beanbag thing in the future.

Ah fair enough - to be honest I don't really know much of LPjr . . . never being a big Gibson fan . . .

The sandbag really does make a big difference - a doubled up piece of denim filled with sand and sown up is all you need.

[avengers63]

I thinned out the neck yesterday. It's really amazing what a few mm will do.

[avengers63]

The body is almost ready to be finished. These pics are of the beveling & neck pocket shaping. You can see in #3 & #5 that there are a couple of places on the edge that need to be filled in with epoxy. A also need to do a final fit of the neck pocket depth and drill for the controls.

[marko_slash]

Nice work

[ngaa]

That looks like a great heel.

[blazingblake]

I love walnut I have some walnut i'm going to use for a carved top one day, the chocolate brown with an oil finish should look sweet.