First Build!

[I Like Turtles]

Dry run on gluing the first wing. The joint looks seamless after some handplaning and some block sanding. It was pretty out of whack after sitting for three years. I'm getting some glue and clamps tomorrow!

[I Like Turtles]

Here's another update!

So I glued both wings onto the neck. It was a little difficult because over the years the lumber sat, it warped a little. The joints ended up pretty good though.

I also recut the fret slots after radiusing the board. I am hoping the board will be fine. It's little thin at the edges.

I then jigsawed the rough body shape and did some sanding of the front and back face. I don't have a drum sander, so getting the guitar into final shape will be done with a sideways beltsander, a rasp, and a lot of hand sanding.

Almost looks like a guitar.

Here's a somewhat bad closeup of the waterfall-y grain of the wings. I'm hoping it shows up nice after finishing. I'm planning on using the stewmac waterbase nitro with a matte finish.

[I Like Turtles]

So the past few days I've been sanding a lot. The final overall shape is finished, and now I'm in the process of carving. I also decided on a hipshot hardtail bridge and hipshot tuners. I also ordered an EMG 707 for the bridge. No neck pup on this one. Honestly I don't think I'll need it enough to spend $100+ on something I'll hardly use.

Here's just some block and hand sanding down to the lines I've drawn. I actually had to carve in the curve by hand on a part of the guitar because I lost the line I drew (and my dog ate my template). It turned out good though.

wiped with mineral spirits you can see the pretty stuff I keep talking about. The little bump at the end of the wing is where I had to freehand the curve.

Big chip!

But it fits!

Glue it!

Rough carve with an old rasp is taking shape.

Duke, destroyer of important templates.

Edited January 16, 2014 by I Like Turtles

[DevinTacheny]

this is a really awesome project i cant wait to see how it turns out!

[KarmaShaman]

There's some nice character to that wood, and it's great to follow your thread, and how you're dealing with some of the unexpected pitfalls. This axe is going to look nice.

When you glued your neck woods, why do you think there was a gap? Maybe some of the experienced members can also comment. Is it that the wood straight from the lunberyard can't be trusted to be truly flat, and needs to be run through a thicknesser for a couple of passes?

[Muzz]

Great save, everything looking good

[I Like Turtles]

Thanks for the positive comments everybody.

When you glued your neck woods, why do you think there was a gap? Maybe some of the experienced members can also comment. Is it that the wood straight from the lunberyard can't be trusted to be truly flat, and needs to be run through a thicknesser for a couple of passes?

I planed both surfaces and sanded them flat. I think I probably just didn't do that job perfectly. Also maybe there wasn't enough clamping pressure, or it wasn't applied evenly. More clamps is always better. From the lumberyard the wood was very very rough and I did have it thicknessed, but the glue surfaces I did not. I only handplaned and sanded the gluing surfaces.

So the past few days I finished most of the carving. The front face is done. The back has all the edges tapered, and now I just need to carve the neck joint. I probably won't do a belly cut.

I also found out that my neck is not actually wide enough to fit the bridge I wanted, so I am going to drop back down to six strings. On the bright side, I will now be building a 7 string flying v this summer with a bolt on neck!!!!!!!!!! So this guitar will be getting a hipshot hardtail and locking tuners from dragonfire.

Today I'm planning on sanding in the neck taper and carving the neck. I am going for a pretty wide string spacing at the nut.

Wiped down with mineral spirits.

There has been some fine-tuning since I took these pictures. The upper horn was a little weird in these pictures before I changed it.

[ScottR]

You've definitely got some sweet grain going on there. Is she very heavy?

SR

[wisdom727]

The bevels look good. Did you do them with rasp and hand-sanding, or a belt sander?

As Scott said, that sapele has really nice grain. How does the body/neck balance feel so far?

[I Like Turtles]

Thanks guys. She weighs 8.6 pounds right now. I'm guessing after the rest of carving and routing and hardware it'll be around 7. It's a bit neck heavy right now. But I got this shape so I could straddle it on my right leg while playing. feels good so far.

To carve I used a rasp to get the rough shape and then I actually used an orbital sander with an 80 grit pad and a little hand sanding.

So I'm in between a 1.75" nut width and 1 7/8". Has anyone used 1 7/8" before?

[ScottR]

Mine are just a hair under 1 7/8th". I like the wide spacing.

SR

[I Like Turtles]

Thanks Scott. I ended up going with 1 7/8".

My fretboard is pretty thin. That's my biggest issue with this build. I have a hardtail bridge that's 5/16" tall. My fretboard is about 3/32". Factoring in fret height I am not yet sure if I'll need to recess the bridge yet or not. If I do, it'll only need to be a tiny bit.

Ok so far today I've marked out the neck taper by drawing a straight line from the final width of the neck at the nut to the corner of my fretboard (which is already the width I need it to be). Then I used a sideways beltsander to take it down to the line. It took me about 15 minutes. I love this beltsander!

I got so excited with the beltsander I did a rough carve of the neck. feels like a geetar!!!!

Here's what I'm doing tonight!

I'm hoping to finish the full neck tonight.

[I Like Turtles]

Heel is carved. I used a belt sander, orbital sander, rasps, and hand sanding.

EDIT: I have also carved the neck. Belt sander and orbital sander again.

Edited January 21, 2014 by I Like Turtles

[wisdom727]

Very nice work. Love that Xiphos shape.

Duke says: "After I chewed up that template, I thought he was gonna give up guitar-building for good, and spend more time with me. Wrong!"

[I Like Turtles]

Duke can be my favorite thing again if this guitar doesn't play great.

A few days ago I fretted the neck! I used a plastic tipped hammer from lowe's. Things turned out pretty good considering it was my first time. A few frets I had to pull and redo. There were four that I ended up using some CA glue to keep them in because the slot was a little too wide. I also had to use CA to fix a few chips. But things turned out alright. I also glued on an ear to the headstock and cut out the shape. Simple but I like it. I also dressed the fret ends with a file and sandpaper. It is very rough right now. I also carved the neck transition into the headstock. No volute on this one. Maybe next time. I got all my parts in and hope to play it tomorrow!

I am so damn proud of this neck heel. I have never owned a non-clunky-necked guitar before. So excited to play this thing.

Updates will be slow for a while. I am back in school but after this semester I may start a new build!

[I Like Turtles]

Tuner holes drilled! One is crooked. I may plug it and redrill it. But probably not haha.

I installed my bridge! It turns out that the center line of the fretboard is not in line with the centerline of the body. So my bridge appears crooked according to the body. But it should be in line with the neck and that's what matters. I haven't strung it up yet, so I'm not sure if I'll need to recess the bridge or not yet. will find out soon. It is super close.

I also put in the ferrules in the back, but no pictures of that. Those are not completely perfect, but they're not noticeably crooked and horrible. And they work!

[killemall8]

Just put a straight edge across the neck that reaches the bridge. If the bridge saddles are below or level with the straightedge, then you dont have to recess. But if it hits the straight edge, then it is too high.

[I Like Turtles]

Happy Father's Day everybody. Hope everybody enjoys it.

Summer break is on and I'm back to work fixing my f-ups. Firstly, the headstock was too thick. I could have simply sanded down the headstock, but I figured it would be cool to countersink the tuners instead. STUPID! I didn't research much. I made the recesses too small in diameter. Plus half of them got screwed up because I was using a hand drill. Then turns out I made them too close together anyways. So I decided to plug em and then veneer the headstock. I think that will hide my mistakes nicely.

You can see what I was trying to do...

BAD.

Wow that looks horrible. I am glad I can fix that. I bought a drill press yesterday and got to work.

Four are done. I'm gonna let these dry before I do the others.

Does anybody have any tips for veneering? Specifically making veneer without a bandsaw. I'm not sure if I wanna make my own veneer from one of the woods I'm already using or if I ought to just buy some black veneer.

Edited June 16, 2014 by I Like Turtles

[demonx]

A couple tips for drilling:

If you are going to do a big hole, with a small hole in it like you have attempted here, drill the larger hole first but only as deep as you want it to be, then when you go to drill the smaller hole, the tip of the previous drill will have left a center point for the smaller drill bit to sit straight into and you get them both lined up nice and easy.

To do the type of drilling you've attempting here, I'd use a Forstner bit in a drill press for the larger recess as it'll leave a nice clean cut. Then a brad bit to do the small hole as the brads have a nice long center point that helps it stay in place as opposed to a standard twist bit that likes to wobble around wherever it likes..

Also, make sure you have a sacrifice board hard up behind the object you are drilling through, so it doesn't tear out at the back. Just a piece of scrap will do.

[curtisa]

I'd also advise extreme caution re-drilling into those plugs. You've filled the holes with end grain dowels, which are notoriously difficult to drill through without the bit wandering all over the place. Avoid regular twist bits - use brad point and forstner bits in your drill press as Demonx suggests.

Cutting small bits of veneer by hand is possible, but fairly labour intensive. I've had luck using a tenon saw to cut a 3-5mm slice off for heastock cap duties, and then gently thinning the slice down to about 1.5 - 2mm by sanding with a large flat sanding block and 80 grit paper. The hardest part is making it uniform thickness, and anything less than 1.5mm thickness is probably impractical using hand tools. You may simply find it easier to buy some small pieces of veneer off the shelf.

[I Like Turtles]

Thanks for the tips guys. I did the re-drill with a forstner and I'll be picking up a brad point when I redrill the holes. I'm glad I finally got a drill press. I ended up just ordering some macassar ebony veneer which should arrive next week.

So the past few days I've been making templates and marking out where my control cavity and humbucker routes are gonna be. Humbucker route is finished. Ended up being 3/16" too deep because 10/16" + 13/16" does not equal 26/16". Small mistake aside, I am very happy with my second ever template route. Needs just a little cleaning up.

My first ever template route was a little worse, but all in all not too bad. It's not at full depth yet and I can still fix it easily.

The headstock is now sanded flush and is awaiting veneer for the new tuner holes. Another possibility is countersinking the tuners correctly this time and staining the countersinks so dark that the oak is invisible. But I will wait on the veneer to decide.

I think I am getting better at this stuff . I'm also planning on building a 7-string v right after this is finished.

[killemall8]

If you plan on building again, you should really look into either making templates, or buying them.

And for future reference, dont use regular oak dowels for plugging. They are cut in the wrong orientation.

[I Like Turtles]

If you plan on building again, you should really look into either making templates, or buying them.

And for future reference, dont use regular oak dowels for plugging. They are cut in the wrong orientation.

I am using templates that I've made. I should have made an inner template though instead of trying to freehand it. Lesson learned. And I didn't even consider that about the dowels. Hopefully they don't move too much. Thanks for the tips. I love learning about this stuff.

The back of the headstock is glued and cleaned up. I made a little volute with it.

[I Like Turtles]

Long time no post. I have been working lately but not on my guitar. Did a few things today with it and over the past month. Now I'm just down to side dots, final sanding and shaping, finishing, and then a final setup. I have basically a week left before school soooo...

Headstock veneer is on. I am making a truss rod cover right now that should be cool. The nut (really a string guide) is finished but I have no picture of that apparently.

Rear route is basically done. I just need to chisel it a bit. Also drilled the output jack at an angle. Tricky stuff.

Edited August 11, 2014 by I Like Turtles

[Pestvic]

This post makes me smile It reminds me of the first builds I made. It just makes me remember when I was starting out and working through problems and stuff. Keep up the good work! Good job on the headstock and hiding the holes.