First Build - Pine Body, Possible Maple/oak/maple Neck

[ecnal]

I know that some people here are also on TB, but then again some aren't. Figured I'd get everyone's opinion, so sorry if this is a duplicate from TB!

Since I've established myself in an IT position in a local high school, I have an entire woodshop at my disposal. I've wanted to build from scratch for a while now but haven't had the resources (apartment livin') until now.

Pics! Most are from my phone, so lousy quality. There's also a crack in the plastic of my phone, hence the weird mark on most of the pics. Here's a few of the shop area:

Stages:

Here's where I'm at as of now:

This is, above all, a learning experience. I'm not hoping for anything to come out very playable but I'm aiming for it. I'm planning on a lined fretless 5'er, with donor hardware from an old 5 string with a cracked neck I have.

The body shape was a rough sketch and done mostly freehand. I tried masonite for a template but it was too thin and the router bit destroyed it. So I made a new template out of plywood which is holding up quite nicely.

The only hardware I may end up purchasing for this is a trussrod and soapbar/MM style pickup; the donor bass has two J pups which I think would be a little cramped on this body based on my sketches.

If I've learned anything so far, it's PLAN AHEAD. I kind of dove into this headfirst without much in the way of life-size sketches, etc etc. I'm kinda wingin' it. While I'm still having fun, I'm slightly concerned about the final product. Only time will tell.

I do enjoy working with the pine, however. Very soft and easy to work with, although I'm curious what the weight balance will feel like. I think i'm going for a smaller headstock.

Some questions:

First of all, for a 'cheapie' build (but also overall), what would you suggest for a trussrod? I don't want to go crazy on an amazing $40 double action beast. Just something simple. Any stewmac/allparts product numbers that anyone's willing to throw my way?

The thing that worries me most is routing the truss channel. For a single action, it must be a bowed channel? Silicone to hold it in snug? How snug/well should the rod fit without any silicone/whatever?

Thanks!

[pauliemc]

Your neck heel location does not appear to be central on the body.

I think you will have serious problems with the neck alignment to the body where it is. Maby it would be best to scrap the heel now & figure a way to attach the neck without it. Get a neck template & place it where you want the real neck to be to get things lined up.

Otherwise, this looks like it could be cool. but some forward planning NOW will save you having to bin the lot later.

[ecnal]

Your neck heel location does not appear to be central on the body.

I think you will have serious problems with the neck alignment to the body where it is. Maby it would be best to scrap the heel now & figure a way to attach the neck without it. Get a neck template & place it where you want the real neck to be to get things lined up.

Otherwise, this looks like it could be cool. but some forward planning NOW will save you having to bin the lot later.

Yes, I've noticed that and am trying to plan around it. It was originally not much of a problem, but on the curve where the arm contour is, the router took a HUGE chunk out of it, causing me to re-band saw the body shape. It really messed up the balance.

I still have some decent pine and may try again, especially now that I have a template made already with much better proportions than how this body turned out.

The other thing that worries me is routing the neck pocket. I would love to try and make a neck-through, but I hear that it's not so forgiving if you make an error.

[Mender]

A problem I can see is that the upper horn is likely to snap off when the guitar is hanging on a strap because the grain runs straight across the narrowest bit of the horn as shown in the picture. Pine isn't known for strength along the grain

[ecnal]

Alright. You were all right; the neck angle was all messed up, and the horn was extremely weak. I scrapped that pine one and have started a new build. I gave it a 'strength' test and dropped it off my porch and that horn snapped right off.

Here are some pics from my new build. It's going to be a 5 string neck-thru, a somewhat copy of my old Galveston 5 string.

Body is a pine core with mahogany back and a cherry top. Neck is TBD sometime this week, though I'm leaning to a three piece maple/mahogany/maple or maple/oak/maple. Possibly a 5 piece, but I doubt it.

Here are some progress pics:

Glued up:

Blanks again:

Mahogany (back) wet:

Cherry (front) wet:

As of today:

After I jointed an edge and traced the shape, I noticed I had a good amount of extra wood on each blank. So much, infact, that I made a second set of body wings. For right now, I think I'm just gonna save 'em incase I really screw something up. But once everything gets glued, I'm making a plan for 'em! Maybe a guitar? 4 string?

A couple of questions floating around in my head:

If I wanted to create a small neck angle, how does one do that on a neck-through?

Should I use some graphite rods in the neck to strengthen it at all?