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Setbacks


dpm99

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Not sure how you did that but I am glad you have fingers left to take pictures with.

I have hosed more than my share of builds.

Neck felt like a baseball bat so I thought I would slim it up. Bad mistake. Oh well I will be building a new neck for this project.

P7200721.jpg

P7200722.jpg

Don't sweat it. Have a beer, chill, and come back next weekend with the mindset that the next one will be the best yet.

Remember safety first.

Cheers!

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Nope. It was a rage repair. I messed up on the dot inlays and wasn't happy with it. I had all the fretwork done and was ready to glue it into the neck pocket. But after about a week of thinking about it, I decided I couldn't live with the inlays.

So I tried to remove the fretboard with an iron, but it was glued up so long ago that the glue just wouldn't give (Titebond Original). Then I decided I'd just sand it off. I was down to my last bandsaw blade - a 1/8" blade meant for scrolling work. The sanding was taking too long and I was frustrated. So I figured if I just cut off about half the fretboard on the bandsaw and sanded off the rest, everything would be fine.

It wasn't. Where you see that bit of the truss rod channel, I took off about 1/8" of the neck. I realize I could patch that with a sliver, but there have been too many issues along the way with this neck. All in all, it's just time to start over.

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If it makes you feel any better I had a guitar finished, was doing the fret level and got about halfway through that before I left my friend's shop. Since I spray there I asked him to please hit it with ONE last coat on the sides while I was out (which I had a tiny sand through on earlier in the finishing process so I felt a little beefing up there was in order). Not thinking that I was HALFWAY THROUGH A FRET LEVEL. He picked up the guitar, started to spray... it shot metal flakes all up into the coat!!! And despite the fact only one coat was over them, they somehow made it deeper... I'm guessing since lacquer has burn-through properties. So I went from almost done back to a total refinish!

**** happens,

Chris

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Last year I was building an 8 string. All woodwork was finished. Fretting finished etc etc, i was just about to do the fret level and then get it ready to paint, so I had a lot of time invested i it.

When I went to just tweak the truss rod to make the neck level before filing the truss rod broke. I couldnt get it out.

I didnt want to remove the board so I took it to my brothers so we coud try weld a piece of metal on the end, heat up the metal to free any glue that was holding it in place and pull the truss rod out.

Long story short it didn't work. When it didnt work over and over we tried different ways and each time becoming more lazy protecting the surrounding timber from burn marks. On the last attempt, the timber actually caught on fire and burned out around the inside of the truss slot and burned the end of the fingerboard as well. I got a nice burn on my finger at the same time!

This guitar now lives in what I call the "wall of shame" (probably more appropriately called the wall of stupidity) and was rebuilt from scratch. The truss rod supplier apologised upon my complaint and said they had a faulty batch. Posted out a new truss rod.

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Neck felt like a baseball bat so I thought I would slim it up. Bad mistake. Oh well I will be building a new neck for this project.

P7200722.jpg

Unfortunately (stupididly) - I've done that more than once.

I had a really nice unreplacable timbered neck a few years ago, I was running it through the bandsaw to get rid of the meat - I followed the line nice and straight - underneath though the blade decided to pull across considerably. When I noticed something ws wrong it was too late. Truss rod visable.

In the past when I was beginning/learning to carve necks I was using different rods to what I use now which required considerably deeper slots than a good rod, I carved through at least a dozen necks into the truss slot. Live and learn. Live to feel stupid - learn to use a bloody caliper to measure!

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There have been a couple times I've slotted a fretboard and thought it was perfect, then find out after glueing it all up I have one slot that's a hair off one way or another. That's disheartening to say the least, especially if you realize it when installing the frets. :(

Edited by NotYou
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I've never carved a neck too thin like that, but I did once have a router screw-thing---whatever you call them slip once when I was cutting the truss rod channel and it went right through the back. I also slipped to the side once when cutting that channel. And then there was the time that I was carving the neck and came upon a little knot right behind the truss rod. All those went to the trash too. This one was just so darn close. But you guys are making me feel better.

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I have done stuff like this a lot.

I would recount some of it here, but I seem to have blocked most of it out. :unsure:

Suffice to say, when you use the term "rage repair," I know exactly what you mean.

I have had to train myself to put stuff down and walk away for a while.

It helps to have a bunch of projects going at the same time, let my ADD take care of my OCD. :rolleyes:

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I think my most heartbreaking was dropping a guitar that just had it's last coat of clear applied. Up to that point it was my best paint job and it flowed out beautifully. I sprayed the last coat and let it flash off, I went to move it to my drying area and I lost my grip and the hanger and ker-pow. Right into the concrete and a gouge in the paint down to bare wood.

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Araz, that one made me laugh. I'm not sure why it's so funny, but it is. I'm sure you were able to fix it though.

Yeah, it's pretty funny... Cause it's such a stupid mistake. Thing is, I only realized my mistake AFTER I put the neck in the body pocket and I was like "what the hell?!?"

You're right it was easy to fix.

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Araz, that one made me laugh. I'm not sure why it's so funny, but it is. I'm sure you were able to fix it though.

I laughed out loud at that because I've almost done that same thing many times. Working with three dimensional objects can trick your brain sometimes.

Edited by NotYou
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