bob123 Posted April 22, 2013 Report Share Posted April 22, 2013 Hola... Well, the weather is warming up, and I have a lot of nice wood laying around so I figured Id give this one the old college try. Specs I intend for -> woods -> Spalted maple body Flame maple/ Cedar neck jatoba fretboard figured walnut cavity covers and knobs Hardware -> black hardtail bridge black tuners medium fretwire (may go stainless, not sure yet) Over all specs -> 22 frets offset walnut dot inlays (may do something different here) dimarzio push pull pot for coil splitting cts 500k for tone 3 way switching For starters, you can use your imagination... dont ask about the other guitar. I painted it, and the temp went from 68 to 20 over night haha. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bob123 Posted April 22, 2013 Author Report Share Posted April 22, 2013 More work done, got the fretboard radiused, gonna ship it out to have it CNC slotted. Neck cleaned up very nice, Im kinda shocked at how light this is. The whole guitar is going to be extremely light weight. Surprising to me, I was expecting the spalted maple wings toweigh a ton, but they really dont. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bob123 Posted April 22, 2013 Author Report Share Posted April 22, 2013 Got some work done. Hate the "waiting game" part of builds. :Literally watching glue dry, not able to do more work is stressfull! haha. For the "imagination impaired", got the headstock sanded flush and marked up some lines. The other side is being glued up, but its not glued in this picture (hence the slight gap) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bob123 Posted April 23, 2013 Author Report Share Posted April 23, 2013 I had no idea these things were such an absolute pain in the ass! Hopefully I can make a 2nd one close enough to match well enough. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bob123 Posted April 23, 2013 Author Report Share Posted April 23, 2013 (edited) Well I WAS gonna go to the gym today, but my arms are gonna be fried when I finish contouring the top. FWIW, I am not contouring the back until I get the top routed out. I want to have it pretty stable. Im not routing a real "control cavity" (bear with me haha), so I dont need the top super flat. The top will be flat enough for templates to be clamped down, so no worries there. One thing thats surprising me is how light and balanced everything is. Not on purpose, although I wish it was. that last picture its balancing on a nail in my bench, no support on the sides at all. When everything is chopped off it should still remain fairly neutral. Coming along well for now, no mistakes yet! Edited April 23, 2013 by bob123 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bob123 Posted April 24, 2013 Author Report Share Posted April 24, 2013 sprayed a light coat of tru oil, gonna let it sit for a bit to make sure nothing moves out of place. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pan_kara Posted April 24, 2013 Report Share Posted April 24, 2013 Wow! Looks awesome after the carve! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pauliemc Posted April 24, 2013 Report Share Posted April 24, 2013 Get your cavities in before you go any further with that body carve. trust me on this. you want a good level surface to be routing on. Truss rod in. Cavities routed, Fretboard on. then finish your carve. lookin good all the same Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bob123 Posted April 25, 2013 Author Report Share Posted April 25, 2013 Thanks guys! Get your cavities in before you go any further with that body carve. trust me on this. you want a good level surface to be routing on. Truss rod in. Cavities routed, Fretboard on. then finish your carve. lookin good all the same thats the plan sir. by doing the top carve, im actually making it more flat. the surface was very uneven, and wouldn't be good to route on. the carve on top isn't actually the "real" carve yet either. I still have a lot more to take off the treble side, but for now, i needed the front to be flat. I also want the wood to be cut as much as possible while I let it sit and acclimate itself. my last neck through went well until the neck decided to bend backwards a lot after I cut the neck and it got settled. For the neck, I think im gonna install carbon fiber beams in the neck adjacent to the truss rod (ala wolfgang style) so even if it wants to move it cant. One thing im unclear on. Should i install frets THEN carve the neck, or carve the neck then install the frets? If I do the frets first, I can carve around the back bow the frets will create, but then again, the thats what the truss rod is for. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RestorationAD Posted April 25, 2013 Report Share Posted April 25, 2013 I hate neck-through guitars. I finish the neck completely including carve and fretjob before I glue the wings on. I install frets before carving the neck these days. It is easier to press them in with a square neck. That said there is no consensus on order. And I only do set neck guitars so it is easier for me to complete a neck and body at the same time. Then attach a finished neck to an almost finished body. Several guys including Gil Yaron fret the board before gluing it to the neck. With a neck through with the wings already attached this would be my plan of attack. This solves any silly back bow issues you may incur because you will clam the board flat to the neck. Also if you use the right sized saw for the fretwire tang you have your backbow should be very minimal. Usually nothing that stringing the instrument up (before dressing the frets) and leaving it overnight won't cure. To address the neck moving after carving I trim the neck down to within .010 of the final thickness. It is still square but there is a lot less material to remove. I then level the fretboard gluing surface, install trussrod, attach fretboard (with epoxy to keep water out of the equation). This way I am pretty close to a final neck before carving. Properly laminated and quartersawn necks usually don't move as much as flatsawn necks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bob123 Posted April 25, 2013 Author Report Share Posted April 25, 2013 These are great ideas, I will definitely leave the neck carve over size! For the fretting I think I will attach the fretboard first, leaving the neck uncarved, then go from there. I will also be using epoxy to glue it on, seems like a good idea for this. thanks for the advice! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bob123 Posted April 30, 2013 Author Report Share Posted April 30, 2013 (edited) Got some good work done today. Made some cavity templates, made a matching spalted maple cover for the back, got the fretboard sized up today as well. You guys are experienced enough to know whats going on here I believe. Edited April 30, 2013 by bob123 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted April 30, 2013 Report Share Posted April 30, 2013 What did you use the miter box looking rig for? SR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bob123 Posted April 30, 2013 Author Report Share Posted April 30, 2013 (edited) What did you use the miter box looking rig for? SR Fret slotting haha. Hot glue or tape the already slotted board to the bottom of the unslotted board. The metal peice sticking out will "catch" the slot and hold it still, allowing me to accurately place the slots on the unslotted board. I stole the idea from another member here, his was better, but this should work just fine I believe. EDIT: I will say, I will be trying this out on some scrap first, I will find a way to make a "depth stop" so I get accurate depth on all the slots. Edited April 30, 2013 by bob123 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crazygtr Posted April 30, 2013 Report Share Posted April 30, 2013 On that last picture it looks like the neck line is not running parallel with the body, or is it the spalt that's throwing me off? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bob123 Posted April 30, 2013 Author Report Share Posted April 30, 2013 On that last picture it looks like the neck line is not running parallel with the body, or is it the spalt that's throwing me off? Neck line hasn't been made yet thats just oversized wood there mate. When Im ready to attach the fretboard, I will then take the accurate measurements and make damn sure my lines are solid. On a good note, my chincy 4$ fret slotting jig works very well. Things to add will be some kind of clamping mechanism, depth stop, and runner guides. The depth stop will be mandatory, as this saw just absolute eats through wood in a heart beat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted April 30, 2013 Report Share Posted April 30, 2013 Probably it is camera angle that makes the top three slots in the bottom pic look off? SR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crazygtr Posted April 30, 2013 Report Share Posted April 30, 2013 You already established your neck line (center line) when you laminated your stock. What I meant was that the center line in that neck ( along the entire body ) doesn't look parallel with where the center line in that body should be. Like I said before, maybe it is an illusion caused by the spalt. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crazygtr Posted April 30, 2013 Report Share Posted April 30, 2013 I tried to illustrate here what I'm saying: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bob123 Posted April 30, 2013 Author Report Share Posted April 30, 2013 (edited) SR, no illusion. Just rushed through to see if it actually even works, so it twisted a little bit. I will be making this out of acrylic when I get it all said and done. I think for my depth stop, I'm gonna glue aluminum "wings" to the saw blade, should work well. Edit: derp, the top three are spot on, the ones on the bottom are angled lol Crazy, nah must be the camera angle or the lighting on the woods. Everything is perfectly straight as it should be. The treble side is too wide still, probly just a visual balance thing right now. Edited April 30, 2013 by bob123 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crazygtr Posted April 30, 2013 Report Share Posted April 30, 2013 Cool. Looking foward to see it finished. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bob123 Posted May 3, 2013 Author Report Share Posted May 3, 2013 Got some good work done in the past couple days. Tweaked my fret saw miter box design a little. Used a lexan saw guide as a separate piece so I could tweak the location of the saw blade to an exact spot. Once I got that sorted, I made a lexan template piece because that rosewood board was on its last limbs. In fact, when I pulled it off the lexan it snapped in two, so Im glad I did it now haha. Once I got that finished (that actually took quite a long time to sort out), I did some other stuff, found a wood worm growing in a peice of honey locust I was cutting for another neck haha. Kinda surprised me, but I thought it was neat. And I finally grew some balls to do my own fret slotting. I am quite pleased with the result. Its not CNC perfect, but its definitely where it needs to be. I just eyeballed the depth, and I did a really good job on that, only one fret went obviously too deep, but its still not even that bad. Then I decided to do my side dots. Had some bamboo kabob skewers so I figured what the hell. Came out pretty nice, although the bamboo absorbed some of the jatoba dust so its not as "contrasty" as I would like it to be, but it still gets the job done. I didn't get perfect alignment of the holes, but its fine for now. Looks good in person, but I will probably find some way to make some kind of jig to do this better in the future. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted May 3, 2013 Report Share Posted May 3, 2013 Bob, it may be a trick of the grain, angle and photography, but a fair number of your fret slots do not appear to be parallel. You may want to take some careful measurements before you fret it. SR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bob123 Posted May 3, 2013 Author Report Share Posted May 3, 2013 (edited) Hey scott. Yeah took a t square to it. Two frets are "off". The 14th and 22nd. However the 14th is off about the width of the fret slot itself, should be totally fine when I fret it. The 22nd fret is off pretty bad but its on the bass side, which I never play anyway. if other slots look off, its just the wood grain/angle of pic I guess. I'm gonna tweak my miter box some more to add a jig to keep it perfectly parallel. edit: odd, in that picture the 19th fret looks very much off, but it was fine when I t squared it O.o I'll go double check that one... Edited May 3, 2013 by bob123 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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