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Flying V Neck-thru build


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Been awhile since i've been using almost all my time with my girlfriend... :rolleyes:

...And a load of Le Mans!!! :wOOt

Started with routing the bridge humbucker cavity and cleaning up with the drill-->chisel-->router


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Did the same with the neck PU cavity
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And had to do a mock-up :rolleyes:
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Polished the fretboard with steel wool and glued/sanded the mother-of-pearl side dots in place

....And forgot to take pic of that
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And now it's all about a fretjob, which i havnt tried before from scratch :blink:

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And 2 things is messy!
How do i fix these two? :(
Crisiiiis!

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(the chips)
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Is the fretboard chipped (ie, pieces missing altogether) or just flakes lifting off under the frets (ie, pieces just barely attached)? If the pieces are missing completely you can probably just mix up some sanding dust from an offcut from the fretboard with CA (superglue) to make a filler paste. Fill up the chips and sand flush when dry. Dark woods hide this best. If the pieces are still attached you can gently push them back down with a tooth pick and apply a drop of CA to each chip. Again, once dry sand flush. If the chips aren't visible because the fret sides overhang far enough I wouldn't bother fixing them.

The chip out on the neck will be more difficult to hide. You may get lucky with a small sliver of matching scrap timber that can be shaped to fill the void and glued in, but you'll probably end up with a visible glue line. Match the grain and colour as best you can and call it character/voodoo? I dunno - maybe someone else has a good solution?

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The chip out on the neck will be more difficult to hide. You may get lucky with a small sliver of matching scrap timber that can be shaped to fill the void and glued in, but you'll probably end up with a visible glue line. Match the grain and colour as best you can and call it character/voodoo? I dunno - maybe someone else has a good solution?

That is what I would do. I would likely then contour the neck join quite a bit more and see how much of the repair can be carved away. With the way the fretboard is under cut there will always be a little bit that is visible. Play way up on the neck with dirty hands for a while and that will go away. If you fix it so it cannot be felt, and it's a good player, you'll forget about it after a while.

SR

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As always thanks alot for the great answers gentlemen! Always a pleasure to seek advices from you great guys!

The fretboard chips are just lift-ups from the fretting, i could actually press them back in place with a nail, and now that the ebony has gotten it's plan black color back overnight (it was brighter/greyish after sanding) are they almost invisible :)

I would not bother about the chips at the fret on the board, just play the gitir & they will make no difference.

Give us a few more piks of the chip in the maple, & some rough dimensions. we can advise you better then.

I'll try to take a few pictures and measure it when i'm back at home tomorrow or sunday.

Is the fretboard chipped (ie, pieces missing altogether) or just flakes lifting off under the frets (ie, pieces just barely attached)? If the pieces are missing completely you can probably just mix up some sanding dust from an offcut from the fretboard with CA (superglue) to make a filler paste. Fill up the chips and sand flush when dry. Dark woods hide this best. If the pieces are still attached you can gently push them back down with a tooth pick and apply a drop of CA to each chip. Again, once dry sand flush. If the chips aren't visible because the fret sides overhang far enough I wouldn't bother fixing them.

The chip out on the neck will be more difficult to hide. You may get lucky with a small sliver of matching scrap timber that can be shaped to fill the void and glued in, but you'll probably end up with a visible glue line. Match the grain and colour as best you can and call it character/voodoo? I dunno - maybe someone else has a good solution?

I did the superglue and dust trick with a hole in the fretboard which it had acquired during shipping, it worked like a charm and is basically invisible, except for that it is shining a bit more than the rest of the wood, but it's just squished in between a fret and the 9th fret dot, so they take the eyes away from the mark.

I also did the scrap trick on the back of the neck and it has some glue lines of course, but hey! Scars are just reminders of the past :rolleyes: Patina and mistakes makes the soul.. I think i'll try this here aswell, going to be hard to square out the hole though!

The chip out on the neck will be more difficult to hide. You may get lucky with a small sliver of matching scrap timber that can be shaped to fill the void and glued in, but you'll probably end up with a visible glue line. Match the grain and colour as best you can and call it character/voodoo? I dunno - maybe someone else has a good solution?

That is what I would do. I would likely then contour the neck join quite a bit more and see how much of the repair can be carved away. With the way the fretboard is under cut there will always be a little bit that is visible. Play way up on the neck with dirty hands for a while and that will go away. If you fix it so it cannot be felt, and it's a good player, you'll forget about it after a while.

SR

Hmm the contouring is a really great idea, but i dont think it'll work since it's just under the fretboard, and i'd prefer not to make that bow/contour towards the middle.. :unsure: I think i'll try to fill it with maple and then just leave it as good as it gets! The thing that annoys me the most about it isn't the faultyness itself, but more that a little router slip can do that much! :angry:

Thanks a world again! :happy:

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Frets installed
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Sanding and filing down the fret ends to the fretboard
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Fret ends done and angled
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Tuner holes drilled and tuners test installed

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Test strung up to position the bridge and to make pull in the neck before i adjust the truss rod and level the frets
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I'm about to begin on figuring out how to recess the TOM, any of you got experience in doing that?

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  • 1 month later...

Finally returned from travelling, and for the first time in ages i had time to work just a little on the V :)

I started with routing for the recessed TOM, and then i routed/chiseled space for the control cavity's cover.

Sadly, none of the two turned out as nice as i'd hoped, but well, nothing ever gets perfect i suppose ;)


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And right now am i preparing the guitar to begin finishing with danish oil :D

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  • 1 month later...

Yeah, learning by doing! (and messing up hehe) :D

Still need to finish the rest of the hardware, but as of now, the neck is lightning fast, and it really has lower friction than any neck i've felt in my life, really suprised over how well that turned out.

The body itself is also slick and smooth, the oil really sealed it up nicely. But i'm wondering if i can sand the sides a little with 4-600ish grain sandpaper, since the grain raised a little and made it a bit rough after the last layer of oil. Would this mess up the finish or anything? Havn't really worked with oil like this before :rolleyes:

Can't wait 'till it's plugged in and turned up :wOOt

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Question.. Is this grounding enough? Or do i have to "melt" some of the goldplating off? I have no idea if it's conductive enough, or if i have to get further into it. Not because it can fall off (it wont), but solely because of the grounding
I've had some strins on and had sound through it, and it is noisy. That was without the shielded backcover, but i'll se later when its closer to finish.. 2.jpg

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But! There's alot left to do.
-Fasten the nut
-Build a real pickup winder and wind a neck pickup - it sounds like heaven, bright and clear, buuut has the output of a potato..
-(possibly) get a new agathe and cut it to a truss rod cover (yay or nay?)
-Fix the cavity cover
-Fix the grounding
-Fix some of the frets
And then the biggest problem i've had..
The action is WAY too high! It's 0,8-0,9cm by the 19-20th fret, i must have made a serious calculation mistake when i reccessed the TOM.. Dangit!
How in the world do i rescue this? Is it to remove the TOM posts and reccess it even more? I've never had an axe with a TOM, so i'm completely lost about how to work this out.. Next time, i'll make that neck angle!
The neck has a bit frontbow, so i might give it a little backbow, that might help a few mm. I'm open for any suggestions!
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Check your neck relief before going to the extreme of recessing the Tune-o-matic further. If your neck has bowed forward under string tension you may be able to claw a bit of action back by tweaking the trussrod.

If your TOM has the screwhead adjusters at the top of the posts you should be able to recess it a bit more and still retain the ability to adjust the height. If not you're obviously going to come to a point where the bridge is recessed so far you'll be unable to get your fingers around the knurled sections of the posts to set the bridge height. Do what you can and chalk it up to experience for build number 2.

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  • 4 months later...

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