curtisa Posted April 24, 2015 Report Share Posted April 24, 2015 As Scott says, there's lots of different arguments for doing the neck build in different orders. They all work OK. You'll probably settle into your own running order as you build more guitars. I started off with radiusing the fretboard after carving the neck and then fretting/levelling, but now I've moved to radiusing the fretboard before gluing to the neck, followed by fretting, carving the neck and levelling the frets last. Makes it easy to do the hammering/pressing/clamping/measuring operations while everything still has flat surfaces to reference against. Many acoustic builders do the same. Chances are I'll change my running order again given enough time. Minimum thickness of your neck is probably dependent on your timber choice and the depth of your trussrod route. With maple I reckon you'd be safe to go to depth of trussrod + 8-10mm + thickness of your fingerboard. Nut slot depth isn't super critical, as long as it's deep enough to secure it from wobbling in the direction of the strings. Scott's suggestions are good. The eventual action of the nut is usually accomplished by fine tuning the nut slots (or by shaving off the bottom of the nut itself) rather than taking more wood out of the slot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
holzon Posted April 25, 2015 Author Report Share Posted April 25, 2015 Look at some of killemall8's builds to get an idea of how one could be shaped into your neck. His are much larger than what you could do but you could get an idea of how to shape it. Yikes, those look really neat. No pressure! As Scott says, there's lots of different arguments for doing the neck build in different orders. They all work OK. You'll probably settle into your own running order as you build more guitars. I guess whichever way I went with this one, you guys would get your laughs, cause something sure will end up a hassle :-D Minimum thickness of your neck is probably dependent on your timber choice and the depth of your trussrod route. With maple I reckon you'd be safe to go to depth of trussrod + 8-10mm + thickness of your fingerboard. A year after routing the neck, measures and such aren't as clear anymore... I don't suppose you guys write up these kind of stuff in notebooks? ;-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
holzon Posted May 7, 2015 Author Report Share Posted May 7, 2015 Weather has been terrible for getting anything done, but I managed to squeeze in some work in the few hours of non-rain here and there. First up is my jig(?) for planing the fretboard. My most excellent €5 pizza-stone serves double work here as a plane surface, after a serious discussion with my 6-year old that we would still be able to make pizza on it. Next up was staining the neck a bit whiter, because Swedes put this goo on any wood they can. The final touch and feel is a bit more wet than I would like, but I'm thinking of giving it a very slight polish or sanding. Next up was staining the body in Ebenholtz black. I had to dilute the stain quite a lot to get the kind of see-through I was looking for. I'm going to put on hard wax oil too, so it will probably end up a bit darker in appearance I speculate. Next up is putting on the hard wax oil on the body, and setting up the neck. I have to find a new bucket of oil first though, the one I got had a tiny note saying 'New Formula! Not useable with stain'. Doh! Question if anyone is good at staining: The back came out lighter than the front, so I washed it down again quickly, but it did leave stain borders on the edge of the guitar. What happens if you just put on water on the edges, does it blur out the edges, our do I risk messing up the staining? It's not that obvious, so one option is leaving it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted May 7, 2015 Report Share Posted May 7, 2015 If your stail is water based it should blur the edges nicely. It it is oil based, it will likely do nothing or gum things up a bit. If it's oil based you maybe able to blur the edges up with a bit of mineral spirits. I like your contour carves. SR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
holzon Posted May 7, 2015 Author Report Share Posted May 7, 2015 If your stail is water based it should blur the edges nicely. It it is oil based, it will likely do nothing or gum things up a bit. If it's oil based you maybe able to blur the edges up with a bit of mineral spirits. It's water based. I tried sponging on some water a couple of hours ago on part of the side, didn't seem to do anything unfortunately. Who the hell looks at the side of a guitar anyway! :-D I like your contour carves. SR Thanks, happy you liked em, happy I made em too, I think they do add something to this otherwise kind of blocky guitar :-) Now I've got tingles in my right hand after sawing up the fret slots again. Stupid bastard to put whitewash in them in the first place... A bit worried I might be widening them too Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SwedishLuthier Posted May 8, 2015 Report Share Posted May 8, 2015 Next up was staining the neck a bit whiter, because Swedes put this goo on any wood they can. The final touch and feel is a bit more wet than I would like, but I'm thinking of giving it a very slight polish or sanding. I like the result of that. What brand are you using? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
holzon Posted May 8, 2015 Author Report Share Posted May 8, 2015 I like the result of that. What brand are you using?Herdins tak- och panelvitt, standard white. The plan was to put hard wax oil on top, but when trying it the oil ended up as a yellow sticky goo on top of the white wash instead of entering the wood. Saw yesterday that Osmo has white pigment hard wax oil, so that would probably be my next pick for experiments :-D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
holzon Posted May 28, 2015 Author Report Share Posted May 28, 2015 We have thus arrived at the epic moment of the neck being ready to be mounted to the body! I seriously think the fret work has been the most painful part of the entire build. I would like to thank my wife and friends for understanding and support during the last two weeks of being non-communicably bent over my work bench, furiosly grinding frets. I will never, ever, ever say that a guitar is expensive again. I would probably be willing to part from this guitar for say, $8000, just counting the ridiculous work hours I've put into it. Next up is mounting neck, and then putting on the rest of the hardware and solder. Getting closer to the critical point of stringing this baby up! Any bets on if it will be playable? Will the neck hold? Will the headstock hold? The suspense is killing me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SwedishLuthier Posted May 29, 2015 Report Share Posted May 29, 2015 I like the result of that. What brand are you using? Herdins tak- och panelvitt, standard white. The plan was to put hard wax oil on top, but when trying it the oil ended up as a yellow sticky goo on top of the white wash instead of entering the wood. Saw yesterday that Osmo has white pigment hard wax oil, so that would probably be my next pick for experiments :-D Didn't notice the answer, thanks! Herding, I should have thought of that, the most common local brand... Looking good this far. Now we are eagerly waiting to se how it looks after you put it together. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
holzon Posted May 31, 2015 Author Report Share Posted May 31, 2015 Looking good this far. Now we are eagerly waiting to se how it looks after you put it together. Thanks for the encouraging words SL! Lo and behold, it plays! Finishing up the mounting of the last hardware went pretty smoothly, ugly soldering that I conveniently hid with lots of tape... One problem I had not anticipated was the high E tuning peg being higher than the zero fret, doh! I solved it by winding on more turns of string than I usually do, phew! The pegs I bought also might have been for a regular head side, they go in reverse now which is kind of interesting ;-) Balance is great, pure luck I guess. One high fret on high E string, will give it a good bang later. Frets could have used some more polishing, there are some scratches that catch here and there. Kind of an experiment to see if it would be noticeable. It was! :-D Neck ended up a bit thick, since I was a bit scared of everything coming apart once stringing it up. I'm thinking of shaving some wood off later this summer if I get the time. The finish of the neck is still a bit sticky, even after sanding, so we'll see what happens there after playing it for a bit more. I went for Electrocution-safe, no ground to strings or bridge. Ended up super-silent, so I'm happy that still worked out good. Anyway, here are pics! Trying to nudge in the high fret 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
holzon Posted June 2, 2015 Author Report Share Posted June 2, 2015 Eureka! Sticky finish of neck was fixed by a light rub of chalk. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
holzon Posted June 22, 2015 Author Report Share Posted June 22, 2015 The sticky finish of the neck ended up being a dirt magnet, so I took the plunge to reshape and refinish it. The neck actually feels like a sweet guitar now and less of a shovel. I put a couple of coats of matte acrylic lacquer spray on top of the white wash, which seems to have done the trick, smoooooth! Lesson learned: if it feels sticky, it will make stuff stick! Another fun accident was putting buckles into the back of the pot wen I finally figured It was time to fix it with a nut. Those things look solid, but apparently not... So I have some re-soldering to do, the pot is more like a kill switch at the moment. ;-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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