Second Build

[ScottR]

I cover the truss rod with scotch tape which is super thin and trim it to 1/16" of the slot and leave it. You don't want glue any closer than that to your truss rod anyway and stops any squeeze out getting in, and it's so thin it won't create any issues.

As far as your glue lines and gaps go, I think what you are seeing may be from minor round over on the edge of your body wood.This creates a tiny overhang on the top where squeeze out collects. Your guide bearing rides on the edge of the top and the router bit cuts flush with the top and leaves that tiny round over intact. I'm betting when you sand the sides most of those glue lines you see are going to shrink or disappear.

SR

[Prostheta]

I think people have an overwhelming fear of squeezeout in the truss rod channel. It would take a LOT of glue to truly cause issues. Mostly I think this is due to an overly-cautious approach when relating the procedures of fitting a fingerboard. Maybe that combined with reading too far into the focus placed on masking off the rod channel, and seeing it as critical rather than simply "better than not".

Bearing that in mind, I would probably be more bothered about the presence of the masking tape than I truly should be. Then again, I do overthink things as a matter of basic procedure these days. 

[SIMpleONe89]

Scott, I think you're right. Maybe the edges are slightly rounded during the sanding. 

Pros, maybe someone will come up with an experiment using transparent materials to test how much glue seeps in. 

Anyway, the masking tape only covered a millimeter on both side of the channel so hopefully that shouldn't be a problem. At least I won't have to worry about my truss rod being glued up. That was a worry during my last build when the truss rod was too tight to turn! 

[Prostheta]

The surface tension of wood glues is too high for it to wick in. Simple answer. 

[Prostheta]

Good point on the rounding of the edges, Scott.

[SIMpleONe89]

1 hour ago, Prostheta said:

The surface tension of wood glues is too high for it to wick in. Simple answer. 

Ah that's good enough for me! 

[SIMpleONe89]

Anyway today I managed to trim the fretboard. I'm really happy with how it turned out. No gaps that I can see at the moment! Solid glue joint.

I used a flush trim bit in a router sled to make sure the router is 100% stable. 

And is it just me, or whenever I work with timbers I always think of food? When I was routing the Fijian mahogany, it smelled like smokey bbq sauce and I thought bbq ribs. When I was sanding the flamed maple neck it smelled like candy. And now working with ebony just reminds me of oreo crumbs and dark chocolate! Yum yum!

After that was done, I worked on the headstock transition. This time I tried using a chisel and it was fun and fast!

I think I did a better job for the headstock transition this time round. After thicknessing it, I drilled the truss rod access hole at a higher point so the drill bit wouldn't eat into the flat portion of the headstock. The last time I made the curved section of the transition and then drilled the truss rod hole. I must have started drilling at a lower point so the long drill bit actually cut into some part of the headstock. Sorry if I didn't explain it properly but basically the truss rod access hole now looks nicer and cleaner. 

[Andyjr1515]

18 hours ago, SIMpleONe89 said:

. Sigh I guess I'll have to live with the fact that silly mistakes still happen! 

In my own experience, making silly mistakes never quite goes away 

A number of things happen, though:

• you generally make fewer mistakes on each build you do
• you get a LOT better at putting right those mistakes
• you get madder and madder with yourself at the remaining mistakes you do make

The gaps in your body joint are very modest - it is, in my personal view, a pretty impressive joint for a second build.  I tend to use stainable timbermate for such stuff, choosing the dark or light version depending on the final colour, using a drop of stain mixed in to quite a wet mix.  I then apply to the crack with a fine paintbrush, let dry and sand carefully with very fine grit.  Once the main stain is applied to the wood, it is unlikely you would ever see the fill in normal circumstances.

Fully endorse what @Prostheta says about not using filler for tearout.

The build is looking great, by the way

[SIMpleONe89]

Thanks Andy. I strongly agree with the third point - getting madder and madder at the mistakes I made!

I'll try the timbermate and hopefully the brown stain I use will be similar to the stained timbermate. I have Walnut and Natural at the moment. 

Fortunately the tearouts I got were tiny, in the corners of the tip of the headstock and near the nut. Definitely won't use filler for that and I should be able to blend them in smoothly.

[Prostheta]

The more you make mistakes, the more you are taking onboard. They're a valuable part of the discovery process. I think you're going fine with this.

[SIMpleONe89]

Ok some major updates! Haven't been posting but I managed to finish the neck this week.

First up, the inlays. I cut out my "signature" asymmetrical diamonds (Not by choice. It's really hard to cut perfectly for such small items!) for the 12th and 24th fret. Then I added abalone dot markers for the remaining fret positions.

Here's a picture...Yucks! That looks gross! 

Ah much better! She cleans up well.

And of course I'm unable to get a 100% accurate CNC slot because I'm only human and I have terrible eyesight, plus the slots are really tiny!

I also hate working with abalone dot markers because the pretty ones I select almost always get sanded down to ugly, plain looking ones. A super tiny difference of 0.5mm shaved off can be a huge difference aesthetically! 

Thanks Andy. I strongly agree with the third point - getting madder and madder at the mistakes I made!

I'll try the timbermate and hopefully the brown stain I use will be similar to the stained timbermate. I have Walnut and Natural at the moment. 

Fortunately the tearouts I got were tiny, in the corners of the tip of the headstock and near the nut. Definitely won't use filler for that and I should be able to blend them in smoothly.

[SIMpleONe89]

I also sanded the fretboard up to 1500 grit. And of course it has a 14" radius, which is comfortable for my style of playing, and because that's the only radius block I have at the moment. 

And this is after the frets installed. I opted for StewMac's medium fretwire this time and kinda regretted it. The first build had jumbos and I loved the feel. Anyway no harm done because most of my guitars have small to medium fretwire. 

For the frets, I tried a different approach this time. I chose to hide the tangs so I cut off the tangs at the end and filled the slots with ebony dust and CA glue. Unfortunately there was one fret which I might have missed out which has its tang sticking out. I will probably paint it over with some black acrylic paint before finishing.

As you can see above, the tangs can't be seen! I think it looks nicer this way than having the small bit of metal sticking out like a sore thumb amongst the beautiful ebony. And I also scrapped the edges to round the fingerboard in between the frets. This makes a huge difference in terms of comfort. 

I also glue in my frets with a drop of CA glue, but that alone still caused a few squeeze outs here and there, which can be scraped off easily.

[SIMpleONe89]

And now for the neck carving! This time round was much tougher because I had a thicker neck blank to start with. I drew lines and opted for a flat profile because I love to play with the thumb behind and because I have small hands.

Then carved out the facets...

I reckon carving the neck is probably the safest step of building a neck. There's so much wood to work with and one small slip up can be easily fixed, unless you carve through to the truss rod! That being said, it's a rewarding process as it starts to take shape. A long process based heavily on the feel of it in my opinion. Some people use routers to carve the neck but where's the tender loving care? Hand carving necks allow for a unique neck, like snowflakes - no two are the same!

Anyway, so after much filing, scraping and sanding, the neck is done!

Please don't judge me for the messy table. I'll clean up after I'm done.

I bought this flamed maple neck blank from StewMac but unfortunately the figures aren't as crazy as my top or some other flamed necks. Hopefully I can pop the grain with brown dye later on and maybe with finish the figures will come out. 
The headstock looks alright though.

 

Edited May 19, 2016 by SIMpleONe89

[SIMpleONe89]

Some more pics in natural light:

[ScottR]

10 hours ago, SIMpleONe89 said:

Please don't judge me for the messy table.

At least yours is only one layer deep. I build skyscrapers out of the crap on my table.

Good looking neck too!

SR

[SIMpleONe89]

Did some work over the past few days. I rounded over the entire back of the guitar, including the neck pocket, because I'm going for an all-access neck joint. The round over makes it more comfortable and gives easy access to the higher frets. And I also drilled out the holes for the neck ferrules.

[SIMpleONe89]

Then I started to route the neck pocket, pickup and tremolo cavities. But before that I drilled a bunch of relief holes. If you have trypophobia, now's a good time to look away.

Then routed the neck pocket to a depth of 18mm, bearing in mind my neck is slightly thicker by 2mm. 

This time, the pocket was really tight so I had to sand off some meat from the neck itself. I may have to widen the neck pocket slightly later on because from preliminary measurements the neck may be slightly off towards the bass side by 1mm at the bridge, and that makes a significant difference in terms of string alignment. 

Then with the neck in place, I drew out the position for the neck humbucker. In hindsight, I could've gotten 2mm closer towards the neck but I didn't want to take chances of the humbucker not fitting properly. I guess it won't make a significant difference in terms of tone. I'm hoping to get the bright, neck humbucker tone you hear on players like John Petrucci, Steve Vai etc.

[SIMpleONe89]

Then I finished up routing the tremolo cavity. Again this was quite scary because I had to use the long pattern bit and the last time I accidentally routed into the top while plunging back up. Luckily no mistakes this time round!

And I did a test fit with some hardware lying around. I'll probably get Zebra humbuckers again. They look nice.

A picture of the neck joint. It feels really comfortable at the moment with the thumb behind, but I still have trouble reaching the 24th fret. I might do a scoop on the lower horn.

Whew! Hard part's over! Routing the neck pocket always makes me nervous!
 

[KnightroExpress]

This is looking really nice!

[SIMpleONe89]

6 minutes ago, KnightroExpress said:

This is looking really nice!

Thanks! So does your work!

[2.5itim]

I agree man! I'm really liking how this is coming along!

[SIMpleONe89]

Thanks!

Spring and control cavities routed.



The pickup channel wire routes came out nicely.

Also drilled the knob recess on the top.

[Prostheta]

All good, man. 

[SIMpleONe89]

Thanks Pros.

I just spent an afternoon making my control and spring cavity covers out of some scrap flamed maple. They're currently at 3.5mm thick. What can I do to prevent them from warping in future? That is probably the thickest I can go because I intend to recess the spring cavity and I'm worried that the springs may not have enough clearance. 

[Prostheta]

You can laminate them up onto something that won't warp. Copper or brass sheet is a popular one for people that are shielding everything, or you can use a fibreboard laminate such as those used for Gibson headplates. Obviously for metal sheet you need to use an appropriate adhesive such as epoxy (roughen the metal to key it first) or even pressure-sensitive adhesive film. If you laminate it up, you should be able to thin it down "on the sheet" to the final thickness.