Lofteren Posted July 23, 2016 Report Share Posted July 23, 2016 I learned A LOT of lessons during my first build (which turned out okay btw). I have also acquired some better tools this time which should make this build go much more smoothly. I built my last guitar almost completely with hand tools. I still had some oak 1x4 and pine 2x8 left over from the last build ao that's what I'll be making this axe from. I will get a real fretboard this time, though. Moving on; this build is a jaguar-inspired neck-through guitar with a 25.5" scale length, double cutaways with se carving, a belly cut and a forearm cutaway. I just cut the neck out of a 1x4 and glued another 1x4 to the back of it for the center of the body. Then I joined 2 wings made from a 2x8 I got at home depot, cleaned the whole thing up a bit and did the rough carvings using a shinto rasp and a drum sander attachment for my power drill. Then, I routed the pickup cavities. So far it's looking pretty good and the shape feels very comfortable to play. This is where I am currently: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted July 23, 2016 Report Share Posted July 23, 2016 I like the shape and grain patterns very much. The neck to body transition is particularly attractive. Things I would now be considering at this stage, if they are not already covered, are How much drop can I achieve at the headstock from the nut to achieve a decent break angle With a (presumably) zero neck angle, what type of bridge will I be using How and where to drill the control routes (or maybe you channelled out the bottom oak piece before gluing it?) I look forward to seeing this develop. If it comes anywhere near your first build it will be a corker 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lofteren Posted July 23, 2016 Author Report Share Posted July 23, 2016 Those are all problems I ran into with my last build! This time I drew plans to scale so I could work out those details before cutting wood. I am sure I will have a few more surprises here and there but I'm trying to keep those to a minimum this time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted July 23, 2016 Report Share Posted July 23, 2016 If you're not coming up against any surprises, then you're not pushing yourself. Either that our you've become far more pre-emptive. Oak centre, eh? Just make sure it doesn't go moving on you. Kiln-dried woods tend to have built-in tensions, Oak being one of the more common ones that'll just lay down the law for you. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lofteren Posted July 25, 2016 Author Report Share Posted July 25, 2016 Aaaand I ran into an unforseen problem. I made a truss rod slotting jig (its ghetto as hell but it does work) only to realize that I couldn't route the bottom 5" or so because the body got in the way of the jig. I had to freehand the last couple inches. It isn't perfect but it's not bad, either. Lesson learned. I also routed out the control cavity and drilled the jack hole which came out nicely. Then I started shaping the neck and cleaned up the carvings on the body with a drum sander drill attachment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted July 25, 2016 Report Share Posted July 25, 2016 Looking forward to seeing the photos.... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lofteren Posted July 28, 2016 Author Report Share Posted July 28, 2016 The wall in one of our showers collapsed. Apparently there was water leaking in through some of the grout between the tiles and it rotted all of the drywall and 2x4's pretty badly so that project has unfortunately taken priority. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted July 28, 2016 Report Share Posted July 28, 2016 Sure. As well it should. Hope it's a straightforward renovation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lofteren Posted August 3, 2016 Author Report Share Posted August 3, 2016 (edited) I made a huge mistake on my guitar I planed the neck down too narrow. I am planning on cutting the neck off, routing a neck pocket and making it a set neck guitar instead of a through body. Does this sound like a good plan? Or are there better ways of going about this? Edit: what if I cut the neck about 1/3 of the way from the body at a sharp angle and made a scarf joint? Would that also work? Would I need to use polyurethane glue to make it strong enough? Edited August 3, 2016 by Lofteren Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted August 3, 2016 Report Share Posted August 3, 2016 Did you make it too narrow or too thin? If it is too narrow scarfing on a piece 1/3 of the way out wouldn't help unless you changed the taper at that point. Probably not a good option. And in controlled tests, polyurethane glue (Gorilla Glue) always comes out on the bottom in strength of bond. I'd keep it away from your guitars. Routing a neck pocket is a good safe option. You could always cut your wings off at the glue joint and make a neck through replacement as originally planned. SR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lofteren Posted August 4, 2016 Author Report Share Posted August 4, 2016 I decided that the best way to go about replacing the neck was to route out the depth of a 1x4 as the center of the body is 2 1x4's thick. Then I will make the new neck from a 1x4 and glue it in place. So far the repair is going quite well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lofteren Posted August 5, 2016 Author Report Share Posted August 5, 2016 Routed the truss rod and the taper on the neck this morning. Instead of using a handplane I used a straight edge and a router to carve the taper which worked exponentially better than hand tools (not to mention that it only a few minutes). I left .5mm of leeway for sanding. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted August 5, 2016 Report Share Posted August 5, 2016 It's difficult visualising how the body will look "weightwise" until the finish goes on. The carve will add visual lightness but it seems a little heavy right now? I'm no expert on the proportions of Jaguars, Mustangs or Jagstangs.... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lofteren Posted August 5, 2016 Author Report Share Posted August 5, 2016 I had the same thought so I made the headstock a little bit bigger on the second neck. Is there anything else I could do that you think would help? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted August 5, 2016 Report Share Posted August 5, 2016 2 hours ago, Lofteren said: I had the same thought so I made the headstock a little bit bigger on the second neck. Is there anything else I could do that you think would help? I'm not quite sure what the issue is...the proportions look OK to me if I understand what I think I'm looking at. Do you have a photo of the body with the neck blank slotted in? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lofteren Posted August 6, 2016 Author Report Share Posted August 6, 2016 She's all clamped up! I had a pretty productive morning in regards to this project. I had to put a little bit of wood in the pickup cavity to stop the neck from tilting down when it was clamped, it will be routed out almost completely when I reroute it. There is a little bit of a gap along the back edge that will need to be filled. This shouldn't be too much of an issue because I am going to paint the back of the guitar anyway. Before I glued the neck in I shaped the headstock by free handing with a router and then with a little filing. I am not sure how to take down the headstock thickness and drill the truss rod access hole though. If any of you have some techniques you'd be willing to share I would appreciate it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lofteren Posted August 6, 2016 Author Report Share Posted August 6, 2016 (edited) 19 hours ago, Andyjr1515 said: I'm not quite sure what the issue is...the proportions look OK to me if I understand what I think I'm looking at. Do you have a photo of the body with the neck blank slotted in? I just thought it looked a little lopsided with the headstock being so small so I made it a little bigger this time. Edited August 6, 2016 by Lofteren Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted August 6, 2016 Report Share Posted August 6, 2016 That looks pretty d****d good to me Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted August 6, 2016 Report Share Posted August 6, 2016 Demanded? Disbanded? Destructed? Do-be-dooed? 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lofteren Posted August 6, 2016 Author Report Share Posted August 6, 2016 Lol, "damned"? Aaand she's good as new Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted August 7, 2016 Report Share Posted August 7, 2016 Very neat job indeed. It might be the angle of the photo, but is the upper pickup rout wider than the bottom one? If it is, which one is the correct size? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lofteren Posted August 7, 2016 Author Report Share Posted August 7, 2016 (edited) It does look like that in the photo but they are the same size. I used the same template to route them both. I discovered that a 1x4 isn't sufficiently thick to make a straight, fender style neck and headstock. I didn't run into this issue with the angled neck on my last build because I didn't have to shave away some of the headstock thickness to make room for the truss rod access hole. So, I am going to have to veneer some wood onto the back of the headstock to beef up the thickness. Edited August 7, 2016 by Lofteren Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted August 7, 2016 Report Share Posted August 7, 2016 1 hour ago, Lofteren said: It does look like that in the photo but they are the same size. I used the same template to route them both. That's good Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lofteren Posted August 7, 2016 Author Report Share Posted August 7, 2016 I went ahead and finished shaping the neck (roughly) and got a piece of 1x4 red oak glued and clamped to the back of the headstock. This is going to require quite a bit of thinning so I will get at it with a router and finish it up with a shinto rasp or a plane in the morning. I was thinking of making the headstock a little thicker than normal and recessing some circles for the tuning machines. I just need to work out a way to achieve that as all of my drill bits are pieces of garbage and oak likes to splinter and tear out a lot more than maple or mahogany. Any ideas? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted August 8, 2016 Report Share Posted August 8, 2016 9 hours ago, Lofteren said: I was thinking of making the headstock a little thicker than normal and recessing some circles for the tuning machines. I just need to work out a way to achieve that as all of my drill bits are pieces of garbage and oak likes to splinter and tear out a lot more than maple or mahogany. Any ideas? Hmmmm....that's a lot of bother - and difficult to get it looking right because all 6 holes and associated channels for the tuner shafts need to be identical for it to look anything like OK - and to what aim? If I was going for circular, then personally I would use a good quality Forstner bit in a drill press, but I probably wouldn't do it at all (and I do some very crazy unconventional things from time to time!) If it was me, I would thin it down to the correct dimension for the tuners and leave it at that... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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