Popular Post Woltz Posted May 15, 2020 Popular Post Report Share Posted May 15, 2020 (edited) I mentioned on my Rick build that I also am working on a strat build. This will be a slightly longer post as it contains everything I've done up until today. I have an idea for some custom inlays but I need to work out how to rout the fretboard really accurately for them as I'm a bit of a perfectionist. And I'm going to get my wife to design a headstock shape. Body - Australian Red Cedar Neck - Queensland Maple Fretboard - Sheoak Here is the Fretboard and Body Blank. Body Blank with a bit of spirit rubbed on it. Rough cut body. Pickups wound. And in pickguard. Master Volume, Master Tone and Blend. Edited May 15, 2020 by Woltz 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crusader Posted May 21, 2020 Report Share Posted May 21, 2020 Very cool. My first two guitars were made of Jarrah! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woltz Posted May 21, 2020 Author Report Share Posted May 21, 2020 10 hours ago, Crusader said: Very cool. My first two guitars were made of Jarrah! What sort of guitars were they? Without chambering I'd imagine they were heavy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crusader Posted May 22, 2020 Report Share Posted May 22, 2020 Like a Flying V with the pointy bits chopped off. They weren't very big, so not very heavy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woltz Posted June 9, 2020 Author Report Share Posted June 9, 2020 Made a mistake tonight and thicknessed the sheoak fretboard too thin. So the fretboard will now be a piece of greenstone mallee which is the second board from the left. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ADFinlayson Posted June 9, 2020 Report Share Posted June 9, 2020 How thin did you go? you'd be surprised how thin you can get away with on a fretboard, the DCs I'm working on are 4.5mm in the centre after radius, pretty sure the rosewood board on my fat strat is no thicker. In fact reducing the fretboard thickness is a good way to get a thinner neck without compromising too much strength under the trussrod 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bizman62 Posted June 9, 2020 Report Share Posted June 9, 2020 3 hours ago, ADFinlayson said: reducing the fretboard thickness is a good way to get a thinner neck without compromising too much strength under the trussrod Tru dat! I made the very mistake of not making the fretboard thin enough and managed to make an extra entry to the truss rod channel. Not funny but luckily recoverable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woltz Posted June 9, 2020 Author Report Share Posted June 9, 2020 (edited) 7 hours ago, Bizman62 said: Tru dat! I made the very mistake of not making the fretboard thin enough and managed to make an extra entry to the truss rod channel. Not funny but luckily recoverable. My neck blank is pretty much dead on 19mm and the truss rod slot depth needs to be around 11mm deep for the two-way rod I have. So hopefully I shouldn't run into that problem. The neck is almost exactly the same as my telecaster thinline that I built so hopefully there shouldn't be any issues. 10 hours ago, ADFinlayson said: How thin did you go? you'd be surprised how thin you can get away with on a fretboard, the DCs I'm working on are 4.5mm in the centre after radius, pretty sure the rosewood board on my fat strat is no thicker. In fact reducing the fretboard thickness is a good way to get a thinner neck without compromising too much strength under the trussrod It wasn't as thin as 4.5mm but the thicknesser had also taken a divet out of the board so by the time I removed that it likely would've been below 4.5mm. Considering I had a couple other fretboard blanks sitting here, the easiest thing was to give the board to another bloke who has something else in mind for it (other than instrument stuff) and I can just use the piece of mallee. Edited June 9, 2020 by Woltz Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woltz Posted June 9, 2020 Author Report Share Posted June 9, 2020 Neck blank all marked up. Truss rod slot is next. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bizman62 Posted June 10, 2020 Report Share Posted June 10, 2020 7 hours ago, Woltz said: My neck blank is pretty much dead on 19mm and the truss rod slot depth needs to be around 11mm deep for the two-way rod I have. So hopefully I shouldn't run into that problem. I've been instructed to glue the slotted fretboard on a roughly shaped neck and do the radiusing and fretting before the final shaping. As you know, sanding the radius into the hard wood is not too much fun... I must have just rounded the board without paying attention to the thickness. Then as I tried to make the neck less like a baseball bat there wasn't enough wood on the palm side. I must admit that the channel was also carved too deep for the nut, the cheap two-way rods have that tiny thicker part between the actual rod and the nut which makes the rod rock. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woltz Posted June 27, 2020 Author Report Share Posted June 27, 2020 So I looked closely at the piece of Greenstone Mallee today and it's too twisted to use unfortunately. I'll have to source another blank for a fretboard. I also noticed that the neck blank has shifted a bit since it was thicknessed. Even though it isn't dead flat I'll still progress forward with it because it's only a very small amount of bow and I'll check for any sign of twisting tomorrow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woltz Posted June 28, 2020 Author Report Share Posted June 28, 2020 Despite dragging my feet a bit I've got some stuff done. I need to get this one close to being ready for the finish so I can turn my full attention to the Rick build. Cavities routed and a test fit of the neck template. It's a little loose but considering how cold it is at the moment and with low humidity I'm happy with that, less chance that in summer there becomes an issue with the neck pocket being too tight. And checking again that my choice of hardware colour is going to look ok. I need to rout the truss rod cavity in the neck then I can put my router back in the table and do the roundover. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woltz Posted July 4, 2020 Author Report Share Posted July 4, 2020 Got around to doing the truss rod rout today. And then got my router back in the table and did the roundover on the body. I still need to do the roundover transitions near the neck pocket and the arm and belly carves. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted July 4, 2020 Report Share Posted July 4, 2020 The body looks good. Well made and nice coloured wood. As you say, works well with the black scratch plate Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woltz Posted July 25, 2020 Author Report Share Posted July 25, 2020 Got the neck flush routed and drilled the tuner holes. I also started tidying up the roundover transitions around the neck pocket. Then the test fit and the disappointment set in. The fit is sloppy. And I still need to sand the neck which will make things worse. Clearly somewhere in the template making process I wasn't accurate enough. Now I'm debating whether to ignore it (considering it's a bolt on neck so it's more an aesthetic thing than a functional issue) or glue a piece of veneer into the pocket to tighten it up. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bizman62 Posted July 25, 2020 Report Share Posted July 25, 2020 3 hours ago, Woltz said: glue a piece of veneer into the pocket to tighten it up. That. Although the screws are long and strong, that two inch side support helps keeping the neck in place. Remember, it's not only about a two lbs neck, there's also a ten lbs arm and constant vigorous movements included. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crusader Posted July 25, 2020 Report Share Posted July 25, 2020 17 hours ago, Woltz said: .............. or glue a piece of veneer into the pocket to tighten it up. What kind of veneer would you use, do you have a piece of the Red Cedar? I had a terrible time getting a good fit on my last Les Paul build and I ended up gluing a piece in. It was about 1/4 inch thick to start with then routered it down to size. Its not seen in a Les Paul but in your Strat it would be. This is how I did mine. You might come up with a better way! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woltz Posted July 25, 2020 Author Report Share Posted July 25, 2020 I still have all of the offcuts of the cedar from when I rough cut the body. I don't toss any offcuts away until I've finished a build just in case I need them for things. So I could make up a veneer. The gap at its widest is about 1mm. I note Bizman's comment although given that I've seen brand new Fenders with larger gaps than what mine has I'm wondering whether it is even worth worrying about. I should note as well that here in Canberra it is very dry and cold at the moment. So in summer and when we relocate to a more humid city I would anticipate that the gap will get smaller. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willliam_q Posted July 26, 2020 Report Share Posted July 26, 2020 I’m from the Uk so obviously the Australian climate is much different In my opinion the neck should never feel tight in the pocket. You shouldn’t need to apply pressure to get it to fit, but at the same time there shouldn’t really be any perceptible gaps when it is bolted together. Thats why we build for ourselves, as you’ve alluded already, the mass produced guitars sometimes don’t meet our standards. I had a similar issue with my last guitar on the next pocket, I made up a veneer and glued it in place, now there are no gaps and the veneer can’t be seen by the naked eye. The neck doesn’t feel ‘tight’ but fits like a glove.i think that should provide enough space for wood expansion. hope that helps Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
komodo Posted July 29, 2020 Report Share Posted July 29, 2020 I’d do the veneer. If it bugs you now it always will, plus it won’t be much work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted July 29, 2020 Report Share Posted July 29, 2020 On 7/24/2020 at 10:06 PM, Woltz said: Then the test fit and the disappointment set in. The fit is sloppy. And I still need to sand the neck which will make things worse. Clearly somewhere in the template making process I wasn't accurate enough. Now I'm debating whether to ignore it (considering it's a bolt on neck so it's more an aesthetic thing than a functional issue) or glue a piece of veneer into the pocket to tighten it up. being hard on yourself is the sign of a perfectionist... good for you. personally I'd glue a little chunk of wood in there and route it again. That said, it's purely a pride thing. gtr looks great. man australian red cedar you say... looks an awful lot like mahog. beautiful stuff. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crusader Posted July 30, 2020 Report Share Posted July 30, 2020 On 7/29/2020 at 9:26 AM, komodo said: I’d do the veneer. If it bugs you now it always will, plus it won’t be much work. Yes that's what I always find Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woltz Posted August 23, 2020 Author Report Share Posted August 23, 2020 Got the "veneer" glued in. Planed down level with the body. Routed. Spot the veneer. Not perfect but a little bit more work with the scraper and it'll be a nicer fit than before. Here is a test fit of the neck. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bizman62 Posted August 23, 2020 Report Share Posted August 23, 2020 4 hours ago, Woltz said: Routed. Spot the veneer. Even planed down in its full size the veneer looks like it has grown there, despite the grain being at an angle! And the result is so nice that I bet you don't regret the extra time and effort. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
curtisa Posted August 23, 2020 Report Share Posted August 23, 2020 Looks pretty tidy Once you get a scratchplate on it it will disappear even further. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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