Charlie H 72 Posted August 18, 2021 Author Report Share Posted August 18, 2021 Alright got the neck cut! It’s not perfect… but I think it will do. If not-good practice. And it’s nice to have a “guitar-shaped object” I cnc’d it-but it was challenging to get all of the cuts with different size bits to line up well. I didn’t realize that I would have to move the cutter to change the bit so there was not a consistent “home.” This caused the nut slot to be off center (tried to cut it “blind”) It’s still blind but I only have ~1/32” of wood on one side. I am just going to work with it, though - the fret spacing all checks out, and if I blow through on one side while carving I’ll just open the whole slot up. Also the fret dots cut out of round for some reason. they are small (1/8”) so I am just going to go to 3/16 and drill them. My Doug fir is sweating-is this a problem? Or something a coat of shellac will take care of? it’s at this stage of every build I start thinking I should just keep it natural.. but I will keep moving on ahead planning for white blonde paint Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlie H 72 Posted August 18, 2021 Author Report Share Posted August 18, 2021 Also-if you haven’t been following along in the design bar-I am trying to forgo the truss rod on this build. We’ll see how it goes! Worst case-I just make a new neck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bizman62 Posted August 18, 2021 Report Share Posted August 18, 2021 2 hours ago, Charlie H 72 said: My Doug fir is sweating-is this a problem? Or something a coat of shellac will take care of? It's resin, isn't it? It will sweat with climate changes as long as there's any left. It will also miscolour paint unless you can seal it. Knotting varnish is a common product for that, but for what I just read it's basically shellac so you can use that as well. You can speed up the sweating by applying heat, then scrape the resin off. A hair dryer is safer than a heat gun. When you've got the sweating to a tolerable level, scrape the surface clean and sand. Let it hang for a while to see if the sweating starts again, repeat the heating and scraping if needed before painting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlie H 72 Posted August 18, 2021 Author Report Share Posted August 18, 2021 Yes it’s resin. That’s a good idea with the hair dryer. I had also considered putting it on low in the oven for a few as well, but I don’t want it to shrink much. The neck pocket could stand to be a little tighter though I had read the same thing about knot preventing primers like kilz being shellac based - a classic case of “new and improved” being the same old stuff that has always worked! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlie H 72 Posted October 20, 2021 Author Report Share Posted October 20, 2021 (edited) Okay good news and bad news good news: I have made a lot of progress recently bad news: some of the progress will now have to be firewood I guess that’s called rushing, not progress? The guitar sat for a while and I recently got into working on it again. Changed my attitude, decided I’d just finish the dang thing! Shaped and painted the body, cut the pickguard, shaped, sanded & burnished the neck, installed frets and cleaned up fret ends. All looking good, starting to imagine the notes just jumping off the fretboard. Then I found out last night that somewhere along the way I sanded a curve into the profile of the neck. Dang. A strong 1/16 on the treble side and 1/32 on the bass side. That won’t do-to the scrap pile it goes. There were a number of issues with this one that I think I will be happy to resolve on round 2. Especially the way the tuners lay out on the headstock, and some ugly mineral streaks that showed up along the way. pics the bad first: (I really like the look and feel of the burnished maple - probably would get destroyed with dirt but I don’t mind. I like dirt.) on the other hand, I’m pretty excited about the body. I left Stewmac’s white PG material out in the sun and now it matches their vintage white perfectly - who knows how it will age from here but I like it. I also decided to go no sealer and no primer or sanding between coats so that the grain is raised thru the finish, which I love the look and feel of. It’s a really thin finish so it probably will age quickly, but again, I like dirt.. is this orange peel in the finish, or just the wood texture? so close-yet so far! Edited October 20, 2021 by Charlie H 72 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted October 20, 2021 Report Share Posted October 20, 2021 I'd probably just narrow the nut a little and sand a new taper into the fretboard/neck. SR 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bizman62 Posted October 20, 2021 Report Share Posted October 20, 2021 Recognizing that it's rushing makes some good progress as it should teach you not to rush... Which you may well forget with your next build! Don't ask... As @ScottR says there's ways to salvage the neck. That looks like something I might have built, my necks always seem to start a bit wide with similar issues. Often I even find out that the right sized nut is too narrow which means the neck is too wide! It doesn't look like top AAAAAA grade maple you won't lose a fortune in carving a new one. But if you choose that way you'd miss an opportunity to learn how to fix issues like this. The tuner layout isn't that bad, you disliking it may also be because of the shape of the headstock. There's an easy way to reshape it for testing purposes without cutting any wood: Take a piece of black paper or tape and mask what you think you might want to cut off. Look at the result against a dark space or surface to see how the new shape would look. Re the orange peel or texture question, it may actually be both. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlie H 72 Posted October 20, 2021 Author Report Share Posted October 20, 2021 37 minutes ago, ScottR said: I'd probably just narrow the nut a little and sand a new taper into the fretboard/neck. SR Thanks for that Scott - I took that sanding beam to the sides and I lost a light 1/16 at the nut - manageable. Plus I started with a 1-3/4" nut so now its just down to standard fender dims. At least worth taking to the finish line and seeing how I like it. I can always make another neck later. Thanks, Leo. And - another lesson learned - one should never decide what is and isn't firewood after midnight!! 13 minutes ago, Bizman62 said: Recognizing that it's rushing makes some good progress as it should teach you not to rush... Which you may well forget with your next build! Don't ask... Haha! all too familiar with that cycle - "this time I'm going to take every step slowly and carefully...until I don't feel like it any more" every dang time. I'm sometimes ok with it though. At a certain point ya gotta just play the thing. 14 minutes ago, Bizman62 said: The tuner layout isn't that bad, you disliking it may also be because of the shape of the headstock. There's an easy way to reshape it for testing purposes without cutting any wood: Take a piece of black paper or tape and mask what you think you might want to cut off. Look at the result against a dark space or surface to see how the new shape would look. I think part of my trouble with the headstock is that those are all lefty tuners but I intended to use righty on the bass side - which would shift the buttons upwards a good deal. Maybe I should just pony up and buy the righty ones to see how they look. Also curious about those Strandberg firebird tuners, hmmm.. I used to use that black paper trick all the time in architecture school - thanks for the reminder - its a good one! I think if I were to stick with these tuners I'd just need to pull a little bit off the top... again, worth trying. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bizman62 Posted October 20, 2021 Report Share Posted October 20, 2021 1 hour ago, Charlie H 72 said: I used to use that black paper trick all the time in architecture school - thanks for the reminder - its a good one! Huh? Architecture school trick? And I thought I had just cooked up a variation of the old hollow template thingy... Oh well, that's the problem with all of my inventions, someone has already thought similarly. Which on the other hand proves that the ideas must be good, bad ones wouldn't have survived and spread all over! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlie H 72 Posted October 20, 2021 Author Report Share Posted October 20, 2021 8 minutes ago, Bizman62 said: Huh? Architecture school trick? And I thought I had just cooked up a variation of the old hollow template thingy... Oh well, that's the problem with all of my inventions, someone has already thought similarly. Which on the other hand proves that the ideas must be good, bad ones wouldn't have survived and spread all over! Nothing new under the sun, as they say! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlie H 72 Posted October 21, 2021 Author Report Share Posted October 21, 2021 Any thoughts on bone tuner knobs???? I’m kind of into it. It was a pain to make but if I go to the maker space and actually use a drill press it might be easier Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bizman62 Posted October 21, 2021 Report Share Posted October 21, 2021 If you like them and can make them so they sit tight and don't split, why not? The beauty of building for and by yourself is the freedom to choose any material and try all options. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlie H 72 Posted October 21, 2021 Author Report Share Posted October 21, 2021 True! Also I just realized that they are the only visible part of the instrument that is not custom and/or handmade in some way (ok minus fretwire, strap buttons, and screws) so it’s gotta happen. I think it will tie the headstock into the body nicely and save some weight as a bonus 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlie H 72 Posted October 28, 2021 Author Report Share Posted October 28, 2021 Whipped up a good bridge today-this I think attempt #4 on the CNC-the back of the pickup rout is done caveman style so I won’t show that to you.. one day I will learn how to do flip cuts! I also made a pickup cover and a saddle blank while I was working. I’m thinking of a way to get that black from the pickup out of the way - maybe just some nail polish around the edge? Maybe nothing? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bizman62 Posted October 28, 2021 Report Share Posted October 28, 2021 3 hours ago, Charlie H 72 said: I’m thinking of a way to get that black from the pickup out of the way - maybe just some nail polish around the edge? Maybe nothing? I would vote for "nothing". The black bobbin emphasizes the shadow underneath and makes the white cover pop. A sloppy paintwork would just smudge the crisp edges. A hollow cover would be another thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlie H 72 Posted February 4, 2022 Author Report Share Posted February 4, 2022 Oops Forgot to update this! Finished it months ago and immediately starting playing the you-know-what out of it. So fun. Loving the simplicity. Needs a little bit of setup here and there as it has a few minor quirks but it’s close enough for rock n roll. Didn’t really take good pics but I have a few snapshots. Thanks for following along! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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