Custom Guitar Build - First time build

[Armaan]

Pickup rings:

I am planning to make my humbucker pickup rings using the offcuts of the walnut that I used for the body. Is there any science behind what the height of the ring should be or is it largely aesthetic driven?

The guitar body will be 9 / 9.5mm lower than the fretboard (i.e. the fretboard will be parallel to the fretboard and not angled).

I was thinking of 3-5mm for the ring height. 3mm would look more sleek on the body, but the pickup may stick out a bit.

Any thoughts?

[Bizman62]

There's basically no other rule than to make them low enough not to touch the strings.

If you want to make them tougher and less prone to warping, you can laminate them of two or more pieces so that the grain direction of at least one piece is across the main grain direction.

[Armaan]

Fretboard:

I printed an autocad drawing and pasted it to the fretboard. Used a marking knife to mark the fret slots, which I will be cutting using a 0.020” kerf Zona dovetail saw. I am planning to use a 90 degree block on one side to prevent the blade slipping to that side and using masking tape as a depth stop on the other side.

Will only cut the slots once the practice yields co nsistent results! I made one error with the carving knife which you can see in one of the images - I will have to clean it up while radius sanding.

Separately the fretboard was a real pain to hand plane down from 9.5mm to 6.5mm - it kept tearing out and I'm cleaning it up with some ebony dust and glue. Will sand it down flat before gluing it to the neck.   

[Armaan]

Made the wing laminate, waited for it to dry and then glued the wings to the neck, Wanted to use on more clamp across the middle of the wings but it did not fit right. Should've planned this better, but I hope it turns out okay.

Also glued some extra pieces of walnut to the neck which I will need for my headstock shape.

Will cut the body and headstock shape tomorrow, so it should resemble a guitar soon! 

Cheers

Di

 

[Bizman62]

Your long clamps - the pair of 2x2's with a lot of holes -  look interesting! How do you tighten them?

It took me this long to figure out that the plastic bag with the text 'Bulbond' isn't your favourite candy!

[Armaan]

1 hour ago, Bizman62 said:

Your long clamps - the pair of 2x2's with a lot of holes -  look interesting! How do you tighten them?

It took me this long to figure out that the plastic bag with the text 'Bulbond' isn't your favourite candy!

 Bulbond is a synthetic resin adhesive - I wish it were candy!

For the clamps, you attach a block on one of the holes,  based on the size of the piece that needs clamping. The space between the block and the piece is tightened by driving a wedge through.

Will take a picture of the other side tomorrow and post it. 

[ScottR]

Love that wood combination, looks like an ice cream sandwich.

SR

[Armaan]

11 hours ago, ScottR said:

Love that wood combination, looks like an ice cream sandwich.

SR

That’s true! Especially in its uncut rectangular shape at the moment.

I was debating whether to have ash or maple wings and walnut stripes, but I really liked the walnut grain and I wanted a darker looking guitar with all black electronics. Looks like it worked out well. 

Thinking of an oil finish to bring out the walnut grain. Any suggestions? I’ve heard of tung oil and linseed oil are good. 

[mattharris75]

A boiled linseed oil based finish looks great on walnut. Tru Oil is generally a good option as you can go with either a more 'in the wood' look or build coats into a shinier finish if you are so inclined, so there's a lot of flexibility. Danish oil also works well for the in the wood style of finish.

As far as tung oil, that's a whole can of worms. Tung oil and tung oil finish, which are different things, can have a pretty wide variety of ingredients, sometimes not even including any actual tung oil. So unless you have a brand that you like and have worked with successfully I'd personally choose to stay away from it altogether.

[Armaan]

Help!

Any suggestions on how to correct fret slotting error? I made a 0.5mm/1mm error while cutting one fret. 

Planning to fill it up with ebony dust and glue and redo that cut. Anything else I should be doing?

[ADFinlayson]

3 hours ago, Armaan said:

Help!

Any suggestions on how to correct fret slotting error? I made a 0.5mm/1mm error while cutting one fret. 

Planning to fill it up with ebony dust and glue and redo that cut. Anything else I should be doing?

I had to fill and recut a couple of slots on an ebony board on I think my second build, ebony is quite forgiving if you fill with dust and super glue you will barely see it, but if you're 1mm out you wont see it at all if you use jumbo fret wire. Just fill and recut after it's had a good 24 hours to dry. 

[Armaan]

20 hours ago, ADFinlayson said:

I had to fill and recut a couple of slots on an ebony board on I think my second build, ebony is quite forgiving if you fill with dust and super glue you will barely see it, but if you're 1mm out you wont see it at all if you use jumbo fret wire. Just fill and recut after it's had a good 24 hours to dry. 

Yes - my fret will cover the error. I was more worried about having the fret sitting in a weak foundation and potentially getting dislodged, but I guess the glued dust should be strong enough.

Thanks

[Armaan]

On 6/14/2021 at 6:34 PM, mattharris75 said:

A boiled linseed oil based finish looks great on walnut. Tru Oil is generally a good option as you can go with either a more 'in the wood' look or build coats into a shinier finish if you are so inclined, so there's a lot of flexibility. Danish oil also works well for the in the wood style of finish.

As far as tung oil, that's a whole can of worms. Tung oil and tung oil finish, which are different things, can have a pretty wide variety of ingredients, sometimes not even including any actual tung oil. So unless you have a brand that you like and have worked with successfully I'd personally choose to stay away from it altogether.

Thanks! I was choosing between linseed oil and tung oil (pure). I had narrowed these down as tru oil seemed a bit too glossy and it is quite expensive in my country. I was leaning towards tung oil as linseed oil is slightly darker than tung oil and it is known to yellow over time which I would like to avoid. I have never used an oil finish, so I plan to try it on some extra pieces and see which one looks better.

After it cures, I was thinking of applying polyurethane over it as a protective layer. Is that a good idea?

[Armaan]

Fretboard Radius:

I was planning the height for the side dot fret markers and when I was calculating the drop caused by my 12inch radius, I noticed an issue. Since my fretboard tapers from 56mm to 43mm, radius sanding parallel to the neck would result in the fretboard being slightly higher at the nut than towards the body - it should rise by about 1mm, assuming a 6.5mm fretboard height at the center line. Is saddle adjustment or fret leveling the answer to this? Or am I missing something?

 

[curtisa]

There might be an error with the way you've calculated the height difference. I get a height difference of about 0.53mm from end to end when I use the values you propose.

In any case, the height difference generally wouldn't be influential on the geometry of the guitar in practice. You either radius the board and aim for the apex of the radius to be at 6.5mm the full length of the board and live with the edges thinning down by 0.5mm from nut to last fret, or radius the board such that the edges remain a consistent thickness all they way along the board and accept that the board will be 0.5mm thinner at the nut-end. In both situations the end result is that the fret board playing surface has a consistent radius and constant angle relative to the strings (within a tiny fraction of a degree). Certainly similar enough that any difference could be adjusted out by tweaking the bridge action.

In short, don't sweat it. It works. 

[Gogzs]

What @curtisa said. Imagine if you ran the fretboard all the way to the bridge it would get thinner and thinner at the edges, and that's how the saddles will be set up as well.

One option you have is compound radius (link: Compound Radius: Explained | stewmac.com ) but yeah, don't worry about it. It's all good  

[Armaan]

23 minutes ago, curtisa said:

There might be an error with the way you've calculated the height difference. I get a height difference of about 0.53mm from end to end when I use the values you propose.

In any case, the height difference generally wouldn't be influential on the geometry of the guitar in practice. You either radius the board and aim for the apex of the radius to be at 6.5mm the full length of the board and live with the edges thinning down by 0.5mm from nut to last fret, or radius the board such that the edges remain a consistent thickness all they way along the board and accept that the board will be 0.5mm thinner at the nut-end. In both situations the end result is that the fret board playing surface has a consistent radius and constant angle relative to the strings (within a tiny fraction of a degree). Certainly similar enough that any difference could be adjusted out by tweaking the bridge action.

In short, don't sweat it. It works. 

There was an error - a pretty silly one. I used a 12" diameter and not radius in my drawing . Had a feeling I was missing something - 1mm seemed too much 

At 0.5mm, it will be hardly any difference and will correct it with the bridge action. 

[Armaan]

@Bizman62

Here are some better pictures of the makeshift long clamps

[Armaan]

Update: 

1. I cut the body to size using a jigsaw. Kept a 1-2mm margin for error. 

2. Experimenting with an arrow shaped step at the the end of the fretboard. The body is around 3.5mm lower than the neck, so I thought this might look interesting. Any thoughts?

   

4. Received the pickups and pots today. Planning the pickup and control cavities.

[Armaan]

Headstock: Do you guys like the headstock face? I'm considering making a walnut top for it.

I will also cover the bass side of the headstock with a thin walnut binding, as I don't like how the stripes look stretched across the angled surface.

I will be using all black tuners and am currently not planning make a truss rod access cover.

Any thoughts or design suggestions are welcome!

Thanks

 

 

[Gogzs]

I wouldn't make a top for the headstock, but then again, I love that "racing stripes" look that goes across the whole body, and I'd definitely keep it that way, but to each his own. Nice progress so far, great job  

[Bizman62]

8 hours ago, Armaan said:

Here are some better pictures of the makeshift long clamps

Clever!

[Bizman62]

7 hours ago, Armaan said:

2. Experimenting with an arrow shaped step at the the end of the fretboard. The body is around 3.5mm lower than the neck, so I thought this might look interesting. Any thoughts?

That will push the neck pickup closer to the bridge which may remove some thickness and warmth from the sound. I.e. the neck pu would sound more similar to the bridge pu.

[Armaan]

7 hours ago, Gogzs said:

I wouldn't make a top for the headstock, but then again, I love that "racing stripes" look that goes across the whole body, and I'd definitely keep it that way, but to each his own. Nice progress so far, great job  

Well - that seems to be the popular opinion so far. My wife thinks so too, so I would have to find a lot of support to change it! 

[Armaan]

52 minutes ago, Bizman62 said:

That will push the neck pickup closer to the bridge which may remove some thickness and warmth from the sound. I.e. the neck pu would sound more similar to the bridge pu.

I had this in mind when making it, but I hoped the change would not be significant. It would move 10mm forward and I was thinking of it as if it were a neck pickup placed on a 24 fret guitar.