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First Build Blonde Axis


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11 hours ago, Bizman62 said:

That's an impressive first build!

How much did you build from scratch?

The round bottom looks comfortable!

Thank you! The only thing I didn't do was slot and radius the fretboard. I think my next fretboard will be my own. I wanted the carve to be super comfortable so I went pretty hard with a saw rasp. 

Edited by jowilmei
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Using a preslotted fretboard doesn't reduce the value of a self built instrument. Slot cutting gear can cost enormous sums unless you go the razor-saw-and-ruler route so if you're only going to build a few guitars in your lifetime they would be a waste of money. Even more so if you're going to use various scale lengths, a jig plate alone will cost more than a good looking quality pre-cut fretboard. At the class I've let our Master cut me a dozen of fretboards of various scales as I had a piece of 7 mm thick quarter sawn Merbau wood...

Radiusing a fretboard is another thing as it allows you to decide the final thickness and choose whatever radius you want, even compound. Sometimes it's also easier to inlay the fret markers before radiusing, sometimes after.

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On 9/9/2021 at 3:35 AM, Bizman62 said:

Slot cutting gear can cost enormous sums unless you go the razor-saw-and-ruler route so if you're only going to build a few guitars in your lifetime they would be a waste of money.

Sometimes it's also easier to inlay the fret markers before radiusing, sometimes after.

I made the mistake of carving the neck before frets and side dots. Definitely will not be repeating that mistake. 

When it come to fret slots, the special tools were what turned me away. Since then, however, I have seen people cut slots with a harbor freight flush cut saw and a squared up block of wood. I guess that gives me some confidence.

Edited by jowilmei
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1 hour ago, jowilmei said:

I made the mistake of carving the neck before frets and side dots. Definitely will not be repeating that mistake. 

That's not a mistake, that's one of the common ways to do it. There's pros and cons in that method as in all of the different orders of building a neck. On the pro side the neck won't move much after fretting, on the con side is that it requires a padded caul to support the neck while banging/pressing the frets in.

A flush cut saw, a ruler and a squared block are the old skool tools for the fret cutting job. Nothing wrong with that and definitely not too expensive. There's spreadsheets and calculators to get the positioning right which is something the early guitar builders didn't have, yet even they could get the intonation right!

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