henrim Posted December 16, 2022 Author Report Share Posted December 16, 2022 Started to shape the neck and I have to say I’m surprised how surprised I am about birch being soft. This is my fifth neck and the others have been maple. But all in all I have worked a lot more with birch than maple in my woodworking pursuits. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
henrim Posted December 16, 2022 Author Report Share Posted December 16, 2022 Starts to resemble a guitar neck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
henrim Posted December 22, 2022 Author Report Share Posted December 22, 2022 Back in black. I didn’t like the black ABS binding I first put on the fretboard. Bound it with birch ply and it looked fine. The problem was that the color of the ply was not the same as the color of the neck wood despite them both being birch. I was not expecting them to be exactly same but as it appears the ply has strong cold blueish color while the neck wood is reddish and warm. Didn’t go well together. So I stripped the plywood and decided I don’t hate black ABS as much anymore Pondered using cream ABS but that would have required binding the body with the same material too, I think. I may do that some other time but this body ain’t going to be bound. Have to stick with at least one decision! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bizman62 Posted December 23, 2022 Report Share Posted December 23, 2022 Do I see right, is that some sort of black MOTS instead of solid black? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
henrim Posted December 23, 2022 Author Report Share Posted December 23, 2022 3 hours ago, Bizman62 said: Do I see right, is that some sort of black MOTS instead of solid black? That’s solid black with some sawdust on top of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bizman62 Posted December 23, 2022 Report Share Posted December 23, 2022 Ahh... the sawdust made me see black pearloid Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
henrim Posted December 23, 2022 Author Report Share Posted December 23, 2022 2 hours ago, Bizman62 said: Ahh... the sawdust made me see black pearloid Didn’t see that until you noticed it. It most definitely looks very christmasy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
henrim Posted December 29, 2022 Author Report Share Posted December 29, 2022 Didn’t get much done during the Christmas time but did some drilling today. I think I’m going to bolt the neck on, mount the bridge and machine heads, make saddle and string this thing up before finishing neck carving and before I start to shape the body. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
henrim Posted January 2, 2023 Author Report Share Posted January 2, 2023 Nutjob. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
henrim Posted January 2, 2023 Author Report Share Posted January 2, 2023 Strung it. Looks like everything is reasonably well within tolerances. I’ll define the neck shape with the strings on and then take it apart again to finish up parts individually. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted January 3, 2023 Report Share Posted January 3, 2023 coming along nicely. good work. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Akula Posted January 3, 2023 Report Share Posted January 3, 2023 11 hours ago, henrim said: Strung it. Looks like everything is reasonably well within tolerances. I’ll define the neck shape with the strings on and then take it apart again to finish up parts individually. Very nice! May I ask why you shape the neck with the strings on? I'd guess it's either to feel the play of the neck while carving, or it's to do with string tension... maybe both? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
henrim Posted January 3, 2023 Author Report Share Posted January 3, 2023 1 hour ago, Akula said: Very nice! May I ask why you shape the neck with the strings on? I'd guess it's either to feel the play of the neck while carving, or it's to do with string tension... maybe both? Thanks! Neck was shaped separately to a playable shape. I’m trying fine tune it with the strings on. Also trying to figure out how the heel should transition into the body. Although since the instrument is for myself I guess that transition is more of an aesthetic choice since I don’t really play the higher frets that much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
henrim Posted January 5, 2023 Author Report Share Posted January 5, 2023 Decission making is hard sometimes. I’ve been through this binding thing a few times now. After all I decided to use cream binding. I took a length of 2 mm ABS binding and milled it down to 1 mm. Now I’m tempted to bind the top of the body too I’m thinking it would be nice with ebonized top, cream binding and ash back. But I’ll try to talk myself out of it because I liked so much the original idea of having a birch neck combined with ebonized ash back. And the original body shaping plan would have to be changed too as I’m not sure I could bind the curves I had in my head. But I’ll think about it. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted January 6, 2023 Report Share Posted January 6, 2023 14 hours ago, henrim said: Decission making is hard sometimes. I’ve been through this binding thing a few times now. After all I decided to use cream binding. I took a length of 2 mm ABS binding and milled it down to 1 mm. Now I’m tempted to bind the top of the body too I’m thinking it would be nice with ebonized top, cream binding and ash back. But I’ll try to talk myself out of it because I liked so much the original idea of having a birch neck combined with ebonized ash back. And the original body shaping plan would have to be changed too as I’m not sure I could bind the curves I had in my head. But I’ll think about it. i freq change my mind while a build evolves... and am faced with similar questions... wondering if I am straying farther from my initial vision or moving closer to something better. I've decided that as a rule I should never go one direction over another based only on perceived difficulty... because often times it is only more difficult in my head. Not sure if this has served me well or not, other than the fact that I don't end up regretting not having given enough to a build. some struggle with binding... and I certainly struggle with many things that others seem to find to be easy... but binding tight curves has come fairly easy for me... this headstock for instance, was a single piece of binding. All this is just to say: I believe you can do it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
henrim Posted January 6, 2023 Author Report Share Posted January 6, 2023 Thanks! 5 hours ago, mistermikev said: this headstock for instance That’s impressive work for sure! 5 hours ago, mistermikev said: All this is just to say: I believe you can do it. The reason I’m hesitating is twofold. There is a technical side and an esthetic side. In my vision this guitar will have a carved top with concave recesses in the cutaways. I guess I could figure out a way to route (or plane) the binding channel to those areas but then I can’t really see the recesses visually working with binding. If I decide to bind the body then I don’t do the recesses but they were the first thing I had in my mind when I started with this guitar. Today’s thinking is I don’t bind this body but if I ever do a second version that will be bound. I consider building as a part of the design process. I deliberately don’t make 3D models of my personal projects beforehand to keep things somewhat open. Obviously I decide some fundamental things before I start building and I draw 2D to figure out sizes and measurements. But otherwise I like to see where it goes. Although I don’t know what there is to like as it makes the process always very slow and frustrating 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
henrim Posted January 11, 2023 Author Report Share Posted January 11, 2023 Neck is pretty much shaped and getting some Danish oil on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted January 12, 2023 Report Share Posted January 12, 2023 interesting take on a hybrid bolt/neck-thru - had not noticed that before. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted January 12, 2023 Report Share Posted January 12, 2023 It's ambitious! Especially if you don't plan it out beforehand Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
henrim Posted January 12, 2023 Author Report Share Posted January 12, 2023 5 hours ago, mistermikev said: interesting take on a hybrid bolt/neck-thru - had not noticed that before. On my two single cut guitars I built parallel the other one has set-neck and the other one is bolt-on. Both constructions have their strengths so I wanted to find a middle ground in between. On my research I found some similar solutions that I had been thinking. I believe Travis Bean aluminium neck guitars/basses were the first to use this kind of construction. image source: https://www.offsetguitars.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=65434&start=30 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
henrim Posted January 12, 2023 Author Report Share Posted January 12, 2023 5 minutes ago, Prostheta said: It's ambitious! Especially if you don't plan it out beforehand Yes. I thought I had planned it pretty good but there have been a few places I have had to improvise. And solutions are not what I would have done had caught the issues in the planning phase. Anyhow I consider this build as a "prototype". It's all part of the design process. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted January 12, 2023 Report Share Posted January 12, 2023 My thought processes altered maybe 4-5yrs back when I really delved into manufacturing process design. I couldn't start without a design these days! The Travis Bean idea is certainly one that I've seen before, and being aluminium the design of the neck attachment really suits the material. If you can pull it off in wood, that's a real trick. I think I now have that idea in the back of my head, where I have to design something so that I could make 10x, 100x or 1000x of something as well as I could make 1x. The real satisfaction for me is in designing the method, winding up the clockwork and letting her go So autistic. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
henrim Posted January 12, 2023 Author Report Share Posted January 12, 2023 @Prostheta I think I linked this somewhere in this thread or maybe it was in my dulcimer thread but there is at least a Canadian guitar manufacturer called Millimetric who has done similar neck construction with wooden neck. https://www.millimetric.ca And all in all I guess I have done this for different reasons. I wanted to make part count less and sandwich all the electric parts between neck and body. I was playing with the idea of having an interchangeable body so that everything would be mounted to the neck. But I gave up with that because I came obsessed with the idea of having the strings go through the neck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
henrim Posted January 12, 2023 Author Report Share Posted January 12, 2023 Planed a ~950mm radius to the top and routed 10mm radius to the bottom. My original plan was to carve it way more but I think I could leave it like that. We’ll see. Also drilled holes and cavities for pots, jack and switch. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted January 13, 2023 Report Share Posted January 13, 2023 The concept of Millimetric's is interesting, however I can't help but see a lot of potential short grain through the area where the neck meets the heel. It seems even less supported than how old 70s SGs were glued in close to the neck pickup. This is one of those situations where principles absolutely must come first, and viewing their gallery it seems they have a deeper heel to fix this weak point, which sort of defeats the objective of creating greater upper fret access. Hmph. Yours has a much superior strength in that specific point, so I would say that you shouldn't get "too inspired"! Travis Beans are an excellent example, however they don't have the fend with the issues that wood presents. Hey, have you ever wondered if a guitarist has ever wanted to change the profile of a Travis Bean? "A bit off the profile please!". What a nightmare Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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