Wood for next build has arrived...

[JGTay]

Still got two builds to complete and the wood for the next build has arrived.

Through neck consisting of Purpleheart and Wenge, fretboard is Leadwood (Combretum imberbe) and wings are Cherry.

 

Still got to decide on the shape, but going with 34" Scale and fretless. Can't decide on 4 or 5 string, still got time to work it out. Will fully hand wind a couple of humbuckers for this as well.  

[Bizman62]

10 hours ago, JGTay said:

Still got to decide on the shape

So it's not going to mimic the Gretsch G6138?

[JGTay]

13 minutes ago, Bizman62 said:

So it's not going to mimic the Gretsch G6138?

That would definitely make things easier, but no.

[JGTay]

A few updates from the past couple of weekends.

After prepping the neck laminates, they were glued up and then I cut the headstock angle.

I then removed some of the excess from the back, leaving the headstock thickness full so I can do it in one piece.

Next up was the fretboard. It had a slight twist/bend at one end (which is now the nut end), so I drew a centre line, marked out the nut, strings, fretboard edge and the fret positions to make sure everything was correct, before cutting the fret slots and gluing in maple veneer for the lined fretboard.

Then I moved on to chiselling out the truss rod channel. This was part way through and testing to see how much more needed removing. (please excuse the sweat drips... it was very warm!!)

Finally to the correct depth and level all the way along.

And with the truss rod in place.

I then marked out and cut to depth for the positions of the humbuckers, but didn't take pics. Haven't removed the wood yet, need to be careful they come out as full pieces as I will hopefully be utilising them when making the pickups.

 

Next was gluing the fretboard in place. Usually I would cut the fret slots after this point, but with the twist/bend I needed to make sure everything was lined up perfectly. I clamped it in place first and drilled through on the outside edges that will be removed so I could use nail pins to hold it in place and keep it lined up when gluing. Then masking tape over the truss rod and cut to size, before gluing and clamping the fretboard in place.

Once it had dried it was out of the clamps and lined up with the wings to see how it was all looking. 

That was where I got up to on Saturday, was hoping to get some more done Sunday, but didn't get any time. So will get back to it next weekend.  

[Bizman62]

By looking at the pictures it seems the noisiest tool in your workshop is the hoover!

[JGTay]

3 hours ago, Bizman62 said:

By looking at the pictures it seems the noisiest tool in your workshop is the hoover!

I do have a few power tools, but they don't get plugged in very often. Much prefer the safety/accuracy of my hand tools.

[JGTay]

This weekends updates.

After measuring up and marking out, started getting the neck/fretboard shape done.

 

Then moved on to the radius, started yesterday afternoon and finally finished sanded up through the grades this morning. Leadwood is painful doing the radius by hand.

Cleaned up with white spirit. Some really nice grain patterns.

 

Have gone with a thicker fretboard on this build as the strings were closer to the body than I wanted on the last fretless. it is around 11mm in the centre.

 

Next I moved onto getting the neck thickness trimmed.

 

 

That was as far as I got. Tools down until next weekend.