First build - "Birthmark"

[Asdrael]

In the same vein, Ibanez recently came out with sub zero treated frets (which I suspect is regular fretwire passed in liquid nitrogen). So it might very well do something.

 

In other news, I did much more today, since it was day 2 of family being away and me waking up at 8 to go to the workshop.

I was so eager to start the day that I decided to get the electronic cavity out of the way to wake me up. Easy enough: bit of forstner, bit of routing done! I even fixed the depth indicator on the pillar drill while I was at it.

The only issue is that I completely overestimated how awake I was. Queue major mistake: I routed the complete depth using the cover outline. Silly me...

Not a big deal though, the 3 way switch didn't fit in the regular cavity, and I might want to try with some extra switches down the line. At least now I have plenty of room to work with.

 

The next order of the day was to finish up the neck. I positioned the neck as tight as I could and miraculously, the neck centerline and body centerline aligned. I even had the right height for my bridge! The only issue was that I seemed to have a thick heel and possibly a "negative" neck angle. Nothing some careful sanding can't fix.

 

With everything correctly set, I just had to mark the screw holes for insert drilling. Plop x4 (thanks amazon centerpunches, 3 for 9€).

 

And to the pillar drill! Had to be perfectly square tho.

And the inserts fit right in.

You'll notice they are slightly recessed, in case I need to touch up the neck angle at the heel. I also put a drop of liquid CA glue to secure them, didn't seem necessary to be honest. (9mm hole, 8m core diameter but 10mm helix diameter). Time will tell.

With everything in place, I had to cut down my screws a bit. My body is very thin, the neck as well, so the screws were a tad long (M5x30, couldn't find M5x25). So I shaved 3-4mm up top, burning myself in the process and almost straining my finger. Nice that I was wearing gloves.

(Fun fact; right after that, the glued label on the gloves peeled off by itself, somehow saying "We did our part, good luck now!").

 

Now of course you  know what's coming: mating shots:

I know, it's nothing original as I just took some blueprints online but I am thrilled. Measurements done, the intonation point falls exactly where it should. So I did something decent I suppose.

 

Anyhow, I wanted to get the neck ready for Tru-Oil, and shaving down the heel somewhat made the transition to the body not so nice. So I pulled out the neck shaping jig, corrected the heel with files, and redid the grit steps (180, 240, 380, 600 + grain raising, 800 + grain raising) also inducing a bit more flat on the back of the neck.

Finished neck, only Tru-Oil to go!

(The tape is there for me to avoid sanding rosewood and ruin my maple *again*).

 

I had some time left on the clock so I could get disappointed that:

- I can't use my pickup templates. I have to do "sharp" corners and I wanted to have the 1/4" bit 1/4" shank ride on the acrylic to do it but bad idea. The acrylic melts. Good that we have a laser cutter, I'll cut something in MDF next time.

- I don't have a rebating bit to fix up my electronic cavity. Gotta order one.

 

I also could work with what I had on the body. Which means:

- Back of the body 45° carves all around:

- arm carve similarly:

- Recessed switchcraft jack. This one I like to do "aligned" with the control cavity, not 90° to the body edge. I don't know why, but my Yamaha RGX A2 has it and I love it. Details but it's my guitar so I do what I want.

 

After that, I was all out of thing to do without templates or correct bits. So I cleaned up and went home.

Where I couldn't resist a first coat of Tru Oil.

Before:

After:

While the neck flame is starting to pop, I swear the contrast at the scarf joint will be the death of me. Hoh well. More tru oil to do, and an Amazon order for a rebating bit and I will be good for when I come back from vacations!

(Also I am getting a new amp tomorrow, Hughes and Kettner Grandmeister 40... let's see how I like it).

[Professor Woozle]

14 minutes ago, Asdrael said:

In the same vein, Ibanez recently came out with sub zero treated frets (which I suspect is regular fretwire passed in liquid nitrogen). So it might very well do something.

Probably  it will make them harder, but also brittler - I wonder how many break during fitting?

[Asdrael]

13 hours ago, Andyjr1515 said:

Nice work @Asdrael 

Hey I just realized your name rings a bell... You are credited as a major contributor to the TruOil finish process I am planning on using (https://www.basschat.co.uk/topic/331219-95-tru-oil-finished-guitar-a-how-to-guide/ ).  So... Thanks?

[Bizman62]

10 hours ago, Asdrael said:

I don't have a rebating bit to fix up my electronic cavity. Gotta order one.

You don't necessarily need one. Just make a new cover outline template. That will be useful for drawing the outlines of the actual cover as well.

11 hours ago, Asdrael said:

the contrast at the scarf joint will be the death of me.

It's not too late to glue a veneer to hide the joint. Either something similar to the front side or some synthetic material like phenolic sheet.

[Asdrael]

2 hours ago, Bizman62 said:

You don't necessarily need one. Just make a new cover outline template. That will be useful for drawing the outlines of the actual cover as well.

It's not too late to glue a veneer to hide the joint. Either something similar to the front side or some synthetic material like phenolic sheet.

Regarding the template, yep. Thought about it too. Since I'm going to laser cut a pickup template, I'll just do the cavity (cover) in the same room. Luxury solution.

And regarding the scarf joint, I don't trust myself (yet) to do a better looking last minute glue up than to accept what I have, finish it well, put massive tuners on and roll with it. In french we have a saying: "best is the enemy of good". Make of it what you will but for me it means that when I have something good, if I push it towards "best ever", something will turn sour. So for that headstock, I'm accepting good and functional over best looking

[Andyjr1515]

22 hours ago, Asdrael said:

Hey I just realized your name rings a bell... You are credited as a major contributor to the TruOil finish process I am planning on using (https://www.basschat.co.uk/topic/331219-95-tru-oil-finished-guitar-a-how-to-guide/ ).  So... Thanks?

I'd forgotten I'd done that topic!  It's a great method but one that I learnt from other kind folks - so can't take all the credit  

[Asdrael]

Hah well. A few coats of Tru oil in, I tried slurry sanding and apparently went through the coats and smeared a touch of rosewood onto the maple. I wiped as fast and as well as I could but there are now some dark dust freckles on a spot in my neck. I can't unsee them even if anyone tells me otherwise. I guess I'll sand the Tru oil off and start again, this time not doing slurry sanding but just thin wipe on wipe off (and possibly 0000 at the end depending how it feels). No biggie, the body is not ready yet anyway.

Small question though: if I do that with like 400 grit, no need to raise the grain again right?

[henrim]

I don’t think there is any reason to do slurry sanding on maple as it has tight closed grain. There’s not much to fill with the slur.

Going to fine grits prevents oil from penetrating wood. 180 is probably enough on maple to get rid of any sanding marks. On maple necks I may go up to 240 but not finer before applying oil. Then I use fine grits or 0000 steel wool (or very fine scotch pad) between each layer once the layer has cured. 

[Asdrael]

8 hours ago, henrim said:

I don’t think there is any reason to do slurry sanding on maple as it has tight closed grain. There’s not much to fill with the slur.

Going to fine grits prevents oil from penetrating wood. 180 is probably enough on maple to get rid of any sanding marks. On maple necks I may go up to 240 but not finer before applying oil. Then I use fine grits or 0000 steel wool (or very fine scotch pad) between each layer once the layer has cured. 

Thanks! I'll clean the coats already on and restart my process then. I was surprised how thin the coats ended up being but I started on 800 grit initially... Might have been too tight.

[Bizman62]

8 hours ago, Asdrael said:

Small question though: if I do that with like 400 grit, no need to raise the grain again right?

Wrong, sort of. Any grit will release fibres if you sand deep enough. Since you need to sand down to bare wood to clean the dark frecles, you'll also be releasing fibres. In theory, if there's a clean layer of cured TruOil under the rosewood dirt you might be able to sand down to that but it would be very difficult not to sand through such a microscopic layer.

Unlike @henrim I tend to sand to finer grits before applying oil and haven't had any issues regarding oil penetration. To keep the pores open that requires zero pressure, otherwise the pores on the surface will compress and the sugar in the cellulose will caramelize, the result being a shiny semi solid surface. Burnishing the wood refers to that.

I've often compared sanding and grain raising to lawn mowing: You can get it level with a steamroller but with any moisture it will raise again. Similarly, if you're trying to hog too much some of the grass will just fold instead of being cut and pop up the next day. Mowing small cuts often gives a better result than letting the grass grow knee high until cutting it to a golf green. It's similar with the wood. You sand it down, then wipe it moist to raise the grain. And then you just cut the grain level with the surroundings. Going any deeper will release more grain that will rise.

Using oil for the very last grain raising can be more forgiving as the cured oil will glue some of the grain down.

[Asdrael]

Thanks for the explanation and analogy. I have a clearer picture in my head now. I think I'll go back to 400 and try to sort the rosewood/maple issue best I can before moving on with grain raising properly.

[Asdrael]

Well, I am back. A week of holidays, a week long business trip on a conference, a bout with COVID, a follow-up with strep throat, and a fight with the antibiotic side effects later, I could do some work.

Not much though, and at home. So no fancy gear. I thought that since I have to redo the finish on back of the neck, I could finish at least the front.

Tape the fretboard!

Polish with 0000 steel wool!

Be somewhat happy! Go to the last step!

Damn I love that stuff. Minimal effort and you get a nice shiny result.

 

I am really really satisfied of how the frets came out. Honestly, they have exactly the shape I wanted them to have despite it being my first attempt at fret installing, leveling, crowning and polishing. Too bad the slotting was a tad wonky.

 

Decided to also oil the fretboard. I wanted some contrast and with the temperature and humidity changes we have had around here in the last three weeks, I think my fretboard deserved it.

Now I have to decide if I want to Tru-oil the headstock face or also lemon-oil it. We'll see after I correct my sanding mistake at the back and redo the neck finish. But now it's negociation time to try to secure my friday in the workshop - wish me luck!

 

[Asdrael]

Another evening, another learning experience. I am nearing the end of the build though!

 

So I started by "refinishing" the neck. I tried sanding away the rosewood dust that somehow got into the maple, but to no avail. I so just took my time to reprepare the neck for tru-oil correctly. It's now perfectly smooth, shaped, etc but has some inclusions of rosewood dust. Hoh well, happens. I should have paid more attention to it earlier on. As long as the neck feels fine, I'll consider it a success.

 

With the time left on my hands, I decided to finish routing the body and basically get it ready for sanding.

Step one: redraw the centerline and intonation line (and pickup cavities) properly with the neck attached. Recheck approximately 20 times while sweating profusely. My "real" centerline is less than a mm off the theoretical one, so not too bad. Same for the intonation line. Redrawing the pickup cavities, I put the bridge pickup where I intended it to be since the start (the middle of the bridge pickup 6.5% of the scale length from the intonation line). As for the neck pickup, I moved it slightly back compared to my initial plan to leave a small 3mm "wall" between neck and cavity. This is all according to my experience with various guitars and the "theory" that says the closer to the bridge the brighter the sound.

Step 2: draw and mark locations for the controls.

Tape a block to avoid tear out:

Realize the only 12mm bit you have is a monster:

And voilà:

 

Step 3: Pickups! Just a classical forstner bit and routing. And I got my first tear-out ever. I had set the router a bit slow. I am lucky it won't be visible. I had to be a bit "smart" there to compensate for the fact that my route design had tight turns but my pattern bit was rather large. I used a 6.3mm shaft 6.3mm cutter, which basically cuts flush but with no bearing. Not a terrific idea with acrylic as it melts rather fast but I did the job fast enough that it wasn't an issue.

Anyhow, cleaned it up, sped up the bit.

And that's a perfect fit! 2cm deep for a 2cm high pickup. The cable is 4mm thick, and the strings will be at least 1cm from the body. So should be good, even with the neck pickup cables running in the same cavity.

 

Same process for the neck pickup, but this time better. Funny how experience trumps any online tutorial on pickup routing, right? Could be the moto of this build

 

Ok so now comes the fun part - the string through bridge install. Apparently you have two schools of thought on this: "easiest thing ever" or "easiest thing ever to mess up". Well, I decided I wouldn't mess it up. So it would be, right?

I started by marking the bridge mounting screws locations, putting it well in the middle using my new centerline and putting the intonation line more or less 1mm behind the further the saddles would go. Drill with 2mm bit, easy enough. Except I drilled slightly deeper - I didn't account for the bridge thickness. So I think my pilot holes are exactly the length of the thread going in. Not too bad, as the hole is 2mm wide and the screw is 2.8mm wide. I should hold perfectly fine.

Now the fun begins! Drilling string through holes aligned and prepare for the ferrules. I decided to go fancy jig style.

First, I kept the bridge mounted and drilled 2-2.5 cm deep, 3mm wide holes following the bridge line.

I didn't want to go all the way to avoid a possibly wandering bit causing misalignment, even if it was a brad bit, who knows... So instead, I copied a jig I saw online. It's basically a pin to index the hole onto which you flip the body to make sure you drill according the the already drilled holes on the top side.

So you make this, using scrap and a 3mm screw:

And align it to the drill press:

All the pros have a setup with screws etc to be ultra stable. In my case, low tack tape and superglue to the existing surface. And roll.

I started by drilling for the ferrule (8mm diameter, 10mm depth). And bam, mistake. My depth reference moved while drilling. So while all my hole are aligned freaking perfectly, I have a gradual deviation in depth, up to a few mm. Nothing dramatic, but still it's there. Since there is a lip to the ferrule (10mm lip, 1mm thick) and the ferrule itself needs to be softly hammered in (it's like 8.3mm diameter into a 8mm hole) I don't think anything is going to move but still. Anyhow, I had to keep on. So using the same system, I drilled through with a 3mm bit, and decided to recess the ferrules anyway (10 mm diameter, a tad over 1mm depth to allow for sanding).

Looks like this (you can somewhat see the difference in depth, goes from 10mm to 14mm depth and back to 10 when I realized the mistake):

So yep, hopefully it won't move and it will be our dirty little secret. If they move, I will lower all ferrules to 15mm and live with it.

 

Next, something I always found scary because even though I think I am decent with straight lines, I think I'm crap with curves. Drilling for cables between cavities free handed.

Hole 1: grounding cable from the bridge to the bridge pickup cavity:

Perfect?

Hole(s) 2: Neck to bridge pickup cavity:

Perfect?!!?!?

Hole 3: Bridge pickup cavity to control cavity:

PERFECT???

Well, I am happy. I believe the only thing missing now is the routing for the recessed cavity cover but I would like to laser cut the template in our laser cutter (I don't have anything I can use for and I don't want to freehand it - I have made the CAD for it and am waiting for a friend to help me with it).

 

All in all, satisfied with the day even though the neck couldn't be improved and I did the ferrule whoopsie. Nothing should affect the instrument itself.

Next steps: Tru-oil on the neck (again) and sanding the body to prepare for tru-oil while waiting on the template. This can be done at home or in quick burst at the workshop while the kids are already sleeping, so should be swift progress. Next workshop session will hopefully be cavity cover routing, and making a cavity cover + truss rod cover + string dampener all out of rosewood.

[Andyjr1515]

You are doing really well with this build.  There are some advanced features to the design and you are coping admirably with the challenge of making them happen!  Nice job

[Asdrael]

Thanks a lot! The design is directly ripped off a blackmachine with very minimal changes. And for basically every step I'm doing I spent hours trying to find walk walkthroughs online. So in a way, it's not that hard, but in the end it's really harder than I thought to actually do everything at a decent standard - or in my case to let it be when you'll do more harm than good trying to "fix" a mistake.

[Bizman62]

Your level of planning and preparing reminds me of a fellow builder, very admirable.

Regarding the deeper ferrule holes, I'd recommend you to use something to even the depth to make sure that the string pull doesn't suck the center ferrules in and compress the wood. The fancy way would be to plug the bottoms of the holes with wood or even a lump of epoxy putty, the quick and dirty way is to use washers. In between falls cutting metal tube to a fitting length.

[Asdrael]

You are right. I should make sure the ferrule issue doesn't worsen with string pull, especially since I won't be using very light string and will experiment with alternate tunings.

But since you said "fancy", I felt compelled to go this route obviously. And even beyond. I will plug the bottom with leftover swamp ash from the body, same grain direction. I will make dowels out of them and use a tiny drop of wood glue to make sure it's all good before redrilling as needed for the string.

The only issue is that I don't have anything to make decent dowels of the right diameter. So I turned to youtube and found this:

 

Looks like I'll be making one more "jig" next week Thanks for the motivation!

[Bizman62]

3 hours ago, Asdrael said:

But since you said "fancy", I felt compelled to go this route obviously. And even beyond

I should have guessed that!

Anyhow, guess I would have done the same. You never know what an extra piece of metal does to the sound and since we are only dealing with half of the strings the sound might become unbalanced with washers or tubes. Even if it weren't audible, you'd know that and keep a keen ear on any metallic 'Klang' on those strings.

By the way, that pencil sharpener (using a socket was really clever!) type of thing won't make dowels that has the same grain direction. Dowels like that have an end grain face. For plugs with the same grain direction as the body or any other board you'd need a plug drill bit. They're not too expensive at Lidl but you can also use a piece of tube with the desired inner diameter. Filing some teeth will help but you don't need much cutting strength for a few plugs. Remember, you won't be cutting through the material, in your case a few millimetres will suffice.

[Asdrael]

Fake update day.

As you might have read, I messed up the vanity initially, routing it too big (since I used the cover template, doh). So I was left without a template for the cover route. What a great reason to learn to use the laser cutter in the workshop! So I spent an hour today getting training on it. Now I can use it alone. It's a 100 W CO2 laser. It went through 8mm plywood very easily. Next time I'll try mdf and/or thicker plywood, I have scraps lying around.

 

A laser

Lasering

 

And now I have a template.

This cost me 1€20 in operating costs. I'm fairly sure I can do an entire guitar template for less than 20€.

[mistermikev]

so... nice piece of ash, I like the neck mounting arrangement (been meaning to try that), taking away from this thread - metal polish... can't argue with results.  are you polishing by hand (sorry if you said, didn't catch that)?

[Bizman62]

Funny, for some reason the two last photos are pitch black. So I copied the address and tried with another browser and still black. Same result when saving the image to my pc.

Is that due a limitation of Cloudfront? If so, you'd serve the PG community better by uploading the photos directly to the posts instead of linking. There's tons of lost photos in the early building threads. Guitar porn aside, but a tutorial isn't the same without explaining illustration.

[Asdrael]

4 hours ago, mistermikev said:

so... nice piece of ash, I like the neck mounting arrangement (been meaning to try that), taking away from this thread - metal polish... can't argue with results.  are you polishing by hand (sorry if you said, didn't catch that)?

Thanks! For the neck, I suppose you talk about the inserts? It's really easy with a drill press but you need to get the right inserts. I bought 2 types before being happy with mine (Rampa Muffe for hardwood).

As for polishing, yep, just a small drop of Autosol on each fret, and kitchen paper towels. By hand. If you did the sanding steps correctly before and do a pass of steel wool, you'll be done in 5-10seconds per fret. You'll see it becoming shiny and the tape protecting the fretboard become black. As soon as that black starts rubbing off that's a good sign you are done. Mind you, it works perfectly well for nickel and for SS frets.

49 minutes ago, Bizman62 said:

Funny, for some reason the two last photos are pitch black. So I copied the address and tried with another browser and still black. Same result when saving the image to my pc.

Is that due a limitation of Cloudfront? If so, you'd serve the PG community better by uploading the photos directly to the posts instead of linking. There's tons of lost photos in the early building threads. Guitar porn aside, but a tutorial isn't the same without explaining illustration.

Good point and my bad - somehow wrote it on my phone and the upload messed up. I'll do it on a fixed computer later today. I do always upload directly from my computer to the forums, I don't usually rehost. This forum is actually working well, even for long posts with large pictures I find (and you are right, it's infuriating finding the info you are looking for to just load up a page with the legendary broken picture icon).

[henrim]

I have had that black picture thing happening a few times when uploading from iPhone to this forum. I guess it has something to do with the file format, iPhone pictures being .heic instead of (good) old jpeg.

[Asdrael]

Let me try again, updating from a computer and not from my cell phone.

Laser:

Lasering:

Even more lasering:

 

End result:

 

I could have gone faster on the cut, the bottom face has marks. But at least the cuts themselves are perfect and will perfectly be followed by a router bit bearing. And for 1€20, whenever I want and however I want it? Unbeatable.

[mistermikev]

pretty cool to have access to a laser and what appears to be a very powerful one.