First build - "Birthmark"

[Asdrael]

8th coat applied 12 hours ago. I am starting to see some "ripples" or fingerprints (I always wore gloves though) which means there is already a buildup of finish thick enough to be noticed. In addition, some of the reflections now appear a bit plastic to my taste - which means that was one coat too many. In other words, perfect! since I want to scrub it with 0000 steel wool. I'm now giving the body a few days of rest to fully cure in the dry room of the building (25°C, 35% humidity) before I scrub. I am planning the assembly on Friday next week. wuwu.

In the meanwhile, I couldn't help myself and did other stuff.

One sexy cavity cover all oiled up.

 

And taped down.

 

Also, I can't get @Captain Obvious idea out of my head, so there might be a few knobs coming this way soon (damn you).

 

[Asdrael]

Just went to check up on the body. Seems dry and hard. Overall I think my finish process is good for ash, but not what I was going for. Going to need this steel wool!

 

[Asdrael]

And I hit it with 0000 steel wool for ten minutes. End result is much more to my liking - semi glossy, not sticky, and can feel the wood grain perfectly well. I still have to check under natural light but with all the bright directional lightd I have, it seems on point.

Short gif with similar lighting to the previous one for comparison:

 

 

[Asdrael]

Well, this is it. Took quite a bit (the entire family managed to get stomach flu, right after our bout with Covid. Fun.). Last week rush and a finish line!

 

I managed to get the body finish where I wanted it. It turned out that the steel wool rubbing I did left some marks I wasn't happy with, so I reapplied a layer and re-rubbed with 0000. The only scratches left are mistakes on my part from when the body was initially sanded. I couldn't go back to it and they belong in the realm of "unless you know you won't see them, and one week of use will put worse on it anyway". The body feels like satin with wood grain. Right on.

Pre wool:

Post wool:

 

Next order of the day: shield the pickup cavities. I play with quite a bit of gain, and I hate hum. So in case I become something else than a bedroom guitarist (yeah right), I wanted to do it properly. Graphite paint is a bitch but I managed.

Cleaned up:

I might have a micro drop outside of the cavity but once again, if you don't know you won't see it.

 

And what's a control cavity without proper shielding? I wasn't sure if copper tape or paint, but decided for the clean black of paint this time around.

Also, to mount the cavity cover, I wanted inserts. Because I can. Just have to make sure you put them the right way around - tapered and cut in first!

And plop. Perfect (shielded) fit.

 

Once again, I wanted to make sure that in case I escape my bedroom one day and play standing up, it was possible. So I needed pins. Of course, I drilled pilot holes but I also added some lubricant for the screws. A friend of mine is a bee keeper, so I could get quite a bit of nice smelling wax. Local touch if you will.

 

Further down the preparation and assembly line, the pickups needed to come in and be aligned. So I mounted the neck, aligned the outside pole pieces with a thread running from the tuners, and careful marked for the holes. Of course an insert had to come into play.

Marked.

Drilled (the black makes it seems like it's not center but I swear it's on point).

Insert preparation: put a screw in:

Screw in until it's flush:

Remove the screw:

Done!

 

In preparation for the soldering session, I passed the quick connect cables (DiMarzio quick connect) and almost did forget to ground the bridge. Black cable time, secured with a bit of copper tape.

 

Did I mention I hate soldering? In addition, the guy who sold me the pickups "with lots of lead left" forgot to mention he snipped the ground bare wire. Which made them not-so-long-lead-anymore-heh. (First solder job in actually 25 years, checked every step with a multimeter...).

Bridge mounting... just 4 screws.

Ferrules were less fun. Turns out 8.3mm diameter in a 8mm hole is tight. Not sure securing the ferrule depth to be constant (see a few posts above) was needed. But better safe than sorry! I used a dovel to hammer them in. A bit of force had to be used.

All dropped in perfectly and ended up almost perfectly recessed. I can feel one with the finger. Damn. At least they are perfectly aligned and spaced.

 

The neck also needed some love. First, with tuners. I got my son to help with those, he was really overjoyed to contribute.

(Shoutout to Guitar Monkey Locking Tuners, in Germany. Great piece of gear, ultra responsive customer service, very customizable and in Europe it's rare to find locking tuners that you can configure. All for under 100€).

I checked the neck and my fretjob again with a fret rocker, since it had almost 2 months to settle. The neck was straight as an arrow but the fretjob very slightly moved - I guess the rosewood had a fit. It's not 100% perfect as it was but very close, and only 1 fret was problematic. So I decided to spot level that one, and wait to see if a complete leveling job would be needed after putting the guitar together and letting it settle again. Fret 15, low strings, here I come.

Level, crow, sand, polish, as need and perfect!

 

Hoh yeah I need a truss rod cover installed too.

(Dont worry, I countersunk the screw hole....)

Only thing left to do? A nut job. I did it at home with my other guitars. I bought a precut nut, and I intended on sanding the bottom. Turns out my plan was great, but the high strings needed much more sanding than the bass side. Which led to a bit of tricky angled wierd pressure sanding, but I mostly managed - I would say the bass side is on point and the high side a bit high. Good reason for me to buy a set of files soon.

I did it on e and E because my best setup guitar is a 6.

One error with the nut area dates back from when I put the fretboard square to the centerline. I had to slightly file it to correct it, and the fretboard support for the nut apparently ended up not perfectly flat and square. So there is a very narrow space at some point between the but and fretboard. The nut rests well on the base though so not a big deal. I might -further down the road- revisit this area.

 

 

 

Anyhow. It is done. "Birthmark" is complete. Strings on. Setup done (almost on point, neck still settling). Pictures time? (Phone pics for now, saving the good ones for a possible GOTM application ;p)

 

 

The good news is: it is a fully functional instrument. Intonation is on point (I have room forward and backwards and my strings are intonated). There is no fret buzz whatsoever and I don't fret out / bend out notes anywhere with a reasonably low action (1.25 mm high e, 1.75 mm low E and I have a heavy picking hand). The electronics work (amazingly given my soldering job). It is LOUD. The loudest of my guitars unplugged by far. Louder even than my custom make Skervesen of the same shape - easily, and that my Ibanez Prestige(s) that I considered already way too loud acoustically. The neck shape isn't totally what I expected but very comfortable, and the fretwork on it is... dare I say, great? Really satisfied. There are obviously some flaws to the instrument - cosmetic, none functional - that make it an obvious "DIY project" but I am not ashamed of what I have done and will actively play it and not keep it on the wall.

The bad news? It's spoiling my other guitars and now I am hooked and planning the next build(s). Damn you guys.

 

Thanks a lot for reading, and all the advice all along. Especially thanks to @Bizman62 for the initial name idea and numerous good feedback!

 

[henrim]

Congrats finishing your first guitar. Looks really well done.

[Bizman62]

That must be the cleanest first build I've ever seen! Congrats!

1 hour ago, Asdrael said:

The neck shape isn't totally what I expected but very comfortable,

If it feels a bit thick you can fine tune that even with the strings on! The most common issue regarding first builds is that the neck is thick. Your brain just won't believe that you can carve that much away without issues. Also, even though the actual thickness is spot on, the shape may be clumsier than you think. You start by making facets to a square block but you leave an extra mm or so to be on the safe side. And then you never remove that extra mm! The illustration below shows on the left side how the facets are supposed to go, on the right the red lines show how a beginner makes them. For comparison there's a half round and a round V shape, As you can see the facets easily leave more meat on the "shoulders" which makes chording a bit more challenging as your palm side knuckles hit them. A flat bottomed neck may be good for soloing, though, as you can rest your thumb similarly to playing classical guitar.

[Asdrael]

Thanks a lot guys!

 

I think there are 3 main "issues" with the neck currently

- I come from an Ibanez background but got fed up with the excessive D shape they use in their current builds. Having a much more round Skervesen, I went in that direction. I may actually have made it a bit too round (C). It's actually really thin already (20mm or so), and according to my calculations I only have 3mm of wood left at the weakest point (worse case scenario but still). So can't really correct it there.

- It's my first tru-oil + steel wool neck. The feel is a bit off.

- I played the guitar only a limited amount of time and we both need to get acquainted.

 

Going for solution 3 for now. Might go for solution 2 in the near future with a bit of wax. Solution 1 will wait for next build

[Bizman62]

2 minutes ago, Asdrael said:

I only have 3mm of wood left at the weakest point

That's plenty assuming it's right along the centerline. In that case it would be safe to shave it more towards a soft V.

That said, option 3 is the safest bet to start with and option 2 not bad in any case.

[Asdrael]

The weakest point would be at the corner of the truss rod cavity. The issue is, to go back to a shape I am more familiar with and keep the thickness I want, I would have to add material. Going thinner would require shaving down some in the middle and I am not confident it's a good idea with a 7 string eating 130 pounds from the strings.

But for sure, going to get playtime and we'll see. I used to swear by Ibanez 7 neck but I grew out of them once I realized there is other stuff out there.

[Bizman62]

Oh, I didn't mean you should go any thinner at the thinnest point, that's where you're spot on. Let me try to explain further:

• The pink is the extreme, flat with rounded edges and highly exaggerated as such. But basically that's the shape of a classical neck, right?
• Red is close to what I believe you now have, not half round but lots of meat on the edges.
• Blue and green are slimmed down for easier grabbing for the cowboy chords with the thumb wrapped around for the bass string.

As you can see, the thinnest spot doesn't change. So what I'm suggesting is to shave a bit off between the red and blue lines. But it's not just about ergonomics and strummed chords, it's also and more importantly about your playing style. A flat bottom may be better for fast scale runs and arpeggios so you can rest your thumb at any spot for better support for your fingering. But if you feel like there's too much wood in your neck, that's the way to make it feel thinner.

[Asdrael]

I suppose (exaggerating) that my neck is more of the "blue"you're currently, whereas I should have shot more for the "green" one in your expert drawing. But with the same thickness. So... I spent a bit in my CAD and now have new facet measurements for my next build

 

Side note: this one weights 2,950kg all stringed up (and now intonated). And it's not neck heavy at all, it sits nicely. But doesn't fit my wall hanger, the headstock is too thin...

[ScottR]

On 10/22/2023 at 9:13 AM, Asdrael said:

It's spoiling my other guitars and now I am hooked and planning the next build(s). Damn you guys.

Welcome to the brotherhood. There's no way to stop. In a few years you'll have more high end custom guitars than you'll ever need and still ideas will fill your head with new combinations of shapes, woods and electronics that just must be built.

And that's a lovely number 1.

SR

[Asdrael]

Thanks! Build two and three are at the brainstorming stage.

Well, maybe more, I found a good deal on a brand new Schaller Hannes yesterday... So I have a bridge on the way already. Just have to decide if I build with it next or do another seven strings first waiting on a restock of certain woods at Espen and Maderasbarber to order too.

[Asdrael]

On 10/22/2023 at 6:45 PM, Bizman62 said:

Oh, I didn't mean you should go any thinner at the thinnest point, that's where you're spot on. Let me try to explain further:

• The pink is the extreme, flat with rounded edges and highly exaggerated as such. But basically that's the shape of a classical neck, right?
• Red is close to what I believe you now have, not half round but lots of meat on the edges.
• Blue and green are slimmed down for easier grabbing for the cowboy chords with the thumb wrapped around for the bass string.

As you can see, the thinnest spot doesn't change. So what I'm suggesting is to shave a bit off between the red and blue lines. But it's not just about ergonomics and strummed chords, it's also and more importantly about your playing style. A flat bottom may be better for fast scale runs and arpeggios so you can rest your thumb at any spot for better support for your fingering. But if you feel like there's too much wood in your neck, that's the way to make it feel thinner.

 

Somewhat necroing this - I did a bit of work on my CAD software for facetting measurements. Since what I did there turned out to be exactly what I got when doing the actual neck shape of the guitar, I suppose it would be a good starting point.

 

Here is what I got so far:

Black is a C shape (what I currently have). Red is a D shape (what I don't want). Green and Magenta are 2 intermediates that seem to make sense to me. So... I went to the local DIY shop, bought a few meters of pine, and I'll get to shaping in the next few days to see how everything feels. The current neck is the final neck for this guitar due to thickness / truss rod channel consideration but... I might have some hardware on the way for the next ones

[Andyjr1515]

Many, many congratulations on an extremely well-deserved win of October's GOTM!!! 

It is magnificent by any standard...but as a first build, well...that's absolutely off the scale!  

[Bizman62]

Congrats! That was well earned, beautiful and meticulously engineered