Build #2 - "Purple Haze"

[Asdrael]

Hey, I'm back. End of 2023/early 2024 was kinda rough so I couldn't build and barely plan anything. So now I have to catch up and hit the ground running! I was really pleased with my first build (which became my main guitar) so that was a good excuse to step it up a notch.

I have had this plan for a kind of straight forward metal 6 for a bit, so after a lot of research and consideration, I received the last part of my order today. The specs (and "build difficulty") are as mentioned a step up compared to my first build, and I introduced some things that are less straight forward to build. So an even bigger challenge with an even bigger gamble.

 

Here are the specs:

- Superstrat style body made of roasted swamp ash with a 5mm flamed maple top

- 25,5" solid rosewood neck, bolt-on, CF rods, with a scarf joint and a matching flamed maple headstock.  Aiming for a rounded D shape, 19.5/21mm

- Pale moon ebony fretboard with Jescar jumbos (no, no stainless just yet)

- Schaller Hannes bridge

- Gorilla Pickups "The Discoverer" set

- DiMarzio auto-trim locking tuners

- Volume + switch (exact electronics not decided yet... maybe a Ibanez 5 way style?)

- Purple hue type of stained color. Not sure how I will finish it. I have Tru-oil left over, and some samples of Osmo Hardwax. And a quite a few scraps to try it on.

 

As you can read above, a few things more challenging than what I did previously but it should not be terrible provided I take my time. I also spent some time training myself on tools (handplanes), making some jigs (fretboard miter box) and even bought a new power tool (spindle sander) so I will hopefully not be completely clueless going in. I will try to document it as I did with my first build.

 

Anyway, today was the "first day". I went to my neighbour carpenter and had him run a body rough blank to thickness since our planer thickness isn't wide enough. He also did the neck blank since he was at it and saved me an hour.

Family picture of the wood below! Wish me luck!

 

(and thanks @Bizman62 and @Andyjr1515 for the general encouragement building and the Hannes rant advice )

[henrim]

1 hour ago, Asdrael said:

no, no stainless just yet

Why not? I have no idea what people are afraid of with installing them. In my experience they are easier as they are harder and keep their shape better while whacking them in. Or whatever method you use. Anyway I don’t care much about them. There is a cold feel in stainless steel as material. Probably just a mental image in my head, but I just prefer nickel silver.

1 hour ago, Asdrael said:

DiMarzio auto-trim locking tuners

Daddario?

[Asdrael]

9 hours ago, henrim said:

Why not? I have no idea what people are afraid of with installing them. In my experience they are easier as they are harder and keep their shape better while whacking them in. Or whatever method you use. Anyway I don’t care much about them. There is a cold feel in stainless steel as material. Probably just a mental image in my head, but I just prefer nickel silver.

While I admit being a bit scared of SS frets due mostly to the need to radius them pretty well before playing whack-a-mole, it's ultimately (read: next build) something I will try. This time around however it's simply because I have one guitar and a half worth of the fretwire I want to use left over in nickel silver and I am rather indifferent when it comes to SS vs NS. It's mostly a matter of how good the fret finish is done.

 

And regarding tuners you are of course right they are D'Addario.

[Asdrael]

So, day 1 in the workshop. I had not a lot planned and wanted to see how it went just cruising along. Well,  not-so-surprisingly, the second build goes much faster. I am not scared of every single thing touching the wood, I have some clues how to go forward or even fix stuff so now I just go and do it. There is still some apprehension when doing real cuts but I have been checking 3 times every cut. I guess that will never go away.

Anyhow, I had the time to do a complete scarf joint and organize the next few sessions.

I still love my scarf joint jig for the bandsaw (that I also can setup and tune pretty well now, thanks Youtube binge watching):

 

It gives pretty much exactly what I wanted, that is 10° with an almost flat surface:

 

A bit of hand planning later (quite a lot actually, still not as good as I should be with that tool), here is the status:

 

Since it all went way too fast, I didn't have what I needed to start on the fretboard. Instead, did some spring cleaning of the workshop, and installed the new spindle sander:

 

This will help with shaping, preparing before routing and thicknessing the headstock / fretboard. Which should happen next week and after I glue the headstock cap.

 

Anyhow, I love handplanes. I tuned mine well enough and this makes me happy:

 

Just one small mistake done today, which shouldn't be a big deal: I insist on using MDF plates to spread the pressure when clamping the joint but given the relatively small surface, I should rather simply go ahead and clamp it down directly. The plates, as I positioned them, amplify any little angle difference between neck bit and headstock bit and could result in some badly pressured spots. There will be lamination, and according to my drawing there basically won't be any strength on it, so the worse case scenario is a slightly unsightly seam on the side of the headstock. Live and learn!

[Bizman62]

8 hours ago, Asdrael said:

I insist on using MDF plates to spread the pressure when clamping the joint but given the relatively small surface, I should rather simply go ahead and clamp it down directly.

I tend to do the same to prevent marks on the surface. But as you said there'll be another layer to hide them.

Let me suggest you a workaround combining the best of both worlds: Attach cork pads to the clamps! For the upper jaw of the F you can simply glue that on the iron (after having cleaned the glue squeezeout remains off, that is). For the round rotating parts you may want a big larger diameter pads which should become sturdy enough using 3-6 mm thick plywood (Nordic Birch) under the cork.

[Asdrael]

14 hours ago, Bizman62 said:

I tend to do the same to prevent marks on the surface. But as you said there'll be another layer to hide them.

Let me suggest you a workaround combining the best of both worlds: Attach cork pads to the clamps! For the upper jaw of the F you can simply glue that on the iron (after having cleaned the glue squeezeout remains off, that is). For the round rotating parts you may want a big larger diameter pads which should become sturdy enough using 3-6 mm thick plywood (Nordic Birch) under the cork.

I resorted to using ones with plastic pads on them. They are soft hardish and don't seem to mark anything. I'll keep your advice in mind though, as I will be shopping for clamps soon. I need "deeper" ones to glue the top to the body.

 

Talking about glueing, I went in tonight for a short session: I wanted to put the headstock laminate on to be able to start on the neck building proper next time.

 

Queue some handplaning on the scarf (I'm doing the "second method" for the scarf joint, I think it's much nicer to look at). Look at those shaaavviiinnnggssss

 

 

Yep, looks like the joint is good - macro shot time:

 

One laminate prepared in position:

 

Now glued in and waiting in its corner...

 

After trying a few different locating pins method, I think the toothpick works best for me. So that's the takeaway for tonight. (Also, I used a tad too much glue. But better than too little!).

 

Now I have to route the channels, prepare the fretboard and try to figure out how I am going to glue the top on the body. Pretty excited to move forward with this!

[Bizman62]

6 hours ago, Asdrael said:

ones with plastic pads on them. They are soft hardish and don't seem to mark anything.

The ones I've bought have always had the padding but the ones you tighten with the screw tend to lose the protective caps. The top covers split and the rotating caps wear from the inside as the 'bearing' doesn't rotate too smoothly.

[Asdrael]

One more day in the workshop! This time around I tried to plan everything better to be more efficient. The goal was to get the neck ready for fretboard glue up but I didn't quite manage due to a jig having to be redone...

Anyhow, status at the start of the session:

 

So first, I had to take care of the overhang of the headplate. Easy enough with a file and a hand/blockplane (which is quickly becoming my most satisfying tool to use):

 

You know you are done when you have nice double scoop of chocolate and vanilla:

 

And a nice result. The glue line is not perfect, but I am fairly satisfied with it (it will be under the fretboard, and that's on a 10° angle). From the sides it looks perfect though. Macro shots:

 

After realizing my truss rod routing jig was not good for that blank (blank was too narrow, the jig kept rocking), I had to go shopping for a piece of wood and redo the jig. Not a big deal, jut cost me 90 minutes and 7,50€. Still... Anyhow, queue some routing:

With a good end result:

 

For what it's worth: this time around, I tried another type of truss rod. Still double action but not entirely wrapped - it's supposed to be extra low profile. It's also metric. I like the low profile bit, the only issue is that while the start and end are basically cubes and fit perfectly, the threaded part sit very slightly shy of those. Meaning that when I push at the ends, it's all flush and perfect, but in the middle, there is a small flex. I will likely address this with a drop or two of silicon.

One mistake I did is that I either didn't secure the depth stop for one carbon fiber rod (this time around 3x6mm) or I measured the thickest one before routing. For some reason one rod was 5.9mm, the other one 5.6mm thick. I like to route a tad deep, so I routed approx 6.3mm deep. For one side it's on point, for the other it's slightly too deep. Not deep enough that I am going to bother putting a veneer on it, but still. Not a perfect job.

 

As I was getting late and wanted to let the wood relax before securing the CF with glue and moving on to the truss rod, I decided the best course of action was to start removing wood.

First step: headstock thickness. Aiming for 14.5-15mm before any final sanding. Now with a made-up thickness sander / volute shaper:

It does the trick nicely:

 

I just had to do a pass on the bandsaw to roughly shape the neck so I could let it rest before moving on next time... Status:

 

I am digging the headstock shape to be honest (thanks again for the feedback on the other topic peeps!). And the rosewood as a neck feels awesome unfinished already. Surprisingly tightly grained and smooth, even just at 320grit. With some wax it might feel even better than a classical tru-oil maple setup.

 

[Andyjr1515]

All looking good from here!

[ScottR]

On 4/4/2024 at 2:13 AM, Asdrael said:

And the rosewood as a neck feels awesome

I totally love the feel of a rosewood neck!

Looking good.

SR

[Asdrael]

More progress! Slower than I would have liked (as usual), but at least it's a steady pace.

 

I had to redo my template for my home made fretboard slotting jig. I had a minimal error (0.265 mm...) as the nut slot didn't take into account the thickness of the saw. This should have been the fastest thing even on the laser cutter, but as I completely cleaned it and set it up properly last time, I had to make sure it was going to be perfect. Anyhow, yes, it's now perfect.

 

Which means that after a couple of rounds on the spindle thickness sander and some hand planing to make sure it was all perfect (god damn I love those shavings) it was time to cut to a rough shape.

 

Queue lots of sawing. I don't know if my technique is bad or is my saw is going bad (ebony is even harder than I thought) but it took me I guess 2 hours to do it in total. Including setting up the height of the cut properly.

Slotted, nice depth (the radius won't be too extreme here with 17") and seems to align perfectly with the template. Better than doing it by hand like in my first build.

BUT... the ebony decided to crack a tad from fret 22 to 24 on the bass side.

 

I decided to ghetto fix it to stabilize it with superglue and pressing some dust into the crack. Once it's on the neck and radiused, I will do it better.

(I sanded it afterwards and it's almost invisible already.)

 

I had some time left so I decided to make a mess. Routing is fun, routing rosewood is messy. But the neck and part of the headstock is routed, I will do the rest by hand. I prepared it well on the spindle sander first to make sure I was as close to possible to the template before taking the bit to it, which was a good idea as I had some minor chipping on the first pass (that was not deep enough to be seen on the second pass). The trick parts like the heel went smoothly too so I am happy about that. I am not sure the template is perfect as I can heel (but not see) some imperfection but nothing a few passes of 180 grit can't take care of. Is it me or is rosewood harder to work with than maple? Between that and ebony, I feel like my neck is way more difficult to work on than my first one.

 

Next stage: headstock shaping, perfecting the neck route by hand, and mating the fretboard to the neck!

[Crusader]

Love the grain in that fretboard!

[Bizman62]

52 minutes ago, Crusader said:

Love the grain in that fretboard!

Me too! Isn't it funny that such gorgeous looking pieces of ebony were considered as waste not too long ago. Some people still only accept the darkest ebony. Us connoisseurs know better!

[Asdrael]

Thanks! I love PME as well but it's not a wood I would use in every build, as it's very "busy" by nature. Also, finding a good looking piece is very difficult it seems. I spent ages looking at what seemingly was used-toilet-paper-grained PME (at outrageous prices) before finding a good source that had a piece I liked enough for the build I had in mind.

[henrim]

That is a nice piece of wood. It has this smoky dreamy feel to it. Although busy, it has such a color distribution that I can see it working as a fretboard. Personally I generally prefer non-figured fretboards as there are already lines going in two directions (frets and strings), and my simple mind can’t handle too many contradicting shapes and forms. In some cases that I have seen the neck look like twisted or oddly shaped because of the strong figure in the fretboard. But you have found a piece that likely won’t have that effect.

[Asdrael]

11 hours ago, henrim said:

Personally I generally prefer non-figured fretboards as there are already lines going in two directions (frets and strings), and my simple mind can’t handle too many contradicting shapes and forms.

Even though I love most of the PRS wood selection, their relatively frequent use of stained flamed maple for fretboards messes with my brain.

[Gogzs]

Love everything about this, from wood selection to what you're building. Rosewood neck being my fav. part about it. Following this one closely

[Asdrael]

I managed to squeeze in some building time into a busy work travel schedule yesterday evening. Yay me.

 

That was the order of the day: put this together.

 

This time everything was fairly well prepared so not difficult. One rod goes in after the other first, with a line of high viscosity superglue in the slot, some tape to protect the surface around it from squeeze out, and some sanded-flat toothpicks and clamps to make sure the pressure is good.

One rod ended up VERY slightly proud of the surface, one slightly under. This is due to the two rods not being the exact same size and another issue I tracked: the depth gauge of the caliper I use is 0.3mm "recessed" so the readings are wrong. I will need to take this into account when moving further. Funnily enough it also explains why everything was ever so slightly off with my first build when it comes to depth.

Anyhow, this time around, the slightly proud rod is fixed by scrapping it until flush. For the one slightly recessed, I decided to leave it as is as the wood glue would fill up the sub 0.5mm gap easily enough. I also added two drops of silicon to the truss rod channel, as this particular one has the ends slightly bigger than the actual thread. I wanted to make sure that even with zero tension there would be no rattle.

 

As it was my first time placing an already slotted fretboard onto a neck blank, I went back and looked at a few videos on locating pins. I do not think having it every so slightly out of alignment is bad (will basically make no difference at the bridge, at least none that setting up the intonation can't correct). I didn't like so much the toothpick / nail / side dot tube through the fretboard as it requires drilling blindly through a crack prone fretboard into the space between the carbon rod and the truss rod. So instead, I used the thinnest nails I got, put them on the neck, cut them off slightly proud (keep that in mind for later...) and used them as invisible locating pins. It worked wonderfully well in the dry run I do before glue up.

 

Time to tape the truss rod and go with the glue!

 

I also prepared the rosewood and ebony for glue up with some 320 sanding and some naphta to remove the oils. This gave me a glimpse of what the PME was going to look like and holy shit. If I don't mess up the stain on the maple, this might look awesome.

So during glue up, I faced a stupid issue. While the locating pin close to the nut was fine, ensuring the "vertical" alignement or the board, I couldn't for the life of me put the fretboard in the heel pin. I do not know why. So I had to realign manually with the glue deciding to make everything slippery. Took me a bit but I think I did it as good as I could using my eyes, the routing template, whatever I could. Then I pressed down to repin it, clamped it with hand clamps for 5 minutes, then switched to the full clamping for the night. Next time, I will simply not cut them so short (see I say next time already, as if I had already planned a third build). I use an MDF board slightly wider than the fretboard, with one thickness of tape alongside the border + a length of foam to make sure the pressure is well distributed with a slight overpressure on the edge. Provided nothing moved, it should be perfect. Bare the slight amount of tape that stuck around the nut (yay for chisels afterwards).

Anyhow, this is the status and will stay so till tonight:

 

This went faster than I thought, and I forgot the dxf file to laser cut the pickup template and the side project I have going on. So early night. I will take it off the clamps tonight, let it dry and settle for at least a week, route the fretboard sides, carve the headstock and rough carve the neck next. Then it will get at least another week to settle during which I will glue the body.

 

[Bizman62]

5 hours ago, Asdrael said:

While the locating pin close to the nut was fine, ensuring the "vertical" alignement or the board, I couldn't for the life of me put the fretboard in the heel pin. I do not know why.

I do. Tried it and faced the same. The glue layer is thick enough to cover most of the heigth of the pin and the glue is also thick enough to cover the very tip so the fretboard slides over it. Think about a snail that can glide over a razor blade without cutting its foot. The muckus is that thick. Same thing with glue. Next time I'll leave it at least 1 mm tall.

Oh, and I used side dot pins instead of nails just in case.

[Asdrael]

Yep, I'll do that for the next one. The funny thing is I had the pins at a tad over 1mm at first and then redid them thinking "I don't need much that it'll just make it hard to press".

Hindsight 20/20, live and learn, etc

[Bizman62]

4 minutes ago, Asdrael said:

I had the pins at a tad over 1mm at first and then redid them thinking "I don't need much that it'll just make it hard to press".

You don't have to press them much, only enough for a mark so you can drill the marking hole deeper. If you're using very hard woods you can first drill holes into the neck, then put the pins in and finally put a piece of masking tape to the approximate locations of the pins. Don't burnish the tape so it remains somewhat foamy to get a mark for drilling to the fingerboard.

[Asdrael]

Hah I see how you do it now. The way I did it didn't require to drill anything. Slightly hammer the nail in, cut it, and use whatever was poking out as a "secondary nail" since the cut made it pretty sharp (sharper than the actual nail actually). Good idea tho.

[Bizman62]

Drilling allows for using softer pin material like plastic or tooth picks. Plus if the fingerboard wood is very hard you may end up hammering the poking part deeper into the neck wood.

[Asdrael]

Hi babe.

Glue up went well. Everything is where it should be and alignment seems close to perfect. I will know more when everything is cleaned up and routed but I have no reason to worry (yet).

The neck is now resting in my guitar room, intimately getting to know the fretboard while it all finishes to dry in a proper environment (if that's what you call german weather right now).

Can't wait for the next steps!