PaulNeeds Posted May 13, 2004 Report Share Posted May 13, 2004 Well, summer's nearly here, so I can get to work on a couple of projects without filling the house with mahogany and basswood dust! One's a refinish of a strat, possibly with a maple veneer that I got from the wonderful guy at Universal Jems The other, much more ambitious project for me, is this. When I moved here 6 months ago, amidst the ruins left by the previous owners, I found a mantel shelf made of mahogany and claimed to be about 40 years old. I have a notion to use this as the basis of a through neck flying vee - always wanted a vee, never had one. What's more, I've never made a neck of any kind, although I've meddled with the work of others along the way! So, and I know that it's all here somewhere (but my searches have been to no avail), I've a few questions to which I'm hoping some kind soul will humour me by answering. 1. Through neck - they use a normal truss rod, or a longer one? I don't really want to take the fretboard off my warwick buzzard to find out! 2. Carbon fibre neck reinforcement. I've read here that these are well worth having. Now, looking at AlexVDL's great instructions on making an angled headstock... would I insert the carbon BEFORE making the angle cut, or after, laying them as far as where the nut will go? Will I need reinforcement (volute?) behind the nut using this kind of approach? 3. Thinking also of making a sort of semi-solid vee here, with a kind of reversed Ricky 330 angular hole to complement the V shape. Any thoughts on this? Thanks guys, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tmo Posted May 13, 2004 Report Share Posted May 13, 2004 Be very carefull with the neck joint. V kind guitars do need the Heel thing in case of having a Neck Pickup. That is to avoid its breaking, unless you´re making a guitar with composite materials... Do the project very carefully. The need of the Volute dependes in the strenght of the wood... only experience could answer this... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westhemann Posted May 13, 2004 Report Share Posted May 13, 2004 1. Through neck - they use a normal truss rod, or a longer one? normal(18" or thereabouts,depending on type of rod used) 2. Carbon fibre neck reinforcement. I've read here that these are well worth having. Now, looking at AlexVDL's great instructions on making an angled headstock... would I insert the carbon BEFORE making the angle cut, or after, laying them as far as where the nut will go? Will I need reinforcement (volute?) behind the nut using this kind of approach? i run them in the same spot lengthwise as the truss rod itself...as far as the volute...i would,but i like them Be very carefull with the neck joint. V kind guitars do need the Heel thing in case of having a Neck Pickup. That is to avoid its breaking, unless you´re making a guitar with composite materials... i don't know what you mean...a good vee design has plenty of support in that area...but there is no use taking the heel much beyond the 18th fret,because at that point it is no longer in the way Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Litchfield Custom Gutars Posted May 13, 2004 Report Share Posted May 13, 2004 I like the semi hollow V idea. As for the neck, The Carvin necks are great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westhemann Posted May 13, 2004 Report Share Posted May 13, 2004 I like the semi hollow V idea. not me...for balance you kind of need the weight in the body....because of where you have to install the top strap pin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jehle Posted May 14, 2004 Report Share Posted May 14, 2004 I think it's great that there are so many V projects getting started now. I've got my full size plans and woods picked out and have just gotten to the point of cutting the wood. Sorry no piccys yet to show. I'm going with an 18" Hot Rod for the truss rod and that's with the standard 24 3/4" Gibson scale length. Having looked around and measured and looked around some more, I think the 18" truss rod should suffice for that sort of guitar. I'm not using carbon fiber to reinforce the neck. Are you planning on making a bass or a "normal" guitar? I'm not sure that carbon would be needed unless you where going to have the added tension of the bass strings, or an extremely thin neck. Comments? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westhemann Posted May 14, 2004 Report Share Posted May 14, 2004 doesn't really NEED the carbon rods,it just adds some rigidity and a feeling of "solidness" i like them in my necks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulNeeds Posted May 14, 2004 Author Report Share Posted May 14, 2004 I'm not using carbon fiber to reinforce the neck. Are you planning on making a bass or a "normal" guitar? I'm not sure that carbon would be needed unless you where going to have the added tension of the bass strings, or an extremely thin neck. Comments? It's going to be a 6-string this time. I've a terrible tendency to 'pull' backwards on the neck, knocking out the tuning. For instance, I've an old Aria I bought back in about 1980 that is unplayable for me now because it has a thin neck. So it's really a matter of "belt and braces", and should I end up making the neck perhaps too thin, it'll have more rigidity than otherwise and notbe a waste of time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulNeeds Posted June 28, 2004 Author Report Share Posted June 28, 2004 Thinking of trying to inlay these - I'm sure I've seen something similar here before. Have some nice NZ Paua which I expect to have immense fun cutting and inlaying, so don't be suprised if you hear of a new fingerboard being imported from StewMac... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulNeeds Posted July 1, 2004 Author Report Share Posted July 1, 2004 OK. First cuts made today. Have reduced a lovely 40 year-old mahogany shelf to two lovely neck-through blanks. One I've squared off and started marking up, the other is for 'next time'. Pretty much have all my components now, apart from tuners, P/U switch and maybe a truss rod cover. I've decided to go against using the carbon fibre rods, as this is to be a two piece neck - the wood is really settled and dense, so I don't see any need to cut it further and then re-glue to make a laminated neck. If I turn out to be wrong, I've more of the same wood so the situation would (wood) be retrievable as far as the guitar is concerned. Using a Stew-Mac hot rod, as this curved channel business looks far too complicated for my first whole build - and first neck. I intend putting a quilt top on the instrument, finished with tru-oil, and the inlay will be as above - paua abalone 'v's on a LP scale rosewood fretboard. Matched pair of Gibson Pickups, with a thru-body string V tailpiece and Gibson ABR-1 bridge. This may need recessing - not certain as yet. I may fit either Graph-Tech or Baggs piezo bridge to the ABR later - so I've bought one of the 4 pots in a pull-switch type, so I can hook the acoustic sound in when I want. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maiden69 Posted July 1, 2004 Report Share Posted July 1, 2004 What color is this, I want to paint mine an this is close to the blue that I want... I don't know if it will look good with the cherry color in the back but I think the top will look great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MzI Posted July 1, 2004 Report Share Posted July 1, 2004 stew mac hot rod truss rods dont need a curved channel, the single action rods do need a curved channel, just make sure you get the correct size router bit because its an odd size at 7/32", if your goin with the abr tom iyou may want to angle the neck blank against the body instead of recessing the bridge into the body MzI Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulNeeds Posted July 1, 2004 Author Report Share Posted July 1, 2004 The Les Paul is what Gibson called "Sapphire" - It's a Studio Gem. I agree though - fab colour! Most of my guitars seem to be blue... MZi - yeah - that's why I got the hot rod truss rod exactly so I don't have to deal with the curved channel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulNeeds Posted July 12, 2004 Author Report Share Posted July 12, 2004 Progress has been made. I've cut and glued the scarf joint to formthe headstock angle - last week I think it was (such a great memory),and yesterday routed the channel for the rod - bang on the centre line! Now, have started marking up the wood to reduce the width to the correct dimensions. Having a good think about exactly HOW I'm going to do this, as I don't have a bandsaw. I want to keep the depth in the through-neck blank so I have a parallel surface for when I glue on the fingerboard. Found an omission though - haven't got any wood the right thickness for my headstock ears... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strange Fruit Posted July 13, 2004 Report Share Posted July 13, 2004 Wes, always wondered something about your vee. With the recessed T.O.M did you put a neck angle in? Also, what depth did you rout to for the recession? Sorry if this has been answered before! Matt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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