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neckthru 7 string korina rhoads


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this is my first attempt at a neckthru. it is black limba and it is going to be a 7 string rhoads knockoff with a reverse headstock and a quilt top with blood red stain. i am still not sure about my bridge, either flatmount hardtail or floyd. im gonna add pics as soon as i get them up on a free site.

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for most of the neck im going to use rasps, files, and fingerplanes. my trick to doing it is also making a radius type sanding block with a curve like that of a fat back strat neck to do some of the plane sanding to get the surface straight and even. if all else fails i can go to my friends house and use his workshop. he has a miliion zillion tools that can do the trick. i do need some tips on making the outline of the neck for when i cut it out. ive been trying to figure that part out and would like some tips.

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for most of the neck im going to use rasps, files, and fingerplanes. my trick to doing it is also making a radius type sanding block with a curve like that of a fat back strat neck to do some of the plane sanding to get the surface straight and even. if all else fails i can go to my friends house and use his workshop. he has a miliion zillion tools that can do the trick. i do need some tips on making the outline of the neck for when i cut it out. ive been trying to figure that part out and would like some tips.

The problem i potentially see with the contoured sanding block approach is that it doesn't take into account the neck taper from the heel to the nut.

There are many different ways to carve a neck, but the one i learned was to use a spoke shave to do the bulk of the shaping. Go slow and make long, even strokes, palming the neck as you get close to the final shape to figure out exactly what thickness and contour feels comfortable. Then do the contours at the nut and heel with rasps and fingerplanes, then finally smooth it out with a cabinet scraper and sanding.

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no, it isnt glued. not even close to that part. right now im sanding the edges of the wings while i wait for my fretboard and bridge and my new nut materials so i can start measuring my neck area and cutting. ill post some pics once i start on the neck contour and map out the taper.

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  • 4 weeks later...

my bridge came in yesterday and the fretboard a few days ago. im sending off my order for binding and truss rod today. when it comes i should have everything i need to start actually working the neck and finish it. im looking around for electronic setups and im thinking about the jimmy page les paul mod where every knob is a push/pull so i can get the most out of this guitar. the bridge is a 7 string hardtail and the fretboard is 25.5 in scale red morado. there is also a pic of the body im going to take a cast of for making a clear jem out of acrylic. it hasnt been finished yet.

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  • 5 months later...

heres an update. i cut an angled regular jackson headstock. i routed out the cavity halfway. i discovered that this limba has a nice flame to it. i had originally thought it was just from the cutter head of the planer we used, but its a flame. im also starting on the carving of the neck. its actually easier than i remember from my last project. i guess its all that experience i gained building necks all summer with my friend.

well heres the pics.

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a nice shot of the whole body glued up, see the flaming?

back of body

a lesson i learned, always use a pillar drill when drilling for the stringthru grommets. these holes are way out of whack. this is the only mistake i regret making because it was stupid of me to lose patience and go at it with a drill and what i thought was a steady hand.

neck carve

here is where i was at in the carving earlier today. i had just started when i grabbed the camera. i am about one third of the way down the neck at this moment. soft wood but im still taking my gawdawful time. i really want a thick playable neck for this one.

Edited by Meegs666
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well, I can dig the stain idea man cuz that would definitely enhance the natural beauty of this thing... but I also think, as this is a neck-thru, and thusly the body wings grain comes toward the neck grain at a dif angle... I think, in pursuit of being different, you could do heavy staining in brown/red at the center and it becomes less and less stained nearer the body's edges...

In dim lights that would make the colours opaque at the center (near the joints) and very natural near the edges... I don't think I've seen that a lot before so it might look good.

Alternately to the stain though, I think you could do that full on neck-wood opaque thing (where you cover it up in some beautiful colour with stripes along the joints)... maybe test these things out on a graphics prog and let me see if my ideas are total crap?

Just some suggestions...

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Guest AlexVDL

Looking good, but man... I hope the guitar stays in one piece. The glue lines are worrying me... I think you should have planed the glueing surfaces of the neck and wings a bit more.

Making a guitar is not that difficult, but preparing the materials is. Preparing two or more pieces of wood to be glued together should be taken more seriously than for instance cutting the body countour or routing B)

But that's just a tip for your next project. Keep doing a great job!

:D

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the problem only shows on the back of the body. its just a few spots where my plane took out chunks. i have since bought a new plane as the old one kept falling apart and the blades werent in the best condition as this plane came from my grandparents house and is probably older than my father. and just to make sure it wont fall apart i used dowel rods embedded into the joint to keep it together. i put rods where the neck pickup would be as im using only a bridge pickup and i also put rods past the cavity. im going to do an opaque color on the back and sides to cover up the joint tearouts.

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i just got a cool idea, probably not original tho. i think im gonna gloss black the entire thing including the back of the neck and then cover it in drips of blood red paint.  and then ill poly the entire thing.

I was lovin it to the blood drips....

Its a great lookin Axe, but seriously, blood drips?? its a amazing guitar that was designed by an amazing guitarist

plus, you want to hide that limba?? :D

Curtis

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yeah the blood does seem to border on tacky, but i dont really know if i want to show of my mistakes. i am not the ordinary guitar builder. i dont have money to buy tools and wood. i did most of this thing with hand tools. other than the routing i did all the shaping with a rasp and a saw. i am also only 17 and this is my second guitar besides all the replacement necks ive made. ive made a lot of mistakes and taken some shortcuts that i dont really want to show off for all the world to see. this is 10 dollars worth of wood, too. not black limba and not white limba. its goes from orange to chocolate brown to white in all different areas. i know the guy who sold it to me and he gets it for free because guitarists are the only ones who want limba in the states but nobody wants the off color pieces. i think my next limba guitar is going to be well worth showing off so for now im thinking just a nice coat of glossy black except for the neck. the neck is my masterpiece to date. ive built many necks for many different types of bolt on guitars but ive never made a neck this nice. im going to just tung oil the back of the neck after i give a nice coating of clear grain filler.

p.s. limba isnt all its made out to be. it may be what some refer to as the father of all tone woods, but its wormy and has pretty bad grain when its flat sawn. this thing was hell for such a soft wood. too many tearouts.

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