Leaderboard

The carving continues. Still more to go, but starting to hone in on it

Grainger Guitars in the UK make excellent ferrule blocks.

Not an enjoyable experience. I made a little dowel to fill in the mounting hole I drilled to locate the bridge. Then I drilled the outer holes all the way through from the top so the brad point was just poking out the back, then measured 4 even marks out between and drilled in from the back slightly larger to take the ferrules, then drilled the inner 4 from top down until I reached the holes from the back. They're not perfect but they're pretty close. I'm sure it will be more noticeable when the ferrules are in. Anyway, on to sanding and finishing

Made one! Not tried it out yet, but will soon.

Sapele is typically considered to be a warmer sounding wood, as far as that goes. It is heavier than mahogany as mentioned and actually sands, cuts and machines fairly well with one caveat. It nearly always chips out when routing the exterior with a pattern following bit. I've never had that issue in routing cavities, but almost always on the body perimeter. SR

The all-important tone screws? I think this would need epoxying in place, or retention purely from string pressure.

These are the Grainger ferrule blocks I have. I could do with getting one in brass (they don't do gold). I angled this to fit under a Hipshot 11deg multiscale bridge. They're very nice. I maybe drilled the through holes a little too large, as these will likely require a little of that string mashing to pass strings through the bridge....

I'd look at it from the viewpoint of the user. If the 7/32" holes from the bottom have a hard transition between them and the corresponding 7/64" holes, there'll be a lot of string mashing during attempts to thread the end through. Equally, opening both out to 7/32" will cause the same thing to happen at the bridge. I'd take a countersink and make the transition angled internally if it is not already. Without the appropriate size countersink, a twist drill run in reverse is enough to do this. Don't run it forwards, otherwise it'll self feed, plus reverse burnishes the wood inside the drill hole making it smoother for the string to ride into the narrower portion.

Thanks chaps, I'll have a look into those if I do a string through in future. I have a question regarding these string-through holes - I drilled 7/64 holes from the top as that is the size of the holes in the bridge, and I drilled 7/32. Would it be easier/less fiddly to string up if I enlarged the the 7/64 holes? or is it better to leave as is? I was contemplating enlarging the holes in the bridge, but they're so close to the secondary screw holes that it's not wise to enlarge the bridge.

To make the tail block as good a fit as possible when gluing to the sides, I stick some abrasive cloth to the mould with double sided tape and, with a couple of guides clamped in place, rub the block on the abrasive. A few pencil or chalk lines on the block show when I have contact all over. I’ll leave the tail block there and start on the neck block. This is a bit complicated because of the adjustable bolt-on neck. It starts with a bit more plywood, a bit more mahogany and a bit of maple. Mahogany cut and trimmed into two pieces and the plywood glued to one of them and trimmed to size. The two central holes are for the bolts and the two larger ones are for threaded inserts. Threaded inserts being installed.

I do have the Stewmac set-up and you're right, it's expensive but I've found it good for delicate stuff like rosette rings. A solution for cutting through is to use a backing board. The pin goes through the workpiece and into the backing board.

And you've just saved some $40 - at least that's the price for a Rockler branded one. Plus yours has that big knob for the bolt! StewMac make a similar one for Dremels, called the Soundhole and Rosette Routing Jig, to be attached to their Precision Router base. Together they're about $200 so if you fancy saving even more bucks, that would be the next build... Just a reminder: don't cut through with the router! Make a groove and cut the rest either with a saw, knife or trim router with the bearing running against the freshly routed groove. If you cut through, the center piece will go all over the place which will ruin your work and be dangerous for yourself!

well that is a part of building that I always dreaded. so difficult to get it perfect. they look pretty straight from here... but as a good fall back point... they make a lovely single piece ferrule block that is sort of handsome. I always thought these just would look nice countersunk into the body.

Intrigued! Not so much by how the hole was/could be formed as much as where this is going to be used in an acoustic build

And so to the headstock plate. Before gluing, a vital thing not to be missed - cutting the access to the trussrod: The cunning plan is to use the cut out above as the cover, fitted flush with magnets: There will be a shallow scoop at the apex as a finger-nail access (this will be a snug fit!) And no, you can't have too many clamps! The plate is presently oversize at the edges and will be sanded flush with the headstock once the glue has fully cured.

The V-burst one (and yes I lovo photography lol)