metallisomething

The big wing is about 20.5" long and the little wing is about 15.5" long. From the heel to the bottom of the body is about 13". You have to account for the fact that you are going to round the points on the wings. You also have to round them at the heel end to blend the wings in with the center cection of the body, this takes some of the length. This is what I'm talking about with the wing size. I am going to sand the tip of that wing to blend it in with the neck. The wing size really depends on where you have the body joining the neck, mine is at the 19th fret similar to most V's with 24 frets. As for gluing it together; it took a carefuly arrangement of clamps and wood blocks, most were the off cuts from the Oak itself. The other side is already glued and was done so in the same fasion. A little belt sanding and voila. Sorry no pics of the truss rod slot being routed, I was too busy making sure everything was straight to take a picture. I am using a Hot Rod double action truss rod, so routing the slot was relatively straight forward. My router has a fence that rested the router flush with the side of the neck, this was of course before I tapered the neck. To taper the neck (sorry, no pictures) I made a template that was the size of the neck and used a guide on my router to follow it up and down the neck cutting at a depth of about 1/8" at a time to make sure it was accurate each pass. This was very difficult because as you know no matter how good the template is, the wood won't respond the way you want it to. This was the most accurate way to do it though as my eye and bandsaw skills can't be compared to a straight line. The router slipped at one point and took a small gouge out of the neck, so I'll be filling that in soon. Rock & Roll

This is my first guitar. As many other left handed guitars players out there will know it's hard to find a left handed production model at a decent price that does what you want. I've always been a fan of the Jackson Rhoads V's and although they do make left handed models, they only make their top end ones left handed. That combined with me always getting a lot of satisfaction out of making something myself made me come to only one conclusion...do it yourself... Here are a few progress pics, I will post more soon and until I'm done... Few preliminary stats: Neckthrough Maple neck and center Oak wings Tune-O-Matic bridge I cut out the wings on paper to use as a template for the wood Neck and center section of body This is the center section turned on its side. Note the neck angle Thats all for now...stay tuned

I a lot further along than this picture would suggest. It is fretted and the neck is carved. Only thing left to do now is fit the hardware and put a finish on it. Yeah, thats right, I'm left handed

Im currently building a Rhoads V neckthrough, using maple for the neck and oak for the body wings. I made the decision early on to make it 1-1/4" thick. I was worried about the Oak being way to heavy if I made it any thicker. Without hardware its not very heavy so I couldve made it thicker. I'd recommend making it thicker than I did, the actually production models are about 1-3/4" thick. Now all I have to do is choose a stain....I'm thinking dark.....and evil....

I'm making a neck through rhoads V thats 1-1/4" thick. Im using rock maple for the neck and center, and oak for the sides. Seeing as oak is like steel I shouldn't have a problem with strenth, as for tone.....pending, have to wait and see/hear. Gibson SG's are extremely thin. Ibanez's are ridiculously thin. It has been said in recent years that thickness of an electric guitar/bass has less bearing on the tone than once thought. I'll let you know when I'm done.

I didn't just cut the taper on one side. It's a very reasonable question. I have an angle jig for my table saw and it seemed the easiest way to get a constant(perfectly straight) taper on the wood, which it did. and i am proud to say that i am pretty sure I made in error in thinking i made an error.... The error was off by about the width of a pencil line, and thats what i think happened, my pencil was off because i checked everything again with a digital calipre and everything seems ok. The thought of it being right outwieghs my embarrassment. Relief! So I am going to glue it on now and hold my breath until its dry....

Ok, Heres exactly what I did I drew a center line on the fretboard blank. I attatched the fretboard blank to the fret slotting ruler and placed it in the fret slotting mitrebox from stew mac (making sure everything was lined up. I cut all the slots. I then measured and drew the taper. I used an angled fence attatchment for my table saw to cut the taper. Everything was lined up as perfectly as it could be. So someone tell me how you make a flawless fretboard. Im a little frusterated and angry that after all that work I have a useless, beautiful piece of ebony. Thanks again

I have just finished slotting, and shaping my fretboard and low and behold, the fret slots AREN'T perpendicular to the center line. Dont bother asking how it happened because I dont know, I planned very carefully. Ok, If I draw a line perpendicular to the fret slots and compare it to the center line its off by 0.5 degrees. This means that by the end of the fretboard the center line and the perpendicular line are 0.2 inches apart. Is this a MAJOR problem that will render my not yet existing guitar useless? I am frantically trying to figure out if I need to go to the wood place (which is very far away from my house) to get a new one PLEASE HELP!!!!! THANKS

I am planning on making a neck-through design guitar and i have a piece of flatsawn maple i am planning on using for the neck and center section of the body. I know Strats all use flatsawn necks with truss rods, but these are all, of course, bolt-ons. My concern is that the guitar will be weaker past toward the bridge, past the truss rod. Does flatsawn have the strength?

as for the depth concern with HotRods, the difference in size between the hotrod and the Allied Lutherie Ltd is only 0.062". i dont know how precise and thin you guys are making these necks but, thats not a big enough difference to care. (its aoubt 1/16" if anybody cares) has anyone used the traditional Gibson style truss rods stew mac What are they like?

hyunsu, i really admire your work and you skill. Not to mention the speed at which you do all this. do you draw the designs on paper before you start building? im having a hard time with my drawing. i dont know where to place the pickups or how to align the bridge properly (tune o matic) How do i position the bridge?

ed roman's site talks about the tension free neck design here has anyone owned one of these types of necks? if anyone can explain the pin "connecting" the fretboard and the neck, it would be helpful, i dont understand the diagram.

and a fanned fret system means what exatcly?

if its all the same wire, why would they need anymore crowning? a two foot length of fretwire should have a (fairly) constant crown, should it not? if not, what should i buy on a limited budget (ie. im not buying that $150 fancy stewmac diamond thing) The fretwire is already crowned!!!!!!!!!!

ive thought about that with jumbo wire. they say with jumbo wire that eventually you will play without even touching the fretboard. thats a technique im going to master.....gulp when you hammer in the wire, does the wire dent easily? it seems youd have to hit it pretty hard. plus, i dont want to buy all that crowning file stuff i just want to install the frets and be gone with it. does anyone secure the frets with glue, or epoxy?

could someone post a link to the fret bender tutorial? i searched but did not found.

now, ive never worked with fretwire before,. however it seems to be you could just cut a block of wood in a circle with a radi the same as the fretboard. youd probably have to cut a slot for the tang to sit in, but thats still easier than spending $40 + on a bender. then wrap the fretwire around and tape it. if im wrong then im wrong but sometimes the simplest answers are the best. is fretwire hammered in all the time? or do people ever use glue/epoxy?

I wasent too worried about the TOM tilt, but those are good methods. i was more concerned with just centering the bridge. Im in the middle of drawing plans for my (first) guitar, and i dont quite know how to line up the bridge. My plan is to first draw a line representing the width at nut, then find the center of that line and draw a line perpendicular to the nut. This new center line will serve as a reference point. could i then just draw the bridge line centered on this vertical center line?(then tilt it, right now im just worried about placement) to do something right you have to do it wrong first, unfortunately with building guitars, theres a lot of money involved.

what else can used to cut the fret slots!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

how do you line up the bridge (specifically a Tune O Matic) on the body? for instance, when drawing the plans for your guitar (by hand, no CAD) how do you line up the bridge so the nut and stings all line up? the fact that the TOM is staggard 1/8" makes it seem even harder help!

has anyone ever made a neck through with flatsawn maple? im a little worried about the strength of the flatsawn, but with a trussrod it should be ok, right?

i know what you mean. im set on a TOM, and i'm making a neck angle. but there are a few different kinds of TOMs. stew mac has the tone pros, which are really expensive, they also have the nashville ones, which are a bit cheaper, but then they have ones that are$17.11 this price looks really good, but i dont know what the difference between the cheap ones and the expensive ones are, the specs are all the same!

With jumbo fretwire, does it ever occur that if you press down too hard on the string when fretting, that you will bend the string towards the fretboard enough to make it go out of pitch? this would be because the fret is so much higher off the fretboard than traditional smaller wire. also, i find that when using a capo (the spring loaded kyser kind) that all the stings are slightly off pitch. is there a special way to put a capo on that im missing? is there a position problem?

For my first guitar, im at the stage where im looking for a bridge. Im thinking tuneomatic because of the sound, and price (being cheaper than tremolo) id like to hear what you guys have to say about bridges what style, make, and models work for you?

does anyone know of a product/ saw blade, for a table saw that is the thickness of the fretwire? where can i get the .019" fretwire!!!!!!!!!!!!!????????????????????