n8rofwyo

Interesting to see everyone's input on this subject. Personally, I agree that creating a guitar includes creating the neck and fingerboard. The process of making the guitar, to me, means altering anything involving wood - and then applying the proper finish to that wood. I simply assemble hardware and electronics. But the only reason I feel this way is because the whole process is very important to me personally. If MY neck and MY fingerboard aren't on MY body, it's not MY guitar. That isn't to say that any of the three guitars Iv'e made are terriffic by any means. My first guitar was an abomination. It was body heavy with a great orange peel finish. The neck was far too thick, as well as too narrow at the nut. Two frets were off kilter, and not a single fret was the same height before dressing. In fact I didn't bother crowning them because several had been ground down so low. The level of satisfaction I get from doing everything I can possibly do myself is what drives me to keep building guitars. The only thing that currently bothers me is that I don't do inlay - even bad inlay. I concur that the process should be rewarding regardless of what the process is for each of us. As for myself, I wouldn't even dream of selling one of my guitars to someone else. I'm simply not good enough for that to be a reality at this point. And that's fine, it keeps the time I have to work on my guitars pure and unmolested by meeting deadlines and budgets. But it also heightens my respect for the pros here who are willing and able to do just that and still stop in to PG to answer questions and give advice. So in conclusion: If it makes you happy building it - whatever extent that may be- then do it, and post pics of it to keep the rest of us happy as well. Nate Robinson

The patch for the wormhole will stand out like a sore thumb. It's just too big to hide that way. The patch will turn out much darker than the rest of the body unless you do a few trial runs with stain to try to find the color (or colors) that will best match the clear coated epoxy/dust filler. At least that has been my experience with this sort of thing. Maybe someone else has another idea. Other than that, it looks pretty slick to me. Good luck. Nate Robinson

Hey, on the bright side, you have the ability and resources to make a new neck. If the last one was your first try and you liked it, imagine the possibilities of a second. And, in my opinion, it takes alot to recongnize a mistake for what it is and not try to cobble something together anyway. That alone should take you in the right direction. Good Luck on the build! Nate Robinson

First of all, jmrentis is right. If we make the mods jobs easier they get to do two things: 1) spend more time showing us their guitar projects. 2) spend less time repremanding us for wasting their time (which they want to spend on guitars as much as we do) Secondly, I think the headstock looks pretty good. To me it reflects the proportions of the body well. The neck heavy issue may be valid though, your guitar - your decision. Hell, I don't even care much for "metal" guitars, but this looks good to me! Good luck. Nate Robinson

I haven't installed any of these caps, but I would think that if I were to do it I would use contact cement to put them on. The cement would be strong enough to hold them in place, but if you decided to remove them you could do it without damaging the existing pickup cover. Just my unexperienced thoughts though.... Nate Robinson

dnicarry, I think that you are on the right track for a neck through. I will state up front that I have never built one. I have been here long enought to read many posts from those who have, though. I think that as long as the heel of the neck is the maximum thickness you want from the body then you're ok. You can always sand, scrape, or plane the "neck through" to be flush with the body. And as RAI6 says, that's - in a nutshell - how it's done. Put wings on her and let her fly brother! Good Luck. Nate Robinson Oh, and welcome to the forum!

Mattia has exactly voiced my concerns about useing a 8mm collet vs. a 12mm collet. Spinning large or long bits with a 8mm collet is, in my opinion, dangerous if you don't take it slow and easy. Nate Robinson

I'd be forced to agree. If you're just using the router for guitar building, then you probably don't need anything more than a hobby quality tool. That's not to say you wouldn't be much happier with a better quality router, but the one you have in mind should work fine. I noticed you said it had a 8mm collet. That means you will need to work slowly and with light passes to be safe. I also agree that good quality bits will be much safer, as well as produce much more uniform results. To give you the idea of the bits that may be usefull, here is a list of the ones I commonly use. 1/4" x 1 1/4" straight bit 1/4" x 1 1/2" top bearing straight bit 1/2" x 1 1/2" bottome bearing sraight bit 1/2" x 2" straight bit 1/2" x 1 1/2" roundover bit 1/8" x 1 1/4" straight bit Hope everything goes well, and good luck on the tele. Nate Robinson

Ahh, Maiden, you beat me to it! I have a dozuki on order right now from Woodworkers supply. Love em' and this will be the first I own. Back to the thread. It does look to me like the woods you have chosen compliment each other nicely. Keep us posted, this could be a beautifull instrument! Good Luck. Nate Robinson

Yeah, what fryovanni said. Nate Robinson

I bought the stewmac fret slotting saw blade ($70) and the fret slotting template ($40). I then built a shooting board for the table saw and couldn't be happier. I used a hobby saw and miter box for my first fingerboard and it took forever. With the blade, template and shooting board I can do about 12 finger boards an hour. Love it, and wouldn't do it any other way. I radius my boards after I slot them, It took a few pieces of scrap to figure out how deep to set the saw blade, but through trial and error I got it down pat. Now everything is smooth as silk, no fuss, no muss, just fingerboards when I need them. Good Luck! Nate Robinson

You're right, that koa really popped with the Tru Oil. Looks great - really classy T, no doubt. Nate Robinson

I don't think they are f-holes so much as f-canyons. When you get the hardware on there and start covering up wood, they are going to look REALLY big. I don't think they are an eyesore so much as they are just dispaportional to the rest of the body. Just my thoughts though. Nate Robinson

Count me in as well, when you get the details sorted. Nate Robinson

I have come to prefer routing the neck pocket before I even cut the body. I do it for the same reasons that unclej said. I glue up the body and then use the glue joint as a center line. I then decide how tall I want the bouts to be and then route the neck pocket. I do however buy body blanks that are at least 30 inches long, that gives me a little room to play. The reason I route the neck pocket before cutting the silhouette of the blank is because I feel the neck joint is the most important joint in the instrument, and as such I try to treat it with respect. I don't want that router getting a mind of its own and tipping off the edge of the body. I know that this is not the way some of the builders here do it, but it falls within my own personal "safe zone" - know what Im saying? As far as dry fitting the neck, templates are the way to go. If you you are building your own neck then you can do anything you want to - within reason. If you are putting a premade neck on the body, then just be carefull with your measurements. Measure the neck and apply those numbers to the pocket only slightly smaller, this gives you room to fine fit the neck to the pocket. Well, I hope this has been helpfull, and as always, anyone with better info feel free to chime in. Good luck guitarded. Nate Robinson.

Now that's funny!

I think that if you are building a guitar to impress friends that have already built guitars, your chances of blowing them out of the water are pretty slim. Granted, you will appreciate what they do a little more, and they will - to an extent - appreciate your effort. But in the end, you need to build one for yourself. It WILL be more expensive than buying a strat, even if you go as cheap as you can with components. I'm not trying to be high and mighty by any means though, my projects have all been centered around the strat design. It's comfortable and I like it, so I build what feels good.... Ya know. The question raised about the quality of your first build is a good one. Even if 90% of the build goes perfect, that other 10% really makes a big difference in the overall quality of the instrument. In my mind the difficulty of building a specific model ( I.E. Stratocater, Les Paul, Paul Reed Smith, etc.) is irrelivent. We all like different things and our projects reflect that. However, you should definently get a good set of templates for whatever you decide to build. If you buy them it will improve the fit and finish of your guitar immensly. If you make them, it gives you the practice necessary to be able to finish your project with a sense of accomplishment in a job well done. If you have done your research on building, and then bought a couple of books, and then done some more research, and still think you would like to have a go at building - THEN GO FOR IT BROTHER AND WELCOME TO THE FORUM!!!!!! Nate Robinson

That sounds awfull kooky to me. Why not just reshape/file the nut instead of carving on the heel to keep the strings equidistant from the fretboard? And if that is what was done to the instrument, the nut must look like a shark fin inlay on edge.... or maybe the saddle heights change dramatically from the high e to the low e. But again that doesn't make sense because it would be so much easier to adjust the saddle heights than carve on the neck. As far as it being an adjustment for pickups, that seems to me to be the easiest thing of all to take care of without even unstringing the instrument! Not to be redundant but you are quite sure the neck isn't twisted? Nate Robinson

On one hand I think, "Why even bother, finish the party and torch her. Consider it a sacrifice to the Guitar Gods". On the other hand, it's an intriguing(sp) idea to take on a re-build like this. To be honest, I'm torn on this one. But then I suppose we all build "bits" of guitars, so I hope it goes well. Good Luck! Nate Robinson

Not a stupid question at all. Jigs and templates are about as close to holiness as I get, and I believe whole heartedley in them. The basic premise is that you have a a base that rides across the table saw, with this base your goal is to cut a piece of stock absolutely perpendicular with the saw blade. Thats it, thats all. In practice though, a shooting board is a little more difficult. 1) You need a fence to push your stock up against to keep it from wandering all over the base. 2) Your fence needs to be perpendicular to the saw blade. In order for the fence to be perpendicluar to the saw blade you need to utilize the miter slots in the table saw's table. 3) Your shooting board MUST have two rails that fit into the table saw's miter slots with only enough play to alow the rails to travel down the slot. If the rails are cut too tight they will fit in the miter slots, but won't travel down them. If the rails are too loose, then the rails will shift in the miter slots and your cutting accuracy goes to hell. 4) In order to ensure that your fence is perpendicular to the saw blade, your rails must be mounted to the base of the shooting board ABSOLUTELY PARRELLEL to each other. If the rails aren't parrellel to each other the shooting board will never travel across the table saw correctly 5) Since the base of the shooting board will be cut through completely by the saw blade the needs to be a support block at the front of the board to hold the jig together. (Note the long 2x4 in the pic, that is its purpose) 6) SAFETY!!!!!! The short 2x4 in the pic is to "retain the blade" , so to speak. Basically in ensures that when the exposed saw blade gets close to my hands there is a rest there to keep my hands from needing some serious duct tape! Those are the basics of any shooting board, whether used for a fingerboard or cabinet drawer blanks. The index pin is for use in conjunction with stewmac's fretboard templates. The instructions for setting up the shooting board for their templates actually come with the template, so it's pretty handy. All it boils out to is setting a 1/16" drill bit into the fence 11/64" above the base. This allows a 1/4" fingerboard to be slid under the index pin while the template seats on the pin. In this fashion the template is held securely by the pin for eash pass, as you re-index the template for each new frett cut. WHEWWW, I'm sure I missed something here, and if anyone has anything to add feel free. If I haven't summed it up worth a damn let me know and I can take more detailed pics of the shooting board. Nate Robinson

My saw does have 3/4" miter slots but I decided to add "slippery strip" to the runners - which are made of MDF. The slippery strip is just HDMW that is maybe 3/64" thick with an adhesive back. The only way I could think of to get the MDF to work as runners was to mortise each runner into the base of the shooting board by 1/8". I then glued and screwed them into place ( Oh, and I sealed them with shellac pryor to installation, just for a little added security against swelling). I've made a few miter slot jigs in the past and it seems that if ya only screw them on to the jig they tend to move around a little. As far as the nut slot goes, I will cut the finger board at the "body side" of the double cut and just install a full depth nut that goes down to the neck and sits in front of the fingerboard. If there is anything else I can elaborate on or help with, well, you know where to find me! Nate Robinson

Can't wait to see if this one comes through. One of our most accomplished custom builders up against one of our most accomplished production builders. And both do S**T HOT work. Hope the pitfalls don't sneak up on either of you. Good Luck Fellas! Nate Robinson

I ordered the stewmac fretting blade awhile ago and finally got around to setting up a shooting board for the table saw today. I decided to go with a fairly small board to make it easy to handle, it measures 4' wide and 20" deep. The setup was pretty simple, just time consuming. Here are a few shot of the shooting board and the finger boards. indexing pin shown Template Pin Here are the first four fingerboards Finger boards Can't say enough about the setup, the first time I slotted a board it took me at least two hours to lay it out and cut it by hand. After the shooting board was built I had maybe 20min into cutting 4 fingerboards..... WHOOO HOOOO! Nate Robinson

Well, I got the headstock veneered and decided to re-dye the flat top. No progress on paint yet, as I am still practicing on scrap. I'm getting marginally better every session, and haven't been really disappointed in myself yet. Hopefuly, it continues on this course. Veneered Head (sorry for poor pic) Veneered Headstock Veneering resulted in some bubbles that were easily takin care of by searching the forum. Got the fretboard slotted today and am awaiting a shipment from stewmac before proceeding. Nate Robinson

Now, that is the hallmark of any good tool!