guitarnut

I braved the hot temps in the shop just because I was frustrated with not getting anything done. It was unpleasant but I made some good progress. I decided to start on the scarf joint so it would be setting up as I worked on the body. The use of the band saw jig I made really paid off. I marked a couple of pencil lines as a guide and with some 80 grit on a piece of 3/4" MDF, I blocked out the back side of the joint. It only took 15 of 20 secs to level it out. I then followed with some 220 which I have stuck to the other side of the MDF. I use a gluing method that clamps the main part of the neck to the bench on it's edge. Then I clamp a block of scrap to the bench that keeps the upper part of the joint in place. All that's left is to apply glue and clamp it up.

This is really looking good. Nice body shape. I'm not sure I like the color yet but maybe the finished product will change my mind. I see that you changed from stop tailpiece to ferrules. That's a nice look the way they follow the body line. Have you strung out a G or D string to see if will make that distance thru the body and out to the tuner? Seems like a long way to me. Subscribed and watching this one. Peace, Mark

Since I ended up chambering the body to reduce it's weight, doing a tummy cut on back isn't an option anymore. So here's an updated look for the back without the cut and with a larger radius on the edges. I also tweaked the control cover. Peace, Mark

I haven't decided yet. There are a couple of issues and it's just me being ultra picky on this one but, the edge of the maple cap varies from light to dark where the faux binding will be so I was thinking a deep amber would reduce the contrast at the binding edge so maybe it wouldn't be so obvious. Then I started the pre carve work yesterday and see now that the lighter wood color is intruding slightly into the top and the two pin knots I hoped would carve out, appear to be too deep, so a dark color would be better to deal with these issues. I'll just have to wait until the carve is done to see which issue needs more attention. Peace, Mark

An LP type carve could be interesting and wouldn't involve the horns though I'm not sure how it would work without a neck angle...the bridge you're showing wouldn't require one. A switch to a stop bar/TOM or wrap-around would look great but would require a neck angle unless you recess it into the top. My 2 cents.

I moved on to the first steps in the carve by angling the top. The area from just in front of the bridge out to the neck pocket needs to be angled at 4 degrees to match the neck angle. I used a modified version of a router sled to do this. The body is set on the table a 4 degree rise and the router is suspended overhead. The clamps on the far left and right guide the router in straight lines across the body. After 2 passes from the zero cut line just in front of the bridge location. About half way thru. When I reached the end of the neck pocket, I shimmed the back of the body level with the front and finished it off at the same level. This will leave more material for for the carve on the horns. With the cutting completed you can see the gentle slope toward the neck pocket. Time for the fun stuff!!! Carving! Peace, Mark

While I had the scarf joint jig set up, I ran a few more necks. I took my time and eased the stock thru and got a very smooth cut. I think just a touch up on the belt sander and these will be good to go. I also made my neck pocket template. It was pretty easy once I figured out I wanted the 21st fret at the end of the pocket. Some quick calculations and I was ready to go. My neck tenon will be 1.625" beyond te end of the neck/fretboard, completely under the neck pickup route. I left .375" below the pocket. I'm thinking that's a good thickness to have there making the total thickness of the heel, neck and fretboard 1.750". Or to break it down, .750" tenon, .750" neck and .250" fretboard.

After the first pass with the jig. I rushed the cut a bit. Feeding it slower will yield a smoother cut. After a bit of sanding on the belt sander...nice flat joint. I'm glad this worked out so I didn't have to use a hand plane. I used one on my PRS build by it wasn't much fun. With the body out of the clamps I trimmed up the top and got rid of any router bearing marks with a quick pass on the belt sander. On to the neck pocket and carve tomorrow. Peace, Mark

While I was waiting on the body to set up, I got started on the neck. One of the things I've wanted to do is build a jig for my scarf joints. There's been quite a bit of discussion in the forums lately so I thought I would give it a shot. My best option is my band saw. It has plenty of height and has proven itself to cut straight thru many resaw operations. I started by building a sled that's guided on both edges of the table. Since the table is a custom setup, it doesn't have a slot for a miter guage so I had to rely on the edges. Then I marked a line down the center that marks the blade path. I laid out a scarf joint on a mahogany blank and lined the diagonal line front and back on the blade path line. Then I drew out a line along the back of the blank that gave me my reference for the fence. Attached a piece of ash from the bottom making sure to countersink everything so nothing would drag or hang up as the sled moved. The first pass thru the saw cut the blade path and angled the end of the ash fence.

So, back to all that routing I need to do. The body back by itself wighs in at a touch over 5 lbs. to start. I normally hog out most of the chambers with a forstner bit but I wanted to put the vacuum box thru it's paces. It works great! I may need to vent it on the side to let the DC work a little better...when I lean into it with the router, the body can slip a hair. Nothing scary, just not fully locked down. I don't normally exert that much lateral force but I wanted to test it's holding power. My camera batteries were down so I didn't get a pic of the scale after chambering but it weighed in at 3.028 lbs. Shed 2 lbs the easy way. It's chambered, profiled and ready for the top. I taped the top to the back of the body and ran the glue side thru the planer just to level it out. I did this to the body also before chambering it. So, all laid out and ready to glue up the top. Clampzilla!!! More soon... Peace, Mark

Since I was going to be doing more routing than I thought and since I've been meaning to do it anyway, I took the time to make a vacuum box. Just a simple MDF box. With the back and sides assembled, I sealed it up with caulk. Then I drew out a rough 1" grid and drilled every other cross point and offset each row...forgot to take a picture after drilling. I borrowed the collection fitting from my band saw...it's sealed in with electrical tape so it pops back out for use on the band saw. Standing on edge with my dust collector attached and running, I'd say it's working pretty well.

Well, the AC in the shop is keeping a relatively cool 80F so I got a chance to get started on this today. First thing was to rough cut the top and body. I trimmed them fairly close to the template lines to reduce the risk of tear out during profiling with the router. I'm a bit concerned about the color variations in this maple. You can see on the edge that will eventually be the faux binding, there's going to be a change from light to dark. I think I may go with a honey amber finish to reduce the contrast at the edges...just have to wait and see. I wanted to get them cut and weigh them. Glad I did...the two together weigh in at over 8 lbs. So this baby getting chambered. No f-hole, just some wieght reduction. I was going to just profile the body on the belt/spindle sander but and route the top to match but since I'm chambering, I have to make a template. So, I did. Here it is just after hogging out the middles with a forstner bit and hand drill. And after smoothing it out on the spindle sander. It just needs a bit of hand blocking and it's ready to go.

] I'm in Evansville...that's as close to KY as it gets.

SW Indiana. I moved up here from Texas thinking I would get a break from the heat. And I guess it is a bit of a break...in West Texas we had air temps of 115 from time to time. But it was a dry heat. The high for today is only 88F, so I'm thinking of ducking out of the office early today and working into the evening. It's gonna get hot again next week but only in the mid 90s. Peace, Mark

Thanks Spencer. I haven't done anything more on this one. The weather isn't cooporating. The temp in the shop last night was 100F at almost 9pm. I don't have the outside temp sensor setup yet but it was probably around 105F heat index. The local football teams are practicing indoors because the heat index on the fields is approaching 120F. It's gotta break soon. I don't remember a more uncomfortable summer in recent years. Stay cool! Mark

Yeah, I'm not sure on that. The maple on this one is about the same golden color as the maple I used on my Texas Tele which bleached nicely. The problem I may have on this one is the bleach only affects a thin top layer so I'll have to do it after the carve. Having the runny bleach on the guitar at that point puts the mahogany sides at risk...like dye bleeding under masking. I'll have to test that scenario and see what works best. Peace, Mark

After trimming 2" from the edge and resawing two 7/8" slabs for the bookmatch, I saw that there was some sapwood on the inside that wasn'r visable before. As luck would have it, the pattern fits just inside the sapwood. And the ends to the left are not affected by the checks...the deep one was on the other end. I must be living right. It couldn't have come our closer. Jointed and in the clamps. I gave it a quick test with a scraper to see the quilt...red circle. After it came out of the clamps, I gave a cleanup pass thru the planer and took it down to 3/4". I think it's going to turn out nicely. There are a couple of small knots that appear to be very shallow. I'm thinking they'll be gone by the time the carve is done. More soon. Peace, Mark

Well, the heat is backing off a bit and the AC managed to get the shop to an agreeable temp so I got to work on the quilted top. The billet had a check on each end. I know this when I bought it but I didn'r know that one of them went more than halfway thru the thickness. So, it took some creative positioning and measuring to find a spot that was full of quilt but had no checks intruding into it. I started by placing 1/2" hash marks on the face and sliding my pattern centerline inward until the horn cleared the check. Then I marked the head and tail and flipped the pattern to check it's positon with the other horn. 2" in from the edge with the most wane was the sweet spot.

Cool. Glad to hear that. Peace, Mark

...and, it's been edited! How much can you edit one word? Peace, Mark

As you should be...it's very nice! I didn't mean to imply that it's off the mark in any way. Just a curiosity about the tuners. Peace, Mark.

Yep. Very cool concept and design. The only thing that kinda baffles me is the tuner layout. If you had placed 5 tuners on the bass side, the E, A, D and both G strings would have strung to that side and avoided the Y spit you have going on between the G strings. And imagining the guitar in the playing position, it might look a bit unbalanced with 5 on the bottom. Maybe I'm missing something though. Overall, nicely done! Peace, Mark

Looks like a nice build. Walnut is beautiful and I think it smells nice too. I'm curious why you recut the neck pocket. A Strat neck would leave a couple of gaps in the corners but it should bolt right in. The forward most part of the curve on the Strat heel is exactly the same place along the scale as the same spot on the heel of a Tele neck. If you routed the front of the pocket to match the profile of the Strat neck heel, bad news...you just moved your neck forward about 3/16. It's gonna be tough if not impossible to intonate. Hopefully I'm getting this wrong from your description. Peace, Mark

Yeah, it's not final. I didn't have the front of the guitar in this PS doc so I wasn't sure where the controls would land. I know for sure I don't want the typical "boomarang" shape that's used so often for this control layout. I'll tweak it at some point. Peace, Mark

Pro? The inlays in the mockup were done with the gradient tool in PS, so they don't really look like either MOP or abalone...I'll look at the two real materials and see which I like. Having never done inlay, I'm not familiar with the tools and terms. Peace, Mark