milhouse

Thanks Ripthorn. I think that i will be in the vicinity of a woodcraft tomorrow, so i will grab some mixol and give it a shot.

I just built a rear-routed, swamp ash strat and i've begun the finishing stage. I'm really happy with the results, as its the first body I've made incident-free, so I'd like a little advice on the finish before I go too far down the wrong path.

I am shooting for the brightest transparent white i can achieve via a wipe-on stain. I purchased Minwax water-based white tint base from Home Depot and wiped a few coats... It's nice - kind of a slightly-brighter Mary Kay finish. I really wanted a brighter, transparent Arctic White finish though.

I did a few tests on scrap and got really nice results by thinning Kilz latex primer with water. 2 coats on the sample pieces and the finish is exactly what i wanted. Do you think its a bad idea to use this on the Strat? I'll be doing a wipe-on minwax poly finish.

Any advice?

Thanks.

Good advice. Your only problem is that you need to cut your patch piece to fit the shape of the inside of the cavity. On that basis I think you would make it easier on yourself in the long run by cleaning up the rout straight. Yes, it will enlarge the hole a bit however you will have a flat surface and a better chance of a clean fit. In addition you should be able to move the new piece around to match the grain better than as not. I wish you luck on this save.

Oh, do remember to strengthen the thin edges you have created also.

Thanks for the replies, everyone.

Prostheta - when you say 'cleaning up the rout straight', what does that mean? Do I just square off the hole i created, or do I chop that whole section of the body off and match it up? i really want to keep this body clear, or stained with no filler (kind of like those black Washburn N4s).

Would either of these options work?

I was working on a body this weekend and hit a snag. Its thin (~1.25" thick), and carved, and although i tripled-checked my measurements, I miscalculated and busted through the top while routing the control cavity. Any advice on how to repair this? Thanks in advance.

Pics...

Thanks again to everyone for the replies; I'll order a few shallower rods from allparts and start fresh. I think I'm going to take a shot at salvaging this neck anyway, because I can definitely use the practice. I have no expectations that it will result in anything but a learning experience though. Guess its not quite time to quit the day job...

the stew-mac hot-rods are not really suitable for this kind of thickness, its not just the depth of the rods, generally they need to go a little deeper at the adjustment too.

i also use the shallower 2-way rods kammo mentions, its just allows more options

Thanks. So something like this - http://www.wdmusic.com/18_in_truss_rod_allen_nut.html? Any other sources that you can refer?

Bro if I can help at all and that is remember one golden rule and hopefully you won't end up witha f**k up again. When making thinner profiled necks "ALWAYS ALWAYS" use a thinner fingerboard about 4.5 to 5mm MAX as then you can rout your rod so its just below the top of the neck so when you measure to cut the thickness of the neck you should have a good 2 to 2.5mm even with a 18mm thickness at the 1st fret behind the truss rod. Again this depends on what rod you use, I use a 2 way adjustable truss rod that only requires a 9.5mm slot depth so in theory if I profiled this neck to 18mm at the 1st fret I still have 3-3.5mm of wood before I carve the back. If all your thickness is in the fingerboard and you measure from this ie 6.5mm-7mm fretboard and a 10mm depth of the truss rod you will technically have at the back of the rod 1mm-1.5mm before you break through which if you rout the slot sloppy you will end up carving through, hope this helps

Thanks, dude. I'll keep that in mind for the future. The fretboard I used was just over 6mm, so using a thinner board probably would have bought me enough room. Live and learn, I guess...

Hello all. Longtime lurker, first-time poster. Big thanks to everyone who takes the time to post - I've absorbed an incredible amount of information (and inspiration).

Anyway, I'm in the middle of my 2nd build (1st neck) and have hit a snag. The neck went together fairly well - truss rod installed, fretboard glued on, neck tapered to size, fretboard radiused, etc. I was thinning out the back of the neck when I broke through the bottom of the truss rod channel. It looks like about half the length of the truss rod route was too deep.

I was shooting for Ibanez specs (18mm thickness at the first fret, 20mm at the 12th), and used a Stew Mac hot rod. Stew mac says their rod requires a 7/16" deep channel (11.1125mm). So, in theory, there should have been plenty of wood left behind the rod. The route was admittedly a little sloppy (I was between routers, so I used my old dremel), but I thought it was going to work out. Guess not.

The neck is currently at about 21 mm thick; there is about 9mm of wood between the bottom of the rod and the back of the neck. So... If I were to plug that channel with a filet, would the remaining 6mm (9mm - the 3mm i have left to sand) of wood behind the rod be sufficient? The truss rod's force is exerted against the fingerboard, not the backside of the neck, right? Any tips for gluing in the filet without the glue binding up the rod? Or is this a lost cause? Should I just consider this a learning experience and toss it in the firewood pile?

Thanks guys. I'd appreciate any guidance that anyone can offer.