demonx

This thread I started will explain the following pic: http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.php?showtopic=46273 I chose the first and last frets to "over slot" as part of a fretting experiment.

I was having a discussion the other day with a real luthier and one of the subjects we touched on was different companies methods of fretting. One that surprised me, but kind of makes sense is "Maton guitars", apparently they do not press or hammer their frets. I'd never heard of this before! I was told that they cut over wide slots so the frets sit in there and then are glued. What type of glue I dont know, but apparently they have great success with this method. It seats perfect every time, cuts down on labor etc etc. I did a couple trial frets using simply PVA however I reckon in reality it'd have to be some sort of epoxy glue or similar. They are clamped as I type and I won't know the results for quite some time. I can tell you it seemed "too easy". After I bent the fret, they just sat in the slot perfect. Even unglued they seemed to seat in the perfect position. So I glued and clamped. I was wondering what opinions other had on this method, if anyone has tried it or has knowledge of other companies doing this.

Bugger...!

That saw doesnt slide -it only drops, so it cannot cut a fret slot Ozito does have one (was my backup plan) at bunnings for $200.00 that'll do the job Stewmac blade specs: http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Fretting_supplies/Saws_and_slots/Fret_Slotting_Table_Saw_Blade.html

Started carving the neck today:

Ok, been playing with it and doing some more test cuts, got it sorted... This thing is great! I cut a 12" shim the full length of the mitre box - that solved the wonky slot. After shimming the back of the box up I noticed the plastic case around the motor was "just" barely touching the mitre box, so I hit it with the angle grinder and knocked a few milimeters off the top, won't hit now.

The last neck I screwed up for this guitar I decided to recycle - I ran it on the linisher for a while and it's now my new 7 string clamping block. Perfect size.

New fret slotting setup just slotted a board for this "unfinished project". Once I get some other projects out of the way I'll be getting stuck right into this build again. Heres a thread here on the new jigga: http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.php?showtopic=46265

I bought the stewmac 6" blade and the smallest cheap sliding saw I could find, then did the following: 1) Test the saw before I void the warranty! 2) Remove all the safety shields in exception of the top one and install the stewmac blade. I had to remove the safely guard as it would interfere with the slotting template. 3) To use as a baseplate I cut some MDF to size on the table saw: 4) After marking out all the mount holes I drill them on the press 5) I used screws that were way bigger than needed just to make sure the template doesn't move, then I ground them flat on the rear before drilling the nexk set of holes and recessing them on the press. 6) Drill and tap a thread into the sliding mitre saw , I also used washer/nut underneath as well. 7) Here is a close up of the partially dismantled stewmac mitre box. I've mounted it forward on the saw so the blade has full travel across the complete board and set it perfect square to the blade so it's a 90 degree cut. 8) Heres a slotted board with the new setup: Took me a maybe an hour to set it all up. I slotted this fretboard in maybe two to three minutes and I was taking my time! If I want to adjust the slot depth then I simply turn a hex key grub screw on the side (has a lock nut on it)... it's too easy! One thing I didn't count on is the blade/sliding rails have a very slight decline, so the slots on one side of the board were maybe half a mm deeper than the other side. I'll counter this by shimming one side of the stewmac mitre box with a strip of sheet metal and see if I can get it perfect. If that doesnt work maybe the mounting plate (MDF) needs to be shimmed. Another thing I want to work out is how I can mount it without loosing the swivel feature of the mitre saw, as that would make fanned frets a breeze! All in all I'm pretty happy with this addition and it just made slotting boards fun!

Ok - ok - it's "loosely" based on traditional. My take on inlay is it's only cosmetic. Not even needed. I love plain boards. Side dots are the position markers - I've even got a guitar here without side dots and I don't even notice. People dont even notice if I dont tell them, but them once they know they say - how do you play it? Thats after they've just been playing it perfect for ten minutes. It's all in their head!

They are in traditional positions! Aren't 3,5,7,9,12,15,17 etc traditional positions? This lot of leaves has a small vine connecting a few of them leading up to twelve, but overall it's all pretty standard

Frets in:

I like how you've used the veneer in between the timber laminations - I've been wanting to do this for a long time.

Test fit the heel after shaping: Started carving the neck:

The tang and teeth on the tang is way past the bevel (unless you go nuts) so it's no issue. The bevel is only very slight. Shady...! That pic is fresh off the band saw hacking away the excess! Of couse it's gonna look shite raw like that! Hahaha. And to the post above asking for video/audio. I don't have any recording equip any more and only video cam I have is on my mobile. If you YouTube "Searls guitars" you'll see z iPhone clip of me fumbling on a rhoads v with same pickup, but recorded on the iPhone it sounds like utter rubbish so I don't plan on doing and more iPhone videos like that. If you wait a month or two one of my mates who is pretty handy at recording is moving back into town ( currently living interstate) and he might help me out getting some sound samples/video recorded of these guitars. I might even dob him in for some build threads of his own!

I've never bound F holes but I imagine it'd be a "F" of a job!

Makes me want a scroll saw! Great work, good idea also to make a routing template for the board itself. I always just freehand route with a dremel but your template will give a much tighter fit.

Thankyou for the compliments Not sure what you mean by "looked shady" but I'm glad you like it now! I'm not a massive V guy myself either, but this one just looks bloody awesome hanging with my other guitars. Will still be a while till the owner collects, so I get to keep it for a bit! The idea behind beveling fret slots (I can't take credit for this concept, I got the idea while scrolling through a stew Mac video) is that the underneath of a fret is not perfect and that imperfection may allow it to not sit flush to the board if the slot isn't beveled somewhat.

Nice... I really like the timber logo inlay. I've heard of people pinning the board before gluing but never thought of doing it in the fret slot, but I'd heard they do it under where the inlay will be - however I prefer to inlay befoe the board goes on. I've often thought of how to do it and not see the holes - makes so much sense! I like it when I learn something or get a new idea. Thanks!

What I've done in the past on refurbs when reshaping a neck is use the bottom of a veneer caliper (the tip that pops out the bottom of the handle when you open up the jaws), open up the caliper a couple cm then push the tip into the truss slot as far up to the nut as I can get it using it as a depth guage this will tell you the approx depth of the truss slot assuming its the same depth route in that position as in the guitar - which they usually are. Has worked well for me so far, not that I do refurbs anymore.

I just use a veneer caliper and carve/sand until I reach my desired measurement!

Closer up and after more clear:

A special spray gun (called a dry flake gun): Which makes things shiny!!! I'm not a massive fan of big flake or shiny stuff like this, but Melissa loves it, any time we're at a car show there could be the biggest piece of **** car but if it's got flake on it she's thinks it's the best damn thing there. Either that or anything purple/pink - so the back of this guitar is purple/shiny and the airbrushing has a pink flower on the front - its a win win! The trick to doing this is keep the dry flake gun air pressure really low, as in only 5 psi, get a couple coats of clear on WITHOUT heat lamps so it's nice and soft, then when you shoot the dry flake into the clear it swims around in it, but you have to be really careful of your technique otherwise the chunks of flake can pool up and look like ****. Once the flake is how you want it, shoot more clear, you'll notice the flake move just that tiny little bit when the new clear goes on and you may have to come back with the dry flake gun and touch up some areas, very careful not to make patchy areas of flake that seem more crowded than other areas. Once you're happy, bang on the heat lamps so it bakes then smash on heaps more clear. One side effect of a dry flake gun is sometimes you walk out of the booth nearly as shiny as the object you just sprayed!

Truss rod slot done: Curly Maple binding:

There's more wood there than on a bolt on guitar! Most of the carve is body not neck, so there's not even a question of stability, besides, it's neck thru, not a fixed neck, so it's solid as a rock. Plenty meat left if I wanted to take even more off but it's not needed