ByronBlack

You make a good point about the profile, but hopefully I shouldnt have a problem as I made a template from another explorer that I used to own ('59 LP profile) so thats why I started to add some oil - but again in hindsight, your right, but fingers-crossed I shouldn't need to change it! Either way, this is a great learning experience, and I'm looking forward to another one where I can put into practice the things I've learnt from this one

HI Matt, I made a mistake with the veneer and the volute, in hindsight I would have marked this out before adding the veneer, I'm going to have a think as to whether I should fix this or not.

Prostheta - the oil is a quick drying danish oil ( touch dry in 6 hours) it shouldn't stop me from continuing with the fretboard sanding/fretting as I'll place the neck on a support while I do the sanding/fretting so as not to upset or touch the oiled section to much, I intend to give the neck about 3-4 coats of oil over the course of the next 5 days (a day between each coat).

Carving of neck is now finished.

Here's a pic of the neck sanded to 400grit:

And a couple of close ups with a single coat of danish oil

Tomorrow will see the sanding of the fret-board finalising of the headstock and if time, the fretting!

More neck progress

Here's a pic of the end of todays work, I've completed stage 1 of the carve, the basic shape has been roughed out and sanded to 80 grit to smooth any bumps/undulations out. Tomorrow, I'll be refining the shape to the final profile, and i'll work out a better transition to the headstock

Some in-progress shots:

So far, all I've used is some rasps and a spokeshave and a bit of 80 grit.

I've also received my fretting tools from SMacs so I'll be getting to that over the weekend!

The way I would do it is to mark the high spots, flatten with a small bull-nose plane, and maybe use a thickness gauge to mark a line how think you want it, and work it down to that line with said plane, alot easier in my opinion than making jigs and what not if this is a single job.

I did see your vids and was very impressed, I saw some littlerocks on ebay going for around £400!! I can definetiyl see one of this little blighters in my future, what cab do you use yours with?

Hi Guy's I'm thinking of getting one of these new smaller tube heads (TT or matamp), but wanted to ask a couple of questions - how well do they react to an overdrive pedal? And with a 2x10 or 2x12 cab can they still be cranked to bedroom levels without removing paint from the walls?

I watched Rob Chapmans 'Tiny Terror does Metal' youtube video, but he was using a larger cab and although it sounded great, I couldnt get an idea of just how loud it was..

Finally, does anyone here have any experience of overdriving an ephiphone valve junior into a metal/heavy rock area? Is it possible, or does it sound rubbish?

Sorry for the odd 'bump'. I was doing some research and got sucked into replying without realising how old the thread was and my reply was of no use considering the threads age, but at least we got to see your spanky guitar - very nice!

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Beech is very durable and comes in a nice range of colours so I wouldn't discount it. It's also very easy to get a hold of, well here in the UK it is, not sure about everywhere else.

I've got some nice scottish grown sycamore which is a very stable and relatively durable which i'll be using for a number of upcoming projects, it's easy to work to.

Boxwood is another option if you can find a blank big enough

Hi Inisheer, glad you like it, I'm very pleased with it so far, I'm liking it's rustic look, quite 'woodland' As for inlays, I've got some gold pearl dot inlays from stew-macs, they are quite small so as not to be too obstrusive, I was thinking of having this at the bass side of the fretboard as opposed to in the middle, although I did consider having them in an angle from the bass side down to the treble size upto the 12 fret..

buddhist, I posted a link to a very informative podcast on finishing with oils and varnishes, it might be worth having a quick look as it'll answer many questions on application, and gives some great tips in creating a good finish. It also gives you some more names to look out for so you don't as Rick points out get a tung oil that never dries.

I don't think my skills are upto binding just yet, the fingerboard is pre-radiused which will make it tricky to route for the binding, and the headstock is kind of curvy and pointy so my limited knowledge/skill of binding see's that as a very difficult job! :-) But it's something I would like to have a go at in the future.

Just out of interest, considering the curves of the headstock, what material would be best for the binding, and finally how does the binding on the headstock transition into the main part of the neck? Does it just stop at the nut, or is there a more graceful way of integrating it?

I was however thinking about using a nice burr-walnut veneer on the front instead, this would be more in keeping with the overall look.

Don't worry fella's, I have a box guard that I attach to the table-top when I do the routing, the pics are just for illustration. What are your collective thoughts on veneering the front of the headstock, would the spalted maple be too much of a contrast?

Neck is coming along really nicely now. I've trimmed it up to my template, and with great fortune it fits perfectly!

I've also shaped the headstock after gluing a couple of small 'ears' on, it just needs a little further sanding and refining. I'm in two minds as to whether i'll veneer the front, i'm quite like the 'rustic' look of all the walnut and rosewood so I'm not sure the spalted maple would look out of place, but it does look good on the back - i'll have to sleep on that one.

Here's some more pics:

I just need to finish sanding the headstock and start the carve, when my fretting tools from stewmacs arrive I can get that part finished, then it's just putting in the electrics which I'm quite nervous about!

I did snag it from ebay, the guy seems to sell them quite often, I was watching another about a week after I got this one, they seem to go for a decent price, and they are nicely made too, the neck pocket especially is clean and with a 3 degree angle which for me worked out perfect with the TOM bridge!

Here's a link to an hour long video podcast by the guys at 'woodworking online'. It's a seminar where the guy discusses all the different types of oils, varnishes etc.. and shows a number of techniques on how to achieve different types of finish.

It was so informative that I've now decided on my finishing products and what tecniques I'll be employing, and the results he produces look fantastic.

Here's the link:

http://www.woodworkingonline.com/2007/11/1...-and-varnishes/

I hope other find it useful as it seems to answer many of the questions that come up with regards to natural finishes.

Some more progress today! Neck building is a lot more satisfying than I thought it would be!

Here's the truss-rod installed:

Updated photoset:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/byronblack/se...57603608562622/

Last pic of today's progress; the fingerboard and spalted maple backstrap veneer glued on:

http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=21...3075&size=m

Tomorrow should see the neck trimmed to final size with a template and pattern-bit, headstock shaped, and front-veneer glued on, I'm not sure if I should start the fretting process as I think I my buy some files and various things from Stew-macs to ensure I don't cock it up.

Hey Rich,

Thanks a lot for that detailed response, I've printed that out and will be using it as a guide as I go through my build, I've slightly different machine/tooling setup but I'll be following your main procedures. I've already some good progress from yesterday (New thread in the in-progress forum) and things are coming along nicely.

Thanks again rich!

Ok, this is a new thread on my current build. It's a walnut explorer, the body was pre-bought off ebay for a bargain price. I'm making the neck for it also from walnut - with a stew-mac pre-slotted rosewood fingerboard, so it's a pretty straight forward project. The reason why i'm getting some of this pre-made stuff is mainly because i'm in a severe need of a new guitar :-)

Here's a pic of the body:

And here's a link to my current photo-stream:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/byronblack/se...57603608562622/

You'll also see a few photo's of a custom shape body with figured maple top this is my 'wafercaster' project that never got finished, but will be completed after this explorer one.

Progress so far:

Body obviously complete

Neck laminated

Fingerboard template completed

Headstock template completed

Neck thicknessed and scarf jointed

Tomorrow/Monday should see the truss-rod installed, headstock thicknessed and shaped and fingerboard glued on.

Cheers Fella's, I've read up some more today and have pretty much settled on the procedure as outlined by guitar2005, part of my problem is I have many numerous ways of doing the actual job, but not nessacarily the right knowledge to rely on to avoid any problems, but you've put my mind to rest and i'll start the build this evening!

Thanks again.

Hi all,

I've received all my parts and have been prepping my neck laminates. I'm now ready to start the actual construction of the neck, but I'm a little unsure if my procedure is correct, here's what I intend to do (based on reading numerous threads from here and other sources)

Glue neck laminates

Square and plane to just over thickness and just over length

Cut scarf, thickness headstock piece, and glue together

Sand in volute and glue on 'backstrap' veneer to underside of heastock

Route truss-rod channel

Glue on un-tapered pre-slotted fingerboard

Trim neck and fingerboard to correct size using a pre-made template

Carve neck profile

Apply oil (danish) finish to the neck

Fit and Finish frets..

The reason I'm getting a little confused as on some peoples threads I've seen a mention that the carve should be done before the fingerboard is glued on to re-straighten if the wood moves during the carving, but then others dont mention this as a problem at all - with my neck being a laminate and well seasoned, I dont anticipate any real movement..

Any advice gratefully received.

Thanks In Advance.

Hi - I did eventually complete the guitar, but I didn't do the finish, I sold it off and the guy applied his own finish - not even sure what he did with it in the end, I've not heard from him for over a year.

This is the reason why I'm starting another (Walnut explorer this time) as I wanted to do a proper job this time. I will definitly be adding some pics of the new project as I progress.

I'm glad you mentioned the chestnut stuff, I recently ordered the nine colour tester pack (for use on a curly maple project) with the hope it would be compatible!

I best get on and give it a go and see how it comes out! Thanks again.

An aliphatic resin glue to which I were referring generally works by penetrating the pores of the wood and hooks into it very much like the lignen (sp?) in the woods cell structure, therefore the smoother the two mating surfaces the better the join, as if you have a rough surface you introduce less surface area as the 'bumps' prevent the pieces from touching perfectly, aliphatics aren't gap filling so a rough surface is not ideal for this situation, an epoxy would be better, but arguably not as strong as a good 'yellow glue' smooth joint. If you google on this subject you'll find more supporting info.

P.s I didn't mean to start an argument, just wanted to give correct information.

I try to scrape as much as possible but when I sand, I go to 320-400 grit and clean out the pores with compressed air.

Not a bad approach, even better if you have one would be a nice sharp No.5 plane what this will do is 'slice' the wood fibres exposing open pores whereas sanding crushes wood fibres and gives a slightly 'dull' look. But I usually sand upto around 400 if a plane isn't suitable and so far havn't had any real issues. :-)