guitar2005

but if the lams are rough from ripping on the bandsaw, the edges won't glue up well... hence the need to joint in order to glue up. Ah... jointed on the sides, not the face... Do you have a thicknessing planer? A drum sander? Usually, they go down to 1/8" or so. Even easier... if you have the Rigid oscillating spindle sander, you can slide the pieces between the sanding drum and a fence that rides in the miter slot.

I laminate first, then joint the laminations all together.

anyone?

I clean with 0000 steel wool then buff the wood with a tripoli buff, followed by a diamond buff, then rub on some lemon oil. The fretboard ends up nice and shiny after that.

Routed the back cavities and cover recesses. Next steps are to get the bridge, drill/route the string through ferrules. drill the jack hole, then start the finishing process. Waiting on parts right now.

Where can I get a 1/2" (17/32") neck screw ferrules and the neck bolts to go with them? I'd like to get these in black or chrome but can't find them. The Stew-Mac Ferrules are way too large for what I want to do. Mc Master seems to have some. What do they look like? Should I get #8 screws for mounting the neck or #10?

ya really think? i was talking about installing the bars laid out like this - although obviously under the fretboard - not on the back of the neck they need to go under the nut as far as possible to get the most benefit - but not onto the headstock. i cant see how that wont massively increase the strength in this area (as well as reinforcing the whole neck!!) ok - I get it now. Would a piece of walnut or similar wood have the same basic effect?

Wow. That's quite the break. There's so little wood there, its not funny. This is what I did on my 2005 Korina Jem: http://pic100.picturetrail.com:80/VOL912/4316378/14511501/254753539.jpg The CF rods will do nothing for the nut. Its a waste of time and money IMO. I really think that filling those nut holes with epoxy is a solution. Maybe you could add a couple layers of Maple veneer behind to nut and make a smooth transition between the neck and headstock while leaving as much material as possible.

Weird - the birch we have here is lighter than Maple. There must be different species of it.

I guess you could just use weights instead. I would just hate to fix a neck, put a new fretboard on only to have it break again. Speaking of which, since the fretboard has to be replaced, why not just scarf a new headstock on a nice, recut scarf?

Birch neck in progress;

-1 If you consider that a normal guitar neck has about 90lbs of pressure on it, testing the joint with 140-170lbs of pressure doesn't seem asking too much. If a neck can't withstand that, there's no point in using it IMO. Of course, you'll say that the 90lbs isn't applied directly to the scarf joint but I like to make sure that if the neck takes a hit, it won't snap off.

The body is hollowed out like so (this is a different guitar Mahogany/Maple cap, but the principle is the same): Since the top is already thin, I didn't touch the top but for the almost 1/2" Maple capped guitars, I also routed the top out on the F-Hol side.

Wow, an 87 Jem. Sick!!! Wish I had one. The 87 jem had a different neck. it was 19mm at the first fret. The Roadstar, RGs, and EXs were 17 mm thick. They were the same width tho. iirc I love the '87 Jem. I played the crap out of that thing over the years. It had multiple re-frets and eventually had to replace the fingerboard. I went with an Ebony board for the replacement so the guitar is not completely original anymore. Its a player, not a collector's item. Here it is, played live, this past February: The Dimarzio PAF Pro really give it distinctive voice, which cuts through the mix prefectly. My 2005 Korina has a similar neck with a more rounded profile.

Yeah... umm.... obviously, the fret ends still need a bit of work

I've been wanting to build a Telecaster for a while and after having started on a customer Tele build, I decided to experiment a little on another tele build. This guitar has a 3 piece ash body with a 3/16" cedar top. The top is from a 2x8" piece I recieved 10years ago as a part of a deliver for cedar decking. The ash is three pieces that I just had to use on something. Total body thickness is approx 1-1/2" thick. The cedar is very soft so I'll have to be careful when handling the guitar during the build process and it will need a good, solid finish. A friend of mine donated some very nice quartersawn Birch, which I decided to use on the neck, along with a piece of Ovengkol for the fretboard. The fretboard wood is very nice but beware if you want to use this wood - It splinters like crazy - This is the last time I use this wood for a fretboard. The neck pocket and neck heel are cut so that there is no overhang at the end for the 22nd fret. The neck itself has an angled headstock and has a 1-3/4" (43mm) nut and a 2-1/4" neck width at the heel. This is the cedar I used for the top; Resawn cedar: F-Hole; Top Glued on to the ash core: Cutting the fretboard; Cutting the nut slot on the fretboard: Mockup of the body and neck: Side view of the neck and view of the neck pocket: End grain of the Birch Neck:

Fretted the neck yesterday.

I've built an Ibanez style neck on my 2005 Red Korina Jem and never had issues with it. My 1987 Jem has been real good to me as well, both with through holes for the nut bolts. My next build will be a top mount.

Stand on the neck for 1 min. If it breaks, the repair is no good. As long you you don't weigh too much (over 175lbs), it should be a good test. One thing you could do to add strength, is fill the nut bolts with epoxy and use top mount screws instead.

Ouch! I don't know anyone that would like to do this kind of work for you. Perhaps you should buy a few tools and just learn how to do it, unless you have no desire to do so?

Completely agree. There are certain ranges in tone/behaviour of a wood species that you expect. The article reminded me of Alex of Zach guitars.

not gonna happen with rattle cans

Spray can stuff is crap in general. I try to avoid spray can anything. Nothing but trouble.

I had to redo the neck and changed things as I went along. This neck is Wenge laminations with maple/birdseye maple & a Wenge fretboard with pearl block inlays.

My 1987 Jem neck did that.