Hey everyone. I started out a couple of months ago with the goal to build my own guitar and quickly realised it was going to be more difficult than i first thought. having read Melvyn Hiscock book and spent a lot of time researching and finalising my project I’ve learnt a lot and am now just about ready to begin.
After bugging a lot of people to let me play their different guitars I’ve completely u turned from a les Paul to a strat (more specifically my friends custom shop strat . . . cheers Tom)
I feel happy with most things now and all though my word working skills probably are not quite up to scratch I’ve got a couple of pieces of scrap i can practice on.
I’ve decided on a two piece alder body, rock maple neck, (stew mac) Indian rosewood compound radius fretboard, (stew mac) fretwire and dot markers, single action gotoh truss rod (can not source a dual action). Which leads me to my first question. Should the compound radius effect my neck shape or should I build it the same as if it had a normal radius? I was planning to go for a modern c shape (as fender describe it) and I was wondering if someone knows the difference between a the fender modern c shape and the normal c shape.
My major concern though is tools. I live in Wallington, surrey, and have no access to a bandsaw, jointer, router or thicknesser. I have already spent a fair bit on clamps, hand plane, orbital sander, shed loads of sandpaper, rasp, stew mac 16" fret leveller which I plan to double up as a sanding block and cant reasonably spend too much more. I should probably buy a router, round over bit and flute bit (is that the right bit for cavities cant remember) I really don’t know what type of router I need or where to look for one. Had a quick look in B&Q and didn’t get very far. If someone could point me in the right direction to source one in the uk + round over bit preferably for between £30-50.
I’m going to go ring around locally and see if anyone I know/local wood shops have access to a bandsaw and jointer and see if they can run the body through, but if anyone has any suggestion of places they knew that would be great.
Finally I was wondering, although unlikely, if there is maybe someone who lives reasonably locally who is experienced who could maybe check my work, give me some advice, maybe lend me some tools or any of the above. A bit of a stretch I know but no harm in asking.
Cheers in advance Iain