fookgub

Like the title says, I just started my first neck. It's mahogany with a 25.5" compound radius ebony fretboard from Stewmac. No inlays. Standard truss rod from LMII. Stew-mac medium fretwire. I'll be using some Gotoh tuners I have lying around. This neck is a replacement for the one on this guitar (I usually trim my string ends... this picture was taken in the middle of a different project). Ok, let's get to the pics: Here's the initial spread. Original neck, template, practice neck, truss rod, fretboard, and neck blank. http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~wrobert/neck1.jpg Ready to rout the truss rod channel using my newly constructed jig. http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~wrobert/neck2.jpg Gluing on the headstock ears. http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~wrobert/neck3.jpg Profile bandsawn out. http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~wrobert/neck4.jpg Here is a picture of the nut I'll be using. It's a brass letter "K" that I found in my backyard. Finders keepers. http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~wrobert/neck5.jpg Trimming the profile with my homemade pattern sander. The neck is upside down in the picture... the template should be on the bottom so that it runs against the stop. I like this thing much better that a robosander because it's got a "close" side and a "not as close" side. I used 60-grit on the not as close side first, then switch to 120-grit on the close side. After I'm done, the shape is within 1/32", and a quick pass on the router brings it flush. Saves my template bit and minimizes the possibility of tearout. Also, the patter sander has a bearing on the bottom that fits into a hole in the table. That way I don't put much side load on the drill press. http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~wrobert/neck6.jpg Getting the taper perfect on the router. I did not do the headstock contours with the router because I had tearout problems on my practice neck. I'll sand those to shape by hand. http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~wrobert/neck7.jpg Drilling the tuner holes. http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~wrobert/neck8.jpg Thicknessing the headstock with my safe-t-planer. I didn't care for this tool much at first, but now that I've figured out how to use it, I'm really starting to like it. http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~wrobert/neck9.jpg A little mockup with the fretboard. http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~wrobert/neck10.jpg That's it for progress. Not bad considering I started this Friday afternoon. The next step is to glue the fretboard on, but I have a question first. How much wood should I leave behind the truss rod? On my practice neck, I only left about 1/16", but I think that's too thin. I would guess that 1/8" is a pretty good number. Problem is that would mean a minimum thickness of about .825" at the nut (my fretboard is 1/4" thick). I was shooting for a little thinner. The obvious solution is to take the fretboard thinkness down to 3/16", but there are a couple problems with that. If I took it down from the back, then the fret slots would only be about 1/32" from the bottom of the board at the edges. I don't know if that's a problem or not, but it seems too thin. If I take it down from the top, I risk ruining the compound radius, and it's going to take a lot of sanding to do that anyway. Any suggestions? I'm going to wait to glue on the fretboard until I've decided on a decent plan.

Yeah, it's vinyl. Got it from an eBay seller for pretty cheap. The real Ibanez decals have "Ibanez" in chrome, so you can tell this is a refinish. I'm not too fond of the chrome, though, because it seems to bubble under the clear. The bridge came from ETS today... a little earlier than I expected. It's extremely nice. I'd be totally excited... if it was a SEVEN STRING BRIDGE like I ordered, but it's a six stringer. Now it's got to go back, and I'm thoroughly displeased. ETS's stuff may be great, but they need to fix their customer service before I order from them again.

Hey Skip, I recognize you from Talkbass. Nice to see you over here... I hope you'll stick around and offer some of your knowledge. Your instruments are very impressive, and you've got some really innovatiove ideas going. I think a lot of DIY'ers are interested in composite materials, but are put off by high prices and specialized tools/techniques. I know some of this stuff is probably trade secret, but I was wondering if you would answer some questions about your fingerboards. Specifically, which variety of garolite do you use for your fingerboards? I haven't been able to find much for information, but I did read about a guy that was using the XX grade for neck laminates. From the McMaster data it looks like the material would be strong enough for fingerboard use, and it's cheap, too. Can it be machined with standard woodworking tools? I'd image the glass-cloth varieties would be murder on router bits and saw blades, but what about the paper-based ones? Also, what about safety? Is a respirator good enough, or do you wear gloves/protective clothing, too? What kind of glue can be used to attach the fretboard? Epoxy? Do you find radiusing the boards to be much more difficult than working with ebony and other hardwoods? As for fretting, is it the same as for wood, or do you have to glue the frets in?

Maybe the oil paint won't stick to the smooth surface of your spray paint. Did you try scuff sanding the paint at about 220 grit before dipping it?

Don't know much about Garolite, except that Skip at Knuckle Guitar Works uses it for fingerboards (check out his basses, by the way -- really cool stuff). It's probably hard enough for nuts, but might not be. I'd try it just for the sake of experimentation, but the graphite-impregnated and PTFE-filled Garolites at McMaster are expensive. Delrin is a pretty sure bet since it's already being used for nuts (google slip-stone).

The Novax patent has expired already.

don't know what graphtech uses... they probably custom spec a material. Delrin is probably a good choice for DIY, since it's hard, slippery, and machinable. I think I've seen a few nuts made from phenolic resin, too. Both materials are available from McMaster-Carr.

Well, I hear different things from different people. Since it's taken about a month already to do the finish, two weeks is probably safe. But on the other hand, I really don't want to make a mistake that will delay the project even further. Sanding through the first time cost me two months, so I'd rather be safe than sorry.

Hope that doesn't happen to me! I'm feeling pretty safe about it since the fills were a tight fit and I'm pretty careful about mix ratios with epoxy. Still, I may just use some extra long screws that would go through the fills and into the body itself when I attach the bridge. Anyway, I finished the clear coats on the body yesterday and it's looking great. Still waiting on the bridge and tuners so I don't know when it'll be done, but I'd like to wait a month for the lacquer to cure regardless of when the rest of the parts come in. I'm still working on the headstock. Here's the progress: It's taking a lot of clear to build over the decal, but I'll get it done eventually.

haha... not even close! The bad weather down here really screwed me up, but I'm happy to announce that I'm finally done with the clearcoats. I've put 13 new coats on over the last month or so. I'm going to let it cure for a month, so I'll be looking to buff and assemble around the middle of March.

Sounds about right. But you only want to sand up to 220.

I agree 100% with this. I'd like to add the I had a tremsetter in my guitar for a couple of years. When I installed it, I noticed an immediate improvement in how "lively" the guitar felt when played, and I perceived an improvement in sustain as well. I can't say that I noticed any change in the amplified tone of the instrument, though. I later set the guitar up for dive only (blocked the trem with a piece of wood), and I can't say I felt much improvement in sustain, tone, or the feel of the instrument over the tremsetter. The tuning stability did improve, though. Anyway, this is just one man's experience with one guitar, so don't take it as the gospel truth... I'm just offering my experiences since they seem somewhat relevant to your dilemma. FWIW, practicality eventually took over and I decided to build a new body for that guitar so I could dump the Floyd. In fact, it would not be a stretch at all to say the the Floyd Rose (or more correctly, the desire to not have a Floyd Rose) is one of the main reasons I became interested in guitar building.

Too many variables to say for sure. The Floyd is probably heavier then most hardtails (even counting the missing wood for the trem cavities), which I believe is usually a good thing for sustain. On the other hand, the contact to the wood will not be as good as a typical hardtail. To me it's a coin toss... the Floyd could be better or worse, but I think the difference would be negligible. Practicality is another matter all together. I wouldn't want to mess with allen wrenches, snipping the ends off strings, locking nuts, and action compromises for a bridge whose main "feature" I wouldn't even be using.

Like this? I think that's a pretty good solution. It could probably be made to work with a two pickup guitar, but it would take some effort.

Are you going to be using that Sherwin-williams 2 pack? How is that stuff working out?

Yep, is the way to go IMHO, only trouble is that with this kinda set-up it's impossible to have angle headstock. The headstock in the picture is angled. It's actually got a compound angle. The only drawback is that it's cut from a single piece of wood... I have no idea how you could do a scarf joint with that type of setup. Those are string through, so just ground to the ferrules. Sort of a hassle, but it works fine (I've done it before). No problem, ABM makes bass saddles, too. I would also check into ETS. They're a little cheaper according to the pricelist I have, and I like the design better.

Yeah, but we're still talking about taking a string that's meant to be tuned to A on a 34" scale and tuning it down to F# on a 28" scale. I can see why that string has to be so big to get anything close to decent tension. I guess you just have to figure out where you're going to spend the most time and put the parallel fret there. In the lower registers you have the advantage that the frets are further apart, so your margin of error is greater (ie: if your fretting is a little off you still have a pretty good chance of hitting the note you want). As the frets get closer together and the fan becomes more radical, it starts to get harder to pick the right fret. This starts to happen around the 14th fret on my bass and becomes really aggravating around the 19th fret. Part of the problem is that the side dots don't match up (when viewed from playing position) with the fret locations on the higher strings. Anyway, it really just depends on what you want to do with your guitar. For rhythm and low chording, putting the parallel at the 5th fret is probably a good choice (though I think 7th would be better). If you're planning on shredding way up the neck, I'd give a little more thought to the subject. Also, I don't really buy Black Machine's comments about removing the unused fingerboard behind the nut. This can be done regardless of the fan. See?

84 is a bass string... it's an A string, and a heavy one at that (probably to make up for lower tension on the shorter scale). EDIT: RGGR, I've never played an 8-string guitar, but I'd be a little careful of placing the parallel fret so close to the nut. I have a fanned fret bass (34"-37") where the parallel fret is about the 7th. In that arrangement the slant at the higher frets is pretty noticeable, and it's easy to get lost above the 12th fret. On a bass, that's a good compromise because I rarely play above there, but on a guitar I would be looking to place the parallel fret around the 10th fret. The fan is more pronounced on wider fretboards, and I would think that your 8-string's fretboard would be about as wide as the one on my bass.

At a glance it seems interesting. It would need some bias circuitry at the least. A fixed voltage in series with a resistor might be a start, but I'm sure something more sophisticated could be used. Probably needs a high impedance buffer to counter the effects of changing source resistance with amplitude, too. I wonder how linear it is and what the sensitivity would be. The cable is a bit thick for a traditional piezo-type installation, but I'm sure it could be made to work.

Been said already, but a jigsaw would work. Jigsaws tend to wander a bit more than bandsaws, though, so you need to stay further from the line. I'd use a spindle sander to get within about 1/16th of the line after sawing, then a router for the final passes. You can use a router for the whole thing, but make sure to take light passes or you'll dull your bit and risk tearout. I agree with everyone else that bandsaws are pretty much the safest power saws around. That doesn't mean you can't cut your finger off, but bandsaws are much less likely to do something unexpected that could result in an injury. A healthy respect for power tools is always a good thing, but as long as you're careful, you should be able to operate a bandsaw for a lifetime and keep all your digits. FWIW, the tool that scares my the most is my router. If I had a table saw, I'd be scared of that, too... but I don't.

I've got this figured out now, I think. Basically just user error. The manual came with my gun is utter garbage... completely worthless. When I first got the gun, I noticed it had a knob on the side to control the spray pattern. One side said round, so, thinking that I wanted a flat pattern, I cranked it all the way open. Turns out that knob mostly controls the fan width, and I had just set it to the widest setting. Now my coats were building slowly and going on dry, so a started opening the fluid control valve and backing off the pressure. Eventually I ended up with the fluid control all the way open, and I was spraying from about 5 inches away just to get a decent build. The spray pattern was mostly overspray. You guys that have been spraying for a while are probably rolling your eyes, but I had no idea what a proper spray pattern looked like. Anyway, my neighbor lent my his spray gun (a Binks 37) last week. I immediately noticed how much better the pattern was on his gun, and I started playing with the knobs on mine to try to match it. Now I've got the spray pattern almost fully closed (which produces about a 6 inch fan from 8-ish inches away) and the fluid control about half closed. The coats are building better, flowing out nicely, and I'm using about half as much lacquer. By my estimate I should be able to get about 10-12 coats out of a quart now. Probably inefficient by many people's standards, but at least I'm getting better. I was spending a fortune on lacquer before (I had even contemplated buying a gallon just for the bulk savings), so I'm pretty happy about getting these adjustments right... it's real cash savings that I can see immediately.

Don't know if it's an option for you, but I've been using Guitar Rig 2 and I think it sounds better than the Line 6 stuff. I haven't recorded anything with it, though... I'm not playing out right now, so I just use it to make noise in my living room.

Last time I checked, Amazon had a great price on a lefty Variax 500 guitar. Same electronics as the high end models, same price as the bottom of the line. I've been planning a Variax project for a while, but I can afford the guitar yet. Too bad, becase it may be gone by the time I get the money.

Russ, I'm not entirely sure I agree with your assessment. Consider the neck as a resonant system (say, a mass on a spring). Adding mass to the headstock will lower the resonant frequency, while increasing stiffness (with CF) will tend to raise the resonant frequency. If you buy into the theory that dead spots occur when the fretted note matches a resonance mode in the neck, then both methods will affect dead spots, but in entirely opposite ways. Of course, this is purely conjecture. I think the mass-spring analogy is an ok 1st order approximation, but the physics of an actual neck are obviously much more complicated. Been there... twice. I feel your pain.

I've been wanting to vote for Skelf for a while now. I like the shape and the craftsmanship looks top notch, but the woods are just too fancy for me. How about a plain black limba body? Pretty please? The LP was just awesome... a tour de force in custom LP's. It got my vote. Fatalities: what's the finish on that thing? I read through your thread, but I couldn't find any info. It looks nice now, but judging by the marks on the headstock, it doesn't seem very durable. Also, did you build the whole thing or just the body? I really wanted to vote for Ron's all spruce guitar... the LP narrowly beat it out. What an interesting concept! I'd love to know how that thing sounds. I take it the neck is spruce, too? The only qualm I have is that the wood seems kind of... well, dull. Ever consider a tinted finish or some type of burst? Digthemlows: fanned frets on the first build? Awesome. Is this your first fanned instrument? I've had my Dingwall for over a year now and it's fantastic. Once you go fanned, you're not going to want to go back. Congrats, you must be pretty darn happy with it!