hittitewarrior

Thank you all for the thoughts and input. I haven't had a chance to try this further, but hopefully this weekend Going to start by putting strings on high E and low E and assess symmetry. Would also like to get some measurements from a few completed guitars to see the range (maybe that's a good excuse to stop by guitarcenter later today :-)....... Depending on how off I am, I'll consider the solutions suggested. Really appreciated input. Thank you all!

Hey all! Been awhile since I've been on here, but through COVID times, I've been slowly working on a build. I put the bridge on a couple days ago, and noticed a potentially concerning thing. Upon tightening everything up, I put a string roughly where it goes for the high E position, and I'm a little concerned I might be too close to the edge of the fretboard. I'm curious as to other's opinions. After taking these pics, and troubleshooting, I noticed that when I drilled the bridge mounting screw pilot holes, I did not get them perfectly located... even though I tried to be very careful and press a starting divot with the point of a forstner, then use the drill press to drill straight... I'm about 1/16" skewed on the very tail of the bridge. I loosened everything, tightened the most centered screw first, then worked down on the rest of the screws... made it better to about 1/32" of skew. I'm hesitant to try to fill the holes and drill again, but also may be over thinking this. What sort of distance to the edge of the fretboard do your designs typically have (21st fret)? Thanks in advance for your opinions!

Thanks. I love the place I got it, they are top quality in every way.. Someone gave me a birthday present/gift card, so I went for the exotic thing that called to me :)... little did I know I'd get lessons as part of the birthday present. Ha! As I said above, really appreciate all the willing members who chime in with their experience so freely. IME, this forum has always been a top notch example of what forums SHOULD be in my mind. Bocote has been my typical jam because it's a real nice hardwood that's pretty forgiving, relatively cheap in the world of the "boring" alternatives. I found out I'm allergic to that stuff... nasty rash when the dust gets on me. So now I'm looking for something new. Anyways, I appreciate your point, and it will make me think twice before jumping in the deep end quite so quickly in the future.

Thank you all. This is certainly a learning experience. I went ahead and wicked CA from the ends, and lightly clamped it using my aluminum sanding caul. Hopefully that gets things to sit mostly level, and start hardening stuff up. I will then flood with CA or epoxy and see what happens. This is a guitar for me, so if it fails after time, I'll be bummed (pissed?), but at least it is not going to affect someone else... I may start a second neck of similar dimensions now... bleh. Curious on something that @Muzz said, and how you all do this. When it comes to fretboard slotting, I use my table saw and a template to create the fret slots. I then radius the fretboard, glue it to the neck, trim the width, and come back with a fret saw with a depth stop, and manually (no jig) deepen the slots to the right depth. I'm open to suggestions on a better order of operations. Thank you all for the input. Love this forum, and appreciate all the insights.

@Bizman62 - thank you for the advice I believe it is Tasmanian Myrtle? - https://www.wood-database.com/tasmanian-myrtle/ The frets are pre-bent to be the "same" radius as the fretboard (10"). I should be going to something like 12"? Good to know - thank you! Part of the problem (at least in the first picture) is when I changed the position of the fret press to be more over the end of the fret, it "crushed" the wood (resulting in that tear out, and what looks like a little bit of a divot now in the fretboard (and that tearing immediately adjacent to it). I'm afraid I'll end up with a low spot when it's time to level the fretboard. Perhaps not low enough to cause an issue? For putting the rest of the frets in, your advice would be to pre-bend the radius further, and just be careful to not be heavy handed when pressing?

Hello all... I'm seeking the counsel of you all again on what may be something not worth recovering from... I purchased and have been saving this beautiful piece of tiger myrtlewood that was sold as a fretboard by a reputable wood supplier for guitar making... I am not blaming them in any way shape or form for selling it as a fretboard, but after trying to seat the first fret using my drill press (using a fret press attachment), I am wondering if the wood is far too soft. It may be "fine" assuming I seated the frets in a more gentle way... but I did not for this first one. So here are the pictures of the issue, and I'm looking for advice on two things... 1) do you all see a way to salvage this? 2) if the wood is too soft, are there other issues I will have in the future (assuming I can get the frets in at all...). in the above picture, you can see a little tear out of the wood that occurred as I pressed the fret into the slot. The first fret I tried rotated and bent a little, denting the wood and creating that tear out. The images here are of the second attempt (new piece of fretwire), pressed more lightly... I've considered flooding the fret slot with CA, clamping it and seeing what happens... then progressing through the rest of the frets with a much lighter touch. I thought maybe flooding all slots with CA first as a hardener, and then going back to clean up the slots, and then try pressing? I thought maybe I should try to create "inserts" at each fret using a harder wood, and then figure out how to slot that (not sure how I would do that in a way that was precise enough... I normally use a template and cut slots on my table saw). And of course, I am afraid this is a bad idea overall at this point, and abandoning is the only suitable course of action. Thank you in advance for your thoughts and advice.

Thank you all for the feedback and information. This was really helpful. And thank you @Bizman62 for the pros/cons list for order of operation. I will proceed as planned and pray for no warping/twisting! More to come!

Carbon rods are .125” x .325”. I think I’ve seen it done in a couple different orders of operation, but I was planning on fretting, then headstock transition and carve. Any reason to carve first? Thanks for the advice!

any other ideas or thoughts from others? Appreciate the input so far!

@Bizman62 Thank you for the additional thoughts! I follow your logic. Attached are some additional pics. The slots were pretty tightly fitted. The carbon fiber is taller than it is wide which is how it was installed for stiffness. The slots were a little longer, but I went down the length of the rods and wicked CA on both sides of the rod with extra at the ends where the slot was longer than the rod.

@Workingman Thanks for the quick response. Upbow on the worst of the two is about .025". Good to know for future on epoxy.... I am kicking myself right now.

Been awhile since I posted here. I'm so very slow at builds. I've been building a pair of guitars at the same time and trying some new (to me) features... the most relevant to this post is the use of carbon fiber beams in the neck. These were installed on either side of the truss rod slot and affixed with CA. I clamped the neck blank to my tablesaw top to ensure it was flat when i put CA in to hold the carbon fiber. At this point, I noted no issues. Great. I routed down the headstock thickness (tele style guitars). Used the bandsaw and cut out the shape of the neck and then used a router template to clean it up to the shape I wanted for headstock and neck. I then clamped my radiused and slotted fingerboard to the neck. Using a pattern bit, cleaned up the edges of the fingerboard to match the shape of the neck blank. I had previously checked the radiused fingerboard for straightness along the length (was very close). I was surprised when I double checked for straightness once the glue up was complete. For some reason, the neck seems to have a bow in it. measuring flatness at fingerboard shows an upbow, and measuring flatness on the back of the neck shows it is the whole neck that has upbowed (not a sanding issue I had made). I haven't adjusted the truss rod, and i'm surprised the two carbon fiber rods did not combat any environmental changes. Wood was dry. Any thoughts?? What I really was hoping for some guidance on is what to do next. I was going to fret. I think I should fix this first? Do I 1) Adjust the truss rod to make it straight? 2) Sand the fretboard flat since it is currently in an untensioned (truss rod neutral) state? 3) Something else I haven't thought of? Any thoughts or opinions would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!!

It's been awhile since I last posted... Been spending some time upgrading the shop. Started putting together a neck blank with some highly figured maple I have. Ran it through my planer and got nasty tear out. So I started searching craigslist... I came across a Grizzly 1079R 16" drum sander that I can pick up for $500. I'm on the fence...I'm curious how many things I'd find a drum sander to be useful for. My other option I've been considering is to upgrade my DW735 with a shelix head. I feel stuck in the options! Help!

It is official! SHB Mk II is finished & plays well! Thank you for the encouragement, advice, and help throughout this. Could not have done this without you. The red there in the image is a reflection of my shirt... Lighting in the shop makes pictures an interesting endeavor. And some marking on the case to give it a home. Now... to finish up Mk III before my brother in law's birthday lol

@curtisa Thanks - this really helped. I had nowhere near enough relief in the neck. I still probably could give it some more, but the action is feeling kinda high. The nut slots were right around .09-..011 I think. I might have to touch them up ever so slightly. There are a couple spots higher up the neck that seem to still have a litltle buzz. Perhaps those are true high spots? The worst problem right now is that the high E string has no sustain. It just buzzes a little and dies out. I found if I press ever so slightly on the string above the nut (towards the tuner), this problem goes away... so I am guessing a string tree is probably my only option? The tuners I have are staggered height, so I thought it would end up ok, but it's not looking like it. @Prostheta I definitely want to try a zero nut. I almost tried this go around, but got cheap and decided against buying the $30 variety in favor of making a nut. HA! learning experiences galore :-D. I really wish I could get hands-on training on the set-up portion. Figuring out what is a fret issue (since this is my first fret job) vs. set-up technique is a little frustrating. Has anyone tried Erlewine's fret (and nut) videos? Worth the investment? On the flip side of it all, it was particularly nice playing it and hearing all the tones it can create. If I can work out these last few issues, I think I will be really happy with it. I will need to take some good pics, but here it is