Andyjr1515

The controls will be hidden from the front and accessible at the back. I will have a powered piezo/mag pre-amp cum mixer and then, as a minimum, a blend and master volume. I might be able to incorporate a tone too if I can find a suitably small stacked pot. This is where they are supposed to fit: Bearing in mind that I still have to scoop 5mm or so from the back, it doesn't leave a lot of depth. Because I'm working towards the top - probably a thickness of 7mm max, I've gone for Forstner and chisels again. I've done the knobs chamber - now you see them: ...and now you don't: Then started on the main chamber. I reckon I've got another 3mm to go, with a lot of tidying of the carve too! Mind you - at least I got the cable channel in the right place With apologies to Scott for the poor carving so far: Talking of carving, you will have deduced, no doubt, that once the back is scooped and shaped, the control chamber cover will need to be carved too!!

I'm taking this top carve nice and slowly First I gave myself two reference points - a 12mm roundover on the back edge: ...and a soft pencil line along the fingerboard join line to make sure I didn't start carving that inadvertently: Then I set-to initially with my block plane and jointer plane - both with freshly sharpened blades. The figuring doesn't half show up well when it's planed: After a day's effort off and on, I'm starting to creep up on the final shape to the point where I can move to sanding. Again, I've popped the roundover more as a reference guide that getting close the the actual edge finish. As you can see, the profile is still in need of its final smoothing at the edges anyway: The large lower bout is pretty much getting there. With this view, you can see a hump still on the upper section that needs to be planed down before I start rough-sanding to finished shape. What I can now start getting my head around is the control chamber and hidden controls, which I will be routing before I start the carve of the back. Also today, spoke to the guy who is building the custom individual magnetic coils to confirm power and sizes. They will basically fit here, underneath the fretboard: It's getting exciting

It's an interesting question. My own guess - and it is a guess - is that, assuming you are starting with the fabled 'perfect' joining surfaces, it just needs to be enough to squeeze out of the joint and into the grain enough of the glue to the point of wood to wood contact along the whole joint line so that you are not left with a void caused by hydrauliced and then dried glue. But how much that is?

I'll be keeping my eye on those, Scott. I'm aiming for c 12mm roundover on the edges at their tightest...

OK - tomorrow is going to be 'top carve' day I've cut the cardboard visual guide template at the 20" radius to match the fretboard: Now you may think the top has already been carved a reasonable amount - this is it at present (on Saturday) hanging on @Norris's rack next to Norris's beautiful tele-build: End on, this is the carve above: ...and this is where we're heading: ...and that's just the top carve!

I saw this in the flesh on Saturday (then went straight away for a few days, hence the delay in response). Ladies and gentlemen, it is simply SUPERB. Here was a very poor shot of what is a very good build: Now, don't get me wrong, I'm pleased with what I do. But the sheer quality and precision of this above is just mind blowing. And when @Norris went through the things he didn't think were quite right, I giggled a lot....a LOT....and then tried to find a rooftop high enough to fling myself off

Hooray!!!!! Having seen Norris's first in-progress build in the flesh on Saturday, I can tell you - this one is going to be superb too....

Yes - that's also an option. We've taken a few days away but should be back shortly sending sawdust flying. I'm hoping to get the top carve finished this week. I'm also looking forward to seeing what it's going to look like

Well, I'm hooked already on this thread . And now I can look forward to another one in the future. It's only an hour since waking up and already it's turning out to be a great day

Mmmm.... that's a reminder to me to nip the tangs on my new build. I've had boards that have 'settled' over time and it's the tangs that are then very sharp and make it feel like a duff fret job....

Thanks, Scott I haven't decided yet whether to fret up before I fix the fretboard or pre-roundover those particular frets on the bass side and just tidy up the treble in the normal way. It's one of many decisions still to make before the fretboard goes on.

Only just seen the latest pics. I'm SO excited about seeing this tomorrow @Norris

There is then many days planing scraping and sanding to go, but to illustrate broadly what I'm trying to achieve, started the rough sanding to eventually get the body too at a 20" radius and flush with the fretboard: Long way to go before getting to the 20" radius, but this gives maybe a hint of the final shape of the top: ...and once the top is sorted, I will cut the controls chamber at the back and then scoop out the back to head towards the contact lens shape

Bit more progress with this. I used all of the collected advice from this and other forums - then added a bit of my own initiative to get the thrill of living closer to disaster - and radiused the maple fretboard. Just to prove that I do take notice of you all sometimes all of the time, I: Sorted a straight edge to keep the block true: Drew a centre line and generally scribbled childishly with a soft pencil Then, when sanding checked the sanding widths on the block and the progression of the disappearance of the scribbles to see if I was biasing the pressure on the block to one side or another: ...which I was. So adjusted my pressure to get more like this: ..and this Then sanded towards insanity until the centreline was only just visible: Then changed to finer sandpaper on the block and scribbled childishly with chalk: Then sanded the chalk away and the final faint centre line ending up with:

It is surprising, isn't it...even having to track down their video is a bit naff....particularly if there isn't even a little slip that says 'For instructions on use, please see our video on www.stew......'. It is quite a complex bit of kit for the initial set up where, if you miss out a step, will result in equipment that is simply 'not fit for purpose'. I like to think that both Stewmac and G&W are better than this...they certainly should be.

Those Sjoberg vertical clamps have turned out to be the ones I use the most of all of my clamps. They are great. No good used on a Workmate, though - they clamp with high side force in the dog hole and split workmate tops like snapping matchsticks! You are right about the scale rule being sized to the standard box width. However, I use relatively light application of two sided tape and personally wouldn't trust that alone against the side force of the saw on the fretboard itself (which will usually be narrower than both the box and the ruler so would always want to have additional clamping. The LMI solution to integral clamping looks a bit over the top but I'm sure would work fine. The Stewmac solution looks simple and I'm sure works equally fine. I guess it would be maybe possible as a future enhancement of the G&W version....

There is a fairly comprehensive video on the use and set up on their web site, though (although does miss adjusting the blade width, including the critical need to ensure that the jig is squared up)....and certainly the present version does have integral clamps (presumably both are recent upgrades?)

Yes...but...ahem...I need to finish the veneer one first....I know, I know, I know! I will TRY to do them both before Brexit results in the UK being cut off from all electronic communication (and probably electricity in general) and reverting to lighting beacons to communicate with ourselves, as no-one else will be talking to us ...and whenever did democracy involve asking the general population what THEY thought we should do??????!!!!!

The good news is that the replacement washers arrived this morning. The one of the left is the replacement one - the O.D. is about the same as the inner race of the bearing it's clamping up against. There were 3 sizes on the assembly I received, none anywhere near the correct one. Most were the ones on the right - wide enough to fully press against the race cover and the edge of the outer race - hence them clamping up when tightened. The one in the middle was obviously one the operator found on the floor or in his/her pocket when they were assembling it Anyway, with the correct washers installed, guess what? Yup...the slots are in the right places. An afternoon's work and I'm back to where I was at the weekend. This is with the new one temporarily placed in position: Overall view about the mitre jig now it's been fixed? Well - OK overall. +'s Nicely machined. Looks quality despite my poor experience with the actual quality. Much easier to produce an accurate position and depth than hand doing with a block. Takes a lot of the fear factor out...provided it is set up and used correctly (but see below) Much quicker than hand marking and cutting with a block -'s Pity it doesn't incorporate clamps. I was fortunate in that my bench allowed me to use the bench clamps: No instructions on set up or use at all. And if it isn't properly set up you simply get your slots wrong quicker....a kind of efficiency boost, I suppose, but not necessarily in a good way I'm going to have a look on their website, but I don't recall there being any web-based instructions either. If I'm wrong, I'll correct this statement (just checked - definitely no instructions). So to see how to use it, probably means looking on the LMI or Stewmac site or YouTube Luthier Tips du jour (featuring LMI).....hmm...well THOSE look nice jigs.... Anyway - the extra wide radius block also came, so I can now look forward to sanding until insanity sets in

There's some really beautiful work going on here. Wonderful stuff

Well some would say that my comments above are just all hot air....

I AM going to see this on Saturday, aren't I? No, let me put that another way. I AM going to see this on Saturday, aren't I !

Replacement washers are on the way so, on the basis of "even in the best operations errors will happen, but in the best operations they will be fixed quickly and without question" then full marks for G&W. Two niggles remain. First is, and this would be probably be G&W's supplier, an individual will have known this was wrong. For 5 of the bearings to run free, the set screws - after tightening properly like the other three OK ones - would have had to have been backed off. So the individual would have known this was wrong and would have known this would then not work properly and hid both facts. When I ran manufacturing operations, this was one of the very, very few actions that would lead to a worker being summarily dismissed....and that person owes me a fretboard out of his final pay packet. The other is that Carlos said in his mail that they had had some issues with washers sometime back and this one must have got through. If that is the case, it might have been wise for G&W to spend the 5 secs it would take to check this raison d'etre feature on these pretty expensive units as they are packed for shipment (they are not separately packaged so entirely practical to do).

Just heard from G&W who have promised to send out replacement parts with my order placed over the weekend. Good customer service so far.

Bummer. Just checked the fretboard and it's a scrapper. 8 of the slots are out of position - one of them 0.5mm out. I hope that G&W can sort this out quickly as it's right on the critical path of the build...