KnightroExpress

More pics! Got my pickup routes in. Control cavity and cover ledge. Time to remove that little extra bit. Needs some more, but it looks better already. Sanded the side of the pocket down to size, trimmed the side down a bit. That's better. Marking for neck screws. These will also be used as pilot holes for the ferrules. Coming along! I'm excited to get this bit smoothed out. So this is where I ended my day. I'm hoping to radius the edges and jump into carving tomorrow, but we shall see what happens. Thanks for looking!

Thank you very much! This is indeed a bolt-on. That little extra bit on the treble side was left at the request of my instructor, to avoid a common issue they've had with other students and their pin router. Now that my neck pocket has been successfully cut, I'll remove the excess as part of my carving/contouring process.

Another good day today! I was able to get my neck pocket cut and the rest of the routes laid out. Finishing up the sides. Neck pocket cut on the pin router. Laying out a new centerline based on the neck. It looks like a guitar! Laying out the pickups, bridge, and control cavity. Bridge mounting holes. Here's the heel so far. It'll be contoured a lot more in a day or two. So this is where I'm at. It's incredibly exciting to finally see this coming to life. Thanks for taking a look!

Exciting day today! I removed my blank from the clamp monster and jumped right into shaping. Here it is! Drum sanded down to 1.75". I'm not too thrilled with the large amount of little knots, but this is getting a solid color finish so I'm not overly bummed. Rough cut on the bandsaw, ready to hit the edge sander. Now onto the spindle sander. Done with power tools, now it's down to hand work. Getting there! This is as far as I got. And there you have it! I'm hoping to finish the rough shaping by the end of class tomorrow so I can move on to routing and carving.

I like it too! I'm a little sad that I decided to paint over it.

Thanks for sharing! I haven't been able to take a close look at everything, but I like what I've seen so far.

Hey all! Classes resumed today, and I was able to get my body blank prepped. Fresh from the saw. Yep, it fits. Jointed on the back and centerlines. Aaaand here it is in the clamps. Not much of an update for today, but I'll have this cut out tomorrow!

Thank you! Side note: class resumes tomorrow, so I'm hoping to have at least a few pics to put up within a few days.

Thanks Geoff and Prostheta! I appreciate the tips and will certainly keep them in mind. The school uses the mill for fret slots, tuning key holes, the neck profile, even Safe-T-Planing. It's certainly handy, though not something that I foresee owning.

Thank you!

Thanks! I'll do the final fret dress after the neck gets some finish. The goo was just some Timbermate filler, and I'm not sure if we'll be using to to pore fill.

Hey all! I wanted to wait until I had a good amount of pics, and I ended up waiting until the neck was almost done. It's radius time! I'm going 16" on this one. So much dust. You never know when you might need some rosewood dust. Yep, there's the radius. Super jumbo frets going in. I might try a smaller wire next time, but I wanted to try some silly large wire this time. Filed flush. Bevels done. That annoying superglue drip will sand out later. Time to fill the gaps. I was excited to use my thoughtfully collected dust, but they made me use this goo instead. I sprinkled a pinch of dust in there just to feel better. This stuff is smelly and makes a mess, but it applies and sands easily. Once the filler was applied, I let it set overnight. Through the magic of the internet, it's now all sanded! I took some pictures as I was going up through the grits, but they weren't really interesting or helpful. Well, that's it for now. I'm on break for the holidays, so work on this will resume in the first week of January. I'm super excited to start work on the body, so expect a lot of pics. Thanks for taking a look!

Please do! Your laminations are always so cool.

I definitely enjoy the process of hand carving, that's how I've done everything prior to this one. The mill is cool, but there's sort of an empty "oh, it's already done" feeling as it chews through the neck. I feel more connected when I have to work for it, you know?

Here we go, more neck stuff! Maybe hard to tell, but I sanded the scoop and face smooth. Dots! These are regular ol' 1/4" MOP. Yep, those are dots. Getting my heel shape drawn on. You'll notice in the next pic- they made me erase this and draw on a standard triangle thing. I am allowed to carve my own shape after the next procedure, though. Back to the mill! Check out the huge roundover bit. It's pretty cool watching this thing chomp a neck blank and have a decently smooth profile emerge. Same time, new view. So this is how the heel looks after the mill. I redrew my heel and got to work with the Microplane. Headstock transition area. After rough filing most of the excess away. I decided to try my hand at scraping. I like it! These scribbles are at the lowest point of the neck shaft, I'm blending the headstock down to here. I was trying to show the transitions, but it looks like my phone liked the floor more. More heel action. Even more! Coming along! Still needs sanding and refinement overall, but it feels pretty good. And finally, I just couldn't resist! Thanks for taking a look.

Scott- I am indeed! I'll be sad to leave, but happy to have had the experience. Peter- Thank you very much, and I'll agree to that

Time to move on to the neck. Just plain maple, nothing fancy. It's tough to see, but I've drafted the outer dimensions of my neck on here. Truss rod rout and rough taper done. This is new to me. I usually use silicone, but they have little neoprene strips here. I kinda like this way better, it's less gooey. Oh good, it fits. Clamped up overnight. For some reason, I didn't take a pic of the fretboard by itself. Unclamped. Cutting fret slots on a vertical mill is time consuming, but very accurate. After slotting and tapering. Marking for dots. They'll be simple 1/4" MOP. Dot holes drilled. Side dots too! Redrafting for tuner placement. Hey, there they are. Roughly cut out and sanded. Still needs a lot of refinement. Here's a little heel template. I wish I had pics of the pin router, it's pretty cool. Still needs sanding, but at least it's in the right shape. Here, I've marked for thickness. The blue tape is on the very back of the nut support and represents the start of the headstock scoop. The scoop is cut, and the remaining headstock thickness is Safe-T-Planed away. Better view. Still needs sanding. That's it for today, thanks for taking a look!

Thank you, and wow those are very similar. I assure you that I didn't set out to copy anyone. I'd say that yours is much prettier, anyway.

Seriously awesome.

Thank you!

Alright, time for some body stuff. My main inspiration here was the Ibanez JS/Radius series. I'm a huge Satriani fan and love the feel of his signature series, aside from the square neckplate business. I'm shooting for a similar overall size and feel, but with my personal style and a few little changes. So this is pretty much it. It starts as a concept sketch and gets redrawn until I like it, then I recreate it in CAD. I intend to carve it like the JS/Radius: I like having a full depth control cavity paired with slim contours. Hopefully, I can pull it off. Time to make a template! The relevant bits of my plan are traced. Then, the trace is adhered to 1/2" MDF. After a trip to the bandsaw and spindle sander. It's all hand work from here. Here are my tools for now: a dowel and some little blocks. The control cavity is first cut out with a scroll saw, then taken close to the line on the spindle sander. This is pretty much ready to go. Oh! As for finish... I'm also a big Vai fan and have been drooling over his new seafoam green JEM, so that's gonna be the color on this one. Thanks for checking in! I'm currently working on the neck, so I'll have an update with some pics for that soon.

Haha yeah, it was a loooong drive. I was in the Army for the last 6 years, so we moved quite a bit. From Tampa to Georgia, then central California, then Baltimore, now back to Cali. When my program is done, we'll be moving back to Tampa and finally settling down a bit.

Thanks Scott! I'm currently attending the guitar craft program at Musicians Institute in Los Angeles. A big chunk of my curriculum is the design and fabrication of a guitar for myself.

Hello all! I've decided to keep a thread going for my main project guitar, as I'd like to post more regularly here on PG. This guitar is 100% my design, though I have had to make a few small changes to fit some specific measurements that I'll be graded on. I'll consider this one a prototype and adjust the design as it develops. Specs: 25.5" scale Mahogany body Maple neck Indian rosewood fretboard Single coil neck PU Humbucker bridge PU So why 'Voyager'? First, space and spacecraft are awesome. In fact, I just left a career in satellite network coordination, which was very challenging and rewarding. Getting back to my point, the name represents both my love of space and my journey from an intensely technical job to a creative field that I love even more. Enough of my life story though, here are some pics of what I've done so far. Manual drafting is fun, but I'm faster in CAD. The headstock. I think the top edge continuing the neck taper looks cool, but I suppose I won't know for sure until it's all done. Headstock template on 1/4" MDF. Back to drafting, I'm getting started on the body. Neck pickup Hardware placed to make sure everything will fit ok. No, I'm not making a box. That's just the overall size boundaries I'd like to stick to. Modified neck pocket. That's it for now, I'll post more of the body design later. Thanks for taking a look!

I've done the same on the few necks I've built so far.