Norris

That's a finish you could swim in! Cracking work!

Shame about the slip-up. Excellent work though!

The more you remove with the bandsaw, the less you have to sand away. I'm sure you could save yourself hours by nipping a bit more away

Yes, that's what I did

The end of the fretboard butts up against the nut, so the fret positions are measured from there, having clamped a long rule along the centre line. You may be able to see the pencil marks I made last week after trimming the ends of the board - also the reason I covered the board in masking tape, so I'd be able to see them

Tonight was onto slotting the board. I took a few snaps of the old-skool process. First of all we have a jig with a tapered slot in the middle, that just happens to be the taper of the majority of fretboards. If using a different taper, then a bit of packing is required to align along the centre line. As you can see, mine fits nice and snuggly. I then clamped it in place. You'll also probably notice that the jig has been used a few times before! Then we have a couple of knives: an xacto-style scalpel and a thicker bladed knife. Also a Japanese pull saw First off we use a set square against the side of the jig and score a few times with the scalpel ...until we have a fine cut Then draw the thicker bladed knife, gently at first and then with increasing pressure to widen the cut Then finally we can use the pull saw In two hours I managed to cut 14 slots. That's probably a lot slower than most of you! This ebony seems to really grab the blade after the first mm - that's my excuse! Anyway the other 8 slots will have to wait until September because my classes are over for this term. I might try to find time to do some inlays over the summer

Absolutely! My current build is a slab body, and I'm going to miss doing a top carve. It's a beautiful thing when it becomes "right".

'Ain't that the truth!

It's CNC Zen

Absolutely this ^^^

What issues are you having with the fretboard? It looks far too nice to junk it!

I'm hoping he gets to play it before he retires! Thanks, you're too kind

One of the advantages of using a template is that it's easier to refine the shape on thinner material - involving less elbow grease to get it to the correct shape. The router then transfers that shape accurately to the wood. You have really answered your own question. Touch is about the most important sense in guitar building imho. Persevere with refining your shape by feeling the bumps and troughs, and looking at it from a distance, close up, in different lighting conditions. Something like a shinto rasp or dragon file can help to remove material quite quickly, followed by coarse sanding using a range of suitable blocks, and then maybe finer grits or cabinet scrapers. Try to keep the sides perpendicular to the top too (another advantage of templates + router) - it's very easy to drift away into an undercut or overcut. I've used various things hanging around the garage for sanding blocks - from chunks of mdf to short lengths of copper pipe to drill bits to offcuts of beading. The way I do it is to sit down, grip the body between my knees and use both hands to guide the sanding block. Focus sanding on the bump initially, then blend it into the surrounding wood with progressively longer strokes (and repeat a lot), stopping every now again to feel it, usually with my eyes closed. Given enough patience and perseverance I'm sure you'll get it "right" I think I have a photo of my favourite sanding "block" (a length of "D" shaped beading) on my phone - I'll edit this post and add it if I can find it

There's not much to update this week. Basically trimming the fretboard to length and marking out the fret slots to start cutting next week. My instructor does them a bit more "old-skool" than most of the techniques shown on here, so I'll try to snap a few photos. It's the last class of term next week, so progress could slow even more. Especially so if this heatwave continues - lack of sleep and energy doesn't make for accurate guitar building. Apparently I'm meant to shower for only 4 minutes to save water. The hosepipe ban isn't in force yet, but I think it's only a matter of weeks if not days.

*Cough-cough* Lovely looking bass btw

By 'eck that's a beaut! Seriously gorgeous

It's refreshing to see the different approaches that people take when making a guitar. It proves there is no one "right" way to do it, and the end result justifies the method. I think the key thing is to be able to visualise what you want and then choose a method that allows YOU to accomplish it Sorry, I'm getting a bit philosophical after drinking on a school night

I'm comfortable with the fix. The key is to make the joint as stable as possible. As I think @Andyjr1515 once posted (or it could have been @ScottR), as long as you have absolute stability between nut and bridge, the rest is just ergonomics and aesthetics I like to post everything, warts and all. You never know who it might help. There are a lot of lurkers as well as the active posters

It's not something I'm going to worry about. My instructor says he sometimes has to do it himself when he's having an off day The shoulders were done with chisel, file and scraper - mainly the scraper. It's not a completely seamless join, but using the sash clamp helped get it close enough. I'll see when I unclamp it and start scraping away the squeeze out

Yes it's been some time since the last update. I'm still only putting in 2 hours a week. Progress has been understandably slow. Having carefully carved the tenon, the neck alignment was out just a bit too much to pass my QC standards. So more fettling ensued to get the neck into alignment. That of course meant that the tenon was too sloppy a fit. So tonight I glued maple veneer on the sides of the tenon and got busy with the cabinet scraper. Once I had a snug fit, another check for alignment and... ... glue up time! So the next thing will be to cut the fretboard to length and route the pickup cavities

Your attention to detail just gets better & better. Beautiful work!

I made mine using a pillar drill, a set square clamped to the base plate as a guide, and an 80-grit sanding stick

I would imagine it's possible to make a nut out of any fine-grained stone if you had the patience to cut and polish it. There are a lot of exotic looking stones in the world e.g. marble comes in a wide variety of colours and can certainly be carved (as it has been for millennia)

I was wondering wether to make a metal/ebony laminate for durability. I don't know how a thin sliver of ebony would stand up to being removed and refitted a few times. A slight over-tightening of the screws is likely to split it

Sorry, I can't add any more reactions today, but would have given you a "Ha Ha"