Norris

An hour or so with a fine half-round file and it's starting to take shape. I like carving necks

Bass number three for you - this done as a flying V

I made certain that I transferred the truss rod channel depth at several points onto the sides of the neck before gluing on the fretboard. That meant that I had some indication when I thinned the back of the neck down, and could check I had enough material in there. It's as close as I'd want to go

When thinning down the back of the neck my target was approx 21mm at first fret, 23mm at 12th. Actually I stopped about 0.5mm shy of that, when it was pretty flat, to allow for a bit of final sanding

Probably quite mundane for you people, but last night I did my first rough neck carve. Probably the most satisfying couple of hours spent on the build since I made my first template. I see what you mean about it being the favourite part of the build for a lot of people.

The usual method of rounding over at the top & bottom of the neck, then join them up. I used my shinto rasp - which was great for the job. I thought I might need a spokeshave, but the rasp did a great job. I also used a round surform.

... and I came very close to forgetting to draw in the centre line! I've only got just over 3mm of wood to the bottom of the truss rod channel - so that's very important!

I think you win the Update of the Month award!

What a fantastic experience. I'm really pleased for you and very much inspired to try to build a bass that is at least half as good as yours!

It looks like the guitar is about finished. It will be difficult to fit a real binding without disturbing the finish, as it involves removing wood. In which case it might be worth considering a faux binding i.e. paint it on carefully

Back to class last night, so I managed to use the instructor's fret bevelling file

... then polished them off a bit with my 320 grit sanding block. I'll polish them up a bit further later on

So then I had time to start carving the neck. First, to get the taper in using my SHINTO rasp . If it was the other way up you'd be able to see it printed on the handle

So in a bit of murky daylight this morning...

I ran out of time to do much carving last night. I'll carry on with it at home if I get time

That's looking fantastic

Anyway, I used my Shinto rasp ()  to shave a couple of mm off the back of the headstock, taking it down to around 13.5mm. It was previously at 0.6" as per the plans, but the Kluson tuners seem to be designed for a little over 0.5" thickness (as far as I could tell on t'Internet) & looked a little "swamped" with 0.6". It looks a lot better fit now.

I put a steel rule across the frets to give me an approximate height for the nut, wedged in a small bolt to give me something to rest on, then held a piece of card behind it to represent the string down to the first tuner. We have a little bit of daylight, so it might be enough clearance now.

18 hours ago, Andyjr1515 said:

Looks a nice colour @Norris  How did you find the Shinto to use?  It's on my 'maybe' list...

It's lovely to use, and a definite must-have for your toolbox . I only used the "fine" side as I hadn't got much to remove and there was binding involved. I'll get to use the coarse side when I carve the neck.

I got mine from Amazon. It was quite reasonably priced, but quite a wait for delivery from Japan.

Edit: And yes, I'm quite pleased with the colour. The sample has been out on the table and has looked good in all lighting conditions as I've passed by. I'll have a go at reproducing it and maybe giving it a splash of lacquer

I've also got some more dyes. I'll show you some photos, but haven't got time right now to re-type everything I lost when I couldn't post (the Submit Reply button was stuck on "Saving...")

I got to use my Shinto rasp for the first time

And after a lot of sanding...

... which should hopefully give enough clearance

15 hours ago, badger6 said:

Make the Inlays black? Are you nuts, hahaha. I'm a super novice when it comes to this stuff

Ah - I'd forgotten it was a rebuild for a moment there

I've already prepared a piece of bone to that width, but could always make another. Food for thought...

Edit: I really should have said that will give me something to chew over!

Another vote for black

There again, I'd think about making the fret markers black as well 

I took a profile shot which shows it in context a lot better. The previous shot was focussed on the veneer/binding/fretboard transition which makes the shelf look huge. I still need to take the shelf down a fair bit (about 2/3 off the front & 1/3 off the rear behind the nut), and also to remove a couple of mm of material from the rear of the headstock as it's still a bit thick for the tuners to sit nicely (top bush to go on still).

It's do-able

8 hours ago, curtisa said:

Have you left enough clearance behind the nut for the strings to travel to the tuning posts? That's a pretty long plateau behind the nut.

40 minutes ago, psikoT said:

I was going to say the same, maybe is worth to check it before doing any finish.

I will be taking that plateau down quite a bit, probably at an angle to leave some support behind the nut. It's because I've done a slightly sharper curve than standard, rising from the headstock face to the fretboard. That was the first carve to check the binding alignment - there will be more coming .

It is one to add to the "don't do it again" list though . The tight radius didn't exactly help with the headstock veneer either! I couldn't have corrected it because by the time I realised that I would have the long "shelf", I'd already cut the truss rod channel and would have then had some major work to redress that!

18 hours ago, Prostheta said:

Straight over the frets also?

I wasn't intending to. I'm told that waxing the frets before lacquering will help clean them off again afterwards. I'm following my instructor's instructions

16 hours ago, ScottR said:

Yeah, you're smoking right along now. I'm looking forward to seeing the neck set into the body. It is going to be looking fine!

SR

 

Thanks. I want to get it finished now. It's been going since September last year! I've even started buying bits for my next build...

30 minutes ago, Prostheta said:

It can be a bit problematic to remove. What's the final finish going to be on the neck?

Clear nitro-cellulose lacquer

37 minutes ago, Prostheta said:

Well it's looking more and more like a finished product!

If you like a "railway sleeper" neck profile  But yes, I'm pleased with the progress and how it's starting to look

38 minutes ago, Prostheta said:

Careful with that CA around Maple. It dirties up like anything, especially when you file any metal around it. CA darkens and discolours it.

Thanks for the warning - I'll be careful (although there's not huge amounts on the board, but some)

15 hours ago, ScottR said:

I would cut them roughly to shape first--less to sand and less to clamp.

SR

Plus you can clamp them near the final edges - where you would see a glue line if there is any gap

I tidied up the end of the fretboard and am pretty pleased with the result. This is more to check that the binding lines up - which it does. I'll need to take more height off the section behind the nut to allow a bit more clearance for the strings.

So then last night I fitted the frets in - whoopee!

I wicked in a bit of CA at the ends to ensure the fret overhang (where I nipped the tangs) doesn't lift off the binding and then pressed the ends down with an undersized radius gauge & clamp.

There was one moment of over-enthusiasm where I managed to strike the fretboard with the hammer enough to leave an impression. However pulling that fret, wetting the dented area, letting it dry & sanding it with the 320 grit sorted that out. It was in the middle of the board, so I just carried on fretting from the heel until it was dried, so that I still had a reasonable area of un-fretted neck left in which to use a sanding block

Next Monday is a public holiday, so no guitar building class. So the neck is going to wait for a bit now until I tidy up the frets. The instructor has a neat tool that he made - a file set into a block of wood at 45°. I'll wait until I can use that to file the fret ends rather than faff about trying to do it by hand - I have plenty of other stuff to get on with that's a better use of my time.

In the meantime some new spirit based dyes have arrived from Rothko & Frost, so I'll be preparing some samples for that. I'll also fetch the body back into the light and see about routing the neck pocket and starting on the carving.

3 hours ago, Andyjr1515 said:

Wow...I wouldn't have trusted my own abilities to use a bandsaw that accurately. Mind you, my cheapo bandsaw can produce a wavy angled cut in the best of hands.

As a matter of interest, why did you choose the bandsaw option?

Mainly time. My class is 2 hours and I wanted to get the fretboard sanded

Having said that, I did do it on the school's big bandsaw. It's got a nice thick (although fairly blunt) blade. I could have used a jack plane, but having already radiused the fret board I would have had to spend yet more time making a jig to hold it steady. Because the sides of the neck were squared off, it made sense (at the time!) to use the bottom surface as a guide with a LOT of down pressure and a VERY slow feed rate.

Cutting a very thin slice would have the natural tendency to push the work piece towards the side fence anyway - so it wasn't quite as risky as it might seem.

Edit to add: I did take the trouble to re-configure the side fence to vertical mode, as only the crown of the radius would be touching it

Back to the guitar building club last night

When I prepared the neck blank, it was very tight on dimensions. For that reason I left the back rough & just squared off three sides. Last night was finally time to get the heel levelled off in what one of the instructors described as a "brave move". There are no pictures of it in progress, as I was too busy turning my underpants a whiter shade of khaki! Anyway, I stuck a "sled" to the bottom of the neck with double-sided tape, than ran the neck through the bandsaw against the side fence - twice to de-burr it a bit. Luckily taking it slowly got the result I was after with no major calamity.

After cleaning up a bit with a smoothing plane I now have a level heel

I'll sand it to final dimensions later, but at least it's taken the bow out of the back of the neck. That then made sanding the fretboard a lot easier and it is now down to 120 grit, the compound radius intact, and nice & level (no photos because it doesn't look much different to previous ones).

I also fixed the neck to another sled and nipped off the nut end of the fretboard with the band saw. I left myself a couple of mm to go because I need to carefully blend it into the bound head curve section and didn't want to risk snagging the binding.

On the whole a very productive & satisfying night, although tbh it doesn't look that different "in the flesh". It's nearly time for fitting the frets - which I'll do before the neck carve

Oh - and on that photo above you can see the dot markers that I fitted at the weekend. I had fun with those, as the "Weld-On" glue that I used for the binding didn't like the waxy plastic dots (ABS?) and I had to pull them out & re-glue with CA.

6 hours ago, Mr_PaTi3Nc3 said:

looks nice though lol. 

We need photographic evidence!

And welcome to the forum

I installed my side dots markers - so not much to update. However, I thought you might like to see the "sled" for making sure the holes were drilled vertically in my already tapered neck. Basically an offcut of wood the width of the difference between the width at the heel and the first fret, taped underneath the fret position, then taped down onto a goodly chunk of squared up hardwood. It certainly made drilling a lot easier.

Then, it's comedy post time...

The "where the heck are all of my centre punches?!" ground down nail, and the "old bit of wire coat hanger" reamer so that the 2mm side dots would actually go in the 2mm holes!

To be fair, both worked perfectly and are useful additions to the toolbox