sirspens

Oh, you can be assured I am overthinking it. That's what I do. My biggest concern is getting everything locked down tight and straight so that I can drill holes that will result in the neck being straight, given that there is so much play. I guess it is better than the neck being tight but not straight! I should have some time tomorrow evening. So I am going to attempt to do exactly that. Get my laser level, calipers and clamps out, and see if I can't nail it. I guess worst case scenario is that I screw it up, patch up the holes with some dowels and try again after the glue dries.

Work. Obligations. More than a bit of depression. You know... trying to find time. I'm trying to push forward with the work, but I don't know the best way to move forward at this point. All I can think of is reasons why the solutions I can come up with won't work.

I like the coin.

I finally got a chance to clamp down the guitar and neck, laser straighten it up and use my feeler gauges to figure out the damage done. Luckily, it is not symmetrical! (Sarcasm) The top side gap is 0.025", and the bottom side gap is 0.0365", once the neck is centered and straightened. I'm not sure how to work with dimensions that small. Especially being asymmetrical. I could really use some advice here: Would it be better to attempt to veneer (I don't even know where to start there) something to size, or to cut some "blocks" in that are too big, and then reroute the sides with a new and more stable template?

No reason not to go with the Gibson 490R / 498T setup, then. And you can find them all over ebay and Reverb for a good price.

Very thorough inspection! Too bad about the fret spacing. I am very curious to see how much it effects the play of the guitar. Also, I had never noticed the difference in bevel between the Epiphone and Gibson SGs until you pointed it out in your video. So far, as a non-woodworker, that kind of work has been the hardest thing for me to learn. At least, having it look good. What kind of music do you play? (I'm asking for pick-up consideration.)

Sadly, I kind of miss the beautiful dullness of the natural naked wood. Not that it doesn't look great now. But that dull tone made the color pop even more.

That is my plan. But I have had my own neck problems this week that have kept me from getting much of anything done. (I have a bad C2 and C3 that can slip out of place and give me problems from time to time. And this week has been pretty bad.) And this weekend I have to go out of town for a family birthday celebration. So... it is going to be a bit before I can sit down and do the detail work of cleaning up the neck pocket. But I have been going over the plan in my head, so I think once I get around to it, I have a pretty good plan. I have plenty of scraps from the body cut. The trick will be rounding out the back side correctly so that the two insets fits in smooth. Then I have redrafted the neck pocket template so that I can screw it down instead of relying on double sided tape. Hopefully next week.

Yeah. Me too. I've always been a quick study and new skills have usually come fairly easily for me. I knew taking on building guitars would be hard. Working with my hands is not one of those things I have ever been good at. That's why I decided to do it. I just have to remind myself of that sometimes. I really want to build a guitar!

As a novice wood worker. I have this problem, too. I was looking at this other day.... And was like, "How the hell did that become this..." When I sand things, they most typically just have less wood, with not much less irregularity. I mean, I understand how it is supposed to work. I just can't seem to make it happen. Still practicing....!

Thank you for the (somewhat) encouraging words. haha. I am developing ideas to fix the neck situation. But my weeks get busy like falling down a hill.

I used this jigger... http://www.stewmac.com/Hardware_and_Parts/Screws_and_Springs/Neck_Mounting_Ferrule_Screws.html And if I remember correctly, I used a 5/32" bit for the pilot hole. I used the same bit for the mahogany body and the maple neck. In fact, I strapped it all down and drilled it through all at once.

I'll keep that in mind for the future.

Yeah. The more I think about it, the more double sided tape seems to be the only likely suspect...

And nothing can seem to go right. Tried to see how the neck fits (holes already drilled from last time). But before the neck even tightened all the way down the StewMac screws snapped. The screws weren't even tight! (And, yes, before anyone asks, I pre-drilled holes and I even took them 1/8" deeper than needed, just to be safe.) I... I think there is something wrong with me. haha

0.08". Measuring it was the first thing I did the first day I had access to the laser.

3/8" Acrylic. The whole thing took less than a minute. And the bearing was in contact with the template for a small fraction of that time. So I don't think that was the cause. My first thought after the neck not fitting was that I had possibly cut into the template. But I had not.

The neck fit the template, to what extent I can figure (because it isn't open ended). When I placed the template over the previously cut neck pocket, it fit over it perfectly -- smooth to the touch. The neck in the picture is a different neck than before, but just because it was the closest one to me at the time. I have two identical necks, except for the fretboard material. They both read exactly the same depths and widths (within 0.005") at each fret where I have measured. The other neck does the exact same thing. There were two problems with the previous cut that I was trying to solve: 1) The bottom of the neck pocket (the seat?) wasn't completely flat. So I made this new template (laser cut from the same file with the same settings) that wrapped around the neck pocket so that the router would have a base to sit on for the entire route. 2) On my initial cut, I used a 1/2" deep bearing bit. Which meant that it took several passes to make the cut. That bit seems to be just ever so smaller than the bearing on the bit, which caused the walls of the neck pocket to "stair step" down a bit. Previously the neck fit tightly at the top. This time around I got a 1" long bearing bit. A nice one so it wouldn't be wonky like the last time around. It smoothed out the sides (but did not touch the top level -- you can tell by the fact that the top level is still sanded, but everything below that first 3/8" or so is rougher from the router cut. My guess, from before making the new cut, was worst case scenario I would end up with a hair's width wider cut. Just a worst case scenario. However, previously I had to use my body weight to shove the neck into the pocket, so a hair wider didn't really bother me. But.... that's not what happened. Instead it went from being a nicely tight fit to having a huge gap. In the end, I don't know what happened. I'm pretty sure on how to not have it happen again. But I don't know what happened this time. My question becomes, with that much gap, how do I make my drills from the back into the neck while keeping it aligned. I am going to have to come up with some kind of jig and get exact center lines down the back of the body and the back of the neck....

Thanks. I'm not discouraged. I'm just frustrated by many things. I have spent another evening practicing my rasp and spokepull skills. I'm making incremental progress. It's still embarrassing. My skills couldn't be used to make a neck. But my boards look less and less mangled! I can make a Buffy stake! One day...

The title for today's post shall be "This is Why I am an Architect: I draw things, other people build them." But, first the few positive notes.... As I posted previously, I made a new neck route template. I used it to clean up the neck route which did a very nice job. Smooth as a baby's bottom. And level, too! I also cleaned up my little uh-oh on the control cavity cover route. I made it a tad too deep, but I know what the problem is there, I just don't currently have the tools to do it right, and I am out of money for the moment. I'm bondo-ing the chip-out in the second body... And I cut out the headstock design for the second neck (not made by me). I like the design. Borrowing from the fatter Danelectro straight-six designs, but going even fatter. And now for how I have probably ruined this body and will have to start over.... As I said, I made a new template for the neck cut. I did this so that the router would have something to sit on for the entire route and would remain level. I measured and measured and measured and measured. Everything was fine. Then I cleaned up the route and... The stupid cavity is now too big. WOOD DIDN'T EVEN COME OFF FROM THE SIDES! I couldn't find my feeler gauges, so I don't know precisely how too big it is. I'd say around 1/16" total, shared between the two sides. But, as you can see in the picture above, that is HUGE when it comes to fitting in snugly and being straight. I don't know if that is recoverable. I figure between finishing the body and the neck, it will be reduced some if I let the finish in those spots, but... I don't know. I'm just kind of pissed off right now. Between dealing with assholes at work, a website I can't get finished and messing up this guitar... ugh. I mean, my travails are light, to be sure, it's just frustrating to put so much thought, planning and effort and then make one tiny mistake that I did everything I could think of to avoid... Anyway... the guitar could be nice. I like the design. I want to play it... I have the second body. And honestly wood is fairly cheap. I can get back on track, but I am just so bad at doing things by hand. I have been practicing my hand carving to do a neck by hand. It is embarrassing. I have watched video after video and I can't even figure out how to draw a spokeshave without it being all dunka-dunka-dunka-dunka.

Yeah. I spent 20 minutes and tried two different computers. Refreshed the page. Loaded it different ways. Cleared my cache. Just wouldn't do anything but that. Weird.

Sorry about the above post. No matter what computer I got on, it wouldn't let me type anything in the comment box. It just had that. And I couldn't change it. Then when I went to edit it, I couldn't change it there either. Nor delete it. On to my point for posting... I have a question about finishing.... My guitar body is mahogany. If I have it filled and sanded well, and I use an instrument grade lacquer finish, does it really matter what kind of spray paint I use to achieve the color layer? I'm sure there are certain types of paint I wouldn't want to use, because they would never dry properly, but what are the limits here? Do I have to use a lacquer color layer? Or can I use something more readily available in a wider color range, then finish with a few layers of lacquer? I appreciate your help!

Yes. The hatchet is my favorite part of this build so far.

And for cheap! Less than $5 per fretboard. That's as good as buying a giant plank of rosewood.