sirspens

2 minutes ago, curtisa said:

Not sure. Have heard of Richlite (a phenolic material) and graphite alternatives, but obtaining small quantities for home builders could be problematic.

That's more what I was asking. I'm not curious if Gibson is going to be able to find anything. I'm interested if we home builders will be able to find synthetic / composite boards as easy as it is to drive over to the lumber yard.

And, yeah... the solution would seem to be to use a more available wood, though I do like to experiment. 

Thanks for the thoughtful responses!

Here we go: 

I've seen a video of an Australian builder use finish nails on the neck, then snip them off just a mm above the board, then press the fretboard into the neck, leaving an indentation where the nail snippets are, then drilling out very small holes in those spots, and thereby giving the fretboard a means by which to remain still during the gluing process.

I'll see if I can find the video.

(I don't know what the right forum for this is, but since it involves building....)

With the environmental impact of exotic hardwood harvesting, such as ebony and rosewood, and the likelihood of these materials becoming harder to find in the future, has anybody here used synthetic and composite materials for fretboards? 

I know Gibson, Martin and a few other big manufacturers have been doing research on heading in this direction.

My curiosities:
1) Does it affect the sound?
2) Are the materials easy to work with, for us garage builders?
3) If ebony and rosewood are going to be hard to find, are we going to be able to find synthetic / composite boards of high enough quality any easier?
4) Are there any non-proprietary options out there?

4 minutes ago, 2.5itim said:

....and there's not much wood on the treble side of the cavity.  

That's probably the key.

Well, I'm a noob at this, too. But, yes, the heel would be tapered, too. You can't "slip it in" from the side. It has to come in from the top.

So I went ahead and made a new template for cutting the neck pocket. This time I took it out beyond the edge of neck pocket so my router base can't fall off anything. Learning! Here it is with the second body, which I still need to patch up the chip-out on.

Got the pickup in for one of the two guitars yesterday... A TV Jones Power'Tron Plus. For the other guitar I am using a GFS Nashville Filter'tron style, which is supposed to have a very similar sound to the Power'tron Plus, with a Thunderbird style chrome pickup ring. I am interested to see if the TV Jones sounds $100 better than the GFS.

I am also thinking about finishes. I couldn't come up with a color that I liked for this design. But I was browsing around and found some translucent (note: not transparent) colored acrylic in various bright colors. I thought that might make a pretty interesting pickguard which I could use to add color to the guitar, going with a light cream or even white body. I might be completely wrong about it, but that is what I am thinking right now.

As for now, I am behind on a website I am building, so I might have to take a few weekend off and get that thing done. I am 99% done, and every little thing I fix breaks two other things. Why does that always happen?

14 hours ago, KnightroExpress said:

ReRanch is a pretty well-regarded source, they specialize in classic guitar colors.

Thank you! I'll give them a look.

I'm going to try to get the neck straightened out on this thing and then prep it for painting (fill and sand) this weekend.

Any advice on lacquer spray paint with good color selection? StewMac is a bit worthless there. I have found brands in Europe, but having trouble with something available in the US.

Yeah. I used a forstner. A spade bit would scare me for that kind of work.

@a2k and @Andyjr1515, thank you very much.

17 hours ago, curtisa said:

Neck pocket looks like it is routed with an uneven floor. There's a slight downward step where the pocket meets the body. Check the floor of the neck pocket to make sure it's not making the neck sit with a slight falling angle.

 

Good call. I was so tired by the end of the day I didn't see that. But the close up pictures sure help.

I'll look into this more this evening.

4 hours ago, mjrbuzz said:

well my planning fell a little short... I went to do a final mock up and drill the string through holes and figured out that my drill press doesn't have enough length to fit the guitar in there to drill the holes. trying now to locate a larger drill press or order a bridge that loads from the top. any tricks or tips would be a great help hahah

 

Here's a top-loading hardtail bridge that looks a lot like what you are using. And not too hard on the ol' wallet.

Also, it is coming along beautifully. 

I should also mention, I sat down with the guitar for a few minutes, as if I were playing it. And for it being a small guitar, it is actually really comfortable. The high sharp body bulge along with the arm relief fits (me, at least) really well.

Day 2.

As I mentioned in the last post, I figured out what was going on with the neck. Fixed that. And it slips in very nicely.

And to make things even better, though it is kind of hard to tell from this photo, the neck is straight with the body center line. So, success there.

I drilled out the jack hole, which took FOREVER. Literally, I had to charge my cordless drill, which started out with a full charge, to finish drilling it out. 

As you can see from the last picture, I half-inch round-overed all the edges, and blended them in.

The bridge is ready to go on, but I don't have the holes drilled out yet.

I took the finish off the neck and reshaped the headstock. This is actually a neck from Rondo Music I bought forever ago when I was just trying to figure out how to build a neck and the sizing and all that kind of stuff.

So, here is the new problem with the neck... It sat in great, but when I got it bolted down it sits with a bit of an angle.

There it is from each side. If it were sitting in there correctly, the center of the fretboard would be sitting about 1/4" above the body. The way it is, it is just a bit above 0.3". And there is enough angle that by the time you get the bridge position, it is just under 0.55". Which would be a bit high even if I were doing some kind of TOM setup, which I am not. I am using a hardtail bridge.

I'm not sure what the problem is. I was tired by the time I got to this point. So I called the weekend. I'm going to have to figure it out later.

I made a lot of progress for the weekend. And I did a LOT of things wrong, which has provided a good learning experience. I can't wait to learn what I have done wrong with the neck!

I figured out what the problem was with the neck. Fixed it. But now the neck doesn't work in another way.... ugh. Necks.

The bearing router bit I used for the neck was an old one I inherited when I was given a shitty craftsman router a few years ago. It is only a half-inch deep bit, so it took several passes to route out the neck pocket. I think the bearing on the bit is just ever so slightly bigger than the bit, so the pocked basically steps in as it goes down. I fixed that and the neck slid in beautifully.

More to come.

While waiting on tools and supplies that didn't show up on time this weekend, I had a crazy idea, and I started this... Weekend Build.

9 hours ago, Original said:

If you intend to do a head stock like in you renderings, you really need to use a scarf joint. Those string angles wouldn't work very well on a flat where string trees are needed. 

 

You are right of course. ... ... This build is going to start dragging out with a lot of learning time.

While waiting on tools and supplies for Bob's Your Uncle, and with my girlfriend out of town for the weekend, I had a crazy idea last night... Take a simple guitar design, use what I have available to me, and see how much I can get done in a weekend.

This is in no small part because I am honestly a bit scared about Bob's Your Uncle being the first guitar I do a bunch of stuff to.

Parameters & Limitations: Access to a planer that can only handle 12.5" wide board, have a neck laying around that I bought a while back when I was trying to figure out how necks are built, want to (mostly) use hardware I have laying around. And, mostly, keep it simple.

I stayed up late last night designing the guitar. Went to the lumber yard first thing this morning, got some wood and headed over to the hackerspace. I laser cut a template on some scrap plywood I found laying around. Cut it out on the band saw, sanded the rough edged. I didn't get any pictures of that. But here it is ready to get cut to size with my router table....

And after being cut...

I actually went ahead and made two bodies while I was at it, then chose the best one to keep moving forward with (the other one I can work on later). I decided to go with just one pick-up and a volume knob. I thought to myself, "I have literally never used a tone knob before. Lose the tone knob!"

I decided to try out an arm relief...

The body that is getting set aside had some chips taken out during the routing process. I'm not sure what caused the problem. I had it sanded within a millimeter, but it happened. I guess I get to learn how to fill a chip!

I routed out the pick-up cavity (I'm going to do some kind of filtertron, TV Jones, something) and drilled a hole to ground the hardtail bridge.

I cut out a control cavity, template I made while at the hackerspace this morning. I may not have left enough space for screws? We will see. I also found some scrap acrylic to use for the cavity cover.  Also... I made an oops when routing out the control cavity cover plate recess.

Cut out the neck pocket, which was a bigger pain in the ass than I thought it would be....

Even though I made a template based on the neck and the neck was just ever so loose in the template.... the cut is way way too tight.

So, the neck doesn't fit. And I have spent the last two hours sanding that damn neck pocket. I still can't shove it in there.

So, I called it an end for day 1 of my weekend build. My goal is to get the guitar ready to be finished by the end of the weekend. I think I am well on my way there, but I need to get that neck to fit. Here is the end of the day:

Also, where does one find fine grit random orbital sander paper? The box stores nor Woodcraft have it. I'm at a bit of a loss.

Here's the problem with the Hackerspace. I get too much done too quickly. I keep planning to go up there and do work, what would previously have taken me a whole evening, and I knock it out in 45 minutes. Having the right tools is kind of convenient. I'm going to have to start planning more....

1 hour ago, 2.5itim said:

But with the guidance from prostheta I was able to fix it and they turned out awesome. This is the jig he showed me, which I made and it turned out great. 

 

Yeah. I've been following your build. That is one of the reasons I have been having this argument with myself.

17 hours ago, Prostheta said:

I'm having a brainfart. Whose recent bid was the auto surf green again? Sorry. 

Bid?

4 minutes ago, 2.5itim said:

One question I have is, are you not doing a scarf joint or cutting in a headstock angle? I can't really tell by the pic but the board looks pretty thin to be cutting in an angle. 

Haha. I was just standing looking at my guitars having this argument with myself. My plan has been that, since this is my first build and I am attempting a neck at all, I would keep it simple and build the neck in the Fender style, straight.

Then I got to looking at my Danos, just now. They are angled. Of course my Gibsons are, but it hadn't even occurred to me until just a few minutes ago that the Danos are angled. (Also, did you know you have to take a Dano neck off to adjust the truss rod?) I like the look of the angled headstock better, and I know all the great arguments regarding string tension, but that adds another level of complexity to an already really complex first build. 

As of this moment, I am still going with the flat neck. At least for this build. Next time I'll try the scarf joint. That's my plan, at least. But I'm willing to be talked out of it. 

Just now, 2.5itim said:

btw I really like the way this build is going, keep up the good work!

Thank you very much! I'm having a lot of fun.

I'm about to run out to a box store and buy a bunch of scrap lumber to practice neck shaping!

@Prostheta and @2.5itim

I created the drawings in the exact order they are there, because that is the order in which I felt they made sense. So, originally, those were my top two choices, as well.

I love Danelectros. I own two. I'm leaning away from the blue, because one of my Danos is blue. And the red actually doesn't appeal to me that much.

If my hands were tied and Seafoam Green and Yellow were my only two options, I wouldn't complain at all. (And I have never even considered buying a yellow guitar before.)

This evening I will continue work on my body. At the moment I am considering finishes so I can have materials here in the next few weeks. Here are some mock-ups of the colors I am considering...

My current preference is to go with the black, using Original's finish technique:

Thoughts?