SIMpleONe89

What kind of trem is that? The spring cavity looks interesting.

Thanks Andy. I strongly agree with the third point - getting madder and madder at the mistakes I made! I'll try the timbermate and hopefully the brown stain I use will be similar to the stained timbermate. I have Walnut and Natural at the moment. Fortunately the tearouts I got were tiny, in the corners of the tip of the headstock and near the nut. Definitely won't use filler for that and I should be able to blend them in smoothly.

Dayum! And I thought my control cavities look shoddy! Looking forward to seeing how you turn this around Andy!

Anyway today I managed to trim the fretboard. I'm really happy with how it turned out. No gaps that I can see at the moment! Solid glue joint. I used a flush trim bit in a router sled to make sure the router is 100% stable. And is it just me, or whenever I work with timbers I always think of food? When I was routing the Fijian mahogany, it smelled like smokey bbq sauce and I thought bbq ribs. When I was sanding the flamed maple neck it smelled like candy. And now working with ebony just reminds me of oreo crumbs and dark chocolate! Yum yum! After that was done, I worked on the headstock transition. This time I tried using a chisel and it was fun and fast! I think I did a better job for the headstock transition this time round. After thicknessing it, I drilled the truss rod access hole at a higher point so the drill bit wouldn't eat into the flat portion of the headstock. The last time I made the curved section of the transition and then drilled the truss rod hole. I must have started drilling at a lower point so the long drill bit actually cut into some part of the headstock. Sorry if I didn't explain it properly but basically the truss rod access hole now looks nicer and cleaner.

Ah that's good enough for me!

Nice! I'm also working on a flamed maple neck but the figure doesn't really pop for now. Hopefully after I carve it the flames will be more obvious.

Scott, I think you're right. Maybe the edges are slightly rounded during the sanding. Pros, maybe someone will come up with an experiment using transparent materials to test how much glue seeps in. Anyway, the masking tape only covered a millimeter on both side of the channel so hopefully that shouldn't be a problem. At least I won't have to worry about my truss rod being glued up. That was a worry during my last build when the truss rod was too tight to turn!

Yes the masking tape was a great bummer. I didn't remember taking it off but by the time I realised it was already ten minutes after I clamped, so it was probably not a good idea to undo everything. Sigh I guess I'll have to live with the fact that silly mistakes still happen!

Also, the flamed maple neck smelled like candy when I was working on it. Is another name for it sugar maple? And these are 3 areas on the body where I had gaps and an ugly glue line. Hopefully they won't be noticeable after finish. I plan to use a dark timbermate filler for grain filling and a dark brown stain as well.

Today I managed to thickness down the headstock to the correct thickness of 15mm. I used a router sled for this. I then drilled the truss rod access hole and glued up the fingerboard. And I'm not sure why I've been such a muddle-head these few days. You would think I would learn from mistakes but I stupidly made some unforgivable mistakes. My truss rod channel was 1mm off centre at the headstock. I don't think 1mm will make a significant difference but it's just little errors like this that make me disappointed in myself. And I thought I had measured, measured, cut. Another stupid blunder was during the fretboard glue up. In the midst of all the adrenaline in trying to spread the glue as quickly as possible and scrambling to get everything lined up and clamped, I forgot to remove the masking tape I put over the truss rod channel. While this shouldn't be a problem (People used to do it back in the days. Ben Crowe from Crimson Guitars deliberately did it before.), I was shocked at how I missed it out. I guess I had an off-day or even an off-week. Hopefully I'll slow things down next week and make sure things are perfect. On the bright side I think I had even glue squeeze out and no gaps. Hopefully I won't get a surprise tomorrow!

Nice. I love RGs and super strats. Will this be a set neck? The neck pocket looks long.

Thanks guys. I'll think it through for the time being.

Thanks again Pros. Doubt I'll do binding because I'll have to get extra bits and extra costs, plus it may not turn out well! Maybe next time...

Thanks pros. I'm not worried about any structural problems. It's purely cosmetic.

What about using wood dust with titebond as filler? Will it not take up the stain properly? I'll take some pictures tomorrow showing the size of the gaps. Fortunately the tearout wasn't tear-ible. I should be able to blend it nicely.

What's wrong with banjos?

Just cut out the neck today. I had to use my hand saw for most parts because the jigsaw kept burning the wood. The flames here aren't as great as the top but they should look much better once a finish is applied. I also managed to route the neck out. Curly maple chips easily and I had 2 spots on the headstock where I had chips. I'm not sure if you can see, but the end of the neck is made for a 24 fret fingerboard with an overhang.

I was considering binding because I haven't tried it before. And if I were to do binding I may transform it into a carved top. So the body thickness will be lesser. If I were to go the faux binding route, I will stain the body with a dark brown and use some dark brown filler as well. Hopefully that should minimize the look of the gaps.

I managed to get some more work done. Routed the channel wires. Glued it all up. Still don't have enough clamps! Some areas still had gaps. Argh! Fresh off the clamps. After trimming the top and with some mineral spirits, the flames really popped.

That's a lot of painter's tape you forgot to peel off!

If you have a thicker template, the longer router bit shouldn't be an issue as the bearing can still contact the top part of the thick mdf. You could also use shims under the template but that won't be as ideal as I found it harder to line up the template without it contacting the body.

Looks good but yes I think the f holes are too big. I'm sure it will look good with the finish.

Ah ok thanks for that. I've seen those on eBay and wonder if they're any good. I might try them in future.

Hey Curtisa where did you get that spoke wheel truss rod?

I also decided not to do a forearm contour. Can't risk an ugly glue join and this maple top is pretty thick. About 7.8mm,