SIMpleONe89

Wow I wish I could be as organised as you! Looking forward to your next project!

Now the guitar is almost complete. Next I'll have to align the neck with the bridge, check that the action is ok and test fit the hardware. I've come this far and everything has been going well so I hope nothing major screws up! And I can't stress the importance of the centre line in the body. This is perhaps the most crucial bit of the process. Fortunately, with everything positioned in reference to the centre line, the bridge, pickups and neck are all aligned. I'll leave you with some pictures before I put it all together. I did a dry fit to see if it's playable. The action was super low, practically unplayable, so I'll have to deepen the neck pocket by a bit and/or change the neck angle. Here's what it looks like with the hardware in place. I didn't bother wiring it up because I just wanted to test the playability. Some issues with intonation for now but that can be sorted out later on. I definitely have to recrown my frets because I suspect they're causing some intonation issues too. The neck is extremely thin and comfy to play. Hopefully it will hold up and not snap haha. After days of sanding (did I mention how much I hate sanding?), I grain filled the neck and body with walnut Timbermate, left it to dry and sanded more. I finally managed to get some finish on. My choice was Minwax wipe on poly. I had used it before and had great results, and also I have a huge can of it sitting on my shelf so might as well use it. This is the neck after one coat of wipe on poly. The walnut timbermate really brought out the grain in the QLD maple, which should be QLD mahogany btw. It's just like mahogany, not maple! The neck after the 5th coat and the body after the first coat. Some pics of the QLD maple on the back. That's it for now! I just finished putting on my final coat of wipe on poly and now just have to let it cure for at least 2 weeks!

It was time to do the electronics control cavity. I started off by planning the layout on my template, adjusting the knob and switch positions according to my playing style. Then I drew a shape around the knobs and switch to form the back plate shape. I cut out the shape with my jigsaw and then shaped it. Once I was happy with the shape, I traced it out onto my pickup and neck template, and marked out the actual control cavity shape. Then I drilled relief holes and routed out the cavity. I then transferred the knobs and switch design to the top. I decided I wanted the knobs to be slightly recessed but not so dramatic like PRS. 20mm not 22mm bit. To make the switch slot, there are a few ways which I've seen. I could go with a 1/8" router bit and use a template, or a dremel, or drill holes and cut it out by hand. I realised a lot could go wrong with the router and the dremel. One slip and that's it! So I decided to try drill 3mm holes in a line and cut them out. I cut the wood in between each holes with a utility blade. Then I finished shaping the slot straight with a needle file and some sand paper. I reckon it's not perfectly straight so I'd have to work on it later, but the whole process took about 30mins. It may have been easier, faster and cleaner with a dremel so I might try that next time. Once the top was taken care of, I paid attention to the curves. While this is a modern strat inspired guitar, I still want to retain the nice curves on it. I used this 1/2" radius round over bit on the bottom. With such a large bit it's important to go slow. This new bit gave me a super clean cut. Then I switched to a 1/8" radius bit for the top. Since I don't intend to stain the top or put any binding, I figured out that was the perfect roundness. While thinking of the design, I wanted to add a cut away for the upper frets access on the lower horn. I've seen this done on some guitars like the Suhr modern and I liked it. And I also did the tummy contour. I did this a few times on some guitar kits so it wasn't foreign to me (contours on a tele - gasp!). However, I took about an hour to shape it. The best part was customising the shape to my liking. Once all the shaping has been done, I turned my attention to some unfinished business. I had to connect the cavities to the master control centre. I drilled from the neck pocket all the way to the bridge pickup with a long 8mm bit. I could also have routed channels on the body before gluing the top on but back then I hadn't decided on the layout of the cavities. Anyway all the holes will be covered up so that doesn't matter. Drilling from the bridge into the control cavity. And the ground wire from the spring cavity into the control cavity. It was so therapeutic seeing the bit emerge from a blind area into the cavity. Fortunately I didn't screw up drilling out of the body. And the last thing that needed to be done was to drill the output jack hole. I planned where the jack would sit and I like it similar to the teles and les pauls where they are just to the side. This keeps the cable away from my thigh. Then I drilled a large cavity with a 22mm bit until the jack could fit in nicely. This took a lot of time because of the end grain I think. Because the 22mm bit was drilled at an angle towards the centre of the body, I had to switch to another bit to drill down to the control cavity. Well, the final thing was to drill the bridge post holes, so I could do a dry fit before I start preparing for finishing. I made a template to make sure the posts were perfectly spaced out, because the last thing you want to do was to drill it onto the top, realising after hours of hard work the bridge cannot fit.

Before I started routing the cavities, I drilled the neck screw holes. I drew a centre line on the neck plate and aligned it, positioned it and marked the holes out. Then drilled 4 clean holes. Next, I used my template to mark out the neck pocket, pickup and tremolo cavities. And drilled out a bunch of relief holes. For the neck pocket, I had to route to 14mm deep. I applied 3 layers of masking tape so that the neck will have a tight fit. I later on put some shims underneath the template and routed with the longer bit because I couldn't get low enough with the shorter bit. And I managed to get a perfect, tight fit. Fortunately the neck is also aligned with the centre line of the body. Ideally, the neck pocket should be so tight that you can pick the guitar up by its neck without any screws. Success! With a tight neck pocket, you supposedly get as much contact and hence more sustain and tone. Then it was time for the pickups. I routed to 18mm deep but got 19mm in the end. Close enough! I'll be going for direct mount pickups so it doesn't hurt to get a little deeper. I can always shim it up with foam and springs. As for the tremolo cavity, I routed as far as I could with the long 1/2" bit. Then flipped the body over to finish up with the flush trim bit. Once the tremolo cavity is done, I follow a printed blueprint and measured out the spring cavity. I then used scrap MDFs with straight edges to form rectangles. This is a quick and easy way to create templates without having to make it. And this is what you will end up with. I couldn't help but do a quick mock build. I already ordered black hardware, which will look stunning once the guitar is finished.

Then it came to the most dreaded part of the build - cutting out the body. I had to first thickness the body down to 38mm, because the top is 7mm and I want a total of 45mm. Since I don't have a planer or drum sander, I had to use my router to plane it down. Unfortunately I could never get a totally flat surface, possibly due to the setup. I ended up spending an entire afternoon sanding it flat with a large MDF sheet with 4 pieces of 60 grit sandpaper. I could've brought it down to the local timber yard but I could only do so next week, so I might as well try to do as much as I can. In the end I got it near perfect, but will still level it out once the body is shaped. I first traced the outline with my template. And I took my time with the jigsaw, staying at least 5mm clear of the line. For the curves, I made relief cuts perpendicularly to help prevent "fish-tailing" of the blade (curving at the bottom). During this painful process, I had to use a handsaw to cut out straight parts so as to give the jigsaw a rest once it became too hot. I haven't broken a blade (and fingers/toes) and I want to keep it that way! As you can see I would've benefited from a bandsaw and other machines like a planer/jointer/drum sander/drill press/router table/ROSS etc, but I managed to do it with what I have at the moment, although it takes much more effort. After cutting out the body with the jigsaw and handsaw, I had to clean up the edges with some hand tools. I used my favourite Japanese shinto rasp. After trying to remove as much would as I could, I routed the body. I first attached the template to the rawly cut body. Then routed it out in many passes, starting with a short inverted flush trim bit. As you can see I stuck some scrap wood to the base of the router to prevent any rocking, which will be absolutely devastating if that happens. Then I switched to the longer bit. If you try to take off too much wood, you may experience tear out, so do it in multiple passes and remove as much wood as the bit will allow you to. Don't make the mistake I made - going too slow can burn the wood and this can be hard to get rid of. Trust me! Also make sure your bits are sharp. Lousy bits mean lousy results! When my long bit could go no further, I flipped the body and used a flush trim bit with the bearing on the bottom. Now I'll show you how I glued the top together without any fancy jigs. First, you want to have a flat surface. This is very important. Also make sure the top isn't warped and is perfectly jointed. Then you will need two blocks on either sides. Clamp one side first and leave the other free for now. Put a long piece of wood underneath in the middle so that both pieces are raised in the middle. Then clamp the free block tight against the pieces. Put a nice amount of glue on one side. Then remove the block of wood underneath and press the pieces down. The blocks on both sides will cause the top pieces to press against each other, providing a nice glue joint. Wipe off any excess glue that squeezes out. Then you will need to clamp the wood flat against the flat surface at both ends, and you can add some weights in the centre just to distribute the pressure evenly. Leave everything clamped for a good amount of time (I always clamp for 24 hours). Once the top was glued, I traced the outline and proceeded to cut it out with my jigsaw. The top cut like butter because it was only 7mm. Almost there... I always stay clear of the line, at least 5mm away, because you don't know if the blade will wander underneath. You can always remove wood but not add wood back. Then I made sure the surfaces were flat before gluing. I stuck 4 pieces of 60 grit sandpaper to large piece of mdf as a huge sanding block. Got to make do without expensive tools! Spam as much glues as you can! The glue gets soaked in real fast and if you don't work quickly it can solidify and you'll be in trouble. Looking back, I wish I had put more glue! Because I don't have a huge number of clamps (only have 4 F clamps, 2 G clamps, 2 quick clamps and 1 spring clamp), and because clamp collection occurs throughout the years, I decided to use my bench vise as a huge clamp. I figured out that the middle section of the body will get the least amount of pressure so the bench vise will be useful too. Looking back, I should've put some screws in the pickup/trem/neck pocket cavities to align the top and the body, because the glue acted as a lubricant and it was hard to position the top in the centre line. My centre line was just 1mm off, but it wasn't that bad because I had a perfect glue joint for the top so it was hard to spot the centre line. And I didn't put enough glue so I wasn't able to get uniform squeeze out. This may also be due to lack of clamps. The body in this weird contraption. I left it clamped and to dry for another 24hours and then proceeded to route the top flush with the body. Fortunately, I left enough excess wood because the bottom end of the top moved during the gluing process. I drilled holes around the excess wood later on to help with routing. And the final result

The neck after sanding off the filled fret slots. I'm pretty happy with how neat they turned out, except for two or three frets with their tangs slightly bent due to my crappy cutters. Now for my favourite part of the build, and many others' favourite - shaping the neck. I'm aiming for a relatively flat U shape profile. I like to keep my thumb right in the middle of the neck so that my fingers can easily access the full range of the fretboard. I'm not one to hook my thumb over the bass side of the fretboard, and my hands aren't that large, so C and V chunky profiles don't work! To shape the neck, I drew my centre line and lines on both sides which get wider towards the heel - this allows a flatter area to shred or play fast licks (which I can't do) in the upper frets. I create facets by sanding from line to line, maintaining a flat area. You could shape the neck anyway you like but I thought the lines would help visualise how much wood you need to take off. My weapon of choice - Shinto rasp. Highly recommended. Can't stop talking about it. I had to pay extra attention at the volute and heel. I switched over to my less aggressive half round rasp for this. As I keep filing, the neck gets rounder and rounder. I try to maintain my file horizontal to create a flat area in the middle area of the neck. This helps me get a flat, Ibanez-style neck. Once I'm happy with the rough shape, I switch over to finer files to remove the marks. And I practice my shoe-shining skills. Shaping the volute. Here's the final product! I'll sand further (sigh hate sanding) later on before finishing. The flat profile looks good. Ready to shred. Accidental hipster shot. Headstock inlay. I think this will really pop up to life with clear coats. Happy frets in their slots. Another view of the neck profile.

Here are some pictures of the neck so far. The lemon oil really gives life to the fretboard. And I'll start working on the headstock logo. I'll be using abalone inlays again, since the first time it worked out well. I'm also waiting for my new frets to come. It turns out that the frets I had bought couldn't fit the slots. My saw had a kerf of 0.53mm and the fret tangs were 0.60mm. I thought I could get away with a 0.07mm difference but the rosewood was too dense and I knew I would be in trouble if I were to keep banging in 22 frets! I managed to cut out my headstock logo. It took quite a while and it was challenging trying to cut out small abalone letters, but with some patience I managed to do it. It doesn't look like much now because it's still rough from the factory. I took out my "dremel" copy and routed with my new 1mm CNC bits I bought from eBay. Fortunately they didn't break while I was routing out quite a fair bit of wood. The final result: After gluing the inlays in: Doesn't look very pretty because I filled in the spaces with sanding dust and super glue. After sanding: Unfortunately I removed a fair bit of the nice green patterns that I wanted during the sanding process. I thought I left as little abalone sticking out but turns out that sanding even less than 0.5mm of abalone can remove the nice parts. Oh well, but I'm sure they will look nice under some finish. My frets finally came. They are nickel silver jumbo frets. I had to clean the fret slots from any gunk and dust first. I then cut the frets and install them as I go along - this makes sure I don't lose the cut frets, and I can save on fret wire. I super glue my frets in not because they are loose but to fill in the gaps underneath, which supposedly improves sustain and tone. Not sure how true that is but I can kill two birds with one stone. The rosewood is really dense, not like Indian rosewood, and it wasn't easy hammering them in! Must be careful not to annoy the neighbours as well. This is the neck after all 22 frets are installed. I may consider getting fret cauls to clamp them in. Much easier, more even clamping pressure, and not so noisy. I trim the fret over hangs with my extremely crappy FastCap end nipper. Terrible tool! Avoid at all cost! I'll have to get a new one from StewMac. They gave me a hard time and I realised some of my fret tangs were slightly bent. I paid $34 for this "luthier" tool. :mad: Never mind, more happy times to come. I then sanded the frets flush with the fretboard. And beveled the frets with my diy fret leveler. Not forgetting to fill in the fret slots with super glue and dust. Let it all dry and sand it off the next day.

Anyway back to posting! After the glue dried, I trimmed the fretboard flush with a bottom bearing flush trim bit. I used a router sled to stabilise the router because I don't want to risk tearing into the neck. After that, I had to radius the fretboard. I used a 14" sanding block with 80 grit. Sanding is a boring and tedious process, but it's important. Someone once said guitar building is 95% sanding. I used a radius gauge to check my progress. I think it took me about 2 hours to radius the fretboard. Then I drilled the tuner holes. I made my own tuner hole template and used it as a guide. Then I drilled 9mm holes on the top... And 10mm holes on the bottom. I had no tear outs like this, but I guess if you used just a 10mm bit and put a piece of scrap wood underneath you wouldn't get tear out too. I did it this way because I wanted the top side where the nut screws into the post to be more snug. 10mm holes made it too loose and I didn't like that. In the end, I had perfectly aligned holes. unless someone has a eagle eye and is able to spot a tiny difference, I'm happy with it so far! Just a sneak peek on how the tuners would look like when installed. If I could go back in time, I would make sure the holes sit 2mm farther from the edge of the headstock. To me they look just a little closer to the edge than I would prefer. Then it was time to do the fretboard inlays. I used a jeweller's saw to cut out my shape on the abalone blanks. It wasn't as hard as I thought, and given my small, thin fingers, I had no trouble gripping onto these small abalone pieces. After I cut the inlays out, I refined them with a file. Here's the final result. Then I marked the outlines on the 12th fret on the fretboard. I used a razor blade to clean the edges where the bit couldn't get to. I could also use a smaller bit but I don't have one for now. Then I used super glue to glue the inlays in. I wanted to use epoxy at first but CA glue dries much quicker and I used it to fill some tiny pin holes in the fretboard and I liked it. And with every inlay work, you probably have to fill in the gaps because it's hard to perfectly route it to the same size. I let the inlays dry overnight and came back to file and sand them flush with the fretboard. And the last step before fretting would be to install the side dot markers. I didn't bother using a drill press because a hand drill would be much easier to work with. I first measured the centre at the 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th, 12th and so on, then centre punched it, and drilled with a 2mm bit. Glued the white plastic dots with CA glue. Then trimmed them flush with my flush cutters. I also sanded the fretboard up to 600 grit and I couldn't resist but put some lemon oil so see how it would look like. I was very pleased with the result, BUT I later realised I had measured the 12th fret inlay wrong! It was slightly off-centre; about 1mm more to the bass side. I was pretty sad after I discovered it, but oh well! I could redo it but it's a lesson to learn! MEASURE, MEASURE, CUT! The one time I didn't follow this rule I screwed up!

Thanks! I'm actually done with this project, just waiting for it to cure now. I'll post the pictures and the write up soon but I also don't want to spam too many posts lest moderators think I'm a spam bot haha. I didn't do a forearm cut with the zebrano because it's a tricky wood to work with. The grains run in different directions and it's prone to tear outs so I figured as a first build I shouldn't attempt to bend it or it may break. The QLD rosewood fingerboard is pretty light but also prone to chips and is quite dense compared to Indian rosewood. The QLD maple body is really light and it's just like mahogany. It's very easy to work with and has beautiful grain. I'll post pictures of the body soon.

Wow this is an amazing bass for your first project. Definitely very inspirational! I intend to build a neck through bass in the near future and this really helped!

All right thanks for that KnightroExpress! I saw your build diary on the Paudak and Wenge and I'm very impressed! I may try wenge some day...

Thanks! I'm still hoping to find the best luthier's forum that will help me in my quest to improve and build more guitars haha. Project Guitar seems to be a nice forum with many great projects.

I then traced the neck's outline and cut out the fretboard. Once again I stayed clear of the line because I'm using a jigsaw. Then it was time to glue the fretboard on. No turning back from this point onwards! After making sure the surfaces were flat and roughen with 80 grit, I started off by installing the truss rod. I placed four beads of silicone in the truss rod channel, 2 at each end and 2 in the middle. I didn't have a caulking gun so I improvised and used a clamp haha. Then I pushed the truss rod in. No turning back now! I then cleaned up the silicone that squeezed out. Before gluing on the fretboard, I also used 2 nails at both ends of the neck to help align the fretboard. The glue will act as a lubricant and the fretboard will be sliding around, making it very hard to position it properly. The indexing pins will help keep it in place. Now, it's time to glue the fretboard. We've reached the point of no return! This was definitely a scary, big step. First time! I first taped off the truss rod channel. Then I applied as much glue as I could and spread it all out evenly. Once the fretboard was placed on, it slid right into place because the nails helped align it. Then I scrambled for every clamp I ever owned - only 7 in total. Clamps are expensive so I'll have to collect them slowly. I managed to get even glue squeeze out. This means my joint was well prepared and I was very pleased. It was extremely satisfying seeing the glue squeeze out as I clamped it down. I also wiped off the excess with wet paper towels to help more glue to be squeezed out. That's it for today. I'm leaving all the clamps on for 24 hours. So far so good!

After taking down most of the wood till the edges are about 2-3mm close to the line, I proceeded to route the outline. I don't have a router table (and I fear to use one after reading some horror stories online) so I used some off cuts to stabilise the router. This is the neck after the routing is done. It came out cleaner than I expected. Probably due to the new, extra sharp router bit I bought.. Next thing would be to thickness the headstock down to 14mm. So I had to take off about 6mm. After thicknessing the headstock, I had to file down the headstock transition. Once again, my good friend Shinto. I also used half round files and sandpaper to smooth out the transition. Then it was down to drilling the truss rod access hole. I didn't use any fancy 3 degree angle jigs. Just took my time and used an extra long 7mm drill bit. I'm pretty happy with how the neck turned out. So far, no major screw ups and I'm very glad! I'll have to do the fretboard next! I started by cutting the fret slots by hand, with my Hosco fret saw. It cuts on the pull stroke like other japanese saws. I downloaded one of those templates online (yes I know it's cheating) and made sure that they are all 100% accurate. I had to redo the templates 3 times because I kept messing up the measurements. In the end, the measurements are all dead accurate and I'm glad I didn't screw up the scale length. This is a 25.5" (or 647.7mm for us metric users) 22 fret neck. The final result.

Since I don't have a drum sander or thicknesser, I used a router sled to take off the excess wood, from about 28mm to 19mm. This took three passes in all. I had to keep checking with a level beam that it is flat. I also thicknessed the fretboard to 6mm. I need to get a combined thickness of 25mm. I check that there are no gaps in between. Both pieces are totally flat. Once I'm happy with the thickness of the neck blank, it's time to route the truss rod channel. I started by drawing a centre line, which is perhaps the most crucial line in guitar building ever. Then I traced the outline of the neck template, after making sure the centre lines matched up. This is the truss rod I'm using. I got it from RealParts.com.au and it's an Allparts truss rod. Really nice, slim profile. I then drilled some relief holes along the truss rod channel. These will help with the routing. Using a straight edge guide, I then routed the channel with a 1/4" router bit. The depth of the truss rod had to be just above 9mm. I then used a sharp chisel to square the ends where the truss rod tips will sit. Then I test fit the truss rod and it's snug as a bug. I then proceeded to cut the neck out with a jigsaw and a hand saw. Disadvantages of not having a bandsaw... To cut out the headstock where there are tight curves, I made some relief cuts. Then I took off the excess wood as close to the line with rasps. I especially love the Shinto rasp and I highly recommend it.

Hi guys! I'm new to the forum and I would like to share with you my first ever scratch build. My plan was to build a HSH super strat-style guitar with interesting tone wood I could obtain here in Australia. I've already written up a build diary in another forum but I would like to share it here as well, hopefully to inspire some other budding luthiers like me. I've built/assembled some guitar kits in the past, did some refinishes on old guitars, and did 2 EVH tribute relics (Frankenstrat and 5150). I also modified a bass with an additional pickup cavity, but other than that I have very limited woodworking experience. So this is the first time I'm tackling a project of such scale and it was really exciting! Also, if you're keen on watching videos, I also filmed bits of the build process and you can check them out here: Please like and subscribe if you're interested! I also would like to mention I don't have a fancy workshop and I lack many tools that most luthiers have. The only tools I have are a jigsaw, a plunge router, a random orbital sander, a hand drill and a corded drill on a drill press stand. My tools aren't expensive and I had to improvise a lot with hand tools like rasps and saws. To get things started, I'd like to show you my choice of wood. From left to right: Queensland (QLD) maple neck blank, QLD forrest rosewood, two-piece QLD maple body blank, and 7mm bookmatched zebrano for a drop top. The figuring on this zebrano is insane! These are the working templates made of 12mm MDF. I modified the heel joint for better access to upper frets. This is based on the new American Elite series. To make sure I didn't ruin the beautiful timber, I practised on some pine bought from the local hardware depot. The total cost of all the pine wood was about $AUD60, 5x less than the actual timber. Pine is really soft and easy to work but that's why they aren't used in guitars, especially in necks. The neck and body together. And now we can begin working on the proper guitar. First off, I had to thickness the neck blank down to the standard 19mm. I didn't have a drum sander or thicknesser so I used a router sled to do this.