Lofteren

Thanks yall. It is turning out to look a lot better than I expected. I got the some of the hardware and the frets put on today. I figured out a way to get the bridge on finally but when I was lining it up I realized that the neck had gone in crooked ever so slightly. I put the bridge in the most "playable" position as the neck is glued in. This actually won't be very noticable when I am done as it is about .5mm to the left at the nut and .5mm to the right at the bridge and the guitar is 45mm at the nut so I had quite a bit of wiggle room. I made another mistake in which I set the neck back by a lottle more than 2 degrees so the bridge has to be a little higher than it usually is. This makes the guitar feel kind of like a violin in your hands. This is probably the most detrimental mistake I have made thus far. My next build will have a straight neck and a hardtail bridge hahaha. I have a router now so my next build should be much more precise.

So I decided that I will get the whole guitar finished and then will take it to a shop to have the bridge holes drilled. I will stick with hardtail bridges until I can get a drill press! I sanded it to 400 grit, dyed it black again and started finishing it with tung oil. I have to say, it's looking pretty good right now.

Since almost all of the plugs will be drilled out for the bridge holes I went ahead and used an oak dowel to fill the holes. I glued it in place with polyurethane glue and chiseled/sanded them flush. I will never make another pine body guitar. It is way too soft to work with without constantly putting dings and scratches in it. It's almost next to impossible to carve with any level of precision due to the varying density between the grains. It may be suitable for a telecaster style body but that is pretty much it. This guitar has a carbed top, belly and knee cutaways and carves around the knobs so they can sit flat. None of these carves look as good as they should and sandin/filing them smooth only brings out the wavy texture in the grain even more. *sigh* I bought a jig-it drill guide from Rockler but I can't find any 12mm long-shank forstner bits to go with it. Do yall know where I could find one of these bits (preferably without paying a boatload of money)?

Thank you very much for this response. It was exactly what I needed to know.

I will do my best! I am sure there are many more mistakes and subsequent lessons in store for me. I have a question though, if yall don't mind, since the problem bridge hole is only slightly larger than it should be, would it be possible to fill the hole with epoxy, bondo, or some other resin and then redrill the bridge hole?

Thank you very much for the compliments, sir. They are much appreciated. The thing I am most worried about is whether or not the guitar will play well. That seems like it will be the most difficult aspect of guitar building to nail.

I got the neck radiused and the body somewhat sanded. Then I put a coat of black dye on it. This will get sanded back everywhere but the fingerboard later.

Gotcha. So once I get a nice plug I will drill a hole in the guitar smaller than the plug and then I'll turn the plug on a lathe with sandpaper until I get the perfect fit. Does that seem like a sound plan? Here are some pics of the fret slotting job and the radius sanding block I made yesterday

Ouch! I hope you didn't damage any nerves or tendons!! I could definitely see how they could be dangerous, especially if you got in a hurry with it (which is a problem I have). I definitely need to learn to slow down and enjoy the process more.

I made a 10" radius sanding block out of a 2x4 using a plane and my new router. It was my first time using a handheld router. That tool commands some respect. It is definitely the most powerful handheld tool that I have. It sliced through the 2x4 like butter.

I have drywall drill bit that cuts out a 1" core. Would that work?

I cut my fret slots today and I learned a few valueable lessons 1) Cut your fret slots before you do anything else with the fretboard. It was really hard to get them all perpendicular to the center line because I had already assembled and carved my neck 2) Have appropriate measuring tools. Using a crappy protractor and a ruler makes the job much more difficult. 3) Use an appropriate fret slotting saw. I used a cheap miniature hacksaw because it was the only thing at home despot with the right sized kerf. With that being said, the fret slots arent perfect but they also aren't really that bad. They are within 0.5mm of where they should be so hopefully they don't play too poorly when it is all put together. In other news, I got a router and a 1/2" x 1" pattern bit for father's day which should make my next build much easier and prettier.

I think that using a dowel with similar color and grain would be the most important. Most of the dowel will be covered by the bridge anyway. I will probably stain it very dark to help out as well.

I am going to drill it out and glue a dowel in it, then redrill using a forstner bit jig that I ordered from Rockler.

I am building a new fence around my property which is a gigantic undertaking so I haven't had any time to work on my guitar. Here is a recent pic of the guitar though. I got the pup slots chiseled out. As soon as I get the bridge holes corrected I can really start putting it together.

Well, I made another big mistake. I drilled holes for the bridge and tried to tap one of the bushings (I guess that's what it would be called) into the hole and it went in crooked so I tried to remove it with my fingers by wiggling it gently. When it finally came out I saw that it going in crooked had stretched the hole out really big. I am planning on using a drill press to bore the hole out to 1/2 inch and will fill it with a poplar dowel and try again. The bushings are just over 12mm so I used an 11.8mm bit. I think this time I'll get a slightly larger bit so it doesn't take so much pressure to get them in and I'll just place them with a little wood glue to keep them tight. Now I just need to get my hands on a drill press!

This is good advice, thanks for that. I assume the opposite is true for the red oak. I was thinking about painting the back and sides of the neck and the body black and then staining the front. The neck joint has some imperfections and I figured that would help cover them up. Could I use oil over the painted part?

I carved out the neck with a spokeshave, rasps, files and sandpaper. It came out pretty well I think. I cut the neck pocket to fit before I finished carving and sanding the neck which was a big mistake. Now the neck pocket is too big. I have a solution in mind though, so I glued a bit of red oak to the bottom of the heel, filed it flush with the neck and then planed it down so my neck will have a but of an angle to it like a Les Paul. I figured this would be appropriate as I am using a tune o matic bridge. Then I glued some bits of red oak to the sides and clamped it. Hopefully the oak will reinforce the neck pocket a bit as I was worried about the neck moving around due to the pine being so soft. Replacing some pine with oak and polyurethane glue has to make it stronger (right?). By the way, I got a cheap ass spokeshave off of the Wish app for $5. Surprisingly, it is an outstanding spokeshave! It's sturdy and sharp enough to shave with.

What type of natural finish would you recommend? Shellac? I am assuming that a satin finish would be best? I was planning on dying it black, sanding it back, dying it dark brown and then sealing it with a satin, brush on lacquer.

^I noticed that today. Carving the wood wasn't too bad using a sharp gouge but when I started smoothing it out with a rasp, a file, and sandpaper I noticed that the surface wouldn't get completely flat. The soft wood between the grain sands so quickly that it has ridges on it along the lines. How can I get that to go away? In any event, it is starting to look pretty nice, I think.

Started chiseling the body today. Still waiting on my spokeshave to come in the mail for carving the neck.

I took the clamps off the neck, cut out the headstock shape with a jigsaw and filed/sanded it down a little bit. There is still a lot of shaping to do. It won't let me upload pics right now fpr some reason.

I am hoping to give it a Les Paul(ish) arch top that I will carve out with gouges and chisels. On the back, I am planning on rasping out thick belly ans thigh cutaways as well as beveling the double cutaways.

Thank you, sir. I tried cutting a 13 degree cut with my piece of garbage hand saw which was a waste of time. I wouldn't have done much more planing if I'd cut it straight across!