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eubie

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Everything posted by eubie

  1. eubie
    The neck lines up perfectly with the bridge position and the center line of the body. I was very careful with that, although I'm still going to wait to drill holes until the neck is glued in and I can be sure I'm lining up with reality. The neck angle came out pretty well. I was shooting for 4 degrees and it dry-fits at 5 degrees. I could shim out that last degree, but I'd rather have the solid tenon-to-pocket match-up than to recover that last degree of break angle. Whether the tenon/pocket is fairly "gapless" depends on your definition of "fairly". Overall, the tenon fits tight against the surfaces of the pocket. There are a couple spots where the walls of the pocket are not perfectly smooth, which creates some small gaps, and the shoulders and heel are not perfect against the body, so there are some small gaps there - I'll get a couple more pics later today (though I hate taking pictures of things that didn't come out exactly right). If we were painting this guitar, I wouldn't worry about it, and I'd just fill those gaps with filler after the glue-up, but since we're staining it, I don't know how that will look. We are doing more of a semi-opaque-matte stain on the back (like on this Epi LP Traditional - they call it a "worn" finish), so maybe we can get away with some mahogany filler in there. -- se
  2. eubie
    Ok, so it's been a while since my last post, but we are still making progress. Here's the latest update, and more detailed build posts are on my site at http://eubie.com. Last update was that we were starting new with the fretboard. We found a really pretty piece of purpleheart at our local yard, and having learned a little from our mistakes, we cut initial slots, then cut the sides to the profile we wanted, then sanded in the radius, then recut the slots to final depth with a saw that has the right kerf for our frets. Then we glued it up on the neck, and installed the binding and dots in situ. Next we glued up the maple and mahogany body, trimmed the maple, and cut the neck pocket. Obviously still a good ways to go, but we are feeling good about our progress.
  3. eubie
    Could be. Could also be that it wasn't originally a Fender Select and someone tried to add a button after the fact, but screwed it up. Do you know anything about the history of the instrument? How did you come by it?
  4. eubie
    Looks like a cutout for a Fender Select button gone wrong.
  5. eubie
    Love it. That's a great looking guitar. Thanks for the detailed build thread.
  6. eubie
    I do see the channels in that top picture. It looks like you did a great job of getting them out. One of the great life lessons of woodworking is that sometimes you have to just accept that something didn't go as planned, and then either accept how it turned out, or go back and redo it. The wood doesn't care about my whining.
  7. eubie
    I have a couple different fret saws, and I'm not entirely sure where any of them came from. In this case, I used the same one that I had used previously on a ukulele fretboard. I think the fretwire I bought for this project had a slightly wider tang, and the wenge has a little less give than the maple I used for the uke. That combination is what probably did me in. It wasn't just that though - it was a combination of things. As I was teaching my son how to slot the board, we ended up with some slots that were a little sloppy to begin with, then we weren't 100% happy with the clay dots, then the issue with the slots being too narrow. By the time I was taking off the binding I had almost already decided to start again. The voice in my head was saying, "you should probably start fresh anyway, so go ahead and try to strip the binding off and see what happens". Before starting the new board, I took a scrap of the wenge and prepared it like a new fretboard (radius and such), then cut slots will all three of my most likely saws, then placed some frets in the various slots. Having done that, I think we'll breeze through the next round pretty easily.
  8. eubie
    Quick update. Had issues getting frets in - slots were too narrow for the fret tangs, and the wenge just wasn't giving enough to get them in without splintering. Tried to widen the slots with the binding on, and had no joy. Tried to take the binding off and went from inconvenience to total fiasco. So, we're calling it a learning experience, and starting over with a new fretboard blank. Now that we know what were doing, things should progress more quickly.
  9. eubie
    I'll say it again - beautiful work. I'm a sucker for a really clean, simple style, and you have captured that beautifully. I love the aluminum pick guard. Feeling very jealous right now. -- se
  10. eubie
    Love the lines on front and curves on back approach. A nice design, plus the added benefit of the comfort against your body. I really like the simplicity of the front and can't wait to see some finish on it.
  11. eubie
    You and me both. I'll give the starting pin a try, but mostly I just work very carefully around that thing, and take very shallow passes. I don't think so. I'll pick at it a little with my slot cleaner-outer before I put the frets in, but there's not really as much of it as it looks like in those photos. At least that's what I'm telling myself. BTW - In previous projects I've always hammered in frets, but I decided to make a little fretting caul that I can mount in my drill press, and press them in this time. Just seems like a more civilized approach, and the extra time to make the jig is probably worth it. Clearly I haven't been in a hurry!
  12. eubie
    Beautiful work Seb!
  13. eubie
    Been a while since I posted progress. Life got in the way a little (work, vacation, stuff). Also, spent a bunch of time building jigs, which slowed some of our progress. But, we have been making progress, and I've just been derelict in my duty to post updates. So the last thing I posted about was the truss rod channel. Since then... Trimmed the fretboard to final width, and trimmed the headstock to final shape using the new router/shaper setup. Cut out the fretboard, radiused and cut fret slots. Bound the fretboard with ivory colored ABS binding using the acetone melt-and-adhere approach. We got a little melty goodness on the edges of the binding after installation, but nothing that a little sanding and scraping didn't take care of. Considered and decided against trying to inlay Les Paul style markers, and instead cut clay dots, and installed them. The "soft" clay dots and the open-pored wenge conspired to give us less than perfectly circular dots, but we decided we are happy with them nonetheless. To give it a little personality, I added a simple inlay at the 12th fret that turned out pretty good. Put the template on the body and trimmed to final profile, as well as routing the control cavity and the wiring channel. Yes - we used the masking tape and CA glue method. I know the 3M tape sentiment is strong in these parts, but in this case, we used what we had on hand. Besides, I've never had any issues with the masking tape, so... That's where we are at this point. Fretting is next.
  14. eubie
    Not sure if this is a feasible solution for you, but what I think I would do is cut about a 2mm deep slot at the point you want the fabric to end. Follow Scott's suggestion about fabric that stretches in both directions. Put glue in the slot, then use a thin edge (like a credit card) to press the fabric into the slot. The width of the slot would depend on the thickness of your fabric, but you want it to barely fit. Extensive testing on scraps would be wise. This will give you a clean edge and avoid fraying. Another approach would be to put a thin, flexible strip (or wood, bent to the shape of your guitar) on the inside of the fabric, and fold the edge up on the inside, secured with glue. This is how they do it on upholstery. This will also give you a clean edge and prevent fraying. Either way, to avoid the step effect, you'll have to plane down the surface of the wood that the fabric covers so that the top surface of the fabric is flush with the top surface of the wood it butts up against. To do that, you'll also have to re-cut one of the roundovers. See my (rough) sketch attached.
  15. eubie
    Would this be the wrong time to mention that I hammer in my frets instead of pressing them?
  16. eubie
    I'm going to bind and fret the fretboard before gluing to the neck, followed by shaping the neck itself. Had I installed the fretboard first, I think I would have fretted before shaping, but as Prostheta said, it's probably fine either way.
  17. eubie
    Thanks! And thanks for the inspiration. Just this weekend I actually used my 12" radius block to sand a radius onto the fretboard for the current build, and it worked great, so I'm happy with the result.
  18. eubie
    So true! Now, if I could get myself to stop tinkering with the fret slotting contraption I've been working on, I could get back to actually building my guitar.
  19. eubie
    I clamped the pivot arm to the upright with the router mounted in it then measured from the tip of the bit up to my desired radius and marked it. Did this for a variety of radii, then drilled through both the pivot arm and the upright so the holes would be aligned. Initially I used a metal dowel through the holes, but the pivot arm tended to slip off, so I switched to a bolt to hold it together.
  20. eubie
    Recommended PG article by @Prostheta : Laser Cutting Router Templates - Painlessly. This is a great place to start - basically answers all your questions, and some others you might not have even known to ask. -- se
  21. eubie
    Welcome to the PG community! 1. I would say, if you want to restore it, do everything you can to keep it as original as possible. 2. If you are thinking of replacing the neck, there's nothing to be worried about when it comes to adjusting the truss rod. If you get in there and break something and have to replace the neck, you aren't any worse off than you would have been if you went straight to neck replacement. So... start with the truss rod. Get a good straight edge, preferably one of those that has the fret notches cut out of it, and lay it on the fretboard with the strings at tension. Adjust the rod a little, and see how it reacts with respect to the straight edge. Your first adjustments can be small and slow until you get a feel for how the neck reacts to being adjusted, and then you can determine whether you think the warp is manageable or too severe to fix. If you really want to stay as original as you can, pull the hardware and check all the wire connections before you decide you have to replace the jack. Something may just be loose, frayed, shorted, ungrounded, etc. I'll leave replacement neck recommendations to others - I don't have much expertise to offer there.
  22. eubie
    PM'd you.
  23. eubie
    Technically... that's called the scientific method. -- se
  24. eubie
    Congrats Andy! A well-deserved honor. -- se
  25. eubie
    Congrats on the GOTM win, Tim. Really nice looking guitar - well deserved. -- se
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