Dward13

Did the wiring, didn't cobble it up too bad. Didn't mess with shielding yet, so far isn't very noisy. Installed posts for access panel support and drilled, counter sunk and tapped for the screws. It seems magnets are an accepted way to close panels now, but I'll stick with screws for now.

Got my polishing supplies in and took a wack at the finish. Sort of has that far away look, close up it's awful, but with a little distance it at least highlights the flame and looks OK. I'm too frustrated with it now to try and make it better, so I'll leave that much and work on the action etc. Have it to the point were it looks done, but still need the wiring etc.

Fashioned a notched straight edge with an old aluminum yard stick and a rat tail file. Neck actually seems to be nice and straight. I took my time when using the radius block combining it with a long straight block. A few passes with the radius block then a few with the straight one so I didn't get any high or low spots. Then again, maybe I just got lucky this time. In writing this I'm reminded how many times I had to correct my students: "Sorry kid, you use a strait edge if your navigating into the Mediterranean Sea."

Didn't really think about it. Just seemed that having the centers of the strings evenly spaced would be the correct way.

Starting with the nut: Cut the slot making several passes with a dovetail saw using the radius block as a guide. Trim the bottom flat with a small file. Calculated the spacing between the strings was .276" so made a strip of mahogany to the dimension with the drum sander. Cut the strip in pieces and staggered them to use as a guide. Put a thin layer of acrylic paint on nut as a mask. Used an x-acto knife to cut initial groves. Now can follow those with my set of StewMac nut files. (Ran into one major screw up. Look closely at the closeup of the neck in the previous post. Notice the 2nd fret is narrower than its neighbors. Apparently sometime in the 40+ years I've had the bag of Jim Dunlop frets I slipped in a couple others. I did have some smaller ones from a previous project. Luckily, I had the package from the frets and was able to order some of the same ones. Just didn't stop to think to double check that the frets were all the same. Duh!!!)

Installed the frets on the side neck project. Did double check the depths of the slots after radius shaping and camphered the edges of the slots slightly. Slots seemed a little tight so I added a couple drops of water to soften the wood. Got then started in the slot with a few taps of the fret hammer, mainly in the center of the fret. Had my StewMac caul in the drill press, one solid push would seat the fret. Then clipped off the excess with my end cutters. Didn't have the end cutters in the past, huge difference being able to clip the frets close to the neck.

Body has had 3 coats of wipe on poly and it's been hanging to dry for a couple days now. Will hit it with synthetic steel wool and start spraying the polycrylic. On the side project: The neck is starting to look and feel like a neck. Will share my "poor mans" set of neck shaping tools: 2" strips of 36 grit sandpaper from rolls for my drum sander, glued 1-2-3 wide on flat boards. The 1 wide to cut specific areas and the 2 & 3 wides to blend things together avoiding high and low spots. Strips of 80 and 120 grit for smoothing laterally. Sanding sleeves for my spindle sander for concave curves. The combination file for smaller areas. I got one of the razor files from StewMac, but didn't really like it for aggressive neck shaping. Going across the grain it tends to dig in too much and bind up, works better with a light touch to smooth out sanding marks from the 36 grit.

Have holes for pots and jack drilled so onto finishing. Did a sand-moisten-repeat process with 220-400-600. In keeping with the rest of the project I want to keep it simple so I'm going with basic Minwax products and a natural finish. Will use the wipe on poly to bring out the grain and the polycrylic for a hard finish; I've had good luck with both. I'll do 2-3 coats of the wipe on poly then sand with 600 and repeat if needed, then sand with 800 and synthetic steel wool before spraying the polycrylic. I'll just thin the polyacrylic a little and blow it on with my airbrush, sanding and/or polishing between coats as needed. I've found that I can get thinner coats with the airbrush with fewer problems; I tend to get in too much of a hurry when I'm finishing and get a runny mess. Finishing is sort of my Kryptonite.

A couple more steps today. Drilled out for the neck screws. Aligned and mounted the Schaller Non-tremelo bridge. Routed out for the Seymour Duncan P90 pickup. Knobs are just some old unfinished wood ones, just sitting there. Any advice on knob placement? Once before had someone write me about placing the volume knobs so you can do swells?

For the outline of the access panel I made a copy from 1/2 in. scrap to use as a mold and cut a 1/2 x 1mm strip from some white mahogany. I tried a maple strip first, but couldn't get it to bend without splitting. I soaked the strip in boiling hot water for 1/2 hour or so then using a small iron made for applying model airplane covering wrapped it around the mold heating the strip as I went to get it to bend. Once it dried I used a very old school model airplane building technique. I applied glue to both the panel door and the outline strip and let it dry. Now, I wrapped the strip around the panel door and held it in place in the mold. Using the heating iron I would heat a small area of the edge strip until the glue melted between the two and then hold them in place and let the area cool. Working my way around the outline until the entire perimeter was bonded. Now just sand down the extra material. Size came out just about right with little sanding needed.

Fabricated a guide for my StewMac Dremel base. Cut out the access panel with a 1mm spiral bit. Now I can wrap it with a veneer and have a matching panel. Opening let me see the good joint and squeeze out in the center section.

I thought about getting a roller, but I've already got the sponges and have had good luck using them for other projects. I just use the sponges made for washing dishes, with the scrubber pad on one side, they're cheap and I just cut them in 1/4s. They don't soak up glue and I just toss them out when done. (Remember I drew this up 15+ years ago) The model is: I studied pictures of guitars to zero in on elements I liked, then just fired up my trusty 1-piece Macintosh i-Mac G3*, opened an AppleWorks drawing and played with the Bezier tool until I got an outline I liked. At the time I was thinking a glued in neck and didn't really think about the fact that with a bolt in neck there needed to be enough room for the screws. Thus, the neck ended up overlapping the body more with less upper register access than I wanted. If I do a next one, I'll add more room for the neck pocket. I'm hoping that the shorter neck length with help with the balance, the last one I did was really neck heavy. *There's a good line in the "Steve Jobs" movie when his daughter sees the first i-Mac. (It's like Judy Jetson’s Easy Bake Oven)

Nakedzen, Really is an effective method. I use a neck-through compromise design by using a hard maple "backbone" so it really gives the screws something to dig into and thus get some good pressure. As a side note: Was watching the "Eddie the Eagle" movie and the scene with Matti Nykänen, Matti turns to Eddie and says "If I didn't jump, I would drink and have sex all the time". After your comment before, I finally understand the joke.

Center screws came right out, no problem. Cleaned up the outline on the disk and spindle sanders. (Just got one of those abrasive cleaning sticks, those things are fantastic.) Hit the top and back with a 1/4" round over bit. Routed out the neck pocket. Neck fits perfect and is dead on straight with the center line of the body.

Back to the main project. Pulled the trigger on gluing up the top/body. Used hex head lag screws for my center hold downs. That way I could torque them down good and have a better chance of getting back out. Whole process worked well, did a couple practice runs first to get everything setup right. Was worried that applying that much glue would take too long, but it went quicker then expected. Used a daub it on with a sponge technique.

To continue the side note project: Remembered a nice chunk of birdseye to make a fingerboard to match the neck. Routed out for inlays, simple rectangles, all the same size, crotch walnut. Installed the StewMac "Hot Rod" truss rod, glued and clamped the neck/fingerboard.

Just a side note: With all this talk of guitar making I'm finding myself going all O.C.D. on it. Had this neck block from 15 years ago that I'm messing around with trying for a Fender style neck. What the heck, can't have too many projects in the works.

Quick Note: The birdseye - cocobolo neck blank had a creack in the cocobolo so I won't pass it on. Cut it down past the depth of the crack and attempting to make a Fender style neck with it.

Testing a neck pocket routing jig. Just laid two boards along side the neck to get the taper correct then adjusted the stop to fine tune the width. Ended up getting a nice snug fit.

My neck showed up today from Stratosphere. Ordered one with the machines, apparently an official Fender replacement of the made in Mexico variety, seems like a really nice neck. Frets seems to be in perfect shape in terms of the ends being trimmed etc., I had read that replacement necks can need a lot of work to make them playable. As a side note: I called Sweetwater first and the "expert" I talked with was a clueless pinhead. When I asked about machines to fit the neck he gave me a list of ones that "might work" and some run around about how you normally need to modify parts when adding new components. However, in the guys defense, I think the support info he had to work with could have done more to match up the neck with the machines. (Sorry for venting) I'm realizing that I should have thought out the neck pocket geometry better and added a lip to get the neck away from the body farther. But, I'm not going to worry about it on this one; as an old retired guy the fun of putting the guitar together is the main reward.

Good point on getting the screws permanently bonded. Even though they are in spots that will be removed, the router might not like digging out the screw.

Very nice. I like the idea of combining locator pins with the hold down screws. Like having an extra pair of hands.

Got started on lightening voids and electronic cavity. Took out about 10 oz. so far. Will match voids with the top piece once I get the neck and determine if I'm going to need to trim its thickness.

Folks, I did quite a bit of guitar work 15-20 years ago and stocked up on wood supplies at the time. I don't do as much these days so I have some wood items I could get rid of. I'm not going to give it away, but most certainly can go cheaper than current retail. I'll post a few things here and if I get any interest I'll put up some more. It didn't seem this forum section get too much traffic. Note: I'm in the Twin Cities area, get back to me for details. Items here: Quartersawn instrument grade curly maple 4/4. Started laminated neck blocks, mahogany, maple, wenge -- birdseye, wenge, cocobolo. 6/4 curly maple.

Bizman62, Too late, already got the holes drilled, threaded rods cut and the blocks run through the drum lander so they're nice and flat. Don't think the twist tie method would be very effective, would take forever trying to balance each sides tension, half the glue would be dry by the time you got them all tight. I am remembering how I did my last guitar. As I recall I used a similar clamping method, then put the whole thing on a concrete floor and stacked weights on it to press on the center. Might do the same only just jack up the back of my truck and set it down on a 4 x 4 running the center line of the clamped body.