ADFinlayson

Managed to get a couple more pieces glued in last night. It’s still not looking very skull-like but my confidence is improving. I did however underestimate how much of a ball ache it would be to saw through the mop to remake the fret slot, so I sawed the first piece before sticking the other 2 in. Im wondering whether it would be wise to make the slot a bit wider where the mop is so that hammering the frets in doesn’t run the risk of cracking the inlay, but also concerned that there needs to be enough material there to hold the tangs in.

Wooden pup rings would work. I made this same miscalcluation on the blue DC I finished around xmas, I just glued in a little strip of ebony to make the fretboard a few mm longer and filed it to the same radius as the fretboard, end result was pretty seamless. The V is looking Limba and V's just works.

That will look bloody marvellous

Looks awesome, sorry if you’ve posted before and I’ve missed it, what material are you inlaying?

Back on to Ollie's V and making progress with the inlay. I gave up on the initial design, the little wooden branches kept breaking when I was cutting them, to the point that they were more super glue than walnut, so I've come up with a new design. When I was sketching, I was envisaging something between an Ork and dead Terminator I've cut the large pieces* out of white mop, smaller details are going to be done with some course and fine crushed MOP. Then the super fine details by subtracting from the bigger pieces by scratching and filling with ebony dust and superglue, the eyes will be 2mm mop dots, then 4mm dots for the rest of the fret markers. *When I say large pieces, none of the pieces are large, it's feckin' awkward Anyway, I've started to inlay the large pieces with coloured epoxy. It's slow work and I think this is going to be one of those jobs that looks like a dogs dinner until it's done, but should look fairly

The neck will definately have to stick out further in order to make frets 22-24 accessible which would move your bridge forward. You could try the silver sky style carve to the lower horn if you're not desperate to make it look exactly like a strat. Whatever you do though, draw a full scale plan.

Here are the methods I watched on youtube before removing wells for the first time, they're essentially what myself and @curtisa have described: Push method: Pull method:

Couple of bits on this one. Finally got round to making a truss rod cover, it’s already got a few coats of poly as I cut it out of my tester I’m planning to swap out the chrome washers on the tuners for brass as with the rest of the hardware too. i also swapped out the plastic speed knobs for some ebony lampshade knobs, in an ideal world I’d have ziricote knobs but I can’t find any online. Can you see the dark patch? I’m assuming that is the oil from my fingers getting into the bare wood and darkening it. So I obviously need to get on and get this one finished, through it will need a fair bit of sanding. Hoping to get on with finishing this one once the V is finished. But still really enjoying playing it.

I've always found the well that is pushed in against the earth wire is quite tight, too tight to pull out by hand anyway. If the screw head of the stud is closed, then the same principle applies just with a flat head screwdriver and some tape to protect the screw head. For the record, when I've removed wells from maple/mahogany, the softer woods have a bit of give and it's easier to get studs out, but when I've done with with wenge and ovangkol, once the wells are in, they're in! so the screw out method is a must.

Building on from Andy's good advice, if you've only got access to a jig saw or cheapy bandsaw, I recommend cutting the rough shape of the mahogany after you've got it down to final thickness and rouge cutting the rough shape of the maple cap separately, that way you're cutting two thinner pieces which will be a lot less work for the saw. Then you can glue the body and the cap together before routing to final shape, or you can even route the final shape of the cap then stick it to the rough shape of the body so you're routing less wood in each pass which is much safer for you, and the wood If you're new to bandsaws, jigsaws - don't worry about cutting too close to the line, it's better to leave too much than risk cutting into the final work piece, and there is no issue with spending a bit longer with the router or sander getting it to final shape. Once you've done it a couple of times, you will realise that it's a doddle as long as you take your time and take care.

Nooo, I would never use a claw to remove the wells. all you need to do is drop in a metal dowel in that is slightly smaller than the stud then carefully screw the stud back in and it will push the well out. These are the metal dowels I use, one is just a heavy duty threaded insert and the other is a 1/4" shank that I sawed off an old router bit. Drop one dowel in then use a metal straight edge with a few layers of masking tape to carefully screw down the stud, the straight provides a good bit of leverage while protecting the stud. Just keep screwing the bridge stud down and the well will gradually rise until you reach the end of the dowel, then unscrew the well and drop the other one in. Then repeat the process until the well is all the way out.

My thought exactly, if you thickness the blank down before rough cutting you will have the option of have the worst bit glued to the cap. From the prs style builds I’ve done, I’d say you only need about 30mm of mahogany. Once you’ve got it down to thickness, I would rough cut it and your maple cap and weigh the two together and decide if you want to do any chambering for weight relief before glueing. welcome to the forum and good luck with the build, looking forward to seeing your progress Ash

The best way to route a truss rod with your tools is to use your triton router in handheld mode with the fence, set the depth stop to 9mm (life up the little spring loaded rod, stick the end of the truss or in it and tighten it up). Start with the bit just above the work, start the router then plunge down a couple of mm, take a pass along the length, plunge again, take another pass and so on until you hit the depth stop. The fences in those little triton router are surprisingly good, just make sure the screw for the depth stop is nice and tight

you need to factor the break angle into the top/neck pocket early on in the build - ultimately you need a minimum of 2.5º for a tunomatic but my method is this: I take a block of wood that is the (height of bridge + 2mm) - (height of fretboard and frets) e.g 8mm. Then place it at the bride position and plane down the top towards the neck pocket. That gives you an angled surface that you can stick your neck pocket template on. Then when you route your neck pocket, the floor of the pocket will be the same angle as the top and everything should line up nicely! Obviously the above will not fix your issue now, but it will work on future builds, it's never failed me yet. Also disclaimer: This is Ben Crowe's method not mine, I just stole it.

Guitar is looking great @spottydog it has a real vintage vibe about it. If there is any relief in the neck, you could tighten the rod which would reduce the action in the middle of the board but I doubt it would be enough. What is the situation with the bridge, is it set as low as it will go? If so I think your only option will be to recess it by 3mm to get the lower action. I have seen posts where folk have filed down the underside of the bridge to get it to sit a bit lower I don't think you could file off 3mm

Yep, the moment you disrespect the tools, they will take your flesh. It makes me cringe when I see people on YouTube learning over a router table with tassels from their hoodies dangling 2” away from the bit. It would only need to touch the bit for a second and you’re done. Getting your head sucked into that would be immediate and serious disfigurement at best.

For the record, I am 32 going on 14. I thought parenthood would resolve this but it only made things worse.

Does follow through mean something different on your side of the pond?

I guess a lot of people that start building a guitar body don't actually go on to finish the guitar project. Skimming the top off would get my vote, then you can see how good the joint is and put something you like on it. But if you're planning on building a Tele, you've potentially had a bargain on a nice body blank.

There isn't a lot of meat on a 6mm bit and they aren't very strong, especially if it's a cheap bit so there is a strong chance of just snapping the bit in half, also the more lateral pressure you put on a bit, they quicker you will blunt it. Honestly they easiest way to resolve your headstock thickness concerns, is just to glue an offcut on to the bottom, if you get a good joint then it would barely be visible on the underside especially if the joint is under your tuners, it wouldn't be visible on the top anyway. Search youtube for "cutting tapers on table saw"

Truss rod is scary the first time. Once you’ve done it once or twice you will find it’s a doddle. Your routing method is a bit risky though, much better to take 2mm passes along the length of the channel and work your way down to 9mm in a few passes. table saw is a good option for the headstock angle, I use a bandsaw but I’d use a table saw if I had one. I do think you’re overthinking your headstock thickness though, 14-15mm depth will be fine for most tuners and 10°+ headstock angle is enough to provide plenty of string pull over the nut

Congrats on your GOTM victory, there is no arguing with a gloss finish like that

Dick Turpin and the Motorway Men, sounds like a perfectly feasible name for a middle aged pub rock covers band.

I'll kick off Mays entries then, I call it the 3.2 - originally this was my third build that I made last summer. It was made entirely from ovangkol and sounded great but weighed over 12lb before even installing hardware and pickups, so this year I unset the neck, skimmed the top off the body, hollowed it out, carved a maple cap with f hole and created a new neck (my inlay work was rubbish and I didn't like the feel of the ovangkol fretboard) resulting in a build that I'm super happy with but couldn't have done it without the help of a couple of members here (you know who you are). Many thanks! It's setup in drop C as it will be my work-horse for the band at least until I've finish the Ziricote build Build thread: Spec Body: 2-piece Ovangkol carved body heavily chambered Top: 2-piece flamed maple carved w/ 335 style f-hole control covers: ovankol carved to match body contours Neck: - 1-piece Ovangkol neck - gabon ebony fretboard w/ 4mm abalone doy inlays, abalone side dots - 21mm thick with D shape carve from nut to heel (17th fret) Neadstock: Gabon ebony w/ abalone celluloid inlay, gabon ebony truss rod cover Frets: 24 medium jumbo stainless steal Finish: - top: Crimson red over black waterbased stain w/poly gloss clearcoat - body: Natural poly clearcoat semi gloss (so I don't blind the drummer) - neck Danish oil Tuners: Sperzel trim lock nickel gloss Bridge: Schaller signum gloss nickel Pickups: PRS Vintage bass, PRS HFS Controls: - switchcraft 3-way toggle - 1 volume w/treble bleed - 1 tone - 2x minitoggle coilsplit switches - Ebony lampshade control knobs Final Weight: 8lb 13oz The original build The final version Cheers Ash