JayT

20 hours ago, Prostheta said:

Clamp both blank halves up side by side, face to face and work on both halves of the joint as one wide face with a hand plane.

Worked like a charm! And it only took like 10-15 minutes to get the joint as tight as a...well, fill in the metaphor yourself so I don't get banned  Thanks again, Prostheta!

10 hours ago, Lumberjack said:

Side note: nice to see someone on here so close by in Annapolis!  I'm just up the road in Baltimore currently, but for a little while I worked at the PRS guitar factory right across the bay bridge.  Cheers

Ha, as it happens for over 10 years I've working in Bmore (Hampden) so we've possibly cross paths at some point. Surprised you didn't notice the PRS/HardRock sign pic I use as my avatar....or maybe you did. I had some acquaintances that worked (or possibly interned) at PRS when they were still in the small Annapolis location back in the day. Small world!

Bizman62 ... believe me, the dip has been revealed. It is I. 

10 minutes ago, Prostheta said:

Clamp both blank halves up side by side, face to face and work on both halves of the joint as one wide face with a hand plane. As long as the surface is coplanar and straight along the length, any discrepancies in angle will cancel out.

Thanks! I'll try that. I do have a DIY meter long sanding stick...but it's pretty narrow, like 2 inches wide. I'll make one wide enough to sand both halves at the same time,

Love all the support here BTW! 

 The bar set so high...another mind-blowing guitar. Can't wait to see it finished. Actually, I'd like to also hear some of these guitars plugged in. Being new here, can I ask...is there a link to video/audio of any builds being played?

Amazing work, Love everything about this guitar...except you really messed up the---who am I kidding. It's freakin' perfect.

The knobs holes look way close to the edge...I was wondering how close I could get mine to the edge. Why did you choose to do that, it looks really cool that way. Not sure I've ever seen knobs place like that.

Well, I'm finally recovered enough from the most painful event of my life and have returned to this build (spinal stenosis is no joke, be smarter than I and don't try to lift heavy, awkward junk all day without help!) 

I'm having trouble getting the 2 body halves perfectly square and am afraid to join/glue them. On their own, each one seems to have a perfectly straight, flat cut for joining -- but when I dry clamp them there always a gap. No matter how much I scrape, sand, recut, repeat...same issue. Particularly at the 'top' and 'bottom' of the seams.

I matched them and cut both sides with my table saw, up against the fence (flipping 1 piece over and reverse cutting it to account for saw blade being off a bit) then a bit smoothing with cabinet scraper. All seems perfect, up against straight edge I see no light shining through gaps. It's frustrating. I'm going to end up trimming so much that the darn thing will be too narrow for my body template.

Last ditch effort, I saw some YT videos on converting my electric, handheld planer into a joiner table. I'm going to try that tonight.

Any tips, hints or secrets out there?

Inspiring! I love seeing this level of craftsmanship.

"They" really ought to have a TV show in the vein of "Chopped" or "Face Off" or "Forged in Fire" where builders have x amount of days and limited parts/materials to complete an electric guitar. Judging based on design, construction, finished, playability...guest judges could include the like of EVH and Brian May...OK I'm rambling/dreaming now...

Good stuff here, I'm mentally collecting ideas to steal borrow for future builds 

8 minutes ago, mistermikev said:

Think it looks better in the cherry burst than the 'tv yellow'

That's supposed to be gold, like a LP gold top...but I do like TV Yellow too...

Well, dragging all my heavy tools up & down steps to enjoy the weather I threw out my back so am forced out of the shop while on the mend. Being limited to the keyboard I decided to riff on some design variations of my first build body (far left). 

I like the idea of a "family" of related guitar shapes so I basically moved lines around added/chopped stuff and came up with these 2. 

Being non-traditional shapes I think they'd be better served in classic/familiar colors, rather than some crazy colors...something like:

Just some ideas to kill time. Criticize away, it is appreciated (good, bad or indifferent)

FYI, is it normal to be thinking of "the next one" before "the current one" is even finished? I have a feeling it is

Looks fantastic! Is that “headstock” the finished shape?

On 12/27/2019 at 1:26 PM, ADFinlayson said:

Chances are the slot was too shallow in one spot, or there was some dust in there that compressed under the fret creating a shallow spot,

I found myself cleaning the fret slots often, I slotted first then sanded radius....should I just leave the sandings in the slots until the radius is 100% done? Can I "overwork" the slots making them too deep/wide?

7 hours ago, curtisa said:

As soon as you create the rear contour it becomes much more difficult to hold the neck against flat surfaces (installing frets then requires a shaped cradle to support the back of the neck), or inadvertently flex it if applying pressure to the fret board (can accidentally put an uneven radius on the fret board because you can no longer apply any weight to the middle of the neck).

Yes, I found this out the hard way...the last step I did in neck construction was press in frets. I used rolled-up cloth as cradle and this neck profile is fairly fat so it worked out. Next time will do as you suggest for sure.

I saw on builder on YouTube suggest to treat neck and fretboard as separate pieces and only glue together when both are 100% done themselves His logic being mistakes or start-overs are mire avoidable/less work to fix and problems.

Went back to the wood place to get the body wood. I ended up getting poplar...thoughts? Maybe too soft and/or heavy? Seems pretty uncommon for guitars but it was right price (works out to $22 each body) and size. For my first builds I don't want to break the bank so poplar it is.

Got home, with help from my daughter (outside since weather here was beautiful), got it cut and thinned to 1.8 inches (down from just over 2 inches) ... 'Teles are 1.75 inches, is that right? The blank halves seem really thick in my hands, not sure how thin I'm going to end up going. Any suggestions?

Off topic- my back has been killing me since starting this little project! 

I'm currently building my first guitar (electric solid) and it seems like every builder has their own process in regards to the order they do things. I realize there are many variables here depending on materials, finish, neck construction, personal preference....but are there any step-by-step, start-to-finish instructions for reference? Like, something generally agreed on by the majority experienced builders? Just as a failsafe checklist, not something I'd strictly adhere to.

My biggest fear is that I'm going to skip an important step and create more work for myself, or worse have to start over.

Example, I've finished carving the neck, and fretted it...but didn't do any finish to the wood yet. Was I supposed to? I guess the neck isn't an issue but the fingerboard...I didn't do anything to before pressing in fretwire.

Such a newbie question I know...but if I were to watch 20 YouTube videos (or 20 series of videos more likely) it'd take days and there'd be 20 different ways of doing things.

As I finish typing this I'm thinking that "something generally agreed on by the majority experienced builders" is probably as common as a two-headed unicorn

De-Christmas of house finally complete had a bit of time to work on necks...press came today too so with that and advice from this thread I made a little progress. 

11 hours ago, curtisa said:

...the flat part of the wire is rarely a perfect 90 degree "T" profile. The tops of the fret slots may need a bit of a chamfer applied to each one with a triangle needle file to ease the shoulders..

5 hours ago, Bizman62 said:

A few strokes with a small triangular (key/needle) file along each slot will create a guiding slope for the tang to slip in more easily

Thanks fellas! I know crude, but  something like the 2nd drawing here? Trying to understand exactly what you guys are describing  think same thing. Please let me know if not.

Hey aren’t I smart? I couldn’t get the fretwire seated flush no matter how hard I hammered....so I figured I’d press it in with a clamp,

Of course the clamp slipped off the rounded fret wire and dented  the finger board. I quit that method and ordered a press but is this fixable? Or should I leave as is? 

Side question, was the slot too shallow? The depth tool has 2 Black lines and it went as deep as the 2nd line (but not so deep you couldn’t see the line) or are frets just that difficult to hammer in? I used a fret hammer, and when that wasn’t working a regular hammer with no luck. Maybe I was subconsciously not hammering hard enough??

For those creating 3D renderings what software is your go to? My 2D designs are pretty weak compared to some of the professional looking “doodles” I’m seeing here.

I confess if easy enough to use I’m afraid i’d design a thousand guitars before getting to building anything 

3 hours ago, Andyjr1515 said:

Like you can never have too many guitars, you can never have too many pictures

Ok then, a wipe down with a tack cloth cleaned them up nice.

2 hours ago, komodo said:

Looks like you designed in a hanging loop to your headstock.

That is what I'm hoping it won't be used as...if so it'll eventually break I'm sure.

The headstock shape has been the most commented on to whoever see the design. My friend says "it looks like something designed for Prince" my daughter wants me to make different colored resin "crystals" that wedge in there...that won't be happening

What it's supposed to be is a tear drop, but I guess it's upside down.

I finished the initial neck carves. The limba is sort of waxy smooth, the mahogany one seemed easier to work and it went much faster. But it was the second one so I guess learning curve there.

 Too many pictures?...yes, too many. But I'm really proud of these. Maybe because I thought this would be the hardest step and was really worried that I'd ruin both. But I just zoned out, or zoned in and it was really satisfying.

Now I can be anxious about fretting!

That is pretty great, being from Annapolis MD (home of PRS) it seems no one local ever customizes a PRS finish in an interesting way. They are like sacred here or something. If I was rich I'd commission this from you, sadly I am not.

These are killer designs. The Jupiter design jumps out to me...I'll take one of those, thanks.

Wait...you "cut the join" with a router? Is this something done commonly or just your personal method? I guess it obviously works great for you, I may borrow this technique. Any tips on this for a new builder? Is this limited to thinner tops, or can this be done on like 3" body lumber? Is that a dumb question?

Thanks for posting as I'm learning so much from these, I'm loving the "Tuxedo" design most but all are awesome.