willliam_q

Thanks. I have a drill press but the fretboard was slightly pre radiused so I think that may have caused it to wander. I do have brad point drill bits but the 4mm one for fret markers made the holes too small and the 5mm one was way too big. That's why the tuner holes came out perfectly aligned and the fret markers didn't.

Who can change their mind so drastically in a few days. I think your customer doesn't really know what he wants. Either that or he wants a guitar that sounds like every single guitar on the planet incorporated into one! Maybe some coil splitting humbuckers would do the trick?

Thanks for the support so far! I wish I felt like I was in control Tonight I glued the inlay dots and finished radius sanding the fret board. I think I went overkill polishing to 2000 grit but I enjoyed it and that's the main thing! The fretboard is so smooth now I just wanna string it up and play it! See if you can spot which inlay dots are off line. There are at least two but they aren't 'that' noticeable, hopefully once the frets are in it shouldn't be too bad.

I really like it. Painting it looks like it could be a project in itself! I don't think I'd have the patience for painting that, I just stick to solid colours cause I'm lazy! Someday I may just stretch to doing a burst lol.

The headstock is spliced at the head not the neck, and then the wings are glued on so it's made up of three pieces. It will be painted black so I'm not that bothered about it. It's invisible at the back as the headstock is spliced as it joins the neck so there is no unsightly glue line at the back of the neck. I'm not sure I have this under control at all. I'm just in from the garage. I've drilled the inlay holes but try as hard as I could they didn't work out straight! There's one in particular is very noticeable . The bit I was using didn't have a centre point as such so it was hard to line it up accurately. It didn't help that where my drill press is, it is in poor light. Anyway nothing I can do about it now will just have to work on at it. I was planning to glue the dots in tonight but only just realised my superglue had dried up as it was so old! Will have to wait for another day. I lost a couple of the MOP dots I had, they rolled onto the floor and were almost invisible against the concrete and wood dust (they're only 4mm). Try as I might I couldn't find one of them. Hence the reason I haven't yet drilled the double dots for the octave markers. On a positive note I did get the transition done from the headstock to the fretboard. I'm quite pleased with how it's turn out . I've yet to finish radiusing the fretboard so it will come into line when that is done. I've left a little bump so that I can put a truss rod cover up against it.

I have posted a couple of guitar builds in the past. the first one was dire, I freehand routed everything and made a hash of it. It was just about playable. The second one I posted I made my own templates, got most of the shaping work done, neck built etc but I got a throat infection and forgot about it. When I went back to work on it again I found the cheap mahogany body blank I had shaped to my own design had split right down the middle! It was a one piece body blank and I think the difference in temp / humidity caused the split. Obviously there must have been a weakness in it somewhere. All of those threads have now been lost in the forum crash so I've decided to start up a new thread for a new project! I've always liked the look of the Jackson Dinky and I love 80's hair metal bands. Being a bolt on I thought a nice easy project to ease me back in to this guitar building malarky! This is being done on the cheap being built from guitar spares I’ve had lying around. The only thing I’ve bought is the wood. Intended guitar specs (although may change over the course of the build): Alder Body Maple Neck Ebony Fretboard 24 frets HSS pickup configuration Tune-o-matic bridge Reverse headstock My intended finished product should look something like this (I know this is a Jackson Soloist but it’s the closest I could find on Kisekae): I started taking pictures late-ish into the build so here's what I have: Neck pocket routed at an angle Neck fitting after body routed Tuner Holes drilled (the only way is with a drill press!). Notice the "knot" on the high 'E' tuner hole. that's one of the mistakes I made. I screwed the template down thinking that it was well outside the routing line. By my calculations it was but by the time I did some planeing (spelling police!) I had removed so much wood that I had to use wings either side but when the neck was shaped and the wings glued on the screw hole was inside the neck profile. I'm still learning how to plane properly, I think I am well on the way though. I found out the usefulness of shooting boards when planing narrow stock such as this. Anyway it's not so bad, I filled it with scrap splinters of maple and glue. It's leveled ok and won't be seen with the washers for the tuners. Nut slot cut, I used chisels for this. To do this I cut down either side of where the nut should be with a fret saw and chiseled it out. First time using chisels and the job was so handy. I'm very pleased with this attempt. I welcome any criticisms but would prefer if they were accompanied with advice!

I only really use D'Addario 10's. I haven't really experimented with any other strings, it's just a habit I suppose. I like the D'addarios and as the old saying goes if it's not broke don't fix it! They last forever as well. I had Ernie Ball's at one stage years ago but found they'd break too easy.

I like that inlay, I think it look s pretty funky!