TMHNM

Thanks so much, comments and advice most appreciated. I’d been thinking tung/citrus oil on the wenge fretboard, More trouble then TO but better I think. It seemed having a thick coating of finish on the fingerboard might not be good. TruOil on the rest of the neck. Thanks for the heads up on build up hindering setting the neck, I’ll mask off the section that fits in the cavity. It’s perfect at present so I’ll try and keep it that way. Also, I’ll take your advice on manual bridge placement, makes sense. Kinda bummed though since I spent a lot of time working out how to re-setup the body for some accurate re-work. Oh well, at least I’ll know how to do it next time. Now to finish my gitar!

I’ve managed to work out a fixture on my CNC that enables the location of my original xyz datum points. So I’m reasonably confident I can make the needed cuts. Ive also done a bit more research and have found that I measured incorrectly, I don’t have the problem I thought I had. Plenty of space to mount the hard tail. So... I would appreciate some insight on bridge placement. StewMac’s calculator says 25.25” from nut edge to string break on the bridge saddle. For a 22 fret, 25.5” scale guitar. I’ve also seen/read that 12.75” from the center of the 12th fret to the same point. There’s a quarter inch difference between the two on my little project. Which should I choose? i think I’ll leave the stripe for my next build .

Thanks for the vote of confidence, appreciate it! Being a big fan of the KISS principal, this is what I came up with. Probably walnut, maybe a quarter inch thick. Or, maybe just more mahogany. It’d look like a multi piece glue up to the casual observer. Not a very artistic inlay but hopefully I’ll end up with a playable instrument. You will note I added the thru holes for the bridge. Doh.

Well, this is embarrassing, I’ve discovered a major flaw in my effort. My bridge humbucker cavity is too far back in the body to allow for proper placement of the hard tail bridge. Didn’t do enough reading, dummy. Hadn’t planned on it but looks like I’ll be doing some inlay work on this one. Cut a positive to fill the cavity. Hog out another cavity in the right place. Come up with an inlay design of some sort, wish I was more artistic. Turn this mistake into a feature if I can.

Yeah, I suppose I’ll have to acquire one.

Ok, here’s what I have at this point. My first ever use of Tru-Oil Certainly unlike any oil finish I’ve ever used in the past, not expecting to see it build so quickly Kinda like shellac. Anyway, I’m guessing I should wait to finish the neck until after I’ve done the fretwork but I wonder the best way to clean the finish from the frets? Thanks

Indeed. And thank you for your response. I appreciate your ‘first build” skepticism and will take it as a complement. Life long woodworker and 4 year hobbyist CNC’r with desire for perfection (rarely achieved) result in a lot of chips and kindling haha. I went through 19 design iterations to come up with the final one, posted above. I am not an artist like so many here, don’t even do stick men well, so I’m thankful for CAD, despite the painful learning curve. Re truss rod, I have a “u-channel” from StewMac, 0.4” wide, so I guess wider then most. As for pots, I ended up ordering a couple of 500k and a couple of 250k. Pretty easy to swap around so, why not? Also, as you mentioned, a 3 way slider. A question about fret wire, is any particular size more suited to a beginner? Also, fret board thickness? I’m going with a radiused design, ~ 1/4” thick at center. Is thickness critical?

Thank you sir! As you can see, still in the phase of learning enough in order to ask questions. That body was a learning exercise. Here are some pics of my final design. I still need to clean up, improve my truss rod access as well as the magnetic electronics cover on the back.

Hello, I decided it’d be interesting and a challenge to build musical devices for my grandkids...and me. So, my first project is an electric guitar. I’ve been lurking here for a bit. You all do some amazing work! I’m hoping you’ll cut this non-musician noob some slack and help me out. I knew nothing about electric guitars a few months ago. Clueless on Humbuckers and hardtails not to mention tuning machines. Anyway, I’m learning. Rock and blues lover all my life but never a chance to do more then listen ‘til now. I’ve progressed to the point where I’m ready to take a stab at building a complete guitar. I’ve designed a Fender inspired body and neck. Cut a few practice pieces on my CNC. CAD/CAM is Fusion 360. I’ve got on hand a couple of Seymour Duncan Humbuckers and a hardtail bridge. I’m thinking I’ll order pots, strings, switch’s and tuning machines from StewMac. I’m a bit confused on wiring options and would appreciate any advice. I’m guessing I need two 500k pots, not sure on caps or switches. I see some simple toggles as well as two post sliders. What do I need? Keeping in mind I’d like to keep ‘‘tis first build as simple as possible. Not afraid of soldering. Some pics of prototypes.