ghostdive

Kinda funky, I love it!

I find it helps to leave everything the same place every time I use it - which is, I think, over there about halfway down the pile of stuff...or maybe I put it in one of those boxes...hmm...

Richlite top, very interesting...looking forward to seeing this take shape!

Very nice! I love being off-road, I'm always telling myself I should get back into it. I like my two too much right now to switch. 2001 ZX-6R 1982 KZ750N

Calling it done for the time being. Overall I'm pleased, it's very fun and inspiring to play! Definitely have some little tweaks to do but not right now. I had more trouble than I'd like to get into with the wiring, but in my defense, the components I cooked were already well-done from my poor soldering skills in 2015 or whenever it was. Nitpicks: -Intonation is sharp; I suspect the neck moved back a couple millimeters when I glued it, so next build I'll drill for the posts after that step. I may and likely will fill the holes and redrill in the future, but it doesn't affect the sound terribly as-is. -Jack is not in a good spot. I didn't have any better ideas and I'll live with it (I usually play standing anyway) but moving forward I'll work out a better solution. -Due to the string angles I'm winding half of the strings the opposite direction; it's mildly annoying and I wish I had a solution. I considered switching to 3x3 tuners but I think there would be a weird-looking gap in the keys and the eyes for the screws might collide on the back. It's minor. I think altering the geometry for this headstock shape on future builds will remedy my issues. -Neck is a little thin for my liking. It's more fun to play than any of the other guitars around me, but I like a bit more meat it seems. I didn't consider myself someone who cares about neck shape until now. I may record a small demo at some point, but you get the idea, it's a guitar!

A week after I applied the teak oil it still reeks. I think it needs some touching up but I might wait a few more days then switch to shellac - I'm very sensitive to smells and I'm itching to get back to finishing this instead of playing my other guitar. Playing is the worst part!! The neck is straight now, by the way - according to my homemade notched straightedge. I expect I'll have much more success setting it up this time.

I'd hoped to avoid it but here I am. Ramp at the end is just about dealt with, and a heat session yesterday has taken care of the rest of the unevenness down the neck. Earliest I can pick up the rest of my fretwire is Monday so I have some time to triple-check and sand up to snuff.

If you're feeling lazy like me, you could cut a filler piece of wood for the cavity so that the bit doesn't wander.

Lately I work evenings, and I had a spare set of gauges anyway, so a sip of coffee and I hopped to it.

Greatly appreciate the input. The filed feelers worked great! .020" at the first fret, .060" at the 12th, with .010" of relief on the high E and .012" on the low. Tried leveling out the ramp at the high frets but I'm out of material to take off. Considering I don't really play above 17 on the bass side I'll live with it for now, and at some point in the future I'll fix it for reals. Re Prostheta on the last page: All of the woodworking, neck shaping aside, has been done in sub-freezing temperatures in an uninsulated garage - far from ideal, and I expect some movement after each change to the piece. Shaping was a big bite so I'm not too surprised or torn up. I don't really notice neck shape when I play, so I was happy with it thicker, but I needed less stiffness for proper relief - not going for a specific profile or anything. I'm not interested in making a bolt-on for now. I'm confident that I'll resolve these issues and any I may have moving forward. In spite of them, I'll consider this build a success (presuming I don't set it on fire during finishing).

I think two reasons: 1 - Stored tensions in the wood; I think in the future I'll at least have the neck nearer to final thickness before gluing the fretboard, as I ended up removing a large amount. I may give future necks a quick curve with a 1/2" roundover bit as well just to help it along. Somewhat related - next build I'll fret the board before gluing. 2 - I had clamped and heated the neck a couple times recently in an attempt to cure the backbow introduced by too-tight frets. It did help a bit, but I think it may have introduced...other problems. The treble side of the neck is much closer to straight. I have some tricks to try on the bass side and I'm thinking I can level out the high-fret ramp - if that fails I'll do something else. P.S. - for the record, standard wood glue with both surfaces scuffed at 80 grit is holding strong on the Richlite. I keep expecting the board to pop off but at this point I think the truss rod would snap first.

It's been about ready for final sanding and finishing for a few days now, but I've been focusing on getting it playing okay. It does now - play okay - but not to the standard that I would like. After getting the neck as thin as possible without getting too weak, it now has decent relief. However...I'm having an interesting issue. It plays fine with acceptable action (nut height aside - not ready to drop $150 on files) but it looks weird. Seems like too late to be discouraged though, so I'll either address it or live with it as a glaring maker's mark.

After clamping and heating, I've made a slight bit of progress - still needs the truss rod adjusted for maximum relief to play, and the treble side isn't as serviceable yet. Definitely do not think extra reinforcement is needed if you're using richlite, and lesson learned on the fret fitment.

I fretted after gluing the fretboard, and I think this may essentially be the issue...I don't have a feel for how difficult it should be to press in the frets, so maybe it was not supposed to be as hard as it was...sigh. I'll keep taking off material and see how it looks.

Neck is glued in but barely profiled. Truss rod has more range, but I'm afraid if I try to go any farther to correct the bow I'll strip it. Might this come out as I take more material off? Tune up a couple steps and let it sit? African mahogany, dual-action truss rod, richlite fretboard, 27" scale.