Asdrael

Hah well. A few coats of Tru oil in, I tried slurry sanding and apparently went through the coats and smeared a touch of rosewood onto the maple. I wiped as fast and as well as I could but there are now some dark dust freckles on a spot in my neck. I can't unsee them even if anyone tells me otherwise. I guess I'll sand the Tru oil off and start again, this time not doing slurry sanding but just thin wipe on wipe off (and possibly 0000 at the end depending how it feels). No biggie, the body is not ready yet anyway. Small question though: if I do that with like 400 grit, no need to raise the grain again right?

Regarding the template, yep. Thought about it too. Since I'm going to laser cut a pickup template, I'll just do the cavity (cover) in the same room. Luxury solution. And regarding the scarf joint, I don't trust myself (yet) to do a better looking last minute glue up than to accept what I have, finish it well, put massive tuners on and roll with it. In french we have a saying: "best is the enemy of good". Make of it what you will but for me it means that when I have something good, if I push it towards "best ever", something will turn sour. So for that headstock, I'm accepting good and functional over best looking

Hey I just realized your name rings a bell... You are credited as a major contributor to the TruOil finish process I am planning on using (https://www.basschat.co.uk/topic/331219-95-tru-oil-finished-guitar-a-how-to-guide/ ). So... Thanks?

In the same vein, Ibanez recently came out with sub zero treated frets (which I suspect is regular fretwire passed in liquid nitrogen). So it might very well do something. In other news, I did much more today, since it was day 2 of family being away and me waking up at 8 to go to the workshop. I was so eager to start the day that I decided to get the electronic cavity out of the way to wake me up. Easy enough: bit of forstner, bit of routing done! I even fixed the depth indicator on the pillar drill while I was at it. The only issue is that I completely overestimated how awake I was. Queue major mistake: I routed the complete depth using the cover outline. Silly me... Not a big deal though, the 3 way switch didn't fit in the regular cavity, and I might want to try with some extra switches down the line. At least now I have plenty of room to work with. The next order of the day was to finish up the neck. I positioned the neck as tight as I could and miraculously, the neck centerline and body centerline aligned. I even had the right height for my bridge! The only issue was that I seemed to have a thick heel and possibly a "negative" neck angle. Nothing some careful sanding can't fix. With everything correctly set, I just had to mark the screw holes for insert drilling. Plop x4 (thanks amazon centerpunches, 3 for 9€). And to the pillar drill! Had to be perfectly square tho. And the inserts fit right in. You'll notice they are slightly recessed, in case I need to touch up the neck angle at the heel. I also put a drop of liquid CA glue to secure them, didn't seem necessary to be honest. (9mm hole, 8m core diameter but 10mm helix diameter). Time will tell. With everything in place, I had to cut down my screws a bit. My body is very thin, the neck as well, so the screws were a tad long (M5x30, couldn't find M5x25). So I shaved 3-4mm up top, burning myself in the process and almost straining my finger. Nice that I was wearing gloves. (Fun fact; right after that, the glued label on the gloves peeled off by itself, somehow saying "We did our part, good luck now!"). Now of course you know what's coming: mating shots: I know, it's nothing original as I just took some blueprints online but I am thrilled. Measurements done, the intonation point falls exactly where it should. So I did something decent I suppose. Anyhow, I wanted to get the neck ready for Tru-Oil, and shaving down the heel somewhat made the transition to the body not so nice. So I pulled out the neck shaping jig, corrected the heel with files, and redid the grit steps (180, 240, 380, 600 + grain raising, 800 + grain raising) also inducing a bit more flat on the back of the neck. Finished neck, only Tru-Oil to go! (The tape is there for me to avoid sanding rosewood and ruin my maple *again*). I had some time left on the clock so I could get disappointed that: - I can't use my pickup templates. I have to do "sharp" corners and I wanted to have the 1/4" bit 1/4" shank ride on the acrylic to do it but bad idea. The acrylic melts. Good that we have a laser cutter, I'll cut something in MDF next time. - I don't have a rebating bit to fix up my electronic cavity. Gotta order one. I also could work with what I had on the body. Which means: - Back of the body 45° carves all around: - arm carve similarly: - Recessed switchcraft jack. This one I like to do "aligned" with the control cavity, not 90° to the body edge. I don't know why, but my Yamaha RGX A2 has it and I love it. Details but it's my guitar so I do what I want. After that, I was all out of thing to do without templates or correct bits. So I cleaned up and went home. Where I couldn't resist a first coat of Tru Oil. Before: After: While the neck flame is starting to pop, I swear the contrast at the scarf joint will be the death of me. Hoh well. More tru oil to do, and an Amazon order for a rebating bit and I will be good for when I come back from vacations! (Also I am getting a new amp tomorrow, Hughes and Kettner Grandmeister 40... let's see how I like it).

A very productive day! One might say it may be related to my wife and kids being away for two days. I started off by putting some side dots. I ordered 3mm diameter Luminlays ages ago which may be overkill with my 4.x thick fretboard but who cares, they glow! First you drill Then you glue and hammer and cut Then you sand down Since I was doing that, I though I would add the bevel too. I went with 25° since I always found the classical 35° a tad narrow for seven strings with jumbo frets. I of course went a bit "into" the fretboard for comfort. I like it a lot. And now there was no pushing it away anymore. I had to do it. Fretwork! With blue tape. A shoddy fret slotting work makes for a long leveling session. I did put a guide in the form of a centerline along the tape. Easier to stay on track when sanding. As you can see, some frets were really seated badly. Took me a long time to level them all (using 320 grit). When I knew I was down to 2 or 3 really high frets, I "spot leveled" to avoid losing too much height anywhere else. Once the fret rocker told me I was good to go, I used the beam again, the rocker to check again and moved on. I wanted to add a taper after the 12th fret, so I taped the 12th fret, half of my sanding beam, and went to town. It looks pretty extreme, but it's not too bad really. The fret rocker says go, so... crowning time! One down, 23 to go. Thank god for good tools. And done! It wasn't smooth sailing due to some frets being wonky. It's easy enough crowning a fret entirely, but focusing on parts of it is a pain. I somewhat managed, and the fret rocker agreed with me on almost everything. I did a small mistake and went a bit hard on the 3rd fret, low strings side which now sits a touch too low. I am sad, but not too bothered. I usually have a rather high action on the low strings so I shouldn't feel it. I am bummed that I can't claim my first fretting job was spotless Hoh yeah and I sanded the shit out of them after doing the fret dress (no pictures of that cause... why?). 400, 600, 800 grit on the side and then 1000, 1200, 1500 and 2000 on the entire fret. I also did a few passes with the finger wrapped in sandpaper on the side to really have this glass smooth feeling. I am happy with the results, it's better than my prestiges and on par with my custom guitars. Too bad it's only the very end of the frets The only things left to do on the neck beside Tru Oil is polishing the frets with Autosol (I'll do it during assembly), and putting inserts in it, which requires matching it with the body perfectly. So I moved on to the body to prepare for it, after checking that the neck (when fully seated) perfectly aligns with the centerline of the body. I will have to double check the neck angle and action height before I position the bridge, but at least I can work on the body in peace now. So I did that: With no blowout because I tapped some MDF (yea, I am learning). And in the ferrule goes! (With around 1mm recess to have something for sanding). Tomorrow I should have time to finalize the body routing and neck angle. Let's see. Overall I am happy with today because I consider my first fret job a success - the only issue is a slightly low fret and I know why. It just took ages because my initial fret slotting job was really subpar. There are a few cosmetic issues that I may or may not fix on the fretboard due to me not being very comfortable today in the workshop (someone almost caused a fire) but I am tempted to call it "character". We'll see. Kinda exited to be nearing actual assembly!

Checked again and again. I have a few that are what I would assume to be 0.2 or 0.3 mm off on the very end on one side, the other side being generally in point. Nothing the eye can pick up,and likely nothing the ear will pick up taking into account fingers pressing etc. So not too fussed.

I was initially looking into the miter box but I'm not doing that kind of cash on one. I may do one myself in the future, or just go the CnC route fully. Maybe I will also try slotting on the rough board. Learning by doing! I will likely train on softer wood indeed. Thinking about it, I think I simply pressed to hard which induced wobble and didn't let the saw follow its own cut enough, hence some wide spots. I may also have one fret not perfectly parallel but unless you know it's there you basically don't see it. I will though... Damnit

Well, big day yesterday and some interesting progress. Not all great but I am used to it now. It was fretting day, meaning marking, cutting, slotting, sanding and quite some fixing of mistakes. Behold the marking jig: (Yes that's along the centerline, and the 60cm scale is graduated in half mm). That was the easy bit. The not so fun bit was making it all square. I started with a pencil and redid it with a marking knife. So far, amazingly, no mistakes. Everything was sub 0.5mm accuracy which I consider good enough for a first go. Honestly, beyond that, I need a different marking strategy or better eyes. The main "what the fuck am I doing" part came next. I took out the fretting saw and did a few tries on scrap. This didn't go well. I did a few more tries and seemed to find a groove (haha pun). So I just went for it. As you can see, I ripped once, and the saw "wobbled" quite a bit. I wasn't terribly happy but already had an idea in mind how to fix it. So I went on, trying to get a better technique. I "think" I got it now, but it's far from perfect. The devil is in the little things and I can't really pin point why the slot sometimes was too wide, to the point where I could push in a fret with my finger, and sometimes it was just perfect. I am using the right size fret saw, and a depth stop (bit shy of 3mm for a 1.7mm tang if that's any indication). Anyhow, this is how it looked once I was done: A good eye will see some irregularities in slot width and overall consistency. As some frets were definitely going to be too lose, I went for surgery. Superglue and wood dust. Which required a rerun on the radius jig to smooth things out: And a recut of the fret slots. All in all, much better, but not perfect. I still had a couple of not quite tight enough ends. I decided to move forward and to fix during and post fretting with CA glue. So yeah, frets. This are regular nickel silver, SS frets scared me for a first job. First one going in: MORE FRETS. For some, I tried to prefil the slot with CA glue and then put it in but yeah, wasn't feeling it. Beveled the sides almost flush to 90°: At that stage, I had a couple of not-snugh-enough-for-my-liking fret ends and you could see slots. So I filled the slots with CA glue while pressing down on the fret firmly. Capillary action did the rest, and I think most of my frets are glued nicely. Towards the end of the slot filling, I dropped some rosewood dust on top; And I just had to sand everything very flush with first a diamond file at 90° (that I don't really like) and then with a sanding beam with 240 grit. This option I liked a lot, better control and I could do a slight round over for comfort. Happy with the end result, both look and feel. Obviously the actual bevel is still missing, and I am pondering if I will it before or after leveling. (There was up to 1mm of space between tang and slot bottom which is now filled). So yeah, frets are in! I checked everything first with a thickness gauge, and everything is seated less than 0.1mm from the fretboard generally. With a good fret rocker, there are obviously some high spots. Only 2 or 3 half frets are "really high" and will require actual work I think. So not too bad. Most importantly, it seems all frets are now seated and sealed in properly so there shouldn't be any movement. And as a bonus: 24h later, the neck is still straight as an arrow (thanks carbon rods!). I also marked the side dots positions and called it a day. All in all: - I can actually mark fret positions and use a marking knife (yay me) - I have no clue how to use a fretting saw properly. I think I pushed down too hard which caused it to wobble, but not doing it seems to require more strokes which leads to potentially broader cut? I am confused. - My hammering technique isn't on point either. Probably hitting too hard, had quite a lot of spring back. Going at it more softly yielded better results. - I am decent at fixing mistakes, which is a plus. - For my next builds, chances are high that I will outsource or CnC this. It's not really fun and unless I find a really awesome explanation of how to actually use a fretting saw, I am not sure how to make progress on that. Next stop: side dots, leveling, beveling, dressing. likely early next week.

Are you happy with those inserts? They seem pretty good on paper. And I think I will do all "dry" and just put a micro drop of very low viscosity CA glue on the side of the insert just for safety.

Hey I'd rather have you tell me something I already read about rather than make a mistake, so all good haha. Not sure how TITEBOND behaves under a bit of heating though, would hate to have the insert glued only half way in...

Microscopic update tonight. My regular workshop had a CnC introduction course scheduled so I attended. I will give it a try for the back plate (and some name plates for our door I suppose!) and maybe for my next fretboard. Let's see. In the meanwhile, practice makes perfect. Also, and right after the course, it was our weekly "open doors". I wanted to hang around this time and try to help while doing a few random things. And funnily enough, this time a guy showed up (also a french guy lost in Germany what the hell) and he wanted to do a cutting board from a piece of maple. Funnily enough, it was some wild and awesome figured maple. He probably had enough to make like 50 headstock veneers of 3-4A flamed maple. I even showed him how to reveal it. But no, he insisted on doing a cutting board with end grain up. Hoh well. I should have bought it straight from him. I helped it to do a kind of mosaic board, he was happy, got the membership, now I'm +1 For my guitar, I could try out a few things when I wasn't making sure the guy still had 10 fingers: - First, I drilled some scrap swamp ash with a Forstner bit to try out the neck ferrule fit. 15 mm Forstner + 14 mm ferrule = not very tight but that's not the goal of the ferrule. Good enough for me. Drilling with a brad point the screw hole was easy to do perfectly centered afterwards so I will keep this workflow for the actual body. - Second, on the same scrap of swamp ash, I drilled for the ferrules (8mm) and used a step bit (to 10 mm) to recess them. Worked flawlessly. Won't even need glue, the wood grips it well enough. I will just have to make sure the alignment of all ferrules is perfect at the back of the actual body but I will use the "holding plate with a pin" trick for this. - And lastly, a part that scared me: inserts in the neck. I bought some very reputable german hardwood inserts that should be exactly what I need (Rampa SKD30). Took a scrap of maple, same grain direction as my neck but significantly thinner (and without fretboard). I wanted to see if drilling to specs and screwing the insert in would split the wood. Drilled two pilot holes at the exact spots where it will happen in the neck and I could screw the inserts in no problem. Friction was the actual issue (blades cutting the wood, the inserts were even hot when removed so I screwed too fast) more so than the insert trying to push wood aside. So I think I will go with an inner diameter of 9mm, as per specs. Likely with either some beeswax produced by a friend of mine to alleviate the friction or with titebond as lubricant turning into glue. But it looks promising. In addition, I might use a clamp orthogonaly to the fibers as a safety neck + as a stabiliser during drilling and screwing. Hoh, and it recessed perfectly (those inserts are sold as "auto recessing").

My plan was to mark everything with a pencil, double check with my transparent acrylic template that I haven't messed up, and then go over it again with a marking knife to make sure and prepare for the saw. I don't trust myself to get it right straight away. Nor getting it straight right away but that is more age related. I am basically planning on doing this, although with way less self confidence and less puns: I bought a yoshiharu marking knife off amazon and it seems good enough for me: Thanks for the insights!

Had a good evening yesterday! I have to say, I am extremely satisfied with how it went. Obviously, I was slow as hell but I learned a lot and didn't do any (significant) mistake. It was all neck work and since it's what I'll be feeling when playing I didn't want to rush it. First item of the day was to mark the neck heel and sculpt it. I wanted to try some different tools, and some different approaches. I think I figured out "my" process better - which includes rough rasps, gasp! - even though I am sure it will change with time. I did the neck heel in half the time it took me to do the volute. I also learned that it doesn't have to be perfect at that stage, just "good". Sandpaper at the later stages will do the actual neat stuff. (Note the dent that was almost 1mm deep... had to remove this one later). The volute also got a second pass, I wasn't happy with its position and size. Moved it back (which ended up making it slimmer) a tad. Wanted to take a break from sculpting so I finalized the radius. I reused my jig and did 120, 180, 240, 320, 400, 600, 800, 1000, 1200 and 1500 grit. Radius seems on point, fretboard seems as flat as it gets, and I'm down to 0.2mm accuracy on the thickness on each corner. Happy with it - at least happy enough to move forward. Went from this (120): To this (1500, note the slight mirror effect): It feels *amazing*. Smooth as a baby's butt. With frets on and oiled I'm sure I'll have a good time. I also did the headstock veneer the same way and as planned, the headstock is slightly lighter for contrast. Both pieces have a very nice grain that should pop out more once oiled. The naphta test I did turned out great. The next stage was the final shaping of the neck. Built a small support to help me with it, but since the facetting went well, it was mostly straight forward. The general aim was to have a "flat C" or "Modern C" or "Cish to Dish". So queue a lot of sanding with 120, and a lot of checking of low and high spot. Took some time, but got a nice routine going, down to the last high spot: Some more 120 grit and elbow grease, and I managed to hit the mark (self designed laser cut acrylic guides): Shape is on point! I moved then to 220 and 320. For hard maple, I will probably go to 400, raise the grain, 600, raise again, but stopping at 320 before I do the fretwork gives me a bit of buffer in case I put a micro dent in it (which I seem to have done when putting the neck away, oops). Anyhow, after a thorough 320 on all the maple, I am done to precisely 21.1 mm 1st fret and 23.1mm 12th fret. 0.1mm more than I wanted. Hoh well Interestingly enough, and even without naphta, the proper lightning seems to show that I have a very consistent flammy pattern all throughout the neck. I will do my best with sanding to make the tru oil reveal it permanently. The only disappointment so far is that the back of the headstock, which has a scarf joint "in the middle", has a pretty obvious grain pattern change. Nothing dramatic, but (hindsight 20/20), I should have done a back veneer. Maybe I still will, I'll look into it. I also couldn't help myself and redid a test fit with the new carve: The neck joint isn't as tight as it could be sadly, but for a bolt on, I'll survive. The overall shapes flow well together, and I have some room to lower the heel for action still. Feels weirdly good to have a finished neck shape in hand! Kinda proud of myself though, great feeling to end up with this when I remember starting with a few chunks of wood. Next stop: fret slotting (bought a yellow lead pencil for this... regular lead pencil on rosewood isn't fun) and fretting! I will do a test run on a rosewood scrap first but I am sure slow and steady wins the race again.

All around good ideas. So far, I have been using spare wooden handles of different sizes onto which I put sandpaper as a make-do round rasp. Works decently but ouch my fingers

Great link. Thanks a lot! So far I'm using "Pferd" fine files which are good but I might spend a bit more for rougher stuff. Edit: holy spaghetti actually took a deep dive in that website and I'm a sucker for nice tools... This is crazy

I looked at a plaster rasp but they are directional, which I am not a big fan of. Currently I seem to be missing a round rasp / file that is somewhere in grit between fine and coarse. Or more exactly, the skills to use them properly. And regarding my radius, in the end, I don't really mind. It could very well be the wood. But I place more faith in my beam (good brand I trust) than my gauges (Thomann cheapest option, 10€ for 10 gauges). My favorite 7 neck has a 18" radius, I wanted to go with a 17" for this one but if I'm slightly off big being bigger (but still perfectly round), I'll roll with it. Just a feeling I don't like to be done with a tool and your control still tells you that you are off. It "might" be that my sandpaper wasn't perfectly flatly taped to the beam, so I will do I last pass with 120 next time with fresh sandpaper etc to be sure I'm on point before moving on to other grits. Right now, I just can't wait to get back in the shop and finish neck shaping really.

Slow progress is still progress, right? Yesterday I tackled 2 things that made me anxious. First, I finalized the volute. I was scared of messing it up due to the "artistic" nature of it... no template, just a man, his tool and his wood. In the end, I think I did a good job by taking my time. Bonus point; I learned how to sharpen a chisel decently well. Started from: And after 2 hours of chisel / files / sandpaper / whatever I thought was a good idea: I think it turned out pretty well! It feels great to the touch - not perfect (the neck is still rough and needs sanding off the facets, so I will smoothen the transition then) but I haven't messed up, there is no dent or ding. And I feel MUCH more confident digging into wood - even if my tool selection is still abyssimal and facepalm worthy for anyone with a bit of wood knowledge. But I developed an aversion to rough files (how do you guys cope with the massive marks and wood tear they cause? I think I'll try to find the equivalent of a shinto but round if that ever exists). Anyhow, I have to sculpt the heel next. I did the marking already. However, I was so conservative when facetting the neck initially that I am left with a few centimeters to do that should have been gone already. Hindsight 20/20. (where the midline fades all the way to the actual heel is what should have been carved already...) I didn't want to sculpt again yesterday evening so I went to radiusing the fretboard. Now I read that "it can only be done properly with a team of 5 engineers and a 20 feet long radiusing beam CnC'd by the NASA using single strokes under a full moon", all the way to "2 tooth picks, a good hand and you have enough". I still wanted to do it well so I got a 8" radiusing beam and built a jig. The idea is to hold the neck in place, well centered, and you add guide walls for the radiusing beam to follow. This makes sure the centerline stays the highest point during radiusing and avoid wiggling left and right and rotating the beam. It should of course be well aligned and as flat as possible: After some strokes, it shows that it's pretty efficient: I did it alternating the beam direction, my guiding hands etc to make sure I was symmetrical. Also, checking progress with the white pencil + reference all along, as well as the edge thickness at each corner and the straightness with a straight edge. Progress... Not there yet... Almost... Done and checked with a leveling beam. We good! It's a mess though. Fun fact: there was a *very* slight middle hump in the middle of the fretboard. On the side, everything is perfect, but while sanding I could see a bulge disappearing faster. Also, my cheap radius references do not match 100% my radiusing beam. I am done radiusing with 120 grit - all the pencil goes away, and it's all round. But the reference touches the edges and leaves the slightest progressive gap around the fretboard. No biggie, I just think either my beam is closer to 18" or my reference to 16". As far as I can see, the fretboard is perfectly radiused for that 120 grit. This was much easier than I thought (and for the first time in this build, faster). Took less than 2 hours jig building included. I read some horror stories, but this went fine, so I have conserved almost all my fretboard thickness. Which gives me almost 1mm to remove from the back of the neck to fine tune the neck profile when sanding it. Very happy with that, as I wanted to slightly tune it for me. Next time: - Radiusing action until I reach 1000 grit (rosewood 1000 grit is the dream) - Heel carving (I have a few mm to remove at some point when adjusting neck height but this will be done with frets in) - Actual neck shape to finish to 400 grit as close to perfect as I can. So yeah, slow progress is still progress

The neck will be a bolt on (using inserts and machine screws). Since the neck and the body will receive tru-oil, the finish thickness should be minimal... I am hoping for good resonance of the entire guitar, I like feeling the instrument vibrate!

More carving! I spent quite some time on my CAD software to find how to cover for my mistake from last time. Turns out that after sanding, it won't be a mistake at all. So this time I went through with my facetting plan - the goalm was to have the facets finished and to start on the volute. So yeah, facets. And more facets. I really like the method, the only downside is the smaller the facet, the less obvious it is to see. But with a combination of Shinto, file, straight edge sanding and a cabinet scrapper, I ended up with straight and flat facets. At least for now. I was hoping my spindle sander would be there by now to make carving the volute easier but there was an issue. So I thought, hey, time to sculpt something by hand. I also wanted to slightly change the back of the headstock to make sure the tuners would sit flush. So queue a flat sanding block, some files, and a screwdriver handle with sandpaper on it. I think it turned out just fine for a first one, especially done by hand! Now I have the other side to do. I will do at it the same way. My neck is marked already for the final steps of the rough carving volute and heel side. Once this is roughly done, I will radius the fretboard, which will give me the proper thickness reference for the whole neck. Then I'll sand the neck properly to finalize the carve. Really happy with how it turned out. It's a flat C so to say. Or a D with shaved shoulders. The next order of the day was a crucial one - neck pocket. What I ended up doing was slightly reshaping the corners of the neck joint so it would match my template copier router bit. Then, I put the template on and got a forstner bit. Went to like 17 mm for what should be a 20mm deep pocket - I didn't want any bad looking hole in my pocket! Clean. Bit of sandpaper to clean up the sharp edges and it's mating time. Great fit. Not so tight that I can lift up the body with the neck, but I can feel the wood rubbing against wood when I'm putting it in (huehue). It's also 100% aligned with a tiny bit of wiggle room to readjust alignment if needed. Considering the treble side has like 2cm only holding the neck, I consider it as good as it can be for a first guitar. I will also be able to "center" pickups and bridge on the centerline perfectly. So yep, progress, no major failure, can't wait for next time and finish carving the neck and starting on the fretboard!

Quite some progress yesterday, some mistakes, learning curve type of session Started by working on the body. I wanted to have the final shape to be able to carry it around in my gigbag, and have scraps to try out the finish. Some bandsaw action later... And after smoothing out the edge by sanding, I took my router to it: Three small mistakes were done. One was a small chip, which will be routed out when I bevel anyway. Looks weird tho, I wonder if it wasn't something in the wood: Small tilting moment with the router, saved it and shouldn't show after beveling as well - it's inner lower horn anyway: And more tilting, this one being more subtle. I managed to smooth it out already so it's virtually invisible unless you take a square to it: The tilting could (should?) have been avoided with a stabilisation plate. Live and learn. I also took a scrap of MDF to try and route a neck pocket. It turned out a tad too wide, so I will have to play a trick with some tape. The issue is that my template copier bit has a bigger radius than my neck pocket corners... I might just slightly re-shape the neck corners, might be easier in the end. This is for next time. Now the big order of the day was shaping the neck. I used the facetting method, aiming for a "wide C" as I'm using a perfect C reference, but on a 7 string neck. For this, it's Shinto, leveling beam and cabinet scrapper time. Good thing those are my 3 favorite tools. Started by making the back of the neck flat: Drew my first facets: And went to town: It went very well, except for when I took the wrong side of the rasp for a bit. As you can see, there is a "dip" in the facet close to the first fret on the treble side of the neck. For the other side, I used masking tape as a reference and it went better, both faster and more accurate. Lesson learned. However, I am not sure how to proceed this time with a potential fix - it's the first actual mistake that I did that might require a fix. I think it's slightly too deep to just say "the next facet will take care of it", at least on the fretboard side. To be on the side of caution, I'm thinking of making a kind of maple paste: maple dust + glue (Titebond? low viscosity CA?), that I will reshape. If I end up sanding it all off, so be it. If not, I would have saved it... I'm not too bothered if it slightly alters the Tru Oil finish I will be going for around that spot. If anyone of you has a suggestion, I will gladly take it!

I kept thinking about what you said and how it made sense: So I sneaked in 2hours today to prepare for carving on friday by basically removing quite a bit of wood before I start facetting the neck. Which I started by routing the side of the fretboard: Which, luckily, revealed a quite perfect glue joint all around: I moved on the the bandsaw to remove a strip of neck, basically 1 or 2mm away from what would be the first "facet". Doesn't look like much but it's progress: Yes, this will have a volute because volutes rock. Since I was faster than I thought doing that, I also spent quite a bit of time with a file to take care of the nut slot (which is now straight, square, etc you name it) and the very end of the fretboard which will slightly overhang so can't be routed with the tools I have. I ended up with a neck ready to carve on Friday evening (hopefully with no twist): I really like how the fretboard is turning out. With some oil, there will be some nice contrast.

Haha thanks! It's just the way I do stuff... Due to my job, I just have a habit of researching, planning to the tiniest details, and take notes when doing stuff so I can learn and improve for next time. Would be perfect if wood wasn't "unpredictable" I also noticed a few "strips" of maple have been peeled off when I removed the masking tape. I might have to slightly sand the headstock down again, but I still have 1.5mm buffer for the tuner thickness so all good. Will do that at the very final stages before finishing. And from now on, I'm taping my shirt before I tape my guitar.

Yep, got the idea from the Crimson youtube. I look at those quite a bit, along with the Unquendor channel. On top of the advantages you mentioned, I felt preslotting a board requires locating pins and with truss rod + carbon fiber, I was scared I couldn't put them everywhere. Plus sawing in radiused wood is way easier than flat wood, especially when you don't have a jig for that (and they cost like 200€ what the hell). Anyhow, went back today to declamp everything with my son. He wanted to see the shop and "help" so he removed the quick-release clamps. He was proud and got a small piece of polished rosewood as a reward. I took the chance and cleaned up the side with a bandsaw, now I only have to make it flush with my router: I really like the look of this! The contrast between the two rosewood pieces comes mostly from the fact that the headstock is down to 400 grit, while the fretboard is at 240 grit and not cleaned up with Naphta yet. The sides are clean too: Although there might be a small spot where the glue was lacking. I might come back with dust + CA glue just for the looks. Let's wait until it's flush. (It's also a part where I cleaned up the excess glue with a chisel before drying as an experiment so really tough to tell). This is the only actual issue I can currently see: a tiny drop of glue making contact between the fretboard/neck and the truss rod head. I think I can take care of it with a nail and gentle hammering. Or simply turning the truss rod once to unglue it. I'm not stressing out just yet. Can't wait for the next session and move towards an actual neck. Radiusing jig is ready, neck shaping tools and methodology ready (facetting method ftw) and... I bought a used Triton spindle sander for very cheap to help with general sanding. The make or break part - that is actually making me anxious - will be the fret slotting. The rest can all be fixed...

Short but important day today, and all went well! Started by preparing the neck for the carbon fibers: Couple of drops of high viscosity glue at the bottom of the cavity, and I can drop the carbon rods right in: I added some low viscosity CA glue all around so the carbon rod would stay well put in place. They were both already very snug but now they won't move (especially considering they'll see a layer of wood glue on top). They sit very slightly recessed from the neck. So I guess my second "truss rod" jig is much better. I slightly sanded the neck to make 100% sure I have a perfectly flat surface down to 320 grit. Cleaned it up, 2 drops of silicon in the truss rod channel, and dropped the truss rod in its cavity with a few teflon wraps. Beautiful. Snug and very slightly recessed. Forgot to take pictures but I spent some time sanding the fretboard blank I have to 400 both sides and took my sweet time to decide how I would cut the fretboard. In the end, I think I made a nice decision... And did the cut. I also prepared a board to clamp with 2 layers of tape to make sure the borders of the fretboard would be tightly clamped all along the side. Cleaned everything up with Naphta, taped up the truss rod, applied way too much glue, put a few grains of salt, removed some glue, removed the tape, dropped the fretboard in place and IT'S CLAMPING TIME BABY (note to self: should have bought more clamps during Prime Days). Judging from the squeeze out, I am getting better at gauging how much glue I need. Could have been very slightly more but I am getting there: Yes, I am glueing the fretboard non-radiused and non-slotted. I don't have a miter jig, I don't have access to the CNC (yet, will do for the second guitar), and it feels more logical to me to radius then slot on an already glued fretboard. The only part I had to pay attention too right now was to square the nut side of the fretboard and carefully locate it - which was easy thanks to a few layers of masking tape masquerading as a rest when dropping the board for glueing (2 birds with one stone: I removed it and now have 0 clean up to do nut side). So yeah... watch me fail at slotting next. Anyway, since this went better than expected and I had some time left on the clock, I did this: Fret bevel file holder. I bought a diamond file, and just did the holder with inserts at 90°, and 15-25-35°. Will probably do 25° on that build, since it's a 7 string with jumbo frets and I need room to mess up the fret dressing anyway. Might update tomorrow after declamping!

Good evening you marvelous people! I am in a good mood because I just had a very productive evening with some major progress, some learning experience and sanding dust in my eyes. I decided to start the day by redoing my truss rod jig with thicker MDF and a very slightly narrower channel to avoid any lateral movement of the router. Good news: took me a third of the time it took me for the first one. Also, Festool jigsaws are fucking scary. So I prepared a carbon fiber at the proper length (425mm, going from the body to just below the nut): After a few struggles (should have made the window smaller for increased stability, so v3 incoming for the truss rod jig next build), carbon fiber channel 1 is in: Properly tight, had to lightly sand the sides to not have to hammer the carbon reinforcement in. The second one was slightly more eventful but ended up just as good: Great success! But I am not done for the night. I decided to push all the way to routing the neck and shaping the headstock. Kinda got scared because the bandsaw was drifing like mad and it was tough holding a line... I used a back sacrifical plate but still had a small amount of tear. Will be hidden by the mechanic 99%. I had to finess while finalizing the headstock shape. I didn't truss my large router to not wobble, so I took my template, put a layer of tape around it: And went to my best friend (along with files, sandpaper etc but this actually did most of the job). The trick was to sand until I saw blue come off: I routed the neck shape the proper way though. Notice the mamoth router bit. I love it. (I also used a regular template copier one). Well, for the first time, I have something that resembles a guitar part: All in all, a good day. Made good progress (at least visually) and got to know some tools better, including my router. I made a few mistakes, but nothing major, and learning experiences anyway. Small tear when drilling mechanics, a very small bobble in 2 spots when routing the neck (so small they will be gone when neck shaping), and a drop of superglue was misplaced between the masking tape and ended on the neck (will be covered by the fretboard, I just have to sand a bit again). What I didn't mention obviously was quite a bit of sanding, including the headstock. I wanted it to be a bit south of 14mm thickness to have it just a tad light because the body will be thin. I worked on the backside of the volute too, but I might have to keep removing some once the fretboard is on and to make sure mechanics fit fine. We'll see once the fretboard is radiused. The only thing that haunts me are the "stains" on different woods after sanding. Maple dust in rosewood pores, and vice versa. How do you guys get rid of that? Naphta? Anyway, next time, fretboard rough cut and glueing. I'll also pass by the carpenter closeby to shave a bit off the body and ensure it's flat.