Asdrael

I love your take on the explorer in the first few posts - especially the lower horn. Also, that piece of raw maple is crazy. Great looking stuff!

Thanks for the tips! Given that I have a guitar like that (the truss rod is virtually not required for my strings and tuning), I was afraid of how common this issue could be with carbon added. So I wanted to be extra careful and be 100% sure I would have no rattle. Mind you, as it's probably obvious by now, I have no idea what I'm doing so I try to anticipate every single issue that might arise - on top of fixing my mistakes I'm not sure it's the right approach, but I try to be as close to 100% happy with what I'm doing before moving on to the next step. I don't want to say "beh good enough"... So I'm taking my sweet time building and learning. You guys advices make it even more worth it.

Yep. I tried with tape on the side (I don't have veneer handy here) but since it's would have required more than one layer, I was thinking it could rip out move too easily during ajustements and "clog" the truss rod. Hence why I sent with wrapping. As you say, all of it is a learning experience!

Well, some progress! Somehow... The 6mm router bit I got to try out the width of the truss rod channel was significantly too small. Couldn't put the truss rod at all in the cavity. So I took my 1/4" bit and I decided to route my truss rod channel on my actual neck. Queue putting the jig on, routing to depth, and switching the bit for a 10mm one for allen key access: Looks decent! I Just had to square up at the heel and widen slightly for the round bit at the front. Queue issue 1: this is significantly too wide overall. The truss rod, once dropped in, can move quite a bit. Well shit, it's all 0.5mm too wide. I must have not tighten the jig enough and it moved. The depth is on point though. Shit, I have to find a fix. Queue actual issue: my head is starting to spin, needles in the finger, strength fading, stomach swirling... welp, food poisoning from lunch. Had my girlfriend pick me up in a hurry so I could projectile vomit in my own toilets. Yay. Anyhow, I am feeling better now so I had to fix my mistake. I dropped by the hardware shop and bought some Teflon tape: That's one wrapped truss rod, 0.5mm wider! Now sits snuggly. But also a bit proud, since I also have to deepen the cavity slightly. Since I didn't want to reroute and risk widening the cavity even more, I got to get creative: Took a 6mm wide scrap, and taped some sandpaper on it: And it fits! After 15 minutes of careful sanding, I have now this: a perfectly flush truss rod, snug enough to not move and staying in place when I put the neck upside down. A drop of silicon at each end and it'll be perfect. Next stop: the 2 CF rods, which I will route after I redo my jig with more solid pieces. And hopefully, no vomiting that time.

Cheers. The carbon rods will get superglue medium viscosity along the sides, plus Titebond on top when the fretboard is clamped on. I am not worried about those in the slightest. For the truss rod, good points all around. In the end, I am more confident in my ability to add a few drops of silicon / a wrap of teflon tape / whatever to make a truss rod fit snuggly in a "perfectly routed channel" than in my ability to widen a 6mm channel to 6.20 while keeping it straight and clean. So that's how I will do it. The other major success of yesterday was that my family is happy for me to do that, more than I ever thought. So yay - my son wants to come watch me there so we'll make a wooden nameplate for his door together. He said "I am happy add is happy screwing things in a workshop"... little guy is convinced I spent 5 hours with a screwdriver apparently. Now if I could stop (day)dreaming about what I'll do next in the shop that would be great

Welp, just came back from my weekly allowance of time in the workshop. I am loving it. First order of the day was to cut/sand down the headstock veneer flush with the neck. After using the magical drum sander to take the bulk off, I struggled with a chisel, spent time sweating with a file, and remembered I had bought a scrapper. Which is now my favorite tool - tied with the shinto file. (Obviously not the final picture, more of an in progress picture.) Amazing how it turned out smooth, flush, and the headstock angle is nice and neat and straight. Really stupidly efficient tool for a sheet of metal. Next, I wanted to work on the truss rod issue. So I started by calibrating the truss rod jig I made. Start by somewhat putting a centerline of a sheet of MDF in the middle... Make a few holes with the router and move the jig slightly until they are perfectly on the line... And route a channel to make sure it's straight and perfectly centered: I am happy! First time using a router ever, so I got to know that tool. I had a close call once that got my heart racing (turning it on already in contact with a piece of wood and not griping it strongly enough) so I learned some. This is a 1/4" channel (6.31 mm caliper in hand). Truss rod in: My truss rod drops in smoothly and has the tiniest side wobble (I had to squint to see it move and I got 10/10 vision). However, the truss rod falls out when I flip the board upside down. Is this how it is supposed to be? Or should it be tighter? For reference, I have routed a 5mm channel for my 5mm carbon reinforcement to try out positioning on that scrap, and it is only very minimally tighter. (Also I made a mistake with the depth, note for future self: tighten the depth stop more). Until I decide if I go with this or widen a 6mm route, I decide to sand the neck blank a tad to prepare it further. And sanding means centerline and shape drawing - thanks again for the centerline tip @Bizman62 . I used a sewing thread and it worked a charm. Since I had some time left but was still undecided on the actuall truss rod route, I decided to work on the fretboard since my blank was a 10mm thick rough cut. I planned and sanded one side (the jointer we have works now yeeeaahh). Everything went well there, until I decided to thickness it. I made a carrier board with a head and a tail piece to avoid snipe. Everything was going well except those pieces were in MDF and I just discovered it clogs the thicknessing part of the sander - hard. So I solved that somehow by taking very light passes, like 0.5mm max. All was well, do a pass, see 6.9 mm thickness. I decide to do one more pass because I want a 6mm fretboard final product, so I am aiming to thickness close to that. Lower thickness by 0.5mm. The thicknesser shits out my board, perfectly flat, square, polished, whatever, but at 5.7 mm. What the heck. Either the scale is wrong, or the MDF pieces played tricks on me. In the end, I am not too sad. I learned to used the jointer/thicknesser more properly, to take smaller passes, and the board is still very usable. I am going for a 17" radius, so thickness on the sides (even on a 7 string), will be sufficient. The maple neck will just have to be a tad thicker which isn't too bad since I am using CF rods and I am scared of pocking through when neck shaping. I will try to minimally shave from the top when radiusing. If I have a 5.5mm max thickness in the middle, my 3D model tells me I'll be over 4mm on the very sides. Not dramatic at all. I might just have to rethink my side dots as I bought 3mm diameter ones in advance...

Thanks for the replies. I also live in Millimeterland but I didn't think about any wobble in the router to be honest, so it makes sense. I won't be using a fence as I have built a jig to go with my router (it's a Triton JOF, decided to treat myself and wanted something to take 12mm shafts too) so *hopefully* I will have something dead straight... I have a 1/4" bit that I had bought just for the truss rod but had second thoughts yesterday so I triple checked. that I will try out on a piece of scrap and see the fit. If it's not to my liking, I will get a 6mm bit and see where it takes me. At least the carbon fiber rods at exactly 5mm

Small question before I go ruining my neck. My truss rod has, apparently, a 6mm core but a plastic wrapping around it making it 6.2 or so mm wide squeezing the caliper on it (I have that https://shop.rall-online.net/epages/61511639.sf/sec7cdac98ad9/?ObjectPath=/Shops/61511639/Products/06010034 ). The caliper kinda bumps back to 6.25mm or so once I stop squeezing, I guess due to the plastic getting its shape back. I am confused: am I supposed to route a 6mm channel or a 1/4" channel? Even squeezing it with the caliper, I can't get its width to lower values. I know it's supposed to sit confortably tight, but I don't see myself squeezing 0.2mm in maple and still have a trussrod that can do its job. So... should I route a 6mm or a 1/4" route?

Thanks. Since my fretboard will be glued flat, I think I will use a flat block on top with one or 2 layers of masking tape on the sides for additional thickness + packaging foam. Seems to somewhat make sense to me. And for the headstock, your block idea makes total sense. I'll draw this way and then check with my plexiglass template if I have a good alignment. Cheers again!

Went back today to unclamp my gooey mess from yesterday. Got scared because the wax paper stuck hard, but then I realized I had used way too much glue. Removing the paper left me with something promising and every single side with excess glue. So I had to do what every noob builder does. Dig in to check the quality of the joint. I cut a bit off and sanding it with the belt sander just to get a quick glimpse... Queue the macro shot (veneer is 1.5mm thick at that stage). No visible glue joint! I did a much better job than with the scarf joint. I am happy with the progress. Now I have to clean up the nut area so it's flat, and I'll be able to route some channels.

Nice pieces of wood wonderfully put together. Hats off sir.

Thanks again for keeping up with my build and all the advice and feedback, much appreciated! I thought about putting some cushion or foam between the veneer and the clamping board, since (despite my best efforts) each glued side is probably not 100% flat. I couldn't think of something strong enough to push wood down and not be pushed back by the wood, while still being somewhat easy to sand down. Frankly I didn't think about packaging foam. I think I might use it for the next build. Any advice for glueing the fretboad? Hopefully it will be straight, and since the truss rod doesn't get glue, I was thinking of making a small route / arch in the middle of the clamping board to make sure the sides are nice and tight, and no glue line will be seen. Also, any tips on how to draw the centerline on the headstock perfectly aligned with the center line on the neck blank? This will be important since I have an inline headstock for string tension but I don't know how to do that. Cheers!

Well, after a fruitful discuss, I have conjugal authorization to go to the workshop once weekly for however many hours I want. So today I left work early and stayed there until 23:00. Mind you, I don't get much done each time because I'm so slow still... but at least I can enjoy myself. So today, I had a new best friend: I was planning on using this bad boy to thickness my headstock and start the volute shape. Which I did: I used this contraption to make sure the thickness was fine and to help with the volute: It worked somewhat, but the plate wasn't that stable (one thread of the screw holding it was lose). So I had a bit of a dip in my headstock close to the volute. I had to get the thickness a tad lower that I wanted by hand, and I fell in love with my Shinto rasp. Holy shit that stuff is awesome. Anyhow, after a bit of sweat, I ended up with an almost perfect headstock sanded down to 400 grit (+-0.5 mm). Which gave me the perfect setting to start working on the veneer. I sanded it down roughly to 2mm and finished it to 1.5mm thickness by hand, to 400 grit as well. Now it was just a matter of putting it in place, and this time putting actually recessed screws as guides for glueing. I was aiming at 14 to 15mm thickness as my tuners fit 13 to 16mm. Mission accomplished: so yeah, I put some glue and aligned the guides, screwed them down. Thought about my mistake not clamping the neck well enough... I made many mistakes today, but I learned a lot. Apparently I watched enough tutorials, videos etc and have enough common sense to get in the flow and not ask myself 'shit what do I do next again'. But I too often simply go for it to realize later that the tool was probably not the best. I need to be more careful - slow and steady wins to race. I am hoping my headstock cap joint will be nicer than the scarf joint. I guess I'll know that in a few days. Next stop - clean up, some sanding and truss rods / CF routes!

That was my thinking as well. Since I'm going with a headplate, I see no downsides to "my" way. I also read that since it's basically laminating the headstock, it's reinforced. Ultimately, I would like to go with a laminated neck that doesn't require a scarf joint but that would have been significantly more expensive. So a no-go for a first build for me. I have also been following your -impressive- build. I may dabble with more fanciness once I'm confident I have the basics more or less down. Hence why my build plan is ulra-basic. In a way tho, it's reassuring that someone of your caliber is still making some mistakes

I stand corrected. Thanks! I'm not too scared that this kind of joint will be solid *if* well made. I'm more scared of how well I'll do it But at least it won't be in the way and should be easier to repair.

I called it traditional because it's usually what you see in commercial instruments. I was just so afraid of having a bad joint that I couldn't sand down properly and feel up the neck that I went with one fully in the headstock, that I actually have never seen in a commercial electric guitar. Hoping my choice was the right one. Having bumps or uneveness right there is scary for me:

Yep. Learning as I do it! I do have a bit more than 1/16" to go through of extra material, so I think I'll be fine, especially since the sides will come off. Although in my case, I didn't go with a "traditional" scarf joint going from the headstock to the underside of the fretboard, but with a "reverse" scarf joint from the top / front side of the headstock to the backside / volute side of the headstock. It will allow me to hide it more, will be more easily fixable (I hope) in case something goes bad, and I will cut more of the sides off than with a regular scarf joint - plus quite frankly I always disliked how regular scarf joints look. And most importantly, I was afraid I could feel a bad joint at the back of the neck when playing given it's my first build... Time will tell how good that decision was.

Went back in today to check on my neck and take it back home. My precious hasn't moved, and the joint is still as I left it - no movement. Unclamping everything, I was left a bit disappointed. It's not as tight as I wanted it, but going in, I knew the very edges were not 100% flush and that the way I clamped it didn't allow for corrections on that. Still not bad. This is the worse offender though: there is a gap on that corner: I got scared so I grabbed a piece of paper to see how far in I could push it. This reassured me somewhat. As you can see, it cannot really go in. For reference, the pencil drawing is the headstock outline (+5 mm safety). That's also were the clamps were concentrated. So I am fairly confident the inside part, which was perfectly flat, is very nicely glued up. Now I am left with a 15mm thick headstock. +-2mm need to go so I can glue on my +-2mm headstock cap. I will work on the back of the headstock first to make it nice, and remove the rest from the top. This is going to be my friend for the next few sessions: I'll use it normally to flatten the front of the headstock and will be using a trick to thickness the headstock plate, back of the headstock and fretboard perfectly flat, parallel and stay consistent. (I just let it rip for a second on a scrap of wood and holy shit this thing rips. It's oscillating too, and almost perfectly flat. I set it up perfectly square to the cast iron plate and the wood scrap I ran on it barely even needed a bit of sanding to shine...).

Scarf joint glue up day! Went back to the workshop after a week of holidays in the sun eating too much. Decided to go ahead and glue the scarf joint and finish thicknessing once it's in place. Which turned out to be an even better idea that I thought due to some issues arising in the process... Placing the neck in position and aligning everything (after sanding to 400 grit and cleaning up with naphta) took a bit, I wanted to do it as well as I could to minimize the effert afterwards. So yeah, as you can see, the angle on the "headstock" and the "neck" pieces isn't 100% perfect so there will be some extra sanding and flattening to do once it's dried up and before putting the headstock veneer: I am not too bummed about that, I have plenty of material to work with still. To avoid slippage during glue up, I went with the holes + dowel approach. I had plenty of room, and I didn't like the screws I had at hand for the thickness I had left. Queue up mistake #2: I didn't use a pillar but a hand drill and one dowel was not that tight of a fit. I hope the glue up didn't move significantly. I think I will go with screws for my next build and forget the romanticism of using wood only. So I then did a "dry run" doing everything as if glue was present. Everything well went, so I opened my first ever wood glue bottle and just well, went for it. Titebond is much more gooey than I thought but judging from the squeeze out, I had enough and the joint seems to be of good enough quality (the bit of wood that seems not tight is actually only a slight angle deviation that I had after aligning the piece surfaces. The joint is tight and there is some squeeze out after tightening the clamps). What that picture hides is mistake 3 and 4. So mistake 3 is that I tried to use some MDF to spread the pressure, which didn't work out as well as I thought due to how I positioned them. I didn't think the pressure was sufficient. So a few minutes in, I had to open the clamps and reposition the MDF. Then, mistake 4 a few minutes later: I realized the size of the MDF I was using made it so however I was putting them, there would be a "weak point" in the joint. I decided to get rid of the MDF all together and only use the clamps as their heads cover 80% of the joint surface (and I placed the 20% not directly under pressure mostly where I know the wood will be carved away). Like my brother says: the only people that don't fail are the ones who don't try. And like I always tell my students: "try, fail, learn, repeat". Case in point. Also kinda scared that it's so early in my first build and I am already saying my next build will be better

Hey, conceptualizing is also a skill

If I can '"develop" a tool to make the job itself faster and more accurate, I will usually do so. At my job or my hobbies. So in that case, it made total sense - especially because it worked really well. You can even do a more sophisticated version with a hinge to set the angle if you need that (I will for now stick with my 10° so I just built a fixed one). I actually thought about that this afternoon, and you are right. It makes sense to glue to joint with 1mm safety on "each side" to correct for imperfections and small angle deviations. Then I'll plane to thickness to make sure all is straight and parallel. Can't wait to do it !

Went back to the communal workplace with a mission: prepare the scarf joint for glue up when I come back from holidays. But first things first: measure, mess up, measure again, get the CAD drawings back up, measure again because why not. After recalibrating the bandsaw again (who the hell messes with my setup each time), and a few runs on scraps to make sure the angle is correct, I'm putting my jig to good use and I'm going for it. While the cut was close to perfectly straight, the bandsaw blade probably made the worse noise I have ever heard. Reminded me of a vampire howling at sunrise. I think we need a new blade, that maple was a struggle. But hey, at least we are straight! Now it's just sanding so everything is smooth, straight, perfectly flat and orthogonal. I swear this square touches my wood more often than my girlfriend those days. Well, took me a while but the results aren't too bad. I finished it up with 400 grit which should be good for glueing up. As you can see, there are slight imperfections on the very sides due to me not tightening up the sandpaper on my block enough. I have approximately 1 mm from the very edge that is slightly more sanded. No biggie, this will disappear once I can the neck. Same for the two small "dents", they will go away once the neck profile is getting carved. Checking the "fit", I am happy with it. Now I need to thickness the headstock further down, I had left 2mm for "safety" to sand the glue sides straight. Since it went better than I thought, I have 1.8mm left to shave off. Probably will do with either a table belt sander, or a thicknesser. It should be 13mm final more or less, to which I'll add 2mm of headstock veneer. Also, bonus pic: There is some flame, yay! Happy with the day overall. I was apprehensive I wouldn't manage a proper cut, but it turned out well. I think sanding with a block larger than the piece was a good call, and my technique seems symmetrical enough that the end result is usable. Now onwards to a week of holidays, then it's a lot of thicknessing and glueing up that joint!

You are definitely right. Good advice right there. I bought some tools that I deemed really necessary (good rasps and files, fret saw, etc.) but planned on using the communal workshop tools for the more specific stuff until I find out what I like to buy it for myself, like hand planes. One of the two workshops I am using is in a sad state - jointer/thicknesser is dying, all the blades from hand planes are actually rusty, only the bandsaw was salvagable (but still dull). I ll be moving workshop as soon as I get the introduction and safety course in the new one, everything looks actually taken care of properly. Plus, they have a laser cutter, CNC and 3D printer so I should be able to pour some of my geekiness into my build(s).

Good news, bad news. Bad news: I spent 3h yesterday trying to straighten up and thickness a neck blank with hand planes (wooden, too small, not sharp) and / or a jointer/thicknesser that was badly setup, not sharp, and all around wonky. I didn't manage setting it up correctly and my technique was probably not the best. I almost ruined the blank. Good news: It was only *almost* and this morning, I located a furniture builder at literally a 1min walk from my place, I dropped by, and he jointed and thicknessed my neck blank absolutely perfectly to my desired thickness in around 3 minutes. The blank is as smooth as a baby's butt. He wanted no money for it but I insisted so he told me I could drop a few euros for his coworkers' coffee funds. He's a really cool guy so I might drop by again just to drop my body's thickness a few mm. Morale of the story: it's cool doing your own stuff but sometimes you have to hand it to the pros - especially when it has to do with heavy power tools that require maintenance and setup are out of your league.

Thanks guys! Since I know next to nothing about wood, I decided to go the overpriced route of buying from "tonewood" resellers. It's already cut more or less to size, dried, and the cut direction is mentioned. This time I shopped on https://shop.espen.de/en/ (I'm located in Germany) and I'm very happy with what I got. They just did a small mistake initially with my order and it was fixed without any issues. For the bandsaw, I also use a maker space / communal workshop. I am not sure I am allowed to actually set it up myself but I said fuck it and did it anyway when I was alone there. Honestly takes very little time, I followed Alex Snodgrass's advice. Now I have to set up the jointer/planner to make sure the neck blank is straight and flat on both sides. I'll be using the spindle sander trick to plan and thickness very small pieces like the fretboard and the headstock when the time comes, so that should be straight forward enough.