Donut Man

I opened it up, and it is indeed broken, right at the 12th fret. I'm wondering if it is remotely possible to glue+clamp it and get a remotely usable fretboard, but It might cause intonation issues later down the line. Like I said, I don't have access to a decent camera until next week, so Its just my out-of-focus phone camera shots again.

ARGH!!!!! I bought this slotted Ebony board off Simo on here, and ROYAL MAIL BROKE IT!! I seriously can't express how angry I am right now, hopefully Simo will help me sort it all out. I'm not going to open the package of post pictures, since I might be more successful with an insurance claim if the package is unopened, but there is a clear flex in the package and I'm pretty sure a single piece of Ebony can't bend over 20 degrees at one point. I'm really hoping this was an elaborate late April Fools joke, and the real thing is coming soon......

Personally, I'm really looking forward to the neck shaping, since it will be when I can personally fit the guitar to my hands, lets hope my vision isn't ruined by the fact that It will also be my first time ever using a spokeshave I'm still slightly wary of using my router, because I seem to have a constant fear of router bits breaking and hurting me. Even though I've used one extensively for various projects. Maybe I have router-phobia or something.

When your routing and test fitting a truss rod cavity, remember to take the truss rod out again before you start routing. I realised just before I ran my router into the end of the truss rod and stopped, phew......

I don't plan on doing a scarf joint, I'm just going to cut the headstock angle and carve a volute. Since I'm trying to keep this build as simple as possible. The blank isn't thick enough for the end of the headstock though, so I might have to glue some wood on the end, so I guess it could be considered a mini-scarf joint.

After hand sawing, the side I started on was not bad actually, just need to take it down a little with a sander and plane Lets have a look at the other side: DOH!!! I guess I overcompensated and went to the other side Some belt sander and Orbital sander later : I'm going to finish smoothing it out tomorrow, as well as carving out some of the back of the neck, so the FB is easier to glue on.

Got the truss rod channel routed today I realised that my jigsaw isn't big enough to cut through 75mm of neck, so I've decided to hand saw it tonight, Am I crazy? The guy in the neck building tutorial did it, so I guess I can too..... I'm also going to have to remove over half the thickness of the neck with a plane, handsaw and spokeshave. Looks like my arm is going to hurt. When routing the adjustment recess for the truss rod, I noticed that whenever I switched to the bigger router bit (1/2" as opposed to 6mm) I started to get a lot of burning, whereas with the smaller bit, there was no burning. I wasn't taking that much wood off, and I was going pretty slowly, should I turn the speed up or down or do something else?

Little update: Some router bits arrived today Truss rod will probably come tomorrow Fretboard will come if/when I buy one from Simo

Are you still doing these? If so can you do a 27" slotted ebony board shipped to the UK?

Would you happen to know how much postage to the UK will cost? I need to work out if the total for a 27" slotted ebony board is going to be enough to make me pay tax and customs, because if it did, then it might be cheaper for me to get the board somewhere within the EU.

Thanks for clearing all that up for me. The reason I don't want to make a preamp is because I find myself slightly incompetent at soldering and want an "easy way out", maybe using a few pre assembled components. And yet I don't want to pay £100 for a 6 string sustainer kit, or more trying to track down a 7 string Fernandes, to cannibalise the 7 string sustainer - Bad combination, I know...... So basically, if I can't build a F-R myself, I just need to find an audio amp that has an input buffer? Also, as a slightly unrelated question - Is the impedence problem you described similar to what people experience when they try to mix piezo pickups and magnetic pickups without a "buffer" preamp? EDIT: Another quick question, Galaga_Mike mentions in his "make your own sustainer" guide that the Ruby doesn't have enough gain for lower output pickups. How low output is he talking here? PAF low? or higher? The reason I ask is, I play metal, and all of my pickups are pretty high output humbuckers, so I'm wondering if I will actually have a problem using the Ruby circuit.

Ah, the ol' sustainer thread, I remember I almost convinced myself to try and build one 100 pages back, which I subsequently gave up Can I just ask a few quick (and probably stupid) questions: 1. Why do I need a preamp for the sustainer circuit? Don't preamps just shape the tone? Is it possible make a working sustainer with just a power amp? 2. If I can bring myself to try and build the Fetzer-Ruby circuit, should I use plain board with holes in or board with copper strips on? 3. What is the view on driver placement? Neck position? Middle position? Or does it not matter that much as long as it is close to the strings. I'd like to read the whole thread, but 200 pages scares me even more than the 100 last time I checked, so please forgive the noob questions.

Yeah, I bought some clamps and that plane at Machinemart. I couldn't justify spending £10 each on clamps at B&Q/Wickes, so I just bought a few and then borrowed a few from a neighbour. I've bought a lot of stuff from CH guitars over the last 2 years actually, bass pickups, tuners and some other bits for my last build, and a truss rod for this one. The wilkinson bass tuners were awful though, maybe I just got some bad ones, but then again for around £10 I didn't really complain. I've also discovered that using hand tools is a lot more fun than power tools, And about the newspapers......my dad gets sent them for free, And since we moved house, they screwed up and now we get two copies per day. So lots of scrap paper for me I'm in Sheffield. That reminds me, need to fill out my profile.

Heh, I build in my conservatory, its warmer and less windy, and since the garage is full of stuff. What precautions should I be taking to avoid chipout? Also, I assume that by an extension of this, I can also plane the fretboard sides down further (or the neck sides less) to leave a channel for binding? When I said shaping the neck, I actually meant tapering the sides to that of the fretboard, but I assume if I can taper a fretboard by hand, then I can also do the neck?

1. Is is possible to taper an Ebony or Flame maple fretboard with handtools? Maybe with sandpaper/sander and a plane? 2. Providing I can end up with a tapered fretboard, is it possible to shape the neck without a router also? ie. maybe using a spokeshave and a plane to get it level with the pre-tapered fretboard? 3. Does anyone in the UK sell pre-tapered and slotted Ebony or Maple fretboards? (I know David Dyke Luthier Supplies does them slotted, but I don't know if he can taper them, anyone know?) If all else fails I guess I'll just taper everything with my router, its just that I dislike using routers in general, and try to avoid it as much as possible.

I tried honing the blades with the method you linked - it works a lot better now. Thanks. The Wet and Dry doesn't stick to the glass when wet though, it just curls up, so I had to hold/tape it down. Planed down the fretboard area of the neck, and learned a new lesson: Wipe the excess glue off when you glue neck splices! I spent more time sanding and scraping the glue off then I actually did planing the wood

Ahh, I see. Do I have to use a piece of glass? Or can I use my oilstone? I need to order a truss rod today, the ones at Luthiersupplies (according to the guy on the phone) require a huge headstock adjustment recess. So I was looking at these http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Aucoustic-and-electr...7QQcmdZViewItem The guy has 3 double action rods available, The number 7 one looks promising, They are slightly cheaper than the other ones I've seen, and I don't know if this would reflect the quality significantly. Ideally I'd like a Stewmac Hot Rod, but the shipping costs about the same as the rod itself, add to that the tax and customs, and it would be enough to buy three over here.

Glued up part of the neck a few mins ago.

It was just a bass body. I bought a neck. Its OK, I'm really a bassist, I just dabble in guitar and pretend I can play

I've got an oilstone lying around, but I have no idea how to use it. I assume you have to put some sort of oil on it as the name suggests? What does fettling? Does it mean levelling the base of the plane? I'm dubious of the quality of that plane, since it was pretty cheap. But its actually my first time using a hand plane anyway, so my technique will probably have more effect than the quality of the plane I was originally planning on recessing the TOM, rather than angling the neck, because it seems slightly easier. And more importantly, none of my other guitars or basses have angled necks, and I've found angled necks mess with my technique slightly. After just procuring some more clamps of a friend, I need to decide how to arrange the 3 neck laminates. Should I flip the middle one over so it's less likely to warp? Melvyn Hiscock's book says its pointless, but other people have told me to do it. Also, is is OK to glue two splices together first, and then the third one later to minimise the chance of slippage? or is it better to do all three with the veneers at once. As for the flooring, my dad installed it. Its not very flat in some places, but I've only noticed that because I put my neck laminates on it. The whole ground floor used to have this horrible 70s carpet in it when we first moved in. And the carpet was fixed in place by these metal hooks that were nailed to the skirting every inch or so. And ran all the way around the house. It was pain to remove, and I think we were just too lazy after that to replace the skirting.

Update! Finally, this is getting somewhere. Got all the maple ripped into neck laminates, I'm going to glue them once I acquire some more clamps off a neighbor/friend (tonight hopefully)

Hey guys, I've been lurking around here for a while, since I did my previous (first) build, which was just a bass. I've used the fact that I had some wood left over from that build as an excuse to start this one Specs: Maple neck (3 piece) 27" scale (If I can get a ebony fretboard slotted in this scale, if not, then 25.5") Sapele (Mahogany) wings Blank Ebony board (hopefully with board+headstock binding) Jackson King V shape String through body bridge Currently undecided on whether to do a reverse headstock Undecided on finish also I was messing around with the headstock design today, I'm having serious trouble coming up with a headstock design that is pointy (corresponding with the body shape) and not a direct ESP/Jackson copy. They are both ESP/Jackson influenced but with less extreme string to tuner angles. They look very like the originals if your not paying attention, the only wa to tell the difference is to overlay them and compare the angles (which are actually very different). I think I still need to refine them a little so they look more original I'd really prefer a 7-in-line headstock, I find 3+4 configurations slightly confusing sometimes, and also tuners will be a pain to buy. Comments/suggestions for the headstock?

Might I suggest changing the name? FAP could give the wrong impression http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=fap

Pretty cool. I love the figure of that maple. What kind of neck are you using?

Yes, Ive seen/read both of those. The tutorial is very helpful, but it isnt very detailed. and the Video is the same.