mattharris75

This tuner is from the right side, the direccion of the turn is the same than 3 and 4 strings Hipshot ultralight tuners are reversible, so he shouldn't have a problem.

That really does look beautiful.

Thanks. The fretboard came from member Erikbojerik, along with a bocote and a couple of bloodwood boards. Great looking stuff from Erik! One thing I noticed about the fretboard last night is that the nut slot is slightly too wide to fit a regular fender nut snugly. So, either I'll have to shim it or cut a new nut out of a wider piece of stock.

Finished the neck binding. The mitering of the end piece was a little tricky, but patience and a sharp chisel finally got me some acceptable results. Now just need to sand and scrape things a bit, and the neck will be ready to carve.

Love that pickguard. It's going to contrast nicely with the clean and simple look of the mahogany.

Looking good. How did you manage to route all that figured maple without getting any tearout?

I guess I'm the only one that's ever had a problem routing figured maple?...

I think the Gibson version looks awesome. The Epiphones....not so much. And yours looks great too, Metalhead.

Thanks, IPA. Seeing as this is my 5th build, I feel a bit foolish asking this question, but I need some help. Routing figured maple: what are the tricks? I've got to do a binding/purfling ledge in the body and am quite paranoid now, after a blowout trying to route the body to the template. I was attempting a climb cut when it happened. I don't feel particularly comfortable with that technique, it just doesn't feel safe, so I won't be doing it again. Obviously making many small passes is important. But what else? Faster or slower bit speed? Feed rate? People mention wetting down figured maple before planing, would this be a good idea before routing as well? Any help would be appreciated! Thanks guys!

I received the proper bearing for the binding router bit today and re-routed the binding ledge to the correct width. The purfling snugged up just right. So, I went ahead and chiseled the headstock end of the channel that I couldn't reach with the router and glued the binding and purfling in on the first side. I'll glue up the other side tomorrow and then miter the ends and glue on the cross pieces at the end of the fretboard this weekend. Not the greatest picture, but you get the idea.

Looks great! What colors/type of dye did you use on the burst?

Cut a small sliver of maple that fits the tearout perfectly and has relatively close matching grain, then glue it in with titebond. Problem solved.

If the joinery is good, the glue joints will not be any weaker than the rest of the wood. Make sure to use Titebond 1, or other similar alphatic resin glue.

It's going to be carved, and bound as well.

Thanks Chris! I measured everything out today and discovered the problem with my binding ledge. I used a .070 bearing for .080 binding. The purfling is .040, and consequently it was sitting on a .050 ledge. Unfortunately it appears I only have .070 and .090 bearings, so I'll have to order a .080. The shipping will cost me as much as the bearing! But at least it's an easy fix. On the other end of things, I made my first mistake of the build. I was attempting to route the body flush to the template and got some lovely tearout on the flame maple top. I ended up finishing things with a spindle sander just to be safe. Fortunately I should be able to patch it and route most of the patch away for the binding. The deepest area of the tearout is .130, and the binding/purfling will be .120, so it should be OK. Of course now I'm quite worried about my ability to successfully route the binding ledge in this maple.

Either trans red or trans black would look cool. I'd probably go with the trans black on this. And maybe try using a black grainfiller to make the grain stand out a bit more?

Use Z-Poxy finishing resin as your epoxy, as it's quite easy to sand.

But we didn't get the mandatory "every clamp in the shop on the fretboard" shot. Just a little teaser on the end. that picture was in post 34 lol Hah! True, I forgot that was in there. Guess that's what I get for listening to John.

I can't believe I forgot to take a neck clamp shot! Well, I have gotten a bit more done. Got the neck tapered and routed the binding and purfling ledges. I put the binding and purfling on just to test the fit, as you can see in the picture below. The binding is bloodwood and the purfling is black/white/black. I believe I may have used the wrong bearing for the binding as it's perhaps .010 too narrow, leaving a tiny gap between the binding and the purfling. Should be an easy fix, though. Once that's taken care of I'll clean up the end of the channels next to the headstock with a chisel and glue the binding/purfling on. I thought my neck blank would be wide enough for my headstock design without adding ears. I knew it would be a close call, but it was just a hair too narrow. I ended up modifying the headstock design a bit to fit, and I like it even better than the original. I've got it sanded down pretty close to final shape, I just need to finish blending it in to the rest of the neck.

Got the back of the neck thicknessed and rough cut the neck taper and the headstock. I'm going to put a slight taper on the back of the neck and route the final neck taper over the next week or so. Unfortunately I'll be out of town Saturday, so I may not be able to get that stuff done until the following weekend. If you're wondering what the reason for the tape is, I like to draw my lines on the tape as it's easier to see than lines directly on the wood. And the obligatory 'feet shot'. BTW, that's an 18" ruler next to it, which gives you a sense of scale.

With the backstrap glued on and most of the excess trimmed off the sides of the headplate/backstrap. Looks great, going to be awesome once it's carved. I'm very happy with my first foray into wood bending! Next up, safe-t-planing the back of the neck to final thickness and tapering the sides of the neck.

Not to be rude, but you have been a member here since 2004, have about 300 posts, and are asking these questions? Regardless, I imagine you'll find the answers to your questions with a quick search or checking out some of the tutorials. The bottom line is, there's no concrete answers, but you can find a lot of good recommendations by checking out those things. Finishing is often a matter of playing it by ear, especially when you haven't done a lot of it.

Well, I had hoped to accomplish quite a bit on the neck this weekend, but my sciatic nerve got the best of me. So I lost all day Saturday. Sucks getting old. I did, however, get the headplate glued on and then pulled out the pipe bender and gave it a go. I practiced on some walnut before trying it on the flamed maple. I'm certainly no pro after today, but I successfully bent the flamed maple backstrap. I just spritzed water on every so often and took my time, making sure not to apply too much pressure. Clearly there's quite an art to it, but this was good practice for bending the cocobolo binding for the body of this build, and later on for a mandolin rim. I've got it clamped to the back of the neck right now, until it dries out completely and I can glue it.

Thanks Scott. She's been a joy. Hopefully this guitar will be half as beautiful as she is!

Killemall, you should try putting the scarf in the headstock, then just backstrap it. Then you don't have to worry about aligning the lams.