Muzz

I made a bridge over the drop sheet and started shaving the neck down with the crab checking the symmetry periodically with a contour gauge, this was at an early stage. Tidying up every now and then with a rasp The wood looks very brutalized at this point, the profiles at either end will need carved after I make carve guides for them, here is where it is today. These shavings and sawdust are going into the garden.

Cheers Prostheta and Bizman, some fantastic tips and tricks being contributed., a good page describing the safety razor technique here https://www.woodcraft.com/blog_entries/tips-tricks-issue-93-a-safety-razor-scraper Checked the height of the new neck compared to the old one. That's close enough. That reminds me, I have to put some side dots in, I will check the parts box to see if I have a side dots stick, if not I will have to order one,. Marked out for tapering, OMG that wood has got dirty sitting up in the racks for a few years Tapering down, 18 mm of maple to 16 mm in the straight section with a rasp (not in shot), that will end up 17 mm to 15 mm after shaping and sanding. The maple looks much nicer after the dirt is scraped off

This looks sharp and schmicko, looking forward to hearing some heavy tones from this.

Cheers Bizman, Prostheta and Scott, No one wants to stab their truss rod 10 times with a sharp spike so you have to look for ways to avoid that scenario. So today I brought the MOP dots in line with the rosewood, most of the bulk taken off with this little file. I ground the dots down until the file started to rub on the masking tape, then I switched to a sharp chisel and a razor with sticky tape on the ends. The covered ends of the blade follow the contours of the radius and scrape the dot into the same shape Also great for levelling repairs to dings in finish, I wore my mask because sanded new epoxy can do horrible things to the epithelium, the cells that line the air sacs and exchange gases, in your lungs. Those dowels have sandpaper superglued onto the end, 120, 400 and 1,000 to finally polish up the dots.

Just a minor spill and fill looking forward to seeing more progress on this, remember everyone your god(s) will only knock your guitar off the bench when you have no carpet or bean bag under it, as soon as you do, the guitar will be stuck to your bench with celestial glue

Oh yes, and my workmate bench loves to crawl under the wood I am cutting with a jigsaw into that path! Hope you had a lovely holiday, I have made a bit of progress, heading towards my favourite process, carving the neck. I use the bottom of the line as the signal to stop, it is 3 mm deep in at that point, the fret tangs are 2.3 mm, should be all OK, it'll soon be time to pound some frets! I started drilling the MOP dot holes with a 6 mm brad point then before getting too deep I swapped over to a bit where the spike has been filed down. Put some epoxy in the holes and popped the dots in.

Really enjoying watching the craftsmanship here, hope the supplies arrive on time.

So many inspirational guitars have come from Japan, the white with black and gold design looks especially awesome.

Yep, the danger of getting invested in watching a build on the forum, the fade away thread can be a traumatic experience

Yes, went right through it, I am now using it as a low pressure clamp I love cognitive illusion photos

Deepening the fret slots at the outer regions where the radius shallowed them I used my incredibly sophisticated slotting jig on the high notes that were looking like worn tires in places It didn't take too long Next step, implanting the pearly dots

That is a great looking Explorer body, the knots are very subtle, I like them, they show the connection of the guitar to nature.

Maddie usually looks self-assured My favourite Seinfeld epi is The Bubble Boy, really enjoying Ted Lasso at present. Today I made a neck following fretboard edge sander, two bits of wood screwed together, On the underside, an 18 mm wide strip of 120 sandpaper stuck on upside down, so it follows the maple part of the neck without sanding it, and a piece the right way around to sand the rosewood and used that to take the last slivers off the fretboard sides This is the first time I have made a neck to fit an existing neck pocket, usually it's the other way around, at the moment it fits snuggly but not tight enough to lift the the guitar up by the neck without screws, I am hoping after the finish goes on it will be at that stage. Now to make those fret slots the right depth

Gladys would look good with purple hair like that, perhaps she will see the image and give it a go. All good here except we are all missing live music badly and chatting to each other over face time. Todd Sampson recently put out an amazing documentary called Mirror Mirror which looked at anxiety over body image, I don't know if you can watch it where you are but here is the link in case https://10play.com.au/mirror-mirror/episodes/season-1/mirror-mirror-s1-ep-1/tpv210909rwesf we need more pastoral care for young people to help them navigate their way in this world, more of the village approach. I found some left over 0.4 mm thick maple veneer, that should just fit onto the headstock Here is Gladys and Kerry without any Photoshop, they look fantastic, very stylish

Beautiful blueburst and great offset evolution of the Tele shape.

No worries, you and everyone are welcome to ask any questions. The answer is simply every now and again I like getting out in the open air and shaping wood using hand tools. A little 7 mm strip is nothing, except for the edge roundover, the entire periphery of this guitar body was shaped by hand, no template, no router. Try it sometime, so relaxing actually feeling the the guitar take shape, this is why I am so envious of Scott's awesome skill with the chisels. Got this close to flush today Next the edges get sanded perfectly straight and flush on glass Good news for us in lockdown in Sydney, our state premier Gladys Berejiklian and Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant are easing restrictions for double vaxed people. This is Gladys and Kerry after an Instagram makeover. That agave is nice isn't it, it's an old and big one, I have got some younger ones propagating, I hope you can get your garden going, have you tried agapanthus? It's very hardy. I got some time on the banana lounge this afternoon, this was one of the songs on my play list. it rocks

I got a lot of the excess fretboard off today, I marked out on the top what had to go and started rasping, Got to about 1.5 mm from flush and started sanding with a block and 80 grit to make sure the plane was at 90 degrees, and alternated between the rasp and sandpaper Got one side flush so far

What a beautiful blues loving lizard, this is a good omen for your guitar

I wonder if a fretboard is trimmed to the same taper as the neck and then radiused with a block, is getting an angled rise sanded in because the block sits lower on the narrow headstock end than the thicker body end. Are you shooting for a fretboard edge that stays the same thickness all along the neck? Google says a 12" to 16" compound radius should do this, I have not checked the maths. Cheers AD, I am going to try that technique, it makes sense that there is more grip on the neck than there is on the sanding beam. Sounds like those blocks would be perfect to use in the technique above, after the work that would have gone into making them it's good that they were still useful.

That fretboard is now 7 mm at the apex, using a thinner fretboard is a good way to shave off a few mm when going for the uber thin neck, ESP/LTD have used that approach, they make very nice guitars, Yes it is going to be interesting to find out how a different neck affects the sound, the way the strings resonate and sweet spots on the fretboard. Those singing and blooming notes are a great way to start a solo or take a pause with a sustained wail. The old neck is mahogany finished with a really tough coating, it's now sitting in a drawer.

Sounding fantastic

I hope you are all well, I recently got my second Astro Boy vax shot and I am feeling like covid can kiss each of my butt cheeks and because Sydney is in something like its 12 th week of lockdown I am missing live music so badly. So yesterday I wached AC/DC tear it up in Argentina 2009 on YouTube and today I did some fill in on the body where there was some studded belt removal of the finish. This body was finished with car clear finish which is great for areas where there is no movement, Where there is movement and abrasion it can cause brittle cracking. The body was finished before I discovered two pack Rustins Plastic finish which has amazing abrasion resistance. I put some spongy 2 sided tape on the neck, you only need a few spots, and stuck it down. I used a cut off from my Destroyer as a radius beam guide. Made some sawdust until the sand paper had bitten in to the middle of the fretboard. Then smoothed it all out with 120, 400, 800 and 1000 grit. I am going to be interested if this new neck makes a difference to the sound, here is what the guitar sounds like with the old Dr. Parts Neck

Looking blackishilicious

Thank you, I am just about to grate that chocolate, I tried out a longer radius sanding block, all looks OK

Cheers Prostheta. I'll have to look and see if I have any stains that can give an amber tinge to that maple, check out this nice shade, that's the goal. I put on Weezer, Everything will be alright in the end Everything will be alright with the rasp, I used a very old one Rough sanding then some finer paper and the fretboard is a 60 mm wide rectangle It looks like a bar of chocolate. Next step is radiusing