Muzz

I cut down the piece that makes the back of the headstock/half the front of the headstock and got it ready to route about 4 mm off the face and shaved it down The ruler said it was just over 16 mm thick now, pretty close, there's some room for sanding.

Like you do, I will be ripping the tape off the channel before putting the fretboard on, you are right you would need a ridiculous amount of glue to flood into the channel to gum up the rod, which couldn't happen as the top bar of the rod fits tight against the sides of the channel. Those Allied Lutherie rods look nice, I got mine from Australian Luthier Supplies. I think Gibson Marauders have a traditional rod , but I have never tried fitting one of those. And I will not be buying a 1970's Marauder truss rod cover those things cost over $100. To get me hyped, I am listening to Deryck Whibley playing some Metallica on his Marauder Yep after getting the neck plane dead flat no need to put a 0.2 mm ridge down the middle of it or protect that rod from the glue cascading down the side of the channel and jumping into the threads

The way I test rods is to put the end in a clamp and wind the rod with an Allen key, in 2 way rods test clockwise and anti-clockwise. That rod is all OK it's going to live to be a hundred years old and get a letter from the Queen on it's hundredth birthday On the topic of truss rod installation it's amazing what you see on the internet how to pages, one site I saw recommends putting tape over the channel when applying glue for the fretboard, so far so good, but the site recommends leaving the tape there and put the fretboard on! The other great story I have heard (I do not know if it is true) is that Brian May played his Red Special guitar that "he" and his dad made for a few years before he realized that the truss rod had not been engaged. Definitely not recommended on slim necks. That's great, hope it all goes well, I learnt how to make necks largely from this forum, it's terrific to share techniques

I can picture Nikki Sixx playing the red one

The design looks great, I'm looking forward to seeing this progress

Cheers, it's always good to try new ways of doing things Very true, I think that people who don't like scarfed necks just do not understand that the scarf joint performs such an an advantage in strengthening the headstock to neck transition zone. This slimline 6.2 mm wide truss rod arrived yesterday, I have used one of these before, they allow the thinnest possible channel from the neck through to the base of the headstock, therefore causing the least weakening of the headstock base possible.

That is a beer hammer A must have for the man cave

Cheers, it worked well, scarf joints seem to be one of those things where there are lots of different ways to do it. It's funny, I still run into people that think a scarf joint in a guitar neck is a bad thing. Still, companies that don't do scarf joints in necks with angled headstocks keep guitar repairers in business so bless them! Great idea to use dowels on the outside that will get cut away later. In a headstock located scarf joint that was going to get covered in veneer or laminate, the dowels could be put in the area to remain, to become part of the joint. The other thing I have wondered about is uing nuts and bolts in the outside area that will get cut away and using them not only as aligners but clamps, has anyone done this? Glue clamp caul experiment work well, I took itout of the clamps this morning No stick to the greaseproof paper covered caul Nice joint

I often think that it is good to take a pause at stages in a build and decide what are things that should be fixed and what are natural tiny imperfections that are what makes a hand made instrument so special.

https://www.notreble.com/buzz/2021/03/01/bass-of-the-week-ajrguitar-mods-swift-triple/ what an innovative and gorgeous instrument, your customer will be the envy of everyone who sees it.

Today it is absolutely pouring down with rain in Sydney, good day for mucking around on my project. I used some scrap radiata pine and tried a new way for me to glue a scarf joint using a glue clamping caul. I first wrapped my caul in greasproof paper and put some more paper on the bench. Then put some glue on the long neck piece. Rubbed the glue over the joint plane and clamped it to the caul. Then put some glue on the short piece joint plane and shoved it in the wedge, Easy, everything is squared up, no trying to align and hold two slippery fish together, I probably didn't need any clamps, but I could hear the clamp police's sirens at this point so I put a lot of pressure on the joint, probably a total waste of time for a joint with dead flate planes but the sirens faded into the distance. I'll unclamp it tomoz and see if my experiment worked., Have a rockin' weekend \m/

Glad I tuned in for this thread, beautiful work

Oh yeah, but wait there's more in the 'best' of Gibson's experiments, check out the Spirit II XL, Alpha Q-3000, US-1 and M-III and best of all, the Sonex, made from a central chunk of wood and wrapped in sawdust and resin. The Gibson company history is fascinating, if you can get your hands on a copy of the book, Totally Guitar: The Definitive Guide by Tony Bacon and Dave Hunter it is well worth the read Found these in the spare parts box,

Yep, I have seen a few pictures of tune o matic guitars with no neck angle and raised up necks, it looks very strange. Some early 70's guitars were built that way I think. This guitar has a neck angle, and I have/am definitely going my own way with this, I am not trying to make a perfect copy here, I wan't to inject some of my own features into the mix. Here is the 13 year old body, this was the first guitar I made, with no templates! and here is the practise on scrap neck from the Destroyer I made a few years back, it wil get used here a bit It's beer o'clock

Looking beautiful and classy

I don't think it can correct lens distortion, in this case it's OK as I am going to draw out the head stock and the rest of the neck on paper. I am not going for a clone, just something that captures the essence of that model. Jim Martin's Vs were cool http://www.faithnomorefollowers.com/2016/07/happy-birthday-jim-martin.html

Yes, the Marauder is a real mixture of styles and features, I really like the way they look. I'm going to start drawing up my plan for it on the weekend, I won't be able to modify the Gibson chubby arrowhead headstock shape much because that shape has, ironically on a 57 varieties guitar, become so synonymous with the species for me, It's funny how we get used to certain combinations of features on guitars. although I love to see builders mix things up now and again Glad I chatted with you, I calibrated the image analysis program ImageJ using the distance between the truss rod cover screw holes (52 mm) versus the tuner holes and you are right, the truss rod holes give a more accurate calibration. If anyone wants the software you can get it here https://imagej.nih.gov/ij/download.html Cheers for that, and yes I agree, the Marauder is a nice guitar, and very rare, that may be because Paul Stanley did his best to commit genocide on the species this web page shows him smashing his way through who knows how many dollars worth of Marauders http://axeology.com/P76Marauder.html

Love the experimental stuff, I am betting this guitar turns out fantastic

and the next challenge for me where the numbers are going to be important is making a head stock that is not a modified Ibanez HS design. I downloaded these two images and I'll use the tuner holes which I hope are 10 mm diameter, to get a sense of scale

Cheers mate, that is so right, a little bit of mathematics can really help in guitar making, and it is really cool seeing how things can be worked out before making sawdust. I sanded the join surface on the other piece of rock maple tonight, Sanded it until there was no more sawdust, while listening to this awesome band There is way too much wood in the headstock region, but just like beer at a party it is better to have too much than too little

I saw a post on this forum of someone cutting for a scarf joint using a hand saw completely freehand and that was inspirational, but I knew that I did not have that kind of skill. So I designed the jig, yes, from scratch, here are my plans, my mistake placing of one of the dowels is crossed out and repositioned to where it should be. Who knew that trigonometry would come in handy some day. I have started sanding the joint faces using this home made sled One done

No I am 'finishing' a guitar I made about 13 years ago, I made a Marauder style body and put a premade neck on it. Now I'd like a a blonde neck on it with a flying V style head stock, and this is my lump of clay.. I had to look up what a diddley bow was, this guy plays one well You know Scott, I think the same way, if you find a nice piece of timber it inspires you to try and make something musical and/or beautiful out of it. Here it is in the scarf jig. Half way through First cut finished

Nice piece of rock maple that has been sitting in my basement for a few years.

Something like this works a treat and won't break the bank

Always great to chat with you Scott and nice to see someone mosey along the build pathway enjoying the journey