guitman32

RGGR- I dont know if youve stated this somewhere else, but what is your current paint rig?

Just take some thin veneer and glue it across the bottom of the rear cavity. The glue would be placed on the 2 spans of wood between each pup caivty. If you use 2 thin pieces of veneer glued together, it should be a decent fix, and shouldnt get in the way of the springs. Take some measurements and see what thickness veneer would be acceptable.

Nice work on the routing. Making your own ferrules sounds like a sweet idea. I dont know if you need to tap them, just drill a hole a little bigger than your neck screws. If you do that, make sure to take some pics!!

And a pic of gluing the FB... I used some silicone at each side of the Hotrod, and at 2 spots in the middle. Before I glued the FB, I checked for any rattle, and didnt have any. To prevent it from sliding around with the clamps in place, I hammered a very small nail (one one each end) a couple of mm'sinto the maple...basically just enough to hold it. I then used my end nippers to cut the head off it, leaving roughlt 2 mms extending above the maple. I then test fitted the pau ferro board, and once in the correct position, hammered it a bit to get the board sitting flush on the maple. Then, after spreading the glue, I just place the FB over the nails and clamped it in place. Worked like a charm...hopefully

Wow....ok..."having a massage" I think im gonna have to switch to photobucket....like....now.

I routed the body today, and everything went smoothly, spare on small chip on the upper horn. Luckily it remained attached to the body, so gluing it up will be easy. I routed the body on the router table. First I attached the template to the body w/double stick tape, and then routed a little more than halfwawy on one side with the template bit (template down). Then I flipped the body, changed to a flush trim bit, and routed the rest of the body out. The chip happened as I first began routing...I routed too quickly in the area where the grain was parallel to the rout direction. Oh well, live and learn...It could have been worse. Other than that little dilemma, I had zero tearout or chipping near the horns. Only a little sanding will be necessary to get the rout line in the middle of the body gone. Here is a pic of the clamps on the glued chip. I purchased some silicone, so I should also get the FB glued this evening. Pics to come!

Nice pics!! The headstock tuner issue in the end wont be a big deal. If you need to dowl them up and re-drill, no sweat, it just means more experience for you, right?? I would definetly buy some neck mounting ferrules They come in packs of 12 from Stewmac and are a necessity, I think. Im sure there is some readily available substitute that I am not familiar with, but if you plan on keeping the neck joint sturdy for years to come, I say why not go that extra mile.

Curtis, I have a Freud flush trim (like the one you received) and a template bit, and they have been great. No tear out whatsoever.....yet.

Pics of Semi-Rough Cut body: I intentionally left the upper area un-cut in case I decide to use it as extra support when routing the neck pocket. I am leaning to cutting it out totally, because it doesnt seem like it would be too hard to rout the pocket otherwise. Any thoughts?

Great idea...I was thinking the same thing, only using both...I was planning on wrapping the rod ends with some thin cloth, and using a little sealant as well. Im gonna use a little of both I think...Ill let you know how it goes.

SWEEET! Maiden: I did that, and it seems that the 24th fret is about parallel with the innermost point of the bottom horn contour... I went to jemsite.com, and after just a visual inspection, it seems to be about right. Also, looking over some templates, the pocket depth is also pretty right on, at about 77mm deep or so (rough measurment). Does everything sound like its in order? Im going to check out photobucket...but first post pics of some of the body rough cut. I only rough cut the bottom area of the body, leaving the neck portion on, because Im not sure if I want to leave some support for routing the neck pocket.

Here is a pic of my modified body template, with the AANJ altered. Does this look accurrate to you all? If I get some feedback soon I will cut and rout the body today. Thanks!

Good call...silicone it is!

That what this stuff is actually. Its for sealing pool pump o-rings. When I say thick, I mean thick. Reason reason I as is I was at the store once today and am totally beat. I cant wait till tomorrow if there is no way round it.

I am about ready to glue my FB, but do not have any silicone lube handy as recommended by Stewmac for their Hotrod installation.. I do, however, have some teflon based lubricant, which is quite thick. Can I use this as a substitute?

Update! To measure the fret positions I created a spreadsheet I to calculate the distances, and marked them using a precision ruler. I had to make sure that the sides of the FB were perfectly perpendicular to the nut edge. To achieve this, I marked out the perpendicular lines on each side of the board, attached a piece of wood with a flat edge (using double sided tape) to the marked line on the FB, then used the router table with a flush trim bit to get the edge totally straight. I then did the same thing for the other side. I cut the slots using a saw with depth stop purchased from Stewmac. For each slot, I clamped a piece of plywood scrap (one edge was perfectly flat, about 1/4in thick) as a guide for the saw onto the FB, and cut the slot. After slotting the FB, I marked out the FB's final shape, and used the same procedure for creating perpendicular edges to cut the fretboard taper. As you can see in the above picture, I have rough cut the neck to shape. I will cut the final shape using the FB as a guide. I sitll havent decided whether I want to do this before of after gluing the FB. Next step was to shape the headstock. I drew the headstock from scratch in a cad program, printed it out and created a template out of 1/4" ply. This template was then taped it to the headstock front, and routed to shape with myrouter table and flush trim bit. I have a question: Other than the pressure of the tightened rod and silicone lube placed at each end, what prevents a Hot Rod from being able to slide out of the adjustement slot once the FB has been glued? I really really really hope this isnt a stupid question, but am quite curious as the the answer.

I am constructing a 27" scale length 6-string guitar, and just slotted the FB, soI can dig the idea, although I think that around the high frets it would be quite difficult to actually play. Nonetheless, it sounds like a badazz idea. Kindof like Nevborn guitars Sleipner XL, made for Meshuggah's guitarists. http://www.nevbornguitars.com/

Just an update. I have slotted and tapered the FB. I have also rough cut (and I mean rough, youll see when I post pics) the neck outline. I am going to use the FB and a flush trim bit to final cut the neck shape. My next steps are to cut the headstock shape using a template and router table, and install the T-Rod and glue the FB. Then I will use the FB as a template and cut the final neck shape. Once this is done, all that is left is to shape the neck profile and drill the tuner holes. A little FYI: The headstock is thinner than it should be. It is about 6/16" thick. To compensate I am going to glue an ebony veneer on the front, and maybe some maple on the bottom.

Thats true RGGR - My reasoning was that the Hipshot bridge I am using is alot smaller than a Floyd, and since I am using a Jem body, which was originally designed with a floyd, it had the Hipshot leaving alot of space behind the bridge, not so much as to be totally ugly, but enought to where I would have still preferred a little less. That being said, I have modified the body template as per your advice earlier in this thread, and since I did, I can now set the neck just a bit farther back into the body. With this little compensation, the bridge goes back just enough to make me happy. As always, thank you for the useful criticism!

I slotted the neck blank for the Hotrod today. I used my router table and a bit purchased from Stewmac for the Hotrod... In this first pic you can see the entire slot, alot with some newspaper still stuck to the neck from gluing the scarf joint. I will sand that off before gluing on the FB. Here is a closeup of the headstock area: To get the wider channel up top to accomodate the adjusting nut, I just switched to a straight 3/8in bit and routed until where the head angle stops. Next steps are to prep the FB and glue it to the neck blank. I need to measure and cut the slots for my 27" scale length. I am going to make the FB end flush to the end of the neck. I am considering using 22 instead of 24 frets, because that way the bridge will be placed farther back on the body. This is good because I am using a fixed bridge (Hotshot hardtail, pics earlier in thread), which is much smaller than a Floyd type. Visually, I think this will look better than having a boat load of empty space behind the bridge.

Devon: Yes, I dont know, and thats why I'm on the forum asking. Thanks for everyones constructive input...I think Im going to make a jig with my router...we'll see how it works out.

But its too thick now...the way it is presently, my graphtech nut blank barely comes over the surface of the blank. I want to take about 2/16ths off, then that last 1/16th I will leave for radiusing. This has me thinking, however. My main concern was that when I slot my FB, the slots will be too shallow with the increased thickness. I can either overcompensate the slot depth, then glue, thickness the board and radius...using this method seems like it is asking for trouble...or just saw them just a little deeper than usual, glue the FB, then take the thickness down and radius. If I do glue it while its so thick, how will I get its thickness down while its on the neck?

Cudbucket, AANJ stand for All Access Neck Joint, and is the kind of joint you see on some Ibanez guitars. Its the kind that has the contoured heel, not the boxy looking type. Here are some examples.

I would say, from looking at my nut blank sizes, that you would want about 1/16 over the normal 1/4in FB size to account for radiusing...but 3/16th looks like too much. I doubt I will take half that off with radiusing...but if I am in the wrong please correct me! So Doc, would you say that a planer such as the one on Stewmac would suffice for most of my minor planing needs, or should I invest in something more substantial, or maybe a sander that could double as a makeshift planer?

If you remove mass from the trem block it might have a small effect on the sustain and tone of the guitar, as this reduces the overall mass of the floating portion of the trem. By reducing the mass, more of the string's vibrations will be absorbed by the vibration of the trem itself, thus having a negative effect on sustain and maybe tone. This being said, I dont know how significant these effects might be, because you are probably removing a small amount of the block. I think they would be negligible.