@koendb
Excellent result, you are gaining confidence in your own ability which is going to move you up to another level of building. It looks like you have a good grain match also. So placing the new dot ?
Some people call me a tool, others are less complimentary. Tools being useful things.
The 2 dots wouldn’t be level with the fretboard would they. Flat would be no good.
I’ve been on the Dolly Parton tour bus by the way, just thought I would throw that nugget in for no particular reason.
Some people call me a tool, others are less complimentary. Tools being useful things.
I’ve been on the Dolly Parton tour bus by the way
Joni will be jealous.
My only claim to famous person association is.
Online guitar making courses – guitarmaking.co.uk
It looks like you have a good grain match also. So placing the new dot ?
Yes, I used the off-cut from the sides of that fretboard, so the grain matched. + I used the piece that was between the same frets, so I only had to look at two dimensions, height and width.
I already punched for the new dot. Will measure again tomorrow and then drill and add the dot before starting my day job.
@rocknroller912 Thanks for persuading me to fix this . I could not be more happy following your advice.
Dot is back! but it s now more on the spot where it should have been 😆 😆
Frets installed and I made a headstock plate out of black veneer, 4 sheets glued together and glued to the headstock.
I loved how the black veneer made my logo pop on my Flying V build, so I am doing exactly the same here.
I still need to trim the edges
Neck Carving today!
Perhaps I need to revisit the heel , but other than that I am happy with the result. It took a lot less energy then with previous necks I carved.
I assume it is because I felt pretty relaxed now.
Yesterday evening I wanted to setup my saddle routing jig for today, only to realize I had the angle backwards. So I am now able to route saddle slots for left handed bridges 🤣
Ofcourse, I glued, instead of screwing it all together 🤧
So I improvised a temporary jig. Luckily This worked out fine. I was worried that my 3mm router bit would make the slot a tad to wide because the graphtech saddle, measured just under 3 mm with my calipers, even though that saddle is advertised as being 3.01mm.
Fortunately, the bit also measures just under 3mm with the same caliper. So it must be the caliper, being off even so slightly.
After a quick test run on the scrap wood ( right in the pic ) to assert that the saddle will fit properly, I ran the saddle slot, without any issue.
Then drilled the holes with my pilar drill. I just took all the time to make sure I properly aligned the fence. Easy.
Up to carving the wings.. First of all, I cut off the sides way too short and could not get the curves the same on both sides. So they don't look even.
Not that it really matters, as the whole bridge won't be symetrical anyway.
The contour in the back, I am really happy with.
After a lot of sanding, rasping and scraping, I got this result:
And this is how it looks on the guitar.
I prefer this to the ready made bridge I bought as a backup, should this bridge fail.
I put my logo and tuners on.
Not a huge success to be honest.
First of all, there where some air bubbles left underneath the waterslide decals, which I did not see until after I clearcoated 🙄
I should have waited until this morning before putting the clear coat on , so, once again; Do not rush.
The biggest issue is the tuners on the treble side.. I knew the peg holes where a bit closer to the edge than on the bass side, but I did not realize how much that would be of an issue.
The tuners are on the very edge of the headstock.
The reason why there is such a difference is , that, while cutting out the headstocks rough shape on the bandsaw, I crossed the line on one spot and had to correct that line while sanding in a later stage.
I am not going to fix that right away, but I can always come back to it to plug the holes, redrill and even put another layer of veneer on top and redo the logo at the same time.
Today's work:
Making a maple heel cap and do a lot of scraping and sanding to get the heel and neck in better shape.
A Quick simulation with naptha to see how it might look when finished:
I also started sanding the body and fix little issues.
So I also ordered shellac and a transparent filler. Should I also oil the guitar? or just shellac?
I'm thinking to use mahogany filler on the neck and headstock back and sides, while using the transparent grain filler on the back and sides.
Be careful with adding extra veneer at a later stage as you might find it’s too thick for the tuners to fit. Very thin veneer over the back will cover the plugged holes but it would need to be paper thin.
Some people call me a tool, others are less complimentary. Tools being useful things.