So I’m starting build #3. Gonna try to do better at documenting this one.
Heres where I am at the moment.
I had to move my centerline over a bit. Don’t ask. 🤣
The plan is to have 3 single-coil lipstick pickups. They are Danelectro style lipstick pickups too, meaning the adjustment/mounting screws come in from the back. Yeah, no pickup rings. This presents a bit of an engineering challenge at the neck joint unless you’re doing a bolt on neck, which I’m not so yeah I’m challenging myself 😆.
Doing a scarf joint neck but am glueing on a heel piece. The plan is to have the neck be as long as with humbuckers so I’ll be routing a slot into the space between the neck and middle pickups for the heel to slide into. I then will need to notch the neck so the legs of the neck pickup will be unhindered for adjusting. Basically a half moon cutout in the neck in the pickup cavity. Hopefully I’ve explained that well enough to understand. I know I don’t sometimes 🤣🤣. (I can’t recall at the moment what the piece of neck under the neck pickup is called 🤦🏻♂️)
The design is based on 2 parallelograms that have 2 common sides. I also plan to carve a little on the front and back but straight carves not curves. Starting about 5 or 6 mm out from the edge of the bridge holes and going to the outer edge on each side of he body. I do only plan to drop 5 mm on the top and bottom for a total of 10 mm. Since it has all these straight lines the straight, flat carves seemed more sensible than curved ones like on a Les Paul. Once the carving is done I plan to add that piece of quilted ash veneer to the front (picture is from my website). Headstock is to be 6 in-line and it has straight edges too.
Wiring? Genuine 5-way Fender Super Switch. Volume will be a push/push switch instead of Fender’s little micro switch. After looking at their wiring diagram it seems they don’t change 3 of the extra positions on the switch so they end up the same no matter which side of the switch you’re on. I plan to change that 😁.
The finish will be a tri-coat type of finish with an ebony stain, ebony tinted grain filler, color shifting paint on top of the ebony (they claim it works best sprayed on a black surface), then the clear coat. Hope to have it finished by the middle of June as I need to build and finish #4 by July 4th.
Neck ready for fretboard. I’ll be using that ebony fretboard in the picture in my previous post in this thread.
I’m doing a 14” radius on this one. My first was 16” radius, #2 was 12” radius. I want to know how they feel. See if I can really tell that much difference.
I plan to radius the fretboard in the morning and glue the fretboard on. Maybe the glue will be dry enough I can start carving later in the afternoon. We’ll see.
I’m using 6mm malachite inlay dots and of course white side dots. So far this build is moving along nicely. Couple of things on the body that may make me a pause and think things over a day or two. 😂
@rathius I sat a 12 radius block on a 16 radius board, the gap was les than 0.2mm! Took me by surprise, there's so little in it. I do 12, 14 and 16 though, basically whatever the bridge is. I like to match it.
Ps if using titebond original it's usually dry in about 2 hours, if it's a stressed joint like a neck to pocket they say to leave it clamped for 24 hours but for the fretboard a couple of hours should be fine.
Man I’ve had a lot of trouble making a neck for this thing. Started on neck #4 yesterday. Yep, I’ve trashed 3 already. Too big of a hurry I’m thinking. Anyway all I’ve done this time around is route the truss rod slot and cut the headstock angle. I’ll start with the surfacing later this morning. Man talk about disheartening but I suppose lessons need to be learned, eh?
@rathius This time you will make it! Maybe a simple checklist with the right sequence plus all dimensions and cautions noted would help?
I find it very easy to miss a step or forget which measures are the most important ones. So I try to think through the process in advance and make a little list, including which tools to use (actually very helpful to list the tools needed when planning the sequence).
The first one I ended up carving the fretboard edges and then found I’d made bigger errors before I had gotten to that point. Evidently I went all stupid when glueing that fretboard on. 🤦🏻♂️
Second neck, attempted to route the fretboard edges for binding. Learned that it’s best to do that BEFORE carving the neck. 🤦🏻♂️
Third neck? 🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️ Always, and I mean ALWAYS triple and quadruple check your front dot locations. Oh, and don’t get in a hurry. 🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️
I’m gonna say a little prayer before I start on neck 4.
@rathius I know it sucks but you're learning, I learnt mostly from making mistakes but now I feel so confident, know exaclty what I'm doing and don't get so stressed.
Carving the edge of the fretboard is ok as long as it's still straight, some manufacturers round the fretboard over when doing a C profile. I tedn to file the bottom anyway to blend it in to the neck so you don't have an uncomfy edge.
And yes, binding before carving.
For the markers just write the numbers on the fretboard all the way up, then it's 3 5 7 9 12 and from there it just repeats. So use 12 as 0 to repeat.
I do my straight line, then I mark out the centre of where I want the marker, then I use a punch and make sure the punch marks are all on the lines. Then I use a 2mm drill in a hand drill to make a better mark, that gives the 6mm something to centre on.
For the side dots I use the hand drill and go slow, you can tilt the drill to move the hole around a bit if you go squint.
Anyway your 4th will be perfect I'm sure, feel free to ask in here or do a google search before making a move if you're unsure.
So remember this big scary radius bit?
Well I finally figured out how I could use it and radius my necks instead of carving it.
That’s my test piece and it struck me that I could use the flat section of my neck angle jig n conjunction with my neck profile pattern and get the job done. I can only do one side at a time though but I don’t have to buy or make anything else, I can just use what I already have.
WOOHOO!!! I’ll be using this in a couple of days. Have to get the neck to that point first. 😁
@robin we will know tomorrow. I’ll be planing the truss rod filler in a while then glue the fretboard on, after I radius it with my 14” radius bit.
First thing on the agenda tomorrow will be to either trim part of the fretboard off for binding or using that bit to radius the back of the neck. Might not have enough binding to do neck and body. If not then this will be another guitar without binding. It’s a big body too. 20” from tip to tail. It’s also 13.75” wide so it’s gonna need an oversized case 😂.
So I decided to take Sunday off but I’m back at it this morning. I just finished adding binding to the neck. Later today I will be cutting the rear profile of the neck with that bit. I’m planning to shoot a video so y’all can see how I’m doing it.
I finished putting the binding on. Hangs over the neck about 0.5mm. That will get taken care of once I put the frets and side dots in. Next step? That big scary router bit to profile the back of the neck. I’m assuming (sometimes a really bad thing to do) I need to stop the center of the bit at the nut but that seems too far. Any suggestions, thoughts, cautions, etc? Or maybe just some very helpful advice?
I need to stop the center of the bit at the nut but that seems too far. Any suggestions, thoughts, cautions, etc? Or maybe just some very helpful advice?
I think you would want to stop with the centre at least the radius of the bit short of the nut, if that makes sense, and hand carve the transition to the headstock. I agree with @nsj , my favourite bit of the whole build is hand carving the neck.
I’m in Kentucky, USA and it’s Summer. That means it’s hot here, and high humidity, plus I don’t have A/C in my garage/workshop. Makes for sweaty, sometimes hard to breathe, manual labor. One place I used to work at we started at 6:00 am and quit at 2:30 pm so we weren’t welding in unbearable heat.
There are other reasons as well, faster, more consistent, accurate, etc. However, I’ve just learned how to make a bound neck and after thinking about it I thought maybe it best to limit it to just one new thing I’ve learned to do per build. I guess I’ll wait until about 9:00 pm (21:00) tonight to do it. Yeah it’s hot today. Should be about 22C by then.
To be honest using the bit won’t really be a problem though, just getting the stop points nailed down.
Here’s how I was thinking of doing it and similar to how I did my test piece. Whatcha think?
With fretboard on use carpet tape and attach the neck to the fretboard caul and all that to your neck profile pattern (screw the fretboard caul to neck profile pattern is what I was thinking). You now have your work piece ready. Place that in your headstock angle jig but with the headstock pointing out the opposite end (square end not angled in). The back side of the neck should be pointing towards the top of the jig. Clamp the neck to one side of the headstock jig and clamp the jig to the workbench. Using a 1/2” plunge router setup with over-sized baseplate do one side in small increments until the desired neck thickness is achieved (+ at least 1mm for sanding). After one side is done then turn the whole th8ng 180 degrees and reclamp with the neck being clamped to the opposite side of the neck angle jig.
@rathius put the rotuer down and grab a shinto saw rasp lol
Here’s what I use most. 😁
I think Mark has something like this he mentions being his fav too. This one is antique and was originally used by my Dad in the body shop. These were used for carving and shaping the lead they used for body filler before bondo. He acquired this one and a flat one in the 1950s. As far as I know the handles on both are the original handles. They had not been used in over 40 years before I started using them. They are freakin’ awesome.
@nsj we’ll just jump on a plane and come on over. You can help carve some necks in the heat. 🤣 Make sure it’s somewhere between late July and mid-September to get the full experience though. Dog days of summer.
I would like a dryer heat. Arizona is very nice yet kinda windy. But that’s what makes the 100+F temps bearable plus the very low humidity helps.