FrankenWashie's Second PBG Build, SV-1

[FrankenWashie]

getting there now FW, looking good

Cheers Stan!

I have my colour combo sorted in mind now so we shall get some paint sorted and make some progress on the body finish while I tinker with Fretboard and inlays and neck finish.

[gavinturner]

Nice! I wont pretend to understand the vernier depth stuff, but it looks cool. I'm gearing up to do a scratchie some time soon so this is very very interesting for me.

cheers,
Gav.

[robin]

This is all coming along really nicely Frankie. Love the fretting jig, doing it by hand is somehow therapeutic.

Can't wait for the colour reveal.

rob

[FrankenWashie]

Nice! I wont pretend to understand the vernier depth stuff, but it looks cool. I'm gearing up to do a scratchie some time soon so this is very very interesting for me.

cheers,
Gav.

Vernier Depth Gauge, Mitutoyo 527-104, 600mm scale:

I'd site the cross bit as the datum for the sliding bed on my jig and the you can manually adjust to get what ever Fret Spacing you need.
But given what even a cheap vernier gauge costs ($500+), I'm just going to buy some of the precut templates from StewMac and adapt my jig to suit. Its either that or sack up and just spend the money on the full kit.

I'm playing around with making a laminated Bolt on neck at the moment. Its essentially three slices of 1" square Rock maple titebonded together. It has highlighted a few things in technique I need to address (Trying to manually rip saw lengthways down something as hard as maple, leaves you with a LOT of planning and sanding to do. You'd really want access to a good table or Band saw, with a true and stable fence, and maybe a Jointer.

I am going to ask Santa for a table saw. I'll let you know how I go.

[FrankenWashie]

This is all coming along really nicely Frankie. Love the fretting jig, doing it by hand is somehow therapeutic.

Can't wait for the colour reveal.

rob

Thanks Rob.
It is immensely satisfying to do things by hand, but lately (possibly because ambition and vision outmatch skill and knowledge) this hasn't yielded the kind of results I want (some wonky cuts and interesting post plane surfaces). I'm happy to stand there with a jackplane or smoothing plane and dress things down, but it would be reduced to just a cursory clean up if I had access to a good table saw!

I promise all shall be revealed in the fullness of time on the colour scheme.

[FrankenWashie]

okay in the flurry of pointless tongue in cheek posting i seem to have forgotten that these posts are supposed to be about building a guitar!

Thanks to the dud fretboard test with the rosewood stuffed blank, I was a little gushy about doing a second attempt on a serviceable fretboard for fear of stuffing it up.

Thankfully I found some premade pdf slotting templates that i was able to print out and apply like a cutting mask. So we ended up here:



My homemade Fretting jig was pressed into service again, I have, since first test, managed to add one of the two toggle clamps that are supposed to be on it. At some point (Probably the next fret board) I shall get around to adding the second one.

I measured up and marked each fret prior to the cutting through the mask with a marking knife. Each fret was cut in turn from 1 down to 24, then I stripped the mask and went back down the board to even up cut depths. I actually cut the nut indication line last as I wanted to verify the Nut to 1 distance. I had allowed for the wider locking nut in the over all scheme so this has worked out well.
I'm fairly happy with the results. Though it's hard to see in the picture all the lines on the template match the Slotted board. When I overlaid the old board the came off it, the two sets of slots corresponded exactly, so I am reasonably pleased with that outcome.

I've now got to revery to the dud test board, and work on inlay, and radius sanding. but prior to that I have to make up some radius gauges and determine what radius I want on this guitar. (I am going to try and match it to the FrankenWashie's board as I really love that neck).

Progress will be slow! But good things take time and time taken produces good things.

[Simon Barden]

Looking good, Frankie. Almost tempting me to have a go at making my own neck. Almost.

I think I'll go and lie down for a bit until the feeling passes.

[Dedman]

I'm with you Simon, a wise man knows his limits and having really battled to do inlays I know making a neck is just not going to happen. I tip my hat to those with the skills!

[FrankenWashie]

Honestly boys, its really not the black magic it seems. It just comes down to planning and accuracy. If you want to do it the easier way get a single piece blank and carve out a complete neck, similar to what Simon Tan did on his builds. I just chose to do a laminated scarf joint because I had half completed one in the original FrankenWashie build, but never got to finish it, I kinda wanted to close that loop.

[Simon Barden]

I have already got a proper fret cutting saw and a fret clamping tool, it's just the other jigs and bits that put me off.