My first build: DTL-1

It has arrived :-) The package turned up at my office today, will open when I get it home. Two weeks from order to receipt, of which most of the time was waiting in customs. Not at all bad for a big package from Australia to the UK!

Attachment 33543

OK! So get buildin'!!!
:)

Even though it's a bolt-on neck, I'd still wait a week before doing any serious work on it to let the wood settle down. It's come from a very hot climate to a cold one via airfreight, and that can mess with the wood quite a bit.

I got four boxes delivered today.

Attachment 33549

However they aren't as exciting as they first look. Just two bass cases and two guitar cases for my guitars without them. Thomann do the cheapest good quality ABS cases that I could find, so it was import from Germany time. Except that I miscounted and I still need two hard electric guitar cases and probably a padded gig bag for a classical. So I'll get those next month.

Not much time this evening, but I was able to unbox it and try a very rough dry fit:

Attachment 33547

Lovely grain pattern on the body, and while the neck is less heavily figured, I suspect it'll come up nicely with a bit of oil.

Attachment 33548

It came with some decent Ernie Ball strings, and what look like some not-so-great ones, so the latter will be helpful for setup.

Attachment 33550

The way the flat part of the fret wire is visible here looks a little ugly, I think because it's so similar to the colour of the wood -- the same effect on the black fretboard of my LPJ looks fine. Probably won't be a problem when I've oiled the fretboard.

The neck is lovely and straight -- no curve visible at all when I use the notched straight edge, which actually kind of surprised me. Presumably it will bow inwards slightly when under tension, but I can sort that out then.

As I'm not planning on any customisations for this guitar, I'm planning to put it together, put on the cheap strings, and give it a play before disassembling it all again in order to sand and finish it properly. That means that if (for example) the tuners are rubbish, I can get new ones before the final assembly.

Is that going to cause me any problems down the line?

Looks like some posts crossed in the, erm, post there :-)

Good point about letting it adjust to the local climate, Simon. The holes for the neck (which I should say appears to fit perfectly!) are pre-drilled, so I'm thinking that bolting it on this weekend should be OK, so long as I leave fret dressing and finishing for -- say -- the week after next?

Sorry to keep spamming the forums with questions, but I've come up with another one... I'm planning to use Wudtone to finish the guitar; probably their honey on the body and their maple neck specific aged vintage yellow on the neck. If I understand correctly, I just put the neck finishing oil over the fretboard as well as the back of the neck -- is that right?

Quote:

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The way the flat part of the fret wire is visible here looks a little ugly...

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Yes, the colour matching is not the greatest I've seen, however, I think (not real clear in the pic) that a lot of it is excess filler on either side of the fret slot on top of the neck wood.
Once you hit it with some light sanding, only the fret slot should have the filler left in it and will be way less noticeable.

Regarding fret dressing:
With a maple/maple neck, I would recommend not doing any fret levelling until you have got your finish on there.
When you apply your finish, it will be going right over the frets and will need to be removed. Best to do the finish removal and levelling/dressing at the same time. Otherwise, you may risk scratching a newly levelled & polished fret when cleaning off the finish.

See my last post.

Looks like we're on a similar schedule despite opposite sides of the equator!

Thanks! Yup, I'm kind of a night owl -- I suspect that most of this build will be happening in the small hours...

Thinking about the headstock. Here's the shape I'm planning -- a fairly classic T-style, I think:

Attachment 33562

I do keep my guitars hanging on the wall, so I'm a little uncertain about the "flat" treble side, but the Hercules hangers I've got do swivel, and the Internet tells me that should make it all fine. And who am I to doubt the wisdom of the Internet :D

I've decided to upgrade the tuners; just bought a set of Hipshot open locking tuners in nickle, which basically adds 50% to the cost of the guitar... but should look nice.

Unfortunately the headstock already has guide holes drilled for the screws for the stock tuners, and they're offset to the treble side of the holes for the tuners:

Attachment 33563

So I'll have to work out some way to fill them that won't be too obvious. Once I've cut the excess from the headstock, there will be a good amount of matching maple to use, so perhaps I can use some of that as plugs, then fill any gaps around the edge with sanding dust and glue. Not sure what glue to use if I don't want to stop the finish from adhering, but if the worst comes to the worst, the tuners come with a mounting plate that could be used to hide a multitude of sins...