Non-PBG Mockingbird. From Scratch.

Interesting way of doing the headstock.
Not saying it is wrong but it would be the first time I have seen a compound angle on a multiscale.
The angle is ineresting, on a Guitar it might not end up being a problem but on a Bass with the extra string tension it could cause some problems.
Headstocks really should be on the same plane as the fingerboard to ensure an even string pull tension.

As you can see in the pic, the headstock on my multi is on the normal plane. It is simply a matter of blending the headstock in to the angled nut.

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Originally Posted by SIMpleONe89

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BC20tbVFyx0 see how he did it! :O

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He's got some nice tools and workspace, but i have major issues with some of his practices. Yep, its obviously worked for him and he still appears to have all of his digits, but routing Ironwood without clamping the workpiece? Please. Its only a matter of time.

OMFG. Watch the follow on video where he fills the rotten heartwood cavity with MOLTEN ALUMINIUM.

Sorry B'lark for going off topic! Hope to see more of your work and let's be reminded to work safe!

Cowboy....

The poster child for unsafe work practices. I had to laugh when he was chiselling, chasing the work all over the bench when the wall behind him was covered in clamps ! Then drilling with his hand in front of the drill bit!...oh I can't believe he is still in one piece if he does this crap every day.

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Originally Posted by SIMpleONe89

Sorry B'lark for going off topic! Hope to see more of your work and let's be reminded to work safe!

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Yeah mate, what Simon said, the progress looks fantastic so far, looking forward to the rest of the build diary for it.

It's all good guys, I don't have a problem with it all going a bit off topic haha.

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Originally Posted by dingobass

Interesting way of doing the headstock.
Not saying it is wrong but it would be the first time I have seen a compound angle on a multiscale.
The angle is ineresting, on a Guitar it might not end up being a problem but on a Bass with the extra string tension it could cause some problems.
Headstocks really should be on the same plane as the fingerboard to ensure an even string pull tension.

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Well basically, it was all just an improvised decision. We were caught off guard and wanted to rush through putting a new neck together because the old one wasn't going to fit. Honestly I never thought about it possibly causing any problems at all, it didn't didn't strike me as being a big enough difference to really break everything.

The other way I thought about it was just that it is always the same angle going down from fretboard to headstock, as in going down the 1st string it's 12.5 degrees (or whatever the number is, I can't remember) and also 12.5 degrees going down the 7th string. It's just that the fretboard ends, and the angle starts sooner on the 1st string. But that's how I made sense of and justified it in my head after the fact.

Alrighty, so the main focus of today was whipping up a fretboard template. Since it's not a standard one we had to make it all from scratch. But first, some pictures of how things from last week finished up

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The piece of QLD maple had one really dark piece of grain that honestly looks like it's split, buut it's all fine

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I also planed off the edges to tidy it all up.

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Oh and we couldn't get Bloodwood unfortunately, but in lieu of that, Matt had a piece of Cooktown Ironwood hanging around, and big enough for the fretboard, so we're going with that instead! Not as... vibrant as Bloodwood, but similar colour to the Jarrah.

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So the Fretboard template was a bunch of maths and using a fretboard calculator. We started with the 9th Fret, because that's my perpendicular fret, then measured back to the where the nut will be at the 1st and 7th strings. Then we added in the 12th fret and 24th as well so that we could draw out the neck widths and end of the fretboard respectively.

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Oh but guess what, we made more mistakes!! We based the nut angle off of a printout that I did up of the Fretboard, but it turns out the fretboard wasn't totally to scale, so the angles at the ends of the fretboard didn't match up totally. We'll be able to work around this fairly easily when we carve the end of the fretboard down anyway, so it's not the end of the world.

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We half cut out a template for the neck pocket too, but ran out of time to finish that up. So I've got to finish that over the next couple of days. Then we'll rout the fretboard, neck, hopefully neck pocket, and possibly body chambers on Friday.

Not one of the most progress laden days, we had a pretty large group today, but anyways.

Finished up my neck pocket template

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Then drew the headstock shape on

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Bandsawed out the general shape

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Then spokeshaved it down closer, and hit it with a spindle sander, to get the shape nice and right.

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I evened up one edge of the fretboard wood too in order to set everything up in order to plan out the exact locations of the frets. It's going to end up a nice colour when it's sanded down and everything :)

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So depending on what happens, we might have a jig set up to do our fret slots, and if we do we'll do that, rout the fretboard and the neck and maybe glue it on. If not, we'll be working on the body chambering and routing.