Body size looks fine to me.
As for the truss rod / headstock conundrum, i'd just route out a bit rather than thinning the headstock.
Body size looks fine to me.
As for the truss rod / headstock conundrum, i'd just route out a bit rather than thinning the headstock.
Well I ended up taking the headstock down to 13.5mm, which is perfect for the grovers I have and also allowed me to us an auger bit for the adjuster nut bore. Basically it's all worked out perfectly, and while it was stressful I'm sooo happy to be at this point. Truss rod is nice and snug and perfect depth. I didn't get pics, but I put the curve on with a barrel sanding attachment in the drill press. Worked pretty good, but needs a little tidy up - no worse than a kit one!
Pics tell the story.. I need some beer.
https://i.imgur.com/zxh8vsW.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/rU3M5tV.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/oKD2aDP.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/vKp9qh1.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/KKa4xCT.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/JzaJ0D7.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/yBx1ev8.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/hmN2rKF.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/fGWIBVD.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/XBDkczN.jpg
Good stuff mate. Looks great.
Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk
Really enjoying this build Sonic
Thanks guys, the support is very welcome. I’d never have got this far without this forum.
Looks spot on!
Nut slot cut and fret board glued on.. eep! I have measured and re measured to 3 decimal places but it's still pretty freaky making it permanent.
https://i.imgur.com/tjkdawX.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/O4gj39W.jpg
Fully sick SM!
Fretboard trimmed, relief past the nut radiused (needs a bit more to be nice and tidy), fretboard radiused.
I've pulled up short of completely radiusing towards the heel as I wanted to measure and check everything was coming down nice and evenly. Looks good so I'll do a finishing pass with 320 grit tomorrow. Then onto carving the neck.. which is a bit scary, but I'm sure it'll be fine if I take my time. Then a really good tidy up sand.
I was going to stain the fretboard black... but I'm thinking maybe I'll leave it natural colour now. What to people think? Darker would be better asthetically I think.. but I don't hate the oak/maple combo. I'll be doing satin poly on the neck and fretboard for finishing.
Probably need to think abotu some fret markers as well. I'm toying with the idea of using small nails and just doing along the edge, so they will just be little silver dots.
https://i.imgur.com/5urLuMH.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/tko4yoO.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/C1BxJhU.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/CkQo4cT.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/5IYo9TO.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/4gmss6r.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/jmNap2Q.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/XkRCliF.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/m9bXTIU.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/mHLZRFp.jpg
Leave the board Natural mate, lust seal it with a resin or something eh?
looking schmick!
*raises eyebrow*Quote:
Originally Posted by FrankenWashie
JUST. JUST seal it....Damn fat fingersQuote:
Originally Posted by WeirdBits
Looking good Sonic. And thanks for posting such a good diary. It gives me inspiration that I may be able to do my own scratchy one day!
Thanks guys, and yeah, I think I’ll keep it natural.
Another vote for natural here.
A little more progress. Weekend has been mostly taken up with a big spring cleaning effort so not a lot of time for guitar tinkering.
I finished off the fretboard radius, brought all the fret slots down to a more acceptable depth and started on the neck carve.
The Queensland maple is beautiful to work with, the carving is very satisfying. I'm just going by my rough mark up and feel, while comparingi it to a Squire neck I have here for general direction. It's getting pretty close, but I'll have another session on it I think to bring it down a little further. Starting to look like a proper neck now though!
https://i.imgur.com/sys75yD.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/rm5QvSO.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/FRH1na4.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/rqRRrfQ.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/pl9ojsR.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/GdkuuXP.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/2aOtcB5.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/Rmj3lfM.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/LAkSlLk.jpg
Need to start thinking about the fretmarkers now.
That's definitely starting to look like a neck. Looking great. Love the Maple fretboard with the red of the body!
I like it I like it a lot! Nice work mate!
Decided to fit up the neck so I can finalise some more holes in the body. This is one of the areas of my design I don't think I got quite right. There isn't a lot of heel set into the body and limited real estate for the screws. In the end it has worked OK and I think it's fine, but I am definitley changing it for V2, just cause I'm a bit paranoid about the strenght of the joint. Anyway, ferrules recessed and screws shortened. Now I can locate the bridge, extend the swimming pool route and work out my control cavity cover before I finalise the finishing.
Also did a bit more carving on the neck, little bit more to go I think.
https://i.imgur.com/3NYwCFc.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/EBRdBoc.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/1Pzz7Ck.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/EK2Iuv4.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/7L5t7rn.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/P7lECV0.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/kW7n03m.jpg
Love the colour combo and watching this whole build come together, gives me hope for doing my own scratch build.
Cheers Brendan. Doing your own is definitly possible, just take how long you think it will take and double it.:D
Probably easier to start with a copy of an established design, there has been a lot of problems solving and stuffing around on this one. I did expect that though, hopefully the next one will go a little more smoothly.
Anyway. I'm having one of those days where everything I touch I bugger up, so definitly no drilling holes today.
Instead I spent some time working out bridge placement and sorting out a revised pickguard design. I'm a bit silly for going all out on the metal templates straight up. I've changed things during the build that have made a lot of them redundant. Just another lesson to learn I suppose. Next bunch will be in MDF. And I'll make copies using the router table so if I stuff one up it's not a problem.
Anyway, only took about 5 goes to get it accuratley drawn up in illustrator and a physical printout that fits. Almost wish I'd got some white perloid pickguard material.. but I'll stick with the black 3 ply. With the chrome pickup surrounds it shoudl look pretty cool I think.
https://i.imgur.com/M9eEhgD.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/kkyWhS5.jpg
Gotta say... looking closer to how I pictured it in the mockup at the start of this diary.
https://i.imgur.com/4GUewOe.jpg
I'm pretty glad about that as I've had my doubts, but with the pickguard mocked up on it, I think it's going to work.
Need to do some more cavity routing as well. Also, with the neck on, it doesn't really feel very heavy. Which was a concern early on, I guess we'll see after hardware goes on.
Looking good Sonic.
Looking good mate. I can see a carved top version in the future... :cool:
Looking really good dude
Looks great mocked up. On a side note, mucked around with a mates fractal burning machine today, in a word - awesome. I can see this being used in a build somewhere down the track.
Yeah that’s how I thicknessed this one, I used a fairly agricultural setup, but it worked fine.
....Thanks wierd forum crawling bot?
And all the real people here, very glad to have you all along.
Sooooooo. Made an unhappy discovery this afternoon. Fiddling around I was comparing my fret slots to the Squire neck I have here...and there is a discrepancy. I tried to photograph it but it's hard over the length of the neck. Basically if I line up the nut's the first 7 or so frets are bang on, then they slowly creep nutward towards the higher frets. If I line up with 22 it's perfect up to about fret 7.
I know what's happened.
When I printed out my slotting guide I had to do it in 2 pieces because I only have an a4 printer. Clearly I have messed up when splicing it together.
Doh.
I'm pretty annoyed, but at the same time philosphical. This whole thing is a huge learning exercise.
So I think I'll just steam this one off. I've never done that before, so what better candidate?At least I haven't wasted any fret wire or anything on it and it was only Bunnings timber so the only thing I've lost is time.
Sigh.
This is what keeps me measuring and re-checking in my luddite fashion. Even being as careful as possible, you can be incrementally out, and out in the placement of the saw, which adds up.Quote:
Originally Posted by Sonic Mountain
If all of the higher frets are out to the same degree, then what you've theorised is probably correct. There may also be issues of scaling in your printer? I know scaling for Dressmaking patterns drives my other half mental when dealing with Office works Print shop drones.
Yeah, I am pretty meticulous, but also prone to excitment and rushing.
The print scaling is fine, its part of my day job to know that stuff. The error is in my glueing the template down and matching the two halves of the print. I was careful, but that I have such a good match up to a certain area around where the join was seems to indicate that's where the issue is. It's like there is a short fret around 7-9.
Honestly I'm glad I caught it now. I'd be way more annoyed if I finished it and it wouldn't play properly.
Rookie mistake.
And done. Messy and the fingerboard broke. Probably be easier with a better scraper and frets installed. No major damage to the neck though so that's good.
https://i.imgur.com/6zh32H1.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/HmB1K7x.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/YIWarzI.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/MSfQBLt.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/huuQy0z.jpg
Yep, you need a fairly thin bladed one to get under the board and to flex, so that the board doesn’t. The Tas Oak probably didn’t help matters, but it’s as Igor always says,Quote:
Originally Posted by Sonic Mountain
“It’th all valuable learning exthperienth, jutht make sure you have a thuitable exthit when the mob turnth up.”
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
When I took the fretboard off the EX1 I used an old thin filtering knife and a set of gloves so i could work the blade down with a hand either side of the fretboard. I am sure that frets help though as they would transfer the heat better to the glue. Hopefully you don't have to do too many more :)
Bloody auto correct, should be filleting knife
Yep and yep. I was happy to sacrifice the fretboard, its no good anyway. The squire neck I'm using for comparison has a buggered truss rod so I'll have a go at doing it at some point down the track.
Yep, Tas Oak is useful to experiment with because it's easy to get and not too expensive but I have to say I won't work with it again after my experience with it on my first scratch build.
Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk
Picking up some dislike for the Tas Oak. What exactly about it are you guys thinking is a problem? It seems to do the job and is easy enough to work with. The only issues I've had have been of my own making. I'm probably just going to go with it again here unless there is some glaring reason why I shouldn't?
The main reasons I haven't liked the pieces I got is that it's heavy, it's prone to tear out and it likes to splinter and crack.Quote:
Originally Posted by Sonic Mountain
But bearing in mind that Tas Oak and Vic Ash are generic names for lots of different types of Eucalyptus which means I may have a different type to you and your experience with it could be quite different.
Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk
Ah right. Yeah I really haven't noticed any splintering/tear out issues with this except where I was a bit aggressive in removal of the fretboard. I've actually found it quite nice to work with.
I have one more really nice clean piece that I was planning on using. It is reasonably heavy, but the fretboard is pretty small so that's not a big consideration for this application. For a body I can see it being an issue.
I kinda like the idea of continuing with it as it makes it an entirely aussie timber build. Will probably look for something a bit more interesting for the next one.
Yep I'm the same. I like the idea of using local timbers, my scratch tele is mostly Australian timbers. The fretboard is Queensland Walnut but the top on the body is Yaka which is Fijian. For one of my next builds I have Australian Red Cedar for the body, Queensland Maple for the neck and a selection of Aussie timbers that I could use for the fretboard.
Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk
My experiences with it have involved lots of splintering, lots of tear out, even with freshly sharpened bits and tools. This has been a common encounter with Both "Tas Oak" and "Vic Ash" purchased from a certain green shed. Vic Ash purchased from an independant timer merchant fared better, but not by much.Quote:
Originally Posted by Woltz