Simon's Super Strat Scratch Build.

[Andy40]

Simon, this is coming along nicley. I admire your patience! I didn't catch the type of wood you used for the body? also, how many hours to cut the blank?

[tonyw]

Very nice job Simon and thanks for the pics

[Gavin1393]

Great work Simon.

[gavinturner]

Awesome simon. A great writeup as usual. Im really enjoying your build. Getting me enthused to do it myself. Fantastic stuff.

Cheers,
Gav.

[SIMpleONe89]

Simon, this is coming along nicley. I admire your patience! I didn't catch the type of wood you used for the body? also, how many hours to cut the blank?

Thanks Andy! It's Queensland maple and I'll add a zebrano top later on.

It took about two hours to cut out the body, but most of the time was spent cutting with a hand saw while I let the jigsaw cool down. My arms and back were sore by the time I was done haha.

[SIMpleONe89]

Thanks Tony and Gavin(s)!

@gavin Turner: I thought you were building scratch guitars as well? Did the tornado not work out?

[gavinturner]

Thanks Tony and Gavin(s)!

@gavin Turner: I thought you were building scratch guitars as well? Did the tornado not work out?

Nah it was a pine body only and I had trouble with the finish. Gave it up as a bad mistake. Will have to start a new one this year I reckon!

cheers,
Gav.

[SIMpleONe89]

My frets finally came, after the long weekend when AusPost failed to do so before Good Friday. They are nickel silver jumbo frets.

I had to clean the fret slots from any gunk and dust first.


I then cut the frets and install them as I go along - this makes sure I don't lose the cut frets, and I can save on fret wire.
I super glue my frets in not because they are loose but to fill in the gaps underneath, which supposedly improves sustain and tone. Not sure how true that is but I can kill two birds with one stone.
The rosewood is really dense, not like Indian rosewood, and it wasn't easy hammering them in! Must be careful not to annoy the neighbours as well.


This is the neck after all 22 frets are installed. I may consider getting fret cauls to clamp them in. Much easier, more even clamping pressure, and not so noisy.

[SIMpleONe89]

I trim the fret over hangs with my extremely crappy FastCap end nipper. Terrible tool! Avoid at all cost!
I'll have to get a new one from StewMac. They gave me a hard time and I realised some of my fret tangs were slightly bent. I paid $34 for this "luthier" tool. :@


Never mind, more happy times to come.

I then sanded the frets flush with the fretboard.


And beveled the frets with my diy fret leveler.


Not forgetting to fill in the fret slots with super glue and dust.


Let it all dry and sand it off the next day.

[SIMpleONe89]

The neck after sanding off the filled fret slots.


I'm pretty happy with how neat they turned out, except for two or three frets with their tangs slightly bent due to my crappy cutters.

Now for my favourite part of the build, and many others' favourite - shaping the neck.

I'm aiming for a relatively flat U shape profile. I like to keep my thumb right in the middle of the neck so that my fingers can easily access the full range of the fretboard. I'm not one to hook my thumb over the bass side of the fretboard, and my hands aren't that large, so C and V chunky profiles don't work!

To shape the neck, I drew my centre line and lines on both sides which get wider towards the heel - this allows a flatter area to shred or play fast licks (which I can't do) in the upper frets.

I create facets by sanding from line to line, maintaining a flat area. You could shape the neck anyway you like but I thought the lines would help visualise how much wood you need to take off.
My weapon of choice - Shinto rasp. Highly recommended. Can't stop talking about it.