First Build - FV-1

[jymicrash]

Hi Everyone

I have just had a peek in the box of the FV- 1 kit my GF got me for my birthday.
I'm really keen to get started. I've done some wood work and have built a couple of guitar pedals in the past. I'm confident I can tackle this project but will no doubt have many questions on the way.

I have no questions yet I'm just getting my thread ready. Hoping to get working this weekend.

[Wayne.Mumford]

Hey jymicrash, welcome and good luck, may the guitar gods favour your build.

[jymicrash]

[jymicrash]

Thanks for the prayers Wayne

I've done the mock build leveled the frets to the best of my ability. I might even have a ago at doing a fret level on my othe guitar one day soon.

Next step ... start sanding.

Two questions I have if anyone in the know sees this post; I noticed the pick guard will sit under where the fret board overhangs. Does this mean I need to do all the wiring before I install the neck?

The reason I ask is I imagine this would make the pickguard difficult to remove after the neck is installed. I might like to upgrade the pick ups later if a can get this guitar to play well.


Also what is a common timber oil that is nice on the neck? I was thinking tung oil but open to suggestions.

[Simon Barden]

It's a bolt-on neck, so it's easy enough to put on and take off. Fit a capo on the neck on a lower fret, or even just put some tape round it, slacken the strings, then you can undo the screws and remove the neck without having to fully remove the strings. Put the neck back on in reverse order. It's something you get used to doing if you've got a Strat or Tele with a heel-end truss rod adjustment.

Just make sure that the neck mounting holes in the body are drilled out to just the right size to fit the screws through without binding. This allows the screws to fully pull the neck down to the body. It's also the way that any holes for screws joining two pieces of wood together should be drilled.

You'll certainly want to fit the scratchplate before fitting the neck, but scratchplate fitting isn't as easy as it may seem, as the pots and output jack are fitted to the plate (which is easy), but the pickup wires need to be fitted through the holes in the body to the control cavity, meaning that they have to be soldered on in situ. It's awkward but you can do it. Alternatively, as it will all be covered by the scratchplate, you could rout out (or chisel or just drill out using multiple holes) a channel to run the pickup wires in, so you can pre-wire the scratchplate (with the exception of the output jack).

Tung Oil, Danish Oil, TruOil, Boiled Linseed Oil. All polymerising oils used for guitar finishes, especially necks. There will be some slight differences between them (though they are all variations on a theme), but they will all give a similar finish, and wear can be patched up by the simple application of more oil in the future.

[Dwubyd]

I use a tung oil based product called Organoil. The finish is super smooth and your hand slides up and down the neck easily. It does not stick the way it does on a full gloss finish. It is applied with progressively finer grades of W&D making a slight slurry with the saw dust that filled the grain. I usually go to 1500 or so.

SB, would you tung oil the fret board as well as the neck? I have read that putting the normal saturation of tung oil on the fretboard can cause problems with frets later on. So maybe tung oil the neck but use fewer coats than the rest of the neck.

Can you use lemon oil to maintain a fret board that has been finished with tung oil?

Thanks

[Simon Barden]

You should have a smooth ebony fretboard on your guitar, and it's not normal practice to put finish on the top surface of an ebony or rosewood fretboard. You'd normally put apply on the sides of the fretboard so that there's a smooth transition between the neck proper and the fretboard, but not on the top of it. You can do it if you want to, and Rickenbacker lacquer over their rosewood fretboards, but the norm is to leave them bare and just treat them with lemon oil or a light mineral oil from time to time to stop them from drying out.

But ebony is already smooth and doesn't need making smoother with finish. It's not going to show up fingermarks and dirt the way an unfinished maple board would either. You'd normally pay a premium to have an ebony fretboard over a rosewood one just because it is a generally nicer and smoother fretboard material.

But if you do put tung oil or another hardening oil finish on the board, there's no need to then put lemon oil on it afterwards as the board is sealed, and it will just sit on top and not get absorbed, so it just gets wiped off again and you've wasted the lemon oil. You can of course simply use lemon oil for cleaning off dirt from a 'finished' fretboard, but you need to wipe it off afterwards as it will provide no other benefit.

There is no such thing as a normal saturation of tung oil//True Oil etc, as different people use different amounts. Some people on here have used 3 or 4 coats as they like the natural wood feel and will apply another coat from time to time to counter wear. Others will apply up to 50 or more coats (albeit with some sanding back after every few coats) in order to get enough depth to sand the surface flat and get a high polish on it. You certainly wouldn't want to bury the frets with too great a depth of tung oil, as it reduces the relative height of the frets, so frets 2mm high might become 1mm high. So if you do decide to Tung oil the board surface, I'd apply just enough to seal it, and then maybe do the occasional maintenance coat in future.

It will scrape or sand off the frets, and you don't want to leave any oil on them as it will feel bad to play, so wait a few weeks for the oil to harden and then mask off the board and sand and polish the frets. Do it too soon after application and the masking tape glue could well lift some of the oil finish from the board.

[jymicrash]

Thanks for the detailed replies Simon and dwubyd. I'll stick to lemon oil on the fret board and tung oil on the neck.

[Dwubyd]

Thanks SB. I was fishing for exactly the information you provided. I have a maple neck....well I don't, but my current build does. I will finish the fretboard with Organoil (tung oil with additives).

[jymicrash]

Job 99% done. I'm actually really happy with the guitar I somehow managed to produce. I didn't take many photos but I had no major isses.

There is a slight buzz on the A string in a few spots. I've watched a few tutorials now and think I should be able to fit that as the last thing.

My only regret is not having to confidence to wire up some better pickups on the first go.