That would be great! However it's only a half size garage, since I converted the other half to my recording/music area, so space is at a premium and I have to share it with things like the tumble dryer (on the proviso that the tube goes outside and doesn't rust my tools!).
I'm trying to convince the kids to move out so I can rearrange the house, however as I'm retiring next year and the wife wants to move it's probably not worth it, so I'll look for somewhere with a large garage. I'd like a decent table saw and a planer/thicknesser of my own, so need some space for that.
Nice job on the truss rod channel, it's a task that always seems a bit daunting but as long as you are patient it's far from the most difficult part of a build.
Forgive me if I missed it but is this going to be a set neck or bolt on? I assume you will round the corners at the body end of the neck?
Let us know how you go with cutting the fret slots as my preference is to do the slots prior to gluing the fretboard to the neck.
It's a bolt on neck. I did round the heel end, but after I took the pic and before I glued the fretboard on.
That's interesting. So you cut the slots, before the fretboard is radiussed? (Not sure that is a word!) Won't that sand out the slots, or are they just as a guide, so you can redo them afterwards? That's the way Fanblade does them (he's a Kiwi so not sure I can mention him on here!) but he glues the fretboard on first, however the neck is not tapered at that point, so he can use a square to get the slots right.
I was going to radius the fretboard then mark and cut the slots after that? Obviously there is the difficulty of marking the frets on a tapered and curved fretboard. I'll see how I get on.
I do a neck in this order but there are multiple approaches and everyone has their own preference.
Mark up neck blank.
Truss rod slot.
Cut out and then flush rout the neck blank.
Drill tuner holes.
Cut the fret slots on the fretboard blank.
Glue fretboard to neck.
Flush rout fretboard to neck.
Drill side dot and fret dot holes and glue in dots.
Carve neck.
Radius the fretboard.
Deepen slots if required.
Insert frets.
I do it this way simply because it works best for the tools and jigs I currently use.
Ok that's useful, thank you. Obviously I've deviated from that already so I'll have to live with what I'm doing. In the UK, there is a guy who runs a guitar building company - Crimson guitars, and I'm basically following the way he did a P Bass build. I've no idea if it's a good way or a bad way, but it's the first time for me so I'm hoping to learn from this. I haven't spent much on the raw materials so if it goes pear shaped then all I've lost is time, and I'm not worried about that.
It's good to get other people's experiences of how they did it and take bits from it - which was mainly why I started the build diary.
There are pros and cons to all three ways of fretting a board (cut flat, then radius/radius then cut slots flat/radius then cut constant depth slots), but they are all relatively minor differences. 'Radius then cut constant depth slots' will leave a bit more wood on the board, but it's not a huge amount extra. But the downside is that using a saw with a depth limiting guide attached makes it hard to use a jig to cut the slots straight and square.
If you can make it work for you, then use that method. Do what you're comfortable with.
So having glued the fretboard to the neck, I trimmed it off with the router and then it was time to radius it. Radius sanding blocks seem expensive for what they are, but there are plenty of guides on how to make your own. Turns out it was fairly simple in actual fact, I mounted an old shelf board in the bandsaw, pivoted an old piece of 4 by 2, 12 inches from the blade and cut six sections.
The whole thing took about 15 minutes. Glued them together and then once dry I routed a groove round the edge to make it easier to hold.
I then set about making a jig for the sanding. Again, very simple - two bolts on either side to position the neck in the centre and a channel the same width as the sanding block. Again, half an hours work but it worked OK.
After that, stuck some sandpaper on the bottom and set to work. Took longer than I though - it's African Rosewood which seems pretty hard. Fairly repetitive work and my shoulders noticed it the next day. I seemed to get better results moving the paper around and replacing it regularly.
Happy enough with the end result.
Still plenty to do on the neck. I've ordered some fretwire and I plan to mark them out and then slot and install them next. Then side dots, inlay markers (not sure if I'm having them yet), finish the headstock, tuner holes, truss rod access hole and carve the neck shape.
What would be suitable material for the side dots and fretboard markers?
Thinking about a jig and considering modifying the sanding jig. Having some time away hillwalking this week which gives me time to think about it.
So, after a week or so break, it's time to crack on. I decided to mark and cut out the frets next. Following the YouTube videos from Crimson guitars, it seems that a centre line is best then mark out the fretlines using a protractor (courtesy of one of the kids' old pencil cases). So after downloading the appropriate measurements from a Stewmac calculator, armed with two pairs of glasses I set about marking the positions and then checking three times (and then leaving until the following morning and checking again - paranoid not!), I drew the lines out.
I decided against using/making a jig and thought I'd cut them by hand. Ben Crowe suggests scoring the lines with a scalpel first (lightly for the first one) then the saw has something to 'grip'. Seemed sensible and I had a scalpel, so I did this - again with the protractor and then cut the slots. I wouldn't say it's the easiest thing I've done but that's probably because I was nervous about ballsing it up. It got easier as I progressed as I developed more of a technique. However I was happy with the result.
Now it's time for more new experiences (every day's a school day!) and to carve the neck.....
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