Woltz's semi-scratch strat build

[I’ll give it a go]

Wow you have a lot of patience, gonna look awesome when your finished.


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[Woltz]

Nice work so far, Woltz. That book matching join looks well done for a home job.

Thanks Mark. So far things are looking good. The only thing I am uncertain of at the moment is whether to stain the tasmanian oak.

Good progress! Which way are you going with the truss rod? In from the top or skunk stripe style?

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At this stage planning to go in from the top. Doesn't seem any point to do skunk stripe when I'm gluing on a fretboard anyway.

Wow you have a lot of patience, gonna look awesome when your finished.


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Thanks mate. Honestly it's my Pitbull TL kit that has really tested my patience, more so than this scratch build. But there is still plenty of time for things to wrong with this build so I'm just trying to plan everything and envisaging what I need to do in the build process to try and foresee any potential problems.

[Woltz]

Haven't got that much done recently. Hopefully I'll get a bit more done over the next few days. Anyway here is an update.

First thing is, I put the Queensland Walnut through the thicknesser to bring it down closer to the correct thickness for the fretboard and I can confirm it smells like dog sh!t.

MDF working templates have been routed off the Acrylic master. I just need to expand the route towards the neck for the bridge pickup cavity because the bridge I purchased needs to sit closer to the neck for the scale length to be correct.



Book matched top rough cut on bandsaw.



Neck blank glued up.



And cleaned up with the hand plane and centre line drawn. You can see the centre piece in this image with the grain going in the opposite direction to the two outside pieces.



Planning on putting a headstock cap on this build as well.



I've been trying to decide whether to do a roundover (where you'll be able to see the join between the body and the cap) or bind it with this binding.



And finally here is a bit of a sneak peak of the bookmatched top with the bridge sitting on it.

[Fretworn]

Man! This is going to be purty!

[McCreed]

Hi Woltz. I saw a build *exactly* like this on the ANZ Luthiers Forum!

This forum is more in my wheelhouse as it's more electric build orientated.

Not bashing ANZLF, just way more acoustic building going on over there, and my skills aren't anywhere near that refined!

[Woltz]

Hi Woltz. I saw a build *exactly* like this on the ANZ Luthiers Forum!

This forum is more in my wheelhouse as it's more electric build orientated.

Not bashing ANZLF, just way more acoustic building going on over there, and my skills aren't anywhere near that refined!

Haha yeh I'm on both forums. To be honest I prefer this forum as well. People seem more engaged with the threads here. I just wish more people were having a crack at scratch builds here but then to be fair it was set up as a forum for the Pitbull Kit Builds.

[McCreed]

"...I just wish more people were having a crack at scratch builds here but then to be fair it was set up as a forum for the Pitbull Kit Builds."

I'm looking at doing a semi-scratch build soon. I'd like to do a custom body with a pre-made neck. I'm not ready to undertake the neck building part of it yet!

I'll be posting a question here about Aussie timber recommendations for a solid body next.

[wazkelly]

Yeah, neck building needs so much more precision.

I am in early stages of considering a semi scratch build too and also wondering about what timber to use as some can be as heavy as concrete whilst light weights (like pine) may not be strong enough. Have a few left field low cost ideas floating around that might work.

[Woltz]

"...I just wish more people were having a crack at scratch builds here but then to be fair it was set up as a forum for the Pitbull Kit Builds."

I'm looking at doing a semi-scratch build soon. I'd like to do a custom body with a pre-made neck. I'm not ready to undertake the neck building part of it yet!

I'll be posting a question here about Aussie timber recommendations for a solid body next.

Yeah, neck building needs so much more precision.

I am in early stages of considering a semi scratch build too and also wondering about what timber to use as some can be as heavy as concrete whilst light weights (like pine) may not be strong enough. Have a few left field low cost ideas floating around that might work.

Yeh a lot of the eucalyptus varieties are quite dense and heavy. The Australian Red Cedar (part of the mahogany family) piece that I have though I think will make a nice body that will be quite light. Too soft for a neck I would think but should be hopefully ok for a body. I'll use Queensland Maple for a neck to go with the cedar body. I also have some Southern Silky Oak drying which would be fine for guitar bodies as well and not too heavy.

Once I've finished the routing on my current build I'll weigh it and let you know how heavy it is so you guys can get an idea of what to expect if you use Tas Oak/Vic Ash. Having said that obviously from tree to tree there can be quite a bit of difference as well.

[McCreed]

I'll look into the Aus Red Cedar and Silky Oak. Silky Oak was a suggestion in my other post re: Aussie timber in the Non-PBG section.

As for Red Cedar being possibly too soft and light, I've got a few guitars that are Basswood and Asian Mahogany (bodies) that fit that description. Once they're finished and have neck & hardware fitted, they feel more "solid". I definitely don't have any problem with how they play and sound.

Cheers