#3rd Custom GR-1SF ‘Annylonation’.

[DarkMark]

Perfect or not, that's pretty cool! Great work there DM.

How did you go about it? Was it all routed or drilled out and rasped? I'm just curious as to your method on this.

Did you have any issues with the tooling grabbing your added veneers?

First of all I masked everything with painters tape. Glued graph paper on top and sides. Marked out the design. Tried to drill an 11mm hole in the side. Quickly realised that would need pilot holes. 4.5, 7, 9 and 11mm drill bit later I had the side holes...oh, I built a stand to hold it leveled and steady under the drill. 5mm pilot holes x 7 along the length of the longitudinal hole. Used a 16mm quick drilling bit (flat with a large prong in the middle and smaller ones on each side) and followed the pilot holes one side, turning it over to finish it off. Chiseled out a few bits, dremel with sander from there. No issues with chips.

With a lack of band saw it turned out quite deep and I have a problem with strings hitting the headstock on there way to the tuners. I may have to redesign that section of that headstock leaving the truss rod cavity exposed...bugger! I’ll do my best make it acceptable.

At the end of the day this was an experiment and I’ll be happy if it works.

[DarkMark]

“Speedbor” is the name of the bit I’m trying to describe.

[DarkMark]

Headstock is a failure. I still want to finish building it but I need to start over again with a new neck. Lessons learnt for me to remember in six months time;
Better off hand sanding the long holes for more control after coping saw and chisel work. The dremal is too fast and has a bias to the right due to the spinning action.
Join the local men’s shed to access the band saws.
Don’t make it too thick.
Guess I can make the tailpiece during the long wait. (Hangs head in shame)

[Bakersdozen]

Is it fully un-useable mate? Or you just not aesthetically happy with it?

[DarkMark]

Is it fully un-useable mate? Or you just not aesthetically happy with it?

Tuner holes too low, top too high. Ridiculous string angle from the nut to the tuner, especially on the E strings. Athletically bad and even worse practically. Time to cut my losses now and start over. Feeling like a rank amateur, but learning from my mistakes.

[FrankenWashie]

Hmm that’s a shame, from my experiences building necks, you really have to plan those aspects out before wood gets cut. Adapting a stock head was always going to be a challenge but I thought you were heading in the right direction.

still nothing ventured, nothing gained eh?

[DarkMark]

Basically it all came unstuck because I’ve got no way to reduce the thickness of a piece of wood. Once I start again, get my hands on a band saw and attach a thin enough piece of wood to the back of the headstock we’ll be back in business. I think I did some things well like the join to the neck, but for now I don’t think I want to talk about it anymore. I think the second attempt will be well worth while.

[Andy40]

I love the grain on that veneer DM.

[DarkMark]

I love the grain on that veneer DM.

Yeah, so did I.

[DarkMark]

All taped up and ready for mahogany staining tomorrow.