First Guitar - EXM-1 - Built at 15 with my dad.

[FrankenWashie]

I have done a smoother transition on the neck heel of mine. I will take some photos of it for you tonight.

Effectively, i added maple to the neck heel and then, once the neck was set, I added a slight angle down from between the horns to the front rounded edge of the neck heel.
(I also did some major reworking of the neck tenon, but lets not go there!)

[Maverick_aus]

Thanks FrankenWashie! I look forward to seeing your example

[FrankenWashie]

Hi Mav & HD,

This is what I did,



The maple block added to the heel helped keep the bulk of that step in place for joint strength, but allowed me to taper the rear of the body into the heel. The finish on Theo’s one never quite went right so at some point, future me is going to get the irrits with it and sand it back to redo. But that will be the fifth time it’s been sanded back and current me can’t face that at this point!

I did some other weirdness like go EMG and add a battery box as well.





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[Maverick_aus]

Thanks FrankenWashie,
That's a good approach - you got the shape without compromising the strength. Can I say that finish looks terrific. Love the dark stain with the brown. Kind of relic-ed looking. Also, novel approach to the placement of the battery box.

[FrankenWashie]

Thanks FrankenWashie,
That's a good approach - you got the shape without compromising the strength. Can I say that finish looks terrific. Love the dark stain with the brown. Kind of relic-ed looking. Also, novel approach to the placement of the battery box.

Thanks mate. The surface finish isn’t what I wanted, it’s quite uneven. But to be fair it was my first kit and I’d been fairly ambitious with the mods and the finish, but that’s part of the fun.

You just need to ask yourselves how you want that joint to look, and how far you are willing to go to make it look like that.
Adding some additional depth to the heel is pretty simple, it’s whether you want to further contour that Heel/body transition that will complicate it.

best of luck with it!

[griffilo]

I'm testing out the Feast Watson Japanese Brown stain at the moment on an old non pb kit. I've added the max recommended amount to a lacquer. I reckon it'll go pretty close to the brown you want. Can post pics if you like.


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[Maverick_aus]

@FrankenWashie - thanks mate. Yeah I definitely want to contour it down. If I tapered it down (without adding the extra piece) do you think it would compromise the strength?

@Griffilo - thanks. I'd be interested to see if you can post some pics. We've now bought Feast Watson Jarrah, but it would be good to see some alternatives.

Body Shaping
Boy has started to shape the body to his taste with an angle on the edge all the way around. He's also taken to the relief sections with great gusto! He's got an artistic eye and knows intuitively what he wants so that's all up to him without my interference.



Neck
Tried to smooth out some blemishes in the fretboard. Have sanded right up to 1200 and then 0000 steel wool. It's quite hard to get an even finish after trying to remove some blemishes (which appear to be deeper than I first thought). Anyway, after a coat of linseed oil, the colour of the ebony is rather lovely and I'm quite pleased.


Nut-end Issue
After scoring along the glue and gently prising, the plastic factory nut came out surprisingly easily. However, it unearthed this...


1. The thin piece of fretboard which is protruding is thicker on the left side compared to right. I assume this intended, as when the nut is placed on there, the string side of the nut appears level. Is this right?

2. But that missing piece of wood I'm concerned about. I'm not sure whether to just glue the new nut straight on, or try and build up the hole with a bit of black-stained sawdust+glue paste. (I couldn't salvage any useful slivers from the old nut to glue on.)

If anyone has any ideas on these two things, that would be most welcome!
Boy this forum is helpful! Thanks guys. I never would have dived in deep like this with such a big project (being quite impractical in my background), but with your support it makes it doable!

[griffilo]

This is it, but in reality it is darker and a bit of a more orange brown.


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[Maverick_aus]

Thanks Griffilo.

[FrankenWashie]

The degree of neck joint strength you will lose will vary minimally subject to what sort angle you elect to go for.
I personally believe there is enough contact area in the pocket for a good bond, unless you are going to really pare away the bulk of the thickness from the back of the neck pocket along its length.

consider the below:



Without adding wood to the neck heel, you could use 1, 2 or 3 to reshape, without greatly affecting the overall integrity of the neck pocket..
I would be concerned if you went with a flatter line from neck shaft through to the rear of body, as this night rely too greatly on the adhesion on the sides of the neck for joint strength. See 4 below:


In this instance, it may evince a more aesthetically pleasing line but it could place the integrity of the neck at risk, as well as weaken the pocket significantly.

Given the work that HD has already done on the body, he may find a happy compromise in between the lines I have drawn or a curve or similar of his own. He seems to have a keen eye for complementary lines already well developed.

I hope this helps and is not too much pontificating.






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