You've got to love the way he's precisely polishing the edges that are going to butt up against each other and be invisible... Sure you want to clean up burrs and file marks, but reason in all things.
You've got to love the way he's precisely polishing the edges that are going to butt up against each other and be invisible... Sure you want to clean up burrs and file marks, but reason in all things.
Build #1, failed solid body 6 string using neck from a scrapped acoustic (45+ odd years ago as a teenager!)
Build #2, ugly parlour semi with scratch built body and ex Peavey neck
Build #3, Appalachian Dulcimer from EMS kit
Build #4, pre-owned PB ESB-4
Build #5, Lockdown Mandolin
Build #6, Sixty six body for Squier
Build #7, Mini Midi Bass
Yeah, I didn't do that. I couldn't see an scratches when I put the tuners together, even though I only used the double-cut side of the flat file. I didn't have any serious burrs and polishing seemed like a lot of work with not much payoff. What did become clear is that the tuners are probably going to leave a mark in my heastock as they did on my jig...Originally Posted by JimC
...which, of course, no one will see on the finished product. I have decided that neither invisible problem bothers me enough to do something about it ;-)
Last edited by fender3x; 01-08-2020 at 06:03 AM.
healthy attitude!
First (proper) build: http://www.buildyourownguitar.com.au...ead.php?t=8546
Second build: http://www.buildyourownguitar.com.au...ad.php?t=10229
A little progress...
I managed to do the finish sanding an polishing to the neck, and then added the tuners.
Not the clearest pic, but the up close the bird's eye figuring in, particularly on the fingerboard, really comes out. Not a perfect finish, but I think I can live with it. Ironic how tempting it is to rush now, after putting the first touches of finish on this neck over 30 years ago. Most of the color in the neck is from that original finish that was very light and almost completely clear, but has yellowed dramatically over time. There is not a drop of stain or tint on this neck.
Is this what has happened to the original fender necks? Were they almost white when new, but have just yellowed with age?
Last edited by fender3x; 08-08-2020 at 03:10 AM.
Went to do final polish on the body...and it went badly. Once it was shiny it was clear that I had not gotten the finish flat enough. Will have to go back to 400 and start again. Is there anything I should do to get rid of the wax I used at the very end...or just be prepared to change the sandpaper often?... <sigh>
Why the wax? Never makes any sense to me. Naptha (lighter fluid) may help. Or kerosene and then naptha (to help remove the kerosene quickly).
The original 'clear' nitro lacquers were neither clear nor stable under UV. So they started off with a yellowish tint and got yellower as they aged. Some of those first 'TV yellow' guitars started out pretty white, but not for long after they were sprayed with clear coat.
Then almost clear UV-stable nitro came along, and whilst that was good for coloured bodies, it did make a lot of the necks look rather pale, so I suspect that some lightly tinted clear lacquer was then employed for consistency/continuity in looks.
Fender started using polyester undercoats in the late 60s, with nitro colour and clear coats over the top. But that then often ended up with a mixture of polyester and nitro on different parts of the guitar, so a neck could be all polyester apart from the headstock face which had nitro over the decal and yellowed with age, whilst the all-polyester neck stayed the same colour.
It wasn't until the early 80s that Fender switched from nasty thick Polyester + nitro finishes (which could be up to 1/10" thick!) to thinner all-polyurethane finishes. Now nitro on Fenders tends to be just on custom shop or special run guitars.
Somehow, Simon, I knew you would know the answer to my question about the original fender necks.
My mid-1970's Precision bass which has one of those super thick coats. Nasty yes, but it looked super cool to me when I was 19.
Meanwhile I have gone through all the Kübler-Ross stages and have settled on resignation, and am now resigned to continue sanding the body. I don't mind the sanding as much as the anxiety about sand throughs.
I would not call finish perfect. Maybe "close enough for jazz"?
Put the neck on today. It's beginning to look like this thing might someday be a guitar. I used the "stew mac" method of inserting a drill bit that was exactly the size of the holes in the body to put a dimple in the neck. I also used a drill press. Since the fretboard is radiused, it took me a while to figure out how to get the bottom of the neck to be totally perpendicular to the drill bit. Simplest way I could figure was to screw a 3/4" piece of wood to a flat 8"x12" plank. The piece of wood gave me perpendicular surface for the flat side of the neck to butt up against. I clamped the neck to the piece of wood so that it could not rock, and then clamped the plank to my drill press table. Worked like a charm. Holes in the perfect place, and perfectly perpendicular.
My other "innovation" was to dip the about 7-8mm of the pointy end of the neck screws into turtle wax. They went into the 1/8" neck holes like butter. I was looking around for candle wax, which I did not have handy, when I spied the turtle wax. I wasn't sure it would work, but figured it would not hurt either so why not? Turns out that it worked WAY better than the hard waxes I have used in the past.
None of these are great insights, but since I have not seen reference to them on the interwebs, I figured I'd post them FWIW. Mostly, I am just happy to have the neck on without incident so far.
I made a similar jig a couple of years ago for thicknessing neck heels with my Safe-T-Planer.Simplest way I could figure was to screw a 3/4" piece of wood to a flat 8"x12" plank. The piece of wood gave me perpendicular surface for the flat side of the neck to butt up against. I clamped the neck to the piece of wood so that it could not rock...
I also use it for drilling mounting holes in the heel like you.
Sounds like the only difference on my jig is I have 2nd piece of timber mounted to the bottom board that pivots and "clamps" from both side of the fretboard.
I'll and post a pic later if I remember.
Making the world a better place; one guitar at a time...
I'd like to see that. Makes me wonder if there shouldn't be a "jig" thread. I am guessing there is some pretty ingenious stuff--like the jig you just mentioned--that most of us have not seen before.
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