Building a guitar.

Märk · Post by **Märk** » Sun May 31, 2009 1:12 am

So I decided the neck I had just plain sucks, so I destroyed it for the fretboard and truss rod. Got a square maple newel post for free, and spent the day building a neck.. HOLY CRAP does it take a lot of block sanding by hand to turn a 90 degree corner into a nice sleek D-curve. I have it mostly shaped, but I'ma orbital sand it tomorrow so it's perfect. I left the headstock blank, but I'm pretty sure what shape I want, so I'll cut it tomorrow as well. There's some scrap figured maple left over from the top, so I'm going to plane it down to about 1/16" and laminate it on the headstock to match the body. I need to find some binding material for the fretboard, as the old binding disintegrated while I was removing it from the old neck.

The body is basically ready to route for pickups/bridge/electronics and make a mortise/tenon joint to set-in the neck.

I was too absorbed in my work to take pics, but I'll try to remember tomorrow.

blue · Post by **blue** » Sun May 31, 2009 1:20 pm

Märk wrote:HOLY CRAP does it take a lot of block sanding by hand to turn a 90 degree corner into a nice sleek D-curve.

yeeeeah.. you're insane.

Billy's Little Trip · Post by **Billy's Little Trip** » Sun May 31, 2009 2:22 pm

Märk wrote:So I decided the neck I had just plain sucks, so I destroyed it for the fretboard and truss rod. Got a square maple newel post for free, and spent the day building a neck.. HOLY CRAP does it take a lot of block sanding by hand to turn a 90 degree corner into a nice sleek D-curve. I have it mostly shaped, but I'ma orbital sand it tomorrow so it's perfect. I left the headstock blank, but I'm pretty sure what shape I want, so I'll cut it tomorrow as well. There's some scrap figured maple left over from the top, so I'm going to plane it down to about 1/16" and laminate it on the headstock to match the body. I need to find some binding material for the fretboard, as the old binding disintegrated while I was removing it from the old neck.

The body is basically ready to route for pickups/bridge/electronics and make a mortise/tenon joint to set-in the neck.

I was too absorbed in my work to take pics, but I'll try to remember tomorrow.

I'm guessing you don't have a router? Or I would have used a jig saw to cut that 90 degree corner down, then started sanding, lol. You're going to have muscle in your hands and arms that you didn't even know existed.

Eric Y. · Post by **Eric Y.** » Sun May 31, 2009 2:43 pm

Märk wrote:block sanding by hand to turn a 90 degree corner into a nice sleek D-curve. I have it mostly shaped, but I'ma orbital sand it tomorrow so it's perfect.

Odd ... I've never built a guitar, but have done my fair share of general wood-working. I would have thought you would have gone for the orbital (or something electric -- perhaps a smallish belt-sander?) first and then done the finishing by hand...

blue · Post by **blue** » Sun May 31, 2009 4:39 pm

the interweb says to use a rasp first, then... BLOCK SANDER.

so the whacky canadian was half right.

blue · Post by **blue** » Sun May 31, 2009 4:40 pm

the interweb also says to finish the entire neck and fretboard first before you shape the back.. no idea why.

Märk · Post by **Märk** » Sun May 31, 2009 8:21 pm

The reason I did it by hand is because a) I don't own a rasp, and b) I prefer having a tactile gauge as to how the shape is turning out. You'd be surprised how fast 50-grit and a wooden block shapes maple, to be honest. The worst part was my constant fear that I was going to go through to the truss rod channel. The neck is basically done, I planed a piece of the left over stripey stuff to really thin, shaved about 1/3 off the top of the headstock, and laminated it on there, fixed a router fuckup in the truss channel with JB Weld (!) and cut the joint on the end to set it in the guitar body.... now I just need to find a 1/4" trim bit for my router. (A straight bit with the ball-bearing *above* the cutter, to follow a template) Apparently, no-one in town sells those. Sourcing out some thin MDF sheets to make routing templates. After I have that all coped with, I can finally start working on the proper neck angle. (yay!) Not sure I like the headstock shape, either, I might modify that a bit.

Man, this is a lot of work. I've enjoyed (almost) every minute of it, though.

: Might shorten this up a bit..; headstock.jpg (302.95 KiB) Viewed 2304 times

: JB Weld= oops fixer; neck1.jpg (312.35 KiB) Viewed 2303 times

: Still a lot of shaping to go, but it's nice and contoured; neck2.jpg (297.88 KiB) Viewed 2300 times

Märk · Post by **Märk** » Sun May 31, 2009 8:40 pm

Rough mockup:

blue · Post by **blue** » Sun May 31, 2009 11:31 pm

that looks fantastic. are you in love with having a tone control? you can get bypassable pots that'll click completely out of the circuit for cheap.. go volume/volume instead of volume/tone.

Paco Del Stinko · Post by **Paco Del Stinko** » Mon Jun 01, 2009 6:32 am

Looking great, Mark, I'm impressed. Don't lose that nice top under heavy enamels or whatever. I like tone knobs, so keep that in consideration when you make the Paco Special Edition.

Billy's Little Trip · Post by **Billy's Little Trip** » Mon Jun 01, 2009 4:38 pm

Looks fantastic, Mark. You can call it a "MARK I" and the next design a MARK II, etc.

nyjm · Post by **nyjm** » Tue Jun 02, 2009 9:49 am

Billy's Little Trip wrote:"MARK I"

*GROAN*

Anyway, this looks awesome. It's inspiring, actually. Maybe once I move into a proper house (coming soon!) and have a corner of the garage for arts and crafts I'll look into this myself. I need a bass guitar.

Billy's Little Trip · Post by **Billy's Little Trip** » Tue Jun 02, 2009 8:37 pm

nyjm wrote:
Billy's Little Trip wrote:"MARK I"
*GROAN*

What, no good?

It was good enough for Ford Motor Company when they named their Lincolns.
....and it's a much more PC name than my first choice. The Vagina Soaker 2000.
I even have the rough draft writen for his first ad campaign. As follows...

Are you tired of ripping a shredding guitar solo only to see drab dry vaginas and un-erect penises in the crowd? Well then you're not alone. Sure, you've tried the hottest amps and FX known to man kind, but you still have (deep sad voice) Dry vaginas. Well, guess what? Now there's something meatier! Using space age earth grown wood and just the right amount of JB Weld, we bring you the Vagina Soaker 2000. Now you can slap AND chop your way to many soaked vaginas. Sure, you will be hit on by erect penises, but you just smile politely and tell them you are playing the Vagina Soaker 2000. note: vagina soaking results may vary depending on how fat you are. VS2K is not responsible for surprise butt secks and it is recommended that you play responsibly and always wear pants.

Märk · Post by **Märk** » Tue Jun 02, 2009 8:45 pm

Discovered that I have pretty much exactly enough of flame maple to make a fretboard. I don't like the one I have, plus it's not perfectly flat on the bottom side (I bandsawed it off the old neck and "planed" it with a belt sander). So, I bookmatched the final strip of flame maple, and I can start making a fretboard. I'm going to just use the old fretboard as a guide for making the radius, etc. Now I need to buy a fretsaw and some fret wire. More cost.

Any ideas about a decal or inlay for the headstock?

: fretboard.jpg (294.02 KiB) Viewed 2138 times

Märk · Post by **Märk** » Sat Jun 06, 2009 9:34 pm

Router madness! Made MDF templates for the neck joint and two pickup cavities, and routed them out. One tiny little burp on one pickup hole, which will be covered up by the pickup ring anyway. Set the neck, seems to be all good.
Still need to:
~~-Glue on the fretboard (decided the bookmatched maple thing was too much work. The frets are going to need to be dressed/and/or replaced on this existing one)~~
~~-Cut some thin strips of maple for the fretboard binding~~
~~-Position and drill the tuning key holes~~
~~-Drill the bridge post holes/Route the bridge hole~~
~~-Route the electronics cavity~~/drill knob/toggle/output holes
-Drill small wire channels from pickup holes
~~-Put it all together, make sure it's playable~~
~~-Assuming it is, start sanding sanding sanding~~
~~-figure out a finish scheme~~

Billy's Little Trip · Sat Jun 06, 2009 10:25 pm

Märk wrote:Any ideas about a decal or inlay for the headstock?

Märk · Post by **Märk** » Sat Jun 06, 2009 11:07 pm

Or...

: headstock logo.jpg (17.3 KiB) Viewed 2070 times

signboy · Post by **signboy** » Sun Jun 07, 2009 5:10 am

JonPorobil · Post by **JonPorobil** » Sun Jun 07, 2009 9:36 am

I'll see that "YES" and raise you a "VERY YES."

irwin · Post by **irwin** » Sun Jun 07, 2009 10:35 am

With extra mëtäl

Billy's Little Trip · Post by **Billy's Little Trip** » Sun Jun 07, 2009 3:18 pm

Yes, with the umlauts!

Albatross · Post by **Albatross** » Sun Jun 07, 2009 10:16 pm

Then move the umlauts over one of the consonants, Spinal Tap-style.

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