View Poll Results: 1st Build Floater Suggestions
- Voters
- 25. You may not vote on this poll
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KA Handwound 12-pole PAF humbucker
15 60.00% -
Zoller AZ-48
5 20.00% -
Biltoft Dual Blade Humbucker
5 20.00%
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When cutting the neck extension piece, I find it best to cut it a bit thick so that when it is fitted it will sit just proud of the neck surface plane. Then after the ext. piece is glued in place, I plane the ext. piece flush to the neck with a small block plane then I finish up with a long sanding block. This way you can be sure your ext. piece is set at the proper angle and its height is correct. It is fast and best of all it is accurate.
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12-27-2019 09:41 AM
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I have always thought of instrument building as more like shoemaking than cabinetry, trim to fit
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Here’s how she looked after 24hr of glue up:
Minus the fret crown height and a slight loss from radiusing, this is how she stood after gluing on neck extension with the story pole using the 1” gauge side:
At this point, I decided to try to begin the fitting the neck to the body. Despite marking the dovetail at 17/32” protrusion, the neck extension only made contact with the top plate in a couple of spots even tho it felt nearly fully seated:
I used carbon paper, which left marks at the areas of contact. I used a chisel to remove these high spots:
At this point, I decided to adjust the dovetail using a chisel to allow the it to sit slightly lower to make more contact:
This did help make more contact, and I continued to use graph paper to refine this.. cont’d in next post.
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I continue to remove the high spots on the next extension:
Side view of neck extension contact on non-cutaway side:
And cutaway side:
I had done a bit more refining of the dovetail, and eventually it became a bit loose. I used a very fine shim (thick shaving from hand-plane) and this tightened up the dovetail fit again:
This is where I stopped, because I realized the edge I was seeing and using to guide the contact with the top plate will be band sawed away as I still need to shape the neck and narrow the width to the fretboard. That being said, I’m not sure I’ll get the cutaway side to make full contact with the top plate.
This is where it stands currently:
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Took me quite a bit of time to determine a design for the headstock. I initially thought of doing a slightly asymmetrical design, but changed my mind and wanted something a bit cleaner, so I modeled it after Peter Bernstein’s Zeidler guitar:
You can tell it took me a few tries to get an angle that I liked.
I then used a scalpel to cut out the pattern and cut the cardboard template in half:
I used a French curve to get a curved I liked from the nut to the long side:
Once I was back in the shop, I transferred the cardboard template to a piece of 1/4” plywood:
I crosscut the nut side of the template on the table saw:
And cut the remainder out on the new shop scroll saw. I then sanded close to the lines on the bench top sander:
This is the current state of headstock template affairs:
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brilliant photography and narrative.
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Originally Posted by sbeishline
and later poached by Your Humble Correspondent!
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Originally Posted by Sam Sherry
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Milled up the headstock ears from some leftover mahogany to the Benedetto recommended dimensions: 5/8” x 7/8”, but made them as long as my headstock by cutting them on the chop saw:
Here’s the alignment from the back:
I used a couple pieces of scrap wood to use as cauls:
I put a clamp on the back of the headstock to keep it flat, applied some HHG, and clamped the ears in place:
Took the headstock out of the clamps today and overall it glued up pretty well:
Late afternoon pic of neck blank:
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I still needed to get the bindings cut to the edge at both the nut and bridge ends of the fretboard. I started in the band saw as this was the quickest to remove most material. I did this on the bridge end first because I had excess material in case of error:
I was able to get this fairly close, and decided to try a shooting board to get closer. Unfortunately, the ebony was somewhat brittle and end grain doesn’t cut easily. I only took a few passes before abandoning this method:
I decided to abort that and go to the almighty chisel. Again, I started with the bridge end and got myself real close with the chisel. I then used 400grit sandpaper and took it down until it was flush:
Having had a good go with the bridge side, I flipped the board around and started to work on the nut end. I was able to do one side without too much trouble. But, sadly, my chisel slipped and the binding came apart from the fretboard.
This halted my fretboard progress as I had to reglue. I had the HHG pot fired up and slipped a piece of wax paper with HHG through, and for my punishment, clamped it for a couple minutes myself:
I’ll sharpen my chisel to ensure that isn’t a factor and retry again tomorrow. I’ll consider going right to sandpaper in the meantime.
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After my mishap, I decided to use the time to map a safe string path to mark my tuner peg holes.
I took the string spacing from my PRS archtop as this has a pretty good feel, and transferred it onto a piece of cardboard:
I used the Benedetto recommendations for the space between tuner pegs, but kept the first peg a tad closer to the nut than in the Benedetto book because my headstock is a little shorter. I then traced string paths to ensure I wouldn’t block myself anywhere. I actually should’ve moved the string over as they don’t come from the peg center, but off to the medial side because it gets wrapped around the post. I’ll adjust this at some point.
At this stage, I made a center line on the ebony template and traced half the template. I then flipped it and completed the headstock outline. Looks purdy good:
Here’s the ‘first look’ at how the lines of what will eventually be a sharp looking neck:
Hopefully tomorrow I will finish the binding refinement, move to STP’ing the rear of the headstock, cutting the headstock shape, and gluing the fretboard in place on the neck blank!
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Being that I'm at the point where alignment is necessary (headstock, veneer, fretboard, neck extension), I wanted to start marking centerlines. So, yesterday I began that process marking the centerline of the fretboard. I didn't have the advantage of running a combination square along because the fretboard is now tapered, so I resorted to using a centerline marking tool:
The draw back with this method is that you can't get the line all the way from end to end, because the marking tool leg gets to the end before the pencil, so I made the line as long as possible and then used the straight edge to extend it out to the nut and bridge end of the fretboard. I did this on the bottom because the white chalk pencil breaks every time it runs over a fret slot. I then just wrapped the centerline around to the end grain of the ends:
I made a general centerline for the headstock outline by splitting the difference between the 2 sides of the combination square I thought was set to the centerline. However, for tracing the actual half template onto the neck black for cutting out the shape, I wanted to have an actual centerline. I carefully adjusted the combo square until it was in the middle of the 2 lines, took a blue colored pencil and sharpened it to a really fine point, and pressing very lightly marked the new centerline:
The neck extension centerline was a bit more difficult because the extension was glued on by eye. I knew because of my neck black laminates the total added up to 2 1/2" ( 2 laminates at 7/8" and 1 at 3/4"). So, I used a little baby square to continue those lines out onto the extension:
I nearly forgot that I had ran each side of the neck blank through 1 pass of the jointer (at 1/32" each), so the total was actually 2 7/16"! So, I took the half mark 1 7/32" and set the combo square and used a pencil to mark the brass on the truss rod to serve as a centerline marker, and marked out the centerline:
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I was also able to make some headstock progress today. I started out doing this by transferring the template outline onto the neck blank:
Before using the Safe-T-Plane, I wanted to double check my nut width was correct, and it was (1 11/16"):
To thickness the headstock blank, I used the Safe-T-Plane in the drill press and just like I had cut the tiers of the top and back plate ziggurats, I decreased step-wise by 1/16" to get to a goal headstock thickness of 9/16" before the ebony veneer. I measured 3 of my guitar headstock thicknesses (PRS archtop/Godin Flat Five X/Stratocaster) and tried to end up just greater than the average of them:
I almost forgot I wanted to create a volute a la Moffa Mithra and was glad I stopped to check the Benedetto book on this where he shows to leave some wood in this area. I went online and looked at this photo to gauge where I should leave the meat in relation to the tuner pegs:
And after guesstimating where that would be, I extended my retained meat marking:
PS - That STP is a great tool!
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Kept the train chugging this morning and decided to get the headstock shape sawn.
This is another part of the build where different builders probably do it by his or her own preferred method. Benedetto suggests either tracing the template onto the rear of the neck blank headstock or pattern routing it. I wasn't happy tracing it onto the rear of my neck blank because it was very uneven (see in previous photos) and I couldn't get the entire pattern on there making it very imprecise. I also didn't think pattern routing was a great option because I'm using a half template and I'm not really sure how I would've gone about that. Mental gravity kept pulling me to make the cut on the bandsaw where I could do it front facing up and I would be able to see the actual marked outline. So, that's what I did.
I happened to find a block of sorts that had a small ledge on it, which allowed me to push without the blank sliding on top of the block because of the offset cuts of the STP:
It also allowed the headstock to have a place upon which it could rest during the cut:
I made the first cut along one of the long sides:
Then the opposite side, and finally around the top of the curve.
I left room to plane/sand to the lines. *Obviously the support block was sacrificed as it was cut with the headstock.
I decided to try and use a coping saw to cut the transition areas from the nut to the headstock itself, and this worked fairly well:
This is how she looked after the general cutout:
I then found myself at a point where I needed to decide whether to start shaping the neck or gluing on the fretboard, and took a couple pics of current neck blank appearance of the top:
And after a couple of test pulls with the spoke shaves on the bottom:
Tomorrow, I will glue on the fretboard next as the current neck bulk will assist in the clamping in the vice for the glue up process. Additionally, the fretboard being in place will allow me to shape to the fretboard edges.
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What a wild inaugural build year it's been! So glad I dove head first into the lutherie waters without dipping my toe in. Have a few more miles to go, but certainly happy with the accomplishments of the parts I've made thus far.
Here's the pile of 2019's instrument efforts:
*missing from photo is sbeishline Thickness Calipers Mk I and O'Brien Mortise/Dovetail jig
Happy New Year, JGF! May 2020 be prosperous and healthy for all.
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Thank you so much for posting all this information and photos on your build. I have zero woodworking skills and have learned sooooo much about what goes into making a guitar from your fantastic posts!
Looking forward to completion in the coming weeks. All the best for a fantastic 2020
Ray
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I have heard said that if women remembered how difficult childbirth is the species would have ended millennia ago. I think I suffer from similar amnesia with regards to building guitars.
This excellent thread reminds me why it takes 50-60 hours of work to make a guitar. I am getting ready to do a couple more, and my mind’s eye I think it will be relatively quick and painless. Reading this thread reminds me of the commitment that it really implies.
Keep up the excellent work! I can tell you are an avid woodworker, but when you put on strings and it comes alive you will never be satisfied making a shaker end table or an inlaid jewelry box again. That moment when it stops being a woodworking project and becomes a guitar is unforgettable and addictive.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
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Originally Posted by Ray175
Thanks for the kind words, man. I appreciate them. Glad to see my efforts are making an impact on someone- just like me only 11 months ago! Not that I had any intention for anything in particular other than blogging my adventure, but cool that readers are enjoying.
Thx again-
S
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Originally Posted by rlrhett
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While Lars was having his New Years Day coffee, he agreed it was a good day to make some guitar progress:
The fretboard in its current state was a bit over 1/4” (17/64”). At final thickness post-radius, I wanted to it closer to 5/32”. I decided to go back to the drum sander and take very thin (1/128”-1/64”) passes and bring it down:
Got to 1/4” and decided to take it a smidge further. I stopped here:
I needed to remark my centerline, because I sanded the previous line off. Steve has given some thought to the marking gauge tool, and settled on the idea that it doesn’t really mark a centerline on a trapezoid shape, like the fretboard. So, I ended up measuring and marking 27/16” on the nut End (half of 1 11/16”) and the halfway point on the bridge end, and drew the line connecting those.
I then wrapped the centerline around to the ends, so I could line it up on the neck blank:
Here she is centered on the nut:
And on the bridge end:
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Figured I should get the headstock refined before gluing on the fretboard.
I decided to hand plane the long sides of the headstock using my LN 101 plane. This worked well and didn’t take long:
I then moved over to the spindle sander for the shaping of the top curve and 2 transition curves. I wasn’t able to turn the headstock face down, because I didn’t have lines on the back. So, to try and monitor my angle while holding the neck and sanding, I zero’d the Wixey angle gauge to the table and taped it to the headstock:
I took this pic, but ended up changing that spindle to the belt sander attachment because it was flat and closer to the top curve. For the 2 transition curves, I used the spindle that most closely matched the curve lines. This is how it turned out:
I left a tad beyond the marking lines for final hand sanding.
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I was planning to glue the fretboard onto the neck blank today, but I ran out of time doing the prep work.
My plan for gluing was in line with Benedetto instructions in using a brad nail to hold the fretboard in place and prevent sliding while gluing. I’ll be using Jescar 45100 fretwire, which has a 0.100” crown width.
I started by testing out 2 nail hole sizes- a 17-gauge x 3/4” and a 19-gauge x 5/8”. I cut the nail heads off, chucked them in the drill, and tested the drilling. It worked fine and kept the hole nice and neat:
I measured the 17-gauge nail diameter with the calipers and it was about 0.055” and thus, will be completely covered by the 0.100 fret crown. I wanted the extra length of nail, so decided to use that nail.
Next, I had to make a caul for glue-up and milled a piece of cherry that was almost all sapwood. I milled it to size and then placed it on top of the fretboard to locate the area of the 1st and 22nd frets. I marked this and went to the bandsaw and cut out wedges for nails when they protrude out from the fretboard during glue-up:
Ready to drill, I lined up the centerlines as perfectly as possible and clamped the fingerboard to the neck using spring clamps:
Chucked the nail:
And drilled about 1/8 inside the inside binding edge of the 1st fret:
Then repeated at 22nd fret:
Will bring some silicone caulking for the truss rod slot and glue-up tomorrow. I’ll also finish the body violin-style edge (waist and cutaway) refinement that couldn’t be planed because of the degree of the curves.
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Having this week off has helped me sprint? jog? er, walk quickly? towards the “finish” line - *pun intended.
Having done the dry run yesterday, I was ready to glue up the fretboard to the neck blank after picking up some silicone from the hardware store.
I had watched a Tom Bills video on his silicone application technique and also read the StewMac recommendations that came with the trust rod.
To prevent any possible rattle once the fretboard was glued on, I decided to add a piece of electric tape on each side of the double nuts on each end:
I didn’t leave any tape on the top or bottom area because i didn’t want any protrusion of the truss rod up past flush with the fretboard.
I then taped off the neck blank, so I wouldn’t get any silicone on the fretboard surface of the neck:
Then, I set the truss rod on the neck (adjacent to where it will sit the slot) and applied silicone in the area of the double nuts:
Because the area of the double nuts was already very snug, I only smeared a thin layer in this area. I also smeared a little bit on the middle 2-3” of the truss rod. I then placed it in and tapped it bridge-ward until was in place at the nut:
Here’s a look in position ready for gluing on the fretboard:
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Truss rod in place- I was ready for glue up. I removed the tape from the fretboard and replaced a piece of 3/4” tape down the center over the truss rod slot to protect it from excessive glue squeeze out:
I then wiped the neck blank and extension with some mineral spirits and waited a few minutes for it to dry. While it was drying, I set up the Bessey clamps in place so they were ready to go.
Once all systems were go, I applied glue to the neck and the fretboard:
After this pic was taken, I removed the tape from over the truss rod. I then realized I applied glue to the entire fretboard and forgot to leave a strip over the truss rod. I wiped off the glue in a strip over the middle as best I could and placed the locator nails into the fretboard, and set it in place on the neck blank. I taped in the nails to secure the location and applied the clamps:
Here’s a view from over the nut area:
Here’s a view from the neck extension:
Once the clamps were tightened I removed the nails, so they didn’t get glued in place:
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Once the fretboard was in clamps, I decided to finish the spindle sanding of the waist curves and cutaway to about 1/8”. I took my time with this and left a tad to finish by hand. This is how she turned out:
Crimson/Hutchins Gibson l5
Today, 09:04 AM in Guitar, Amps & Gizmos