So tomorrow I am going to get the wood for the neck. I will be using maple with an ebony fretboard I think. I have decided that I am going to have a go at doing it myself. Now the question I have, is about the truss-rod. If I use a standard single-action truss rod, is it necessary to route a curved channel? I was looking at the one from Allparts here. Does it really matter if I use a single-action as opposed to the double action one? Any input?

It sounds to me like you're the type of guy who jumps in the river to learn how to swim. The first few guitars you'd do well to ignore the jumping urge and first plan, get parts and then build. You do not round over and put bindings or vice versa, it is either/or. You can make a pocket and then fit the neck or vice versa, whichever you prefer, but the most attractive is to rout the pocket according to a Fender neck and then make your own neck to fit that pocket.
Go to www.tdpri.com and read for a few days or weeks; this will help faster than asking questions here. When in doubt after reading tdpri, please come back and ask some more. Finally, photos or it did not happen!

I will admit, I still have a ton of planning to do.. You might have misunderstood, I intend on only putting binding on the top, hence the back was rounded. Re the neck, I'm just afraid that if I rout the pocket first, the neck might not fit perfectly when it's done. I have been scouring www.tdpri.com for quite some time now, but there never seems to be a clear cut solution, rather just plenty of possible attempts at solutions. Thanks for all the advice so far. Will post pictures as I progress ?

Hi,
Good luck with the build.

Check out these guys for parts:
http://www.eyguitarmusic.com/

They're very good with shipping and packing. The prices are also very good. As for the shipping, you'll have to choose but make sure you have at least a tracking number. I've ordered several times from them and received everything (a friend of mine as well), although, it took a while with economy shipping (mostly because of our Post Office!).

Here is a bunch of books about building, assembling, painting, electronics etc. guitars. Also some blueprints. It's 390mb:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/19619471/Knjige%20-%20gitara.zip

Cheeers.

The neck will never point exactly dead centre down the body
So the bridge can only be placed once the neck is screwed on.
A line down the centre of the fretboard should hit it dead centre.
Centre the saddles on their intonation screws and place bridge so that saddles lie at 2 x 12th fret from nut.
(You shouldn't just place it where you marked from a template)

Also better to complete the neck before routing. Then position it and trace the outline.
You can route away more wood from the joint - but you don't want to be messing with a completed neck.

The holes string thru holes are often the same on bridges - but don't bet on it.
Hardtail will certainly be different from a traditional tele bridge

I ordered a batch of things from Japan recently.
I have a spare Gotoh (as good as it gets) hardtail if you interested importing from Paarl rather.
I may also be able to help with a few other components when you need... I'm busy with a batch of teles ?

Thanks for the links Zoran, I have read through almost all those books already!

Also thank you Average Joe, I really appreciate your input, cleared quite a few things up for me.

I got my hands on a beautiful piece of maple as well as a nice piece of ebony for a fretboard. Now I was wondering if anyone has a spare double-action truss-rod laying around before I order internationally. I have decided to go for the double action, as the loss in tone, from what I could hear was negligible, and it is much easier to rout a straight channel, as opposed to the curved channels required for the single action compression rods.

On another note, the ebony fretboard, got quite a few white-ish marks after planing, any ideas on how to darken it up, not entirely pitch black, but definitely not brown? I was thinking to just stain it with a regular dark wood-stain?

Eujean wrote: I'm just afraid that if I rout the pocket first, the neck might not fit perfectly when it's done.

As the boy said to his woodwork teacher (do they still teach woodwork?)

"But Sir, I cut the plank twice and its STILL too short!"

Measure 3 times cut once

I've got to this approach:
- get / make neck
- make neck pocket to fit neck perfectly
- mark lines down body from edges of neck
- place bridge in middle of lines at correct distance. Middle adjustment point of saddles = 2 x 12th fret
- drill holes from actual bridge
- rout for pickups etc relative to neck position
- then cut shape of guitar body

By leaving the guitar shape until last, you're working with a rectangular piece of wood which is easy to clamp; and even screw jigs down into parts that will be cut away.

This approach builds the guitar around the actual neck position

I found a guy close to me who has a few extra truss rods, but they are a bit shorter than I expected. They are an overall length of 39.37 cm (15.5") as opposed to the 45.72cm (18") to be expected for an electric. Will this truss rod still work? I think I'm gonna go for a headstock adjust, and it would seem pointless to me at least to put the rod in the heel where it will be bolted to the body in anyway? Any thoughts?

Average Joe wrote: I have several 2x action truss rods I will not be using if u interested. They are the hex nut type from Stew Mac.
Problem with them is I couldn't find a way to use them adjusting from the headstock.
On a gibson style angled head it would be fine. On a tele it would mean digging out a massive chunk to fit in an adusting key.
Maybe someone else knows how... or they could adjust from the body side.
I thought of installing upside down - but then the rod would bend forward when tightening.

So we rather routed a curve with a single rod. But thats also no walk in the park.
Wouldn't do that for a once off build.
Double action would be much easier I think - if u figure out how.

Make a funky headstock that is semi cutaway inside so you can access the nut?


The other option is to drill holes through the actual nut so you can adjust it with a thin allen key.. then you can adjust at the base of the neck:


Won't be standard tele anymore though... but it's an option...

Wizard wrote: I've got to this approach:
- get / make neck
- make neck pocket to fit neck perfectly

etc

Somehow I'd feel more comfortable routing out the pocket first, then carefully sanding or shaving down the body-end of the neck to fit the pocket. Its easier to work on the "male" part (if you know what I mean)

I've been thinking about which approach to follow, and I can definitely see the merits of both methods. I think I am going to make the neck first, then probably using mdf or something will make a template for the pocket. Might stick a few layers of masking tape or something inside the pocket to make it ever so slightly smaller for routing, and then just sand down until the neck fits snuggly.

As far as the truss rod rout goes, I have never actually set up my own guitar, but I can imagine it's quite a hassle to take of the neck just to adjust the truss rod. That's why I opted for the headstock-adjust method. When I actually get my truss rod, I'll see what will be easier. I saw a few posts on tdpri where people routed for the double-action rods, and just sort of cut a slot in the headstock as follows:


I suppose then it wouldn't be necessary to flip the rod around. Any thoughts?

Leo got it right the second time, adjustment can be done from the headstock with a single rod in a curved rout. It's just a bit of a schlepp making the routing jig, that's all.

What i do is to route out the neck, and then put a 10mm ss or ht bar down the middle, with an 8mm ss or ht bar on either side a few mm apart for bass or 12 string, then bed them in with a very strong epoxy, thinner necks on 6 stringers, 8mm and 6 mm bars. Works like a charm, the necks are then not adjustable, but, i've never needed to tweak a neck in years. Just another alternative to the tried and tested way of doing things.

Thank you all so much for all the advice so far! Much appreciated.

Next question, is with my ebony fretboard, it's not quite as dark as I would have wanted and has a few white stripes down then center. I saw a bottle of ebony stain concentrate in the store the other day, would that work?

On another note, has anyone in the Pretoria/Jhb area made a jig to cut the slots? I was initially thinking of just using a mitre box with a thin dovetail saw, but even this seems complicated and prone to error and so I thought I'd ask if anyone has done slotting and has a jig laying around. I am after a standard 25.5" scale length. My ebony blank is currently 6mm thick.

I got the fretboard colour sorted yesterday, I ended up just staining it darker. My neck template is now also complete.

I have done quite a bit of planning recently, and have come up with the following steps to follow:
- Slot fretboard
- Rough cut fretboard to neck template
- Route the binding channels on the fretboard
- Radius fretboard
- Insert Inlays
- Fret the fretboard
- Thickness headstock
- Install truss rod
- Attach fretboard to neck
- Finish up the headstock slope area
- Shape the neck

Am I planning in the right direction? Again, I don't suppose there is anyone in the Pretoria/Jhb area that can slot the fretboard for me. That's the part I'm most afraid of screwing up to be honest.

Cheers

Eujean wrote: As far as the truss rod rout goes, I have never actually set up my own guitar, but I can imagine it's quite a hassle to take of the neck just to adjust the truss rod. That's why I opted for the headstock-adjust method. When I actually get my truss rod, I'll see what will be easier. I saw a few posts on tdpri where people routed for the double-action rods, and just sort of cut a slot in the headstock as follows:


I suppose then it wouldn't be necessary to flip the rod around. Any thoughts?

Not sure about how to build things and whatnot but this is a good option. My Tele's trussrod screw is at the body end and its a royale pain in the ass to adjust it, because I don't have a tool.

Eujean wrote: I don't suppose there is anyone in the Pretoria/Jhb area that can slot the fretboard for me. That's the part I'm most afraid of screwing up to be honest.

PM me if you want to cut with my tools in my garage with my eye on what you do.