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.

Aha, I finally made some progress again. I didn't get binding, but I phoned a guy who put me through to a guy, to put met through to another guy etc.. Basically, someone suggested I try what is called edging. Turns out it's exactly the same stuff as the stewmac binding, only difference is it's not pre-cut. So got 2 rolls of 2mm and 3mm each 2m long. Firstly, how would I best go about getting this down to a width of 6.35 mm? I tried a small piece, which I marked with a ruler and then cut with a dremel disc (see pic) but there has to be a better way to do this for 2m. Also, how on earth will I cut a 3mm channel for the binding? I know there is a stew-mac bit with the appropriate bearing, but I really don't want to order a single router bit from them at cost for a one-off project.

What I did in the picture above, is I used a straight piece of mdf and moved it 3mm away, but this won't work for the body unfortunately. Here is another pic:

I'm also curious as to opinions on the order of doing things here. Should I install the binding, then finish the body, then scrape it off? Because I tried that approach, but ended up sort of damaging the spray-paint image. Or should I rather mask it off, or else just finish first, and then glue binding. Last option doesn't really make sense to me though.

The binding for the neck isn't a problem, because I have the template which I could just offset by 2mm.

I'm also not entirely sure how to do the fretboard. As far as I know, there is a piece of fretboard sticking out beyond the nut, but no idea how much. Then again curious about order of things, I'm guessing I should first slot the fretboard, then bind or radius, then fret. Thanks Gearhead, I sent you a pm.

Here is another pic of some of the parts. Thanks Average Joe!!

I have decided, best bet would be to install the truss-rod with heel-adjust. The guys at the fretshop also said, that if the truss rod is installed properly, and set up right, fiddling with is won't be necessary that often.

Here is also a pic of the belly contour, I sort of just winged this part and still have a bit to do.

Again ever so slight progress.. I figured, I don't really need to order the expensive bits from stewmac to route the binding. I came up with the following design for a jig to do it. Any thoughts from the more experienced woodworkers if this will work?


Basically how it works, is by lifting the router up, and offsetting a piece of wood with the center of the router bit, to cut the thickness of the binding. Also, in the pictures there is a rectangular wood piece, and this will obviously not work, but I had no idea how to design a fancier(rounder) piece of wood that I intend to use.

I'm still struggling with the fretboard. I spoke to Andries from the fret shop, and he said it would cost me R250 for him to slot the fretboard.. This is a little bit much, but understandable as it takes time, and time of a luthier is valuable. I would ultimately prefer doing it myself, but not super bothered if someone else does it for me. Prefereably in the Pretoria, and if possible I would like to keep my kidneys ?

Lastly any ideas on where to get some sort of pre-cut inlays locally? Maybe some cool white abalone circles or something similar?

Making progress ever so slightly. I now have the binding channel routed and the fretboard slotted. Pics will follow eventually.

My main goal now is to complete the neck. And I really want to do this right. So my question now is where on earth does one find white mother of pearl inlays locally? I would honestly prefer it being MOP, but I'm also open to alternatives seeing as MOP can't be shipped anywhere. I'm just looking for the basic 6mm dot marker type inlays. Anyone with suggestions? The fretboard is ebony by the way.

Also, what is the best glue for gluing the fretboard and neck? Will standard alcolin cold set wood glue work or do I need something much more specific?

Alcolin Professional is what you want (the red bottle).

I would say any wood appropraite glue that dries to a hard, brittle consistency is ideal.
White glues are rubbery and flexible. There is even a possibility of small movement in the joint with expansion & contraction of the different woods. IMO, the biggest issue is that non-brittle glues dampen and kill tone.

I won't prescribe beyond that. I use hide glue (bought on eBay) and Resorcinol (used for laminating marine ply).

lapdawg wrote: I would say any wood appropraite glue that dries to a hard, brittle consistency is ideal.

Exactly. The red bottle of alcolin is an aliphatic resin based glue (as opposed to PVA for normal white wood glue), which is supposedly less elastic and therefore closer to hide glue (and easier to get than boiling down doggie chew toys I'd imagine hey Graham! ?)

I found a bottle of the red Alcolin professional stuff, but a friend of mine says he can get me hide glue, a bit more expensive, but does it make a substantial difference? Both being of a brittle consistency as you said? Also, any suggestions on the Mother Of Pearl? Seems nobody (not even the Chinese) want to sell to a South African

I've never worked with hide glue, so I can't tell you whether it's more difficult to work with etc... re the mother of pearl, it's difficult because abalone is very restricted generally. Try ebay perhaps?

Eujean wrote: I found a bottle of the red Alcolin professional stuff, but a friend of mine says he can get me hide glue, a bit more expensive, but does it make a substantial difference? Both being of a brittle consistency as you said? Also, any suggestions on the Mother Of Pearl? Seems nobody (not even the Chinese) want to sell to a South African

The great thing about hide glue is that is is reversible. It is really powerful and once you have learned to use it, you may find yourself really liking it. You can also clean it up with damp cloth.
On the downside you must mix it with the right amount of water, you need a thermostat managed heater. It should not be heated above 60deg. I have made one with an old kettle as water bath & used a roasting thermometer. Is also sets very quickly as it cools - you need to have your wood in place and clamped in 30-40secs. Add a bit of salt to fractionally extend the gel time.

If you're planning to build more than 1 guitar, it might be a good idea to start using it.
Also, I have had logos made in the US out of mother of pearl. It got held up by US Fish & Wildlife & cost a whole lot more to have it released. I have found someone in Thailand who who will do my next set of MoP logos for me.
You can but plenty of pieces of MoP on eBay, no problem. I found cutting it to be near impossible. Do not buy from the US, you may have F&W issues. The best sellers seems to be in Israel.

Progress is still being made. It feels significant, but in actuality the progress made is such a small part of the work still to be done. But I'd prefer to be patient and do it right for the most part. In any case I have the truss-rod channel routed and the neck-profile cut, and it looks good. I managed to avoid tearout for the small amount of routing I actually did by following Mr. Gearheads advice. Here is a pic of the progress:


Now that that's mostly done, how on earth do I know how to align the fretboard with regards to the neck? Because I can't find any specific information as for how far the nut should be from the edge of the headstock. I have the center-lines of the slotted blank aligned with the neck's center-line, so I know the fret-slots are perpendicular to the neck. I have 22 frets, and there is a small piece of the fretboard after the last fret right, but does it stick over the neck. Sort of hard to explain without demonstrating vigorously with my hands haha.

That's mostly why I haven't thicknessed the headstock yet, because I don't know to where to thickness.. Any ideas?

Eujean wrote: Progress is still being made. It feels significant, but in actuality the progress made is such a small part of the work still to be done. But I'd prefer to be patient and do it right for the most part. In any case I have the truss-rod channel routed and the neck-profile cut, and it looks good. I managed to avoid tearout for the small amount of routing I actually did by following Mr. Gearheads advice. Here is a pic of the progress:


Now that that's mostly done, how on earth do I know how to align the fretboard with regards to the neck? Because I can't find any specific information as for how far the nut should be from the edge of the headstock. I have the center-lines of the slotted blank aligned with the neck's center-line, so I know the fret-slots are perpendicular to the neck. I have 22 frets, and there is a small piece of the fretboard after the last fret right, but does it stick over the neck. Sort of hard to explain without demonstrating vigorously with my hands haha.

That's mostly why I haven't thicknessed the headstock yet, because I don't know to where to thickness.. Any ideas?

Patience is key. 1 mistake can = firewood. Its looking good. Some tips:

• If you haven't already done so, print a full size plan of the neck. Use that to measure up. That will help with the F-board positioning. You can also mount the paper on MDF... Never put glue on the paper if you mount it. Put glue on the board and lay the paper quickly. Paper distorts very easily with moisture from glue and can throw scale right out. Also, download a fretboard calculator and check yourself with that. I some charts, drawings etc. PM me if you need them.
• There looks to be a little wave on the edges of the FB. was this on you template? Its best to make sure the template is 100%. You can screw any appropriate straight edge to the template and flush cut the template to that on a router table.