The pictures on a couple posts don't load on my phone. They show on my desk top, though. I got linked them from Google photos, so I'm thinking you guys can't see them? Here's a few pics of what I think you can't see.... I'm too late to edit the posts.

2x4 too tall
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...57d393bebe.jpg

Fences on plywood
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...8c54bcabbb.jpg

Knob in the way

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...e05556a5e0.jpg

7/16ths
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...1153ecb701.jpg

Stop bolts
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...975b1cad8e.jpg
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...f83f0193f8.jpg

Yeah, I can't see pictures in posts 56 and 57. I can see the video in 58, 1 picture in 59, and the sketch in 60.
Looks like you're doing it right, thinking it through, being cautious.

I've found a denim bib apron is great for the shop, saves clothes and has a couple pockets to keep the shit you need constantly like a pencil.
It's always where it's easy to reach and you know where it is without looking.

I've got my tractor supply flannel shirt for that. I look goofy enough, thank you very much.

I am being more careful with this than anything I can remember doing. And planning to repeat the process, so this thread is like a notebook. I'm having fun. A lot of fun doing this.

I can see the focus from here. Good work Jim.

Small huge step today.

To access the truss rod, you need to drill a hole in the arc that leads from the neck down to the head stock.
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...011496883a.jpg

The rim of the collar of the truss rod is 1/16th thick. The collar sits 1/32" lower than the surface of the neck, so that far down tells me how far away from the edge of the drop the top of the hole needs to be. Read that last sentence again slowly.

I forgot to take pics during, but here's the result. I munged the top a little bit with a careless twitch of the dremel router bit I used to carve the notch for the drill bit. It will be covered by the finger board anyway, so...

Oh, I went to a cool place today...

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...71156a1b58.jpg

Exotic wood company in Sicklerville.

They sell cool wood. And guitar specific wood. Like pre-slotted finger boards.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...488023c746.jpg

I think I'll use one of these on this guitar. One less thing to worry about, and I do want it to be playable, so I bought 2 Indian rosewood pre-slotted boards.. About $25 each. And saves me an unknown, but most likely large chunk of time.

Anyway, it worked out ok.
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...5313d0283e.jpg

Here is the rod bowed back :
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...5ee35eccb2.jpg

And forward :

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...6f6a53fbf2.jpg

I also bought 2 flamed maple neck blanks and 2 coco bolo finger board blanks. I'll post pics when I go back in the house. The maple is mesmerizing.

Oh, and I got 2 books from them too.
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...d9b7fd444a.jpg

Paid 90% of list price for those. The wood was a bit dear though.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...f2ed88dda9.jpg

The schematics are something I needed to research
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...d4b13437d2.jpg
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...0f47b0cace.jpg

The Foley book, I've heard referred to by more than one youtube luthier, so I grabbed that too.
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...7d15835946.jpg
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...07a2bfbfd8.jpg

I think I'm going to need a bigger heater
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...e8fa5d015b.jpg

Or maybe just move it closer
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...d78d368120.jpg

Flamed Maple

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...3a486b7101.jpg
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...1b6668a299.jpg
Coco bolo
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...b9710bf383.jpg

Exotic Woods is a cool place, I'd forgotten about them. I got Coco Bolo from them to build a couple of picture frames.
$25 for pre cut fret boards will save you more than that in ulcer meds.
You're doing great, especially hard to think straight with your teeth chattering. http://cellar.org/2015/frozen.gif

Work harder.:p: I never minded working in the winter, even trimming/cutting trees, as long as it wasn't bitterly cold. You can work harder and get warmer. It's heat that gets me. No matter how hard ya work at it, ya ain't getting any cooler.:headshake

That sounds very not unreasonable.

Right? I haven't checked them yet, but hopefully they're cut well and don't chip when I install the fret wire. I may wait until after Christmas to do some things because I've asked Santa for some tools I need.

I may rout the body cavities soon, though. That should be exciting.

Rutting the body cavities? Don't forget no means no. :haha:

I've rutted a body cavity or two in my time.

But, baby, it's cold outside.

Good work

Re unseeable pics and uneditable posts

In Google photos, add the pics you want to share to a new album, mark that album public, they should then be visible.

Not sure about in that post though

I don't have the link handy, but a custom drum maker made a snare out of MDF(!) --a material prized for being UN-resonant. And apparently people thought it sounded great, and guessed all kinds of premium "tone woods" they thought it was. Some even thought it was metal (brass, steel, etc.)

There's two schools of thought on drums, #1 that the wood and the head resonate together to create a tone, and #2 that the shell just creates an inert air volume that resonates with the head.

I guess building a snare out of MDF was their way of saying the shell material doesn't matter.

Or that people are full of shit

That's cuz ppl are full of shit.

LJ

Regarding the neck and fretboard

What is the profile of the underside of the fretboard?

You spent a lot of time talking about radiusing the neck, which I understood. But aren't you going to cap the neck with the fretboard? Won't both those surfaces be flat when you do that?

Or will you shape the neck then bend the fretboard around the the non flat neck?

I doubt the underside of the fretboard is concave.

Just wondering.

Did I say radiusing the neck? If I did, I meant the fret board. The neck is flat. The fret board bottom is flat and gets the radius on top.

I'm working bell to bell all this week, so no day off. And busy as hell at work, so I can't even plot and scheme. I'm tired when I get home. Might get out there Sunday if I have time, but we have to do the tree and decorate.

And I kind of want to wait to see what tools santa brings.

I was thinking you mighta been working on the back of the neck. I've noticed that some electrics have a flatter/rounder backside to the neck, whereas flattops have a rounder neck, generally.

I'm following, but, I haven't been paying close attn.

I read back. I started the post talking about radiusing the fret board, and gluing it on. Once I had gone there mentality, I referred to the neck radius... Meaning the neck with the fret board already glued on.

The back of the neck will get carved. There are several shapes that folks have preferences about. C shaped, V shaped, D, etc. In going to attempt a non symmetrical shape called Wolfgang. It's fatter on the bass side so it fits snug in your grip, but thinner on the treble side, so you can wrap around and reach the thinner strings for leads.

I'll find a link.


HERE


AND HERE

is the Wolfgang profile named after Eddie van Halen's son?

YES


Wolfgang

• Similar to: Peavey® Wolfgang®
• Thickness at 1st Fret: .815"
• Thickness at 12th Fret: .940"

The Wolfgang is based on an asymmetric shape popularized by Eddie Van Halen. It is rounder on the thumb side and slimmer on the finger side - a very comfortable shape that feels both quick and substantial. Compared to the SRV it is thinner and more off-center.

yeah, thought I half-remembered that.
I geek out on the tech of instruments I don't even play, sometimes

I'm going to do the neck slowly with an alligator rasp. I've seen a couple methods using facets and ratios. Might just wing it though.

Well, if ya were to screw it up, ya could always go for one of the other profiles with the same neck.

Til ya run outta neck anyway.:)

That's true. I hope not to screw it up though. It'll be really cool to play a guitar that I've built from scratch. I hope it comes out well and plays better than my strat.

do you think you'll come out of this being one of those guys who knows how to fix the action or the intonation on a guitar? or is that a different skill set?

Definitely have to do that after putting the strings on, so then it's just reps, and ooh, ah... depends how picky you are, but there are some damn expensive bench tuners out there to help get that intonation done. If she wants to buy you something for Xmas

http://cellar.org/2017/petersontuner.jpg

Gonna need a good, precision tuner anyhoo

does that come in "baroque" ?

Says here concert A..

O wait it says "Concert A 350-550Hz" so they are saying you can set Concert A to be pretty much whatever. Where were the damn standards boards back in the day?

Yah, what ute said. I'll have to learn that part. I've watched it done, and Pete is there if I need help, but I haven't tried it yet.

Nowadays you can also send your guitar out to be "plek'd" which means they scan the neck and dress the frets and cut the nut by automation, so that it's all accurate and low action and perfect like a human can't do...

https://www.sweetwater.com/shop/guitars/plek/index.php

.... but I knew a dude in the area with 50 guitars, who played with a bunch of people in the area; and I asked whether he had any of them plek'd, and he said yeah but he didn't see a huge difference.

But aren't those imperfections what gives a custom built it's character?

A lot of the classic records we have loved were made with guitars with kind of poor intonation. And we heard the chord a certain way, and maybe that gave the song what it needed.

If it was me, I'd want the perfect one! I want the chords to sound pretty at every fret, and I'll make the imperfections by playing it wrong :)

:yesnod:

I use Da Tuner and it seems pretty good
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...d9457748c4.jpg

I've read that those super expensive and accurate jobs are not really necessary. We can't hear that precisely

I ain't as fancy as some of yas.

I have an ancient 9-volt tuner that has to hear the note. It has to be fairly quiet in the room to tune.:lol2:

This isn't the one I have but, it's basically identical.

Attachment 65849

I have it that clamps on to the head stock and uses the vibration to indicate the pitch. I hate it.

A buddy has the stick-on tuner on the top bout on the front of his flattop. He changes from standard to drop D to wtfever like rfn.

Santa was good to me this year. I got a band saw
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...4a603fde22.jpg
, a drill press


https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...8c3d0d2cfb.jpg

and a router table.
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...6734344cdd.jpg


Today was the first time since Christmas that I've had free.

I cut the neck out with the band saw
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...c438cc8c18.jpg
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...e3cd539116.jpg



The router grabbed the curl of the headstock and ripped it off. My bad. I should practice more before I do the next thing with that rig.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...573eee0d8e.jpg

It will just have a pointy head stock I guess.

I made a lot of sawdust shaping the neck.

This might be boring.. But then it might be one of those gratifying things to watch... So I'll just drop the links.

http://youtu.be/pLn2U1Tvv1k

I'm using a Japanese alligator rasp here. It's amazing.

https://youtu.be/fZIsY13rMAo

Vacuuming the sawdust in between clips

https://youtu.be/wZkcep5OLwM

Then after some sanding :

https://youtu.be/Vf_0VQoX0bY

Is this creepy?


https://youtu.be/KcF0wMEICQk

Santa be berry berry good to you. :yesnod:
Part of the learning curve. It's just a hunk of wood and not your hand, so you're cool. :thumb2:

Good Santa!

Nice!

That is way better than the standard roundy Fender headstock, which (I believe) was just meant to suggest this shape:

http://cellar.org/2017/fenderheadstock.jpg

(This is one of those things you cannot unsee.)

I can't see that picture.

And the head stock looks like a KKK hood now.

I'll have to put googly eyes on it

Ya might could go Hamer-esque with the damaged headstock...

Attachment 65998

Or Kramer-esque...(Eddie, not Kosmo)

Attachment 65999

Or move to Maine..

A little curvature of the sides, rounding of the top, an undercut and a peg then you'll have it!

Attachment 66004
.
.
.
.
.
Attachment 66005

I've decided to just turn the whole thing into a bong

Prolly for the best...:lol2:

I glued the finger board on tonight.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...5553d8d54f.jpg
Inserted the truss rod, masked it carefully
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...9acb86d480.jpg

I forgot to take a pic of the glue. Clamps went on. It did try to slide around, but I think I have it centered enough. I'm going to cut close with the band saw and then either rout the edge again, or sand it.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...a8467f5988.jpg

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...4a135bd47e.jpg

Not really happy with the glue on the edges

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...800f4e5c46.jpg

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...3af8fcaed4.jpg

I took the edges of the finger board off with the band saw within about 1/16" free hand, then put it on the router table to get it flush.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...644ff8c79b.jpg

To fill the little gaps, I sanded and packed the saw dust into the gaps. Then I ran a bead of super glue along the seam. Hit it with accelerator and sanded again. It's acceptable.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...9be30e0565.jpg

I also reshaped the head stock a bit.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...0d2f7fc6ba.jpg

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...d27633fd8e.jpg
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...f0e3eda7b9.jpg