you play guitar, Digr? How did I not know that?

:lol2:, Oh, no. No. Nooooo.

I used to play AT the guitar.

Back to Dave Grohl for a sec...

He did one of the more awesome covers I've ever heard.

It was some kind of White House performance in praise of Paul McCartney. Barry and Michelle were there, front row center, with Macca. Grohl comes out, and with the house event band, does Band On the Run, like, ten feet in front Sir Paul his own self.

And rocked it.

That's the second gayest song ever. Built this city, being number one.

How does one rock that song? I shudder to think.

:lol2:

Neither of those is nearly as gay as Relax by Frankie Goes To Hollywood, btw.

I do believe that Band On The Run belongs in that thread of songs with non-sense lyrics you started, though.

Nonsense, Band on the Run is a great song, even John Lennon loved it.

I love it. We did it in Shabbey Road when we had a lady singer who could reach Paul's range.

If you do any traveling here's a Pro Tip...

Paraphrasing, during a concert:

~Ray Wylie Hubbard

I cut the truss rod groove today. I had to slow down and think it through, and then I needed to go procure a few things to make a jig I can reuse. Took me 3 days of ruminating and 2 1/2 hours of grubbing around Lowe's to get to where I felt ready.
Thing was, I had the neck traced out on the blank, and went ahead and cut out the head stock cuz I wanted to do that last stuff I did ^^, but I didn't think to align the center line. I could have used the edge of the blank as a guide for the router. It wasn't far off, so I think I could have faked it if I had decided to re draw it parallel to the edge, but I figured that if I made a jig, I could probably use it for future projects.

So I made a jig. I got 2 of these :

https://www.lowes.com/pd/BORA-2-25-in-Clamp/50092628

And a bunch of hardware I didn't use... For this job at least...

The rail clamps onto a board, and then there are tracks that accept a bolt. This is a 1/4" #20 x 2.5"
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...1405f75d81.jpg

I bought a board made of some kind of light plastic because I wanted it to be slippery and straight. $22 for a 5/4 x 4x8. Cut that into 2 3' rails and attached these brackets. I set it on the neck because I knew that was flat and taped them. Cut out the screw holes and mounted them.
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...59e628ea16.jpg

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/Sf...Q=w640-h480-no
Now I have a fence that I can adjust side to side, as long as it's a straight line I want to cut. Did this twice, so I can run the router between them and be sure it won't jump or bounce out of the path I want. I had initially set it up on 2x4s, but with the router riding the aluminum clamp, and the 2x4 being higher than the neck, the bit wouldn't have reached deep enough. So I cut two pieces of 3/4" ply wood that I had left over from building the bench. Once I did that, i had a different issue. The knob on the router was bumping the rear fence. So I ripped an inch off the top of that.....





https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/Sf...Q=w640-h480-no


on 2x4s:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/NY...Q=w480-h640-no


I checked the level-ness of the neck, and the 2 rails using the bubble level app on my phone, so I know it's extra precise.



https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/U5...A=w363-h745-no

I glued the plywood down to the bench along side the neck so that it was all flat, tight and immobile.



so, now that I have the router aligned, and the rails mounted on the 3/4" plywood I just need it to stop at the right place so I don't cut through the end of the neck.


https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/qt...A=w640-h480-no


the router base is a 6" diameter. the bit is a 1/4" bit. so, the edge of the bit is 2 7/8" from the edge of the router
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/HH...w=w480-h640-no




the end of the groove is 7/16" from the end of the neck,


https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/5W...A=w640-h480-no

so math, and I set the router where I want it stopped. Then I put 2 bolts in the other groove on the clamp tracks:


https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/qJ...w=w480-h640-no


same thing on the other end, and now I have stops that keep the length of the groove exact.

ready to rout!


i trimmed this, but the first thing I did was set the bit to just barely touching the wood, and dragged it back and forth to confirm that it scribed a line right on my drawn line. It did. so then, a couple light passes and check again.





don't make fun of my get up. it's safety first... actually I should start wearing the dust mask more...

the router leaves a rounded end, so I went back in with a razor chisel and a scraper to square the ends


https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/4-...g=w640-h480-no


so, now the channel ends are square


https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/oD...g=w480-h640-no




the business end of the truss rod is 1/16th wider and deeper, so I nudged the fence on that end a bit, and moved the stops to that 2" section, and finished that cut very carefully. I had to spend a bit more time with a chisel and exacto to get it perfect


https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/1Q...A=w480-h640-no

.... but perfect it is.


https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/_T...Q=w480-h640-no




https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/ZL...A=w640-h480-no


Attachment 65722


So that's done. Next thing is gluing on the fret board. Which means the next thing is planing that down to 1/4" and sanding or planing a radius onto the surface.

a radius is how curved the face of the fret board is. If your fretboard is totally flat, you have a hell of a time playing chords. Most Fender Stratocasters have a relatively tight radius. 9-10". what they mean by radius is this:


If you imagine a big circle...20" diameter would be a 10" radius.... and imagine the 2 1/4 inch guitar neck's surface fitting perfectly inside one section, crosswise. you can visualize the curve on that surface.


so this is the neck seen from one end:


Attachment 65723


Some necks have a compound radius. That is, the radius at the top, near the nut might be 10 and the radius at the 12th fret is a 16... so vaguely cone shaped.... the flatter lower part makes shredding easier. I may or may not attempt that. probably not on this build. So, I'll be doing some more cogitating.