Building a guitar with what I've learned here. Walnut/Maple/Ash/Eastern Red Cedar

[lbridenstine]

Originally Posted by Smilodon

There are so many ways of doing inlays. It may be best to keep it simple? You don't need all that much "garnish" since the wood will look good all by itself.

I know, I usually don't like dots, but with that piece of wood, I wouldn't want to put block inlays or anything over it and cover it up, so that's why I was trying to just do dots and/or wooden side markers, but it still seems like too much... Hmm..

[lbridenstine]

I'm so indecisive. I think I just talked myself out of Jasper, so I think it's going to be either gold MOP or abalone and I think I'll probably do side dots instead of wood strips. Leaning towards abalone now.

[James Mobius]

this is talkbass not talkguitar therefore what you are building is clearly a bass. in this case, a 6 string piccolo bass. possibly with a funny tuning.
we now return you to your thread already in progress.

good work!

[Hopkins]

The simple answer to your problem would be to skip the fretboard markers all together and just use side markers.

[lbridenstine]

Originally Posted by Hopkins

The simple answer to your problem would be to skip the fretboard markers all together and just use side markers.

That idea is appealing too. I'm going to be getting Photoshop really soon, so I think I'll take all of these ideas and some better pictures of the wood I'm using and try to make some mockups of each idea and see what I like the best. I've been searching for pictures online for ideas, but most fretboards seem to be plain brown rosewood, so it would look different with what I have.

[lbridenstine]

Temporary change of topic. Here's my scarf joint. I'm going to put a veneer or two in between when I glue it up. I'm waiting to glue it until after all the fretboard stuff is done. My dad got a miter saw recently, so that made this pretty simple to cut, but I had to hold it perpendicular to the saw fence instead of clamping it to the fence in order to get the 12 degrees.





^I just noticed the figure on the red cedar, that should look nice on the front of the headstock.

[lbridenstine]

And back to the inlay situation. I liked this one the best.



If you had to guess what size those dots would be... what do you think they are?

Also, doing this mockup made me change my mind about the pickup finish. Those are brushed DLC EMGs. I was thinking ivory before, but I think this looks better, goes with the walnut nicely and contrasts the neck through portion.

I took a picture of the wood with the bridge, ferrules, and knobs on top before I could see the shape of the body, so those aren't in exact locations.

[MrArose13]

I'd say, there still 1/4". Isn't that your smallest forstner bit too? They look good up in the corners like that.

[lbridenstine]

Originally Posted by MrArose13

I'd say, there still 1/4". Isn't that your smallest forstner bit too? They look good up in the corners like that.

Yes, that's the smallest Forstners bit I have. If it's 1/4" then I wouldn't have to buy another bit specifically for this, which would be nice. I started the mockups with bigger dots centered from left to right, but still on the top of the fretboard and decided I liked the smaller dots in the corners better. I think I'll do it like this. There's still a lot of bare fretboard showing.

[Meatrus]

Originally Posted by lbridenstine

Temporary change of topic. Here's my scarf joint. I'm going to put a veneer or two in between when I glue it up. I'm waiting to glue it until after all the fretboard stuff is done. My dad got a miter saw recently, so that made this pretty simple to cut, but I had to hold it perpendicular to the saw fence instead of clamping it to the fence in order to get the 12 degrees.





^I just noticed the figure on the red cedar, that should look nice on the front of the headstock.

I could be wrong, but I dont think you would want to put a veneer in between that joint. The type of scarf joint where you put veneers in between is the type which comes from around the 2nd fret (so you see them on the back of the neck). Yours is the headstock extention type. You probably knew this and its probably just me who thinks it wouldnt look too good as I havent seen one like that before.

Also you may want to consider veneering the front and back of the headstock. This hides the glue lines created by the scarf.

[MrArose13]

Just to continue the thought process... you could still use the brass tube. I find all sizes of the stuff at Ace hardware if you've got one of those near by. If you were to go this direction (yes the choices seam infinite to me too) go with a 1/4" outside diameter (OD 1/4") brass tube, now at Ace they don't tell you the (ID) inside diameter but I think it's something like 4mm and you get your dots to match that of course. MO, this gives you the optical illusion of smaller more classy dots wile not needing a new drill bit. If you went with the jasper the brass would make them pop out more, or a mother of pearl would be nice, (that's what it looks like you used in your mock-up pic to me) You still need side markers (when I play i find that those are what i look at most) MOP with white side dots all encased in brass might be nice. I'll get back to you in a bit, glad you got the old neck blank apart BTW.

[lbridenstine]

Originally Posted by Meatrus

I could be wrong, but I dont think you would want to put a veneer in between that joint. The type of scarf joint where you put veneers in between is the type which comes from around the 2nd fret (so you see them on the back of the neck). Yours is the headstock extention type. You probably knew this and its probably just me who thinks it wouldnt look too good as I havent seen one like that before.

Also you may want to consider veneering the front and back of the headstock. This hides the glue lines created by the scarf.

I think it'd look good. Here's one of the old drawings I did. I think it'd kind of be like a turtle neck for the neck. haha.

I neglected to put the veneer stripes in the front of the headstock on accident, but they'd be somewhere around the middle of the front it looks like with how it was cut. I think I'd be okay with the stripes across the front and it might look interesting.



I'm not sure yet on which woods I'm going to use as veneers, I'm thinking either maple and red cedar or maple and walnut, probably not walnut and red cedar like this image. Or I might just do one instead of two, in which case, it'd probably be either walnut or red cedar.

I'd really like to not veneer the top and bottom, I want it to be an extension of the neck, and I'm considering using walnut as the ears added to the headstock to match up with the body.

[lbridenstine]

Originally Posted by MrArose13

Just to continue the thought process... you could still use the brass tube. I find all sizes of the stuff at Ace hardware if you've got one of those near by. If you were to go this direction (yes the choices seam infinite to me too) go with a 1/4" outside diameter (OD 1/4") brass tube, now at Ace they don't tell you the (ID) inside diameter but I think it's something like 4mm and you get your dots to match that of course. MO, this gives you the optical illusion of smaller more classy dots wile not needing a new drill bit. If you went with the jasper the brass would make them pop out more, or a mother of pearl would be nice, (that's what it looks like you used in your mock-up pic to me) You still need side markers (when I play i find that those are what i look at most) MOP with white side dots all encased in brass might be nice. I'll get back to you in a bit, glad you got the old neck blank apart BTW.

The ones in the mockup were paua abalone. I just copied a little piece from an image on Stew Mac's website, it was one of the more plain blue ones. I think it looks MOP-ish on there because I just copied and pasted one dot, so it doesn't have the variety of appearance like abalone dots.

I'm thinking abalone 1/4" dots for the front and abalone 3/32" dots for the sides. I like the brass tube idea (and kind of like the idea of using white plastic or aluminum tubes too), but I think I'll probably use the abalone this time and keep the tube idea in mind for another time.

I am very glad I got that neck blank apart too! I'm sure you can see from that scarf joint picture how hard it was on the table saw. Lots of burn marks. I have a lot of usable maple and walnut now though! And one of the edges I cut off to make the laminate ends flat ended up looking really cool on the flat side, so I kept it incase I want to use it for something.

[lbridenstine]

I got a Brad point bit for the side dots too. I'm guessing I should probably radius before doing the dots? I'm thinking I should pre-drill the 1/4" dot holes, then radius, then get the dots flush with the fretboard (making the holes deeper if needed), then re-radius since they're not going to be at the top of the radius... Then the side dots should go afterwards too because the thickness of the side will change with the radius. Correct me if there's a better way to do this.

[HaMMerHeD]

I wouldnt bother drilling before radiusing.

Radius
Drill
Glue

[lbridenstine]

Originally Posted by HaMMerHeD

I wouldnt bother drilling before radiusing.

Radius
Drill
Glue

I was just worried about drilling on a non-flat surface and keeping the bottom of the hole level. Is that not much of an issue?

Or... should I drill at an angle and get the surface of the dot to match the surface of the radius...?

[HaMMerHeD]

Originally Posted by lbridenstine

I was just worried about drilling on a non-flat surface and keeping the bottom of the hole level. Is that not much of an issue?

Nah. Are you using a hand drill for it?

I was worried about it too until I just did it. The slant is so slight that it's just not a big issue. I actually did a little bit more radius sanding with 320 grit paper after I installed the dots to get everything level.

[lbridenstine]

Originally Posted by HaMMerHeD

Nah. Are you using a hand drill for it?

Yep. Unfortunately.

[lbridenstine]

Originally Posted by HaMMerHeD

Nah. Are you using a hand drill for it?

I was worried about it too until I just did it. The slant is so slight that it's just not a big issue. I actually did a little bit more radius sanding with 320 grit paper after I installed the dots to get everything level.

Cool. That would save me from cleaning a ton of sawdust out of the holes and stuff probably.

[FBB Custom]

i think it's easier to mark and drill the side dots before the board is radiused but you can do it either way.