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

[suraj]

I wouldn't install face dots before radiusing the board. As mostly the dot thickness is only 2mm, the further away you install them from the centerline, the deeper they will have to be installed, and calculating that could be hit or miss. Since you have a brad point drill, you could drill the dots after the board has been radiused. After glueing and curing, you could get them almost flush with a fine file, and then radius sand a bit more to get everything perfectly level.

EDIT : I think it would be a good idea to drill perpendicular to the radius surface for dot installation. It won't make any difference to the appearance, But it just means the dot can be installed slightly deeper. With a 16"radius board actually it won't make a difference.

[Smilodon]

If you do end up drilling before radiusing, keep in mind that the outer edge of the board will be slightly thicker towards the nut end. If the dots are thin this must be taken into consideration.

[lbridenstine]

Originally Posted by suraj

I think it would be a good idea to drill perpendicular to the radius surface for dot installation. It won't make any difference to the appearance, But it just means the dot can be installed slightly deeper. With a 16"radius board actually it won't make a difference.

I was kind of thinking that.

I ended up buying another radius block that has 10" on one side and 12" on the other, so I'll probably go with 12, which would probably make more of a difference than 16.

If you do end up drilling before radiusing, keep in mind that the outer edge of the board will be slightly thicker towards the nut end. If the dots are thin this must be taken into consideration.

Oh, good point... Hmm. I might have to drill afterwards in that case, unless I can just get a little bit of a start to them, then go to the correct depth after radiusing.

[Smilodon]

Originally Posted by lbridenstine

Oh, good point... Hmm. I might have to drill afterwards in that case, unless I can just get a little bit of a start to them, then go to the correct depth after radiusing.

If you do, pre-drill pilot holes only. If you drill straight down before radiusing the hole will be slightly oval after radiusing. I don't know how much this will matter, but it may be noticeable if the radius is small enough.


I think the safest thing to do is to just drill the holes after radiusing. As far as I can see the overall process will be easier and more exact.

[lbridenstine]

Originally Posted by Smilodon

If you do, pre-drill pilot holes only. If you drill straight down before radiusing the hole will be slightly oval after radiusing. I don't know how much this will matter, but it may be noticeable if the radius is small enough.


I think the safest thing to do is to just drill the holes after radiusing. As far as I can see the overall process will be easier and more exact.

Good point. Yeah, I'll just do it that way. Hopefully either this weekend of next!

[suraj]

+1 to what Smilodon said.

[lbridenstine]

Last time I went to the lumberyard to get wood for the guitar, I also bought this 8' x 4" x 3/4" piece of Eastern red cedar. I didn't think it would work for anything in the guitar, but I thought it looked really nice and it was fairly cheap, so I got it and told my mom I'd make some 24" x 36" picture frames for her.



They still need to be sanded and have the corners hooked together, but I like how they're turning out. Since this type of wood smells good and repels bugs, I'm going to leave them unfinished.



So anyway, I have a scrap piece that I'm thinking about using as my tone block. It's 12" long and I actually need about 15", but since only the ends are going to show, I figured I could cut it and stick another piece of wood in between to extend it.



I've looked through a couple threads about tone blocks and it doesn't really seem conclusive if it actually changes the tone at all, from what I've seen. I'm only putting one in for looks and to have a thin neck blank. Can anyone think of a reason I shouldn't use this piece for that? It's considered a soft wood, so that would be my only concern other than the possibility of changing the tone. It also looks like it came from very close to the center of a tree, by the rings on the end grain, I'm not sure if that matters or not.

In reality though, I was already planning on using red cedar for the tone block, but a thinner piece in combination with a thin piece of maple. But, since this one is 3/4" and it's going on the back of the neck blank which will be close to the same thickness, this would eliminate the maple part.

Basically, it'd be the neck blank (seen in the top of that picture), on top of red cedar, on top of 1/4" of walnut.

[lbridenstine]

I finally did something.





I glued the fretboard on, but didn't take pictures yet.

I started on pickup rings too. I didn't want to make them before, but I just made one out of walnut for my bass and I like it, so I'm making matching walnut ones for this too. I have a serious issue with pickup rings cracking on me though.

[lbridenstine]

I ended up working on the control cavity instead. And by that I mean, I forgot you're not supposed to glue in below freezing temperatures and the glue didn't cure correctly on the fretboard, so I'm waiting to figure out how to fix that.

I like how this turned out at least. I managed to route the cavity by just following pencil lines with the router instead of using a template too. Then I used the body template for the curve on the cover.







That piece of walnut on the top part is being glued on right now (in the basement instead of the garage this time!)

[lbridenstine]

Note to self: Don't glue in the garage when it's 20 degrees.

I ended up using a heatgun to get the fretboard off. It actually worked really well, the heat made the oils come up in the rosewood and the hot oil helped melt the glue. The fretboard bowed though, so I have it dry clamped to the neck blank for now. I'll check it in a couple days and see if it straightens out. If so, I'll reglue it and move on. If not, I guess I'll need a new fretboard.

[lbridenstine]

I got my new fretboard.



It's a little less colorful than the other one, but it might go better with the walnut. I decided to have them slot it instead of doing it myself this time. I asked for 24 fret slots and got 22, but I'm just going to go with that. It won't hurt me to have one guitar that has 22 frets, just another thing to make it different from what I have, I guess.

I took the tape off after gluing this time. I'm kind of nervous about glue getting in the channel, but it looks fine from the adjustment end.

So, once again, I'm hoping to do the inlays/radiusing this weekend. I'm rethinking the scarf joint veneers, I'm not sure red cedar will be strong enough, so I might just do either walnut or maple and not do layers. If it ends up looking weird on the front of the headstock, I might do a front veneer, but leave the back without.

[lbridenstine]

Alright, I got the neck tapered, the fretboard radiused (12"), and figured out where the inlays are going. I haven't actually drilled the holes for them yet though.

I couldn't get the figure of the fretboard to show up good in the pictures.





I like the contrast.



This is close to how the dots should look when they go in.

[lbridenstine]

I got the inlays in yesterday. I was going to sand everything smooth and do some more work on the guitar today, but it's 16 degrees out, so I think I'll opt for staying in.











Puppy inspection:





She snuck in a couple licks before I could stop her...

I'll have more pictures after the glue globs are sanded off.

[MrArose13]

Looks good lbridenstine!

[lbridenstine]

Originally Posted by MrArose13

Looks good lbridenstine!

Thanks!

[lbridenstine]

I was hoping to get more than this done today, but unfortunately I didn't.

But, I did re-sand/radius the fretboard and sand the sides of the fretboard and round off the edges. It's all sanded up to 800 grit.

I also realized that it's hard to edit pictures of abalone inlays that were taken in non-great lighting. If I tried to make them brighter, the inlays got blown out.

Here's what I did manage to get. Some are unedited.

[MrArose13]

Some days I'm happy just to use a tool, to day all i did was stare at wood trying to decide what to use for my baritone prototype..

So... Nice dots I really like them up in the corners, lots of movement in the shell. keep it coming ..

[lbridenstine]

Originally Posted by MrArose13

Some days I'm happy just to use a tool, to day all i did was stare at wood trying to decide what to use for my baritone prototype..

So... Nice dots I really like them up in the corners, lots of movement in the shell. keep it coming ..

It's good that you're thinking it out before cutting into it though!

I've been staring at pictures of wood online lately and making plans for a new bass build and wishing I had all that stuff now so I could get working on that too. But, IT'S COLD and I have to work in the garage, so it's really slowing me down. So... Two builds at once probably wouldn't help anything.


And, thanks. I'm glad I went with the dots in the corners and I'm glad I chose abalone. I wasn't honestly sure if I would like abalone, but now I do. I did realize after the dots were in that I probably should have lined the side dots up with the center of the front dots, which I didn't do.

[MrArose13]

Originally Posted by lbridenstine

I've been staring at pictures of wood online lately and making plans for a new bass build and wishing I had all that stuff now so I could get working on that too.

LOL... told you it was addictive...

But, IT'S COLD and I have to work in the garage, so it's really slowing me down. So... Two builds at once probably wouldn't help anything.

Yeah, It's cold in my (garage) shop too, not as cold as yours I'm sure, but it makes it hard to get motivated.

And, thanks. I'm glad I went with the dots in the corners and I'm glad I chose abalone. I wasn't honestly sure if I would like abalone, but now I do. I did realize after the dots were in that I probably should have lined the side dots up with the center of the front dots, which I didn't do.

Ehh, not that noticeable, I had to look at it again after you said something. ..

[lbridenstine]

Originally Posted by MrArose13

LOL... told you it was addictive...

Yes, you did. I believe you now, haha.

Yeah, It's cold in my (garage) shop too, not as cold as yours I'm sure, but it makes it hard to get motivated.

I've been considering above 25 degrees to be "warm enough". I think it was -3 a couple days ago. I was not working on the guitar that day...