New neck for Tim

[Rickett Customs]

Tim contacted me Via email, because he wanted a neck built for his Peavey Zodiac.
I obliged and after a few back and forths, the plan had formulated.

Neck:

Bolt on
Fretless, unlined.
Headstock of Tim's design
3 piece hard rock maple
No taper on the neck profile (0.90" from nut to around the 17th position).
10 degree headstock tilt
1 5/8" ebony nut
Macassar Ebony fingerboard with a 16" radii
2 way trussrod with 4mm allen nut
Carbon fiber rods
Hipshot Ultralites
trussrod route at the body side of the neck (Zodiac neck is on the headstock side)
Capped headstock with 1/8" Ebony veneer
Fill in the holes from the original bridge (Tim has a hipshot B bridge)
and then a final setup.

[Rickett Customs]

For starters, Tim shipped me the body, neck, bridge and strings.

So, while I waited for the wood/parts order to come in, I decided to get the screw holes for the bridge filled.

Here's what came in the box:








To begin, I taped off each individual hole with painter's tape, because I don't want to damage the finish.








I had some 1/4" dia. dowels handy and basically sliced them into 1/4ths with the bandsaw and used the belt sander to round them back into shape.








I used CA glue inside each hole, then tapped each one all the way in, trimmed each one about a mm above flush.








Once the glue had time to dry a bit, I wicked them around the edges, with thinner CA glue. I used my dremel with an 1/8" bit and the precision base, to cut the dowels flush with the top. After this, I used a razor blade, to scrape the excess CA glue, wet sanded the area with 600, then drop filled the area with thin CA glue. Once the CA glue cured, I wet sanded from 800, up to 8000, buffed it with medium compound and it was cool.










The maple, ebony, trussrod and CF rods made their way to me.










Once some time passed and the wood acclimated to my shop, it got cut into 3.








Glued it up sat for 24hrs, then I cut the scarf that got glued for 24hrs.














Made all the necessary marks/calculations. layed out the truss rod and cf rods













Routed out the trussrod cavity, marked the end, then drilled out the end of the neck for the adjustment access.











Epoxied the cf rods in.








That's about as far as I'm at currently.

[Rickett Customs]

Tim also made my life 10X easier, by doing his own spec drawings too! Although it doesn't display very well at the smaller scale below, you can click on it, to 1:1 scale..... So thanks Tim!!

[dremy2006]

awsome work....

[Ben Coffin]

I'm intrigued by the headstock. I'll be looking forward to seeing this when its all done!

[Dream Weaver]

You Sir... Get your money's worth out of Flickr. =p

Excellent step by step. I always manage to learn something new while perusing your build threads. What truss rods(ie: brand/type) are you using. It looks like a nice consistant width the whole way down into the adjustment end. Not so happy with the bulky ends on the rods I've been using.

Awesome spec drawings. I smell an engineer!

[Rickett Customs]

Yeah, a "paid" photobucket account...


I use the LMI rods. You can get the same identical rods from allied lutherie too..

It got me thinking last night, how to make a rod just as strong with an even lower profile (I know a machinist that might make it happen.)..................... Make it entirely out of titanium......... Well, in the near future.....

[Dream Weaver]

I meant "money's worth" quite literally. So is that bill on auto-pay now? heh

I'll have to try those rods out next time. Also have to say awesome idea using the dremel/base as a surface flush trim. Much better looking results than what I've seen with a flush cut saw.

[Rickett Customs]

Originally Posted by Dream Weaver

I meant "money's worth" quite literally. So is that bill on auto-pay now? heh

I'll have to try those rods out next time. Also have to say awesome idea using the dremel/base as a surface flush trim. Much better looking results than what I've seen with a flush cut saw.

Yeah, I didn't want to take any chunks out of the finish.

[Musiclogic]

Remember that titanium work hardens and becomes brittle when worked and heated.just a note.

[Rickett Customs]

Originally Posted by Musiclogic

Remember that titanium work hardens and becomes brittle when worked and heated.just a note.

Perhaps that's why it's not done. good call.

[Rickett Customs]

Had to level the surface, so that the CF is flush with the neck. I use a piece of marble threshold (the type that goes on the floor on interior door ways, like bathrooms) with some 80 grit stikit paper.








Had a "life sized" prinout of the headstock, so i drew the center line on the wood, then on the paper. It appears i'll need a tiny piece on each side for the widest part of the headstock.









Glued together 2 pieces of Madagascar ebony, for the headplate.

[Rickett Customs]

Today, I copied the neck pocket.


First off, don't let anyone tell you that all CNC basses are 100% exact...example: This original neck.....










I had to copy the neck pocket, so I used a router bit that has the bearing attached on the bottom. Taped the section of the the off and had some scrap oak (1/4" thick)










Traced the copy on to another scrap piece of wood and hand shaped the piece to fit the pocket and you can see how much tighter the piece sits in the pocket.....










Then I rough cut the taper. later I'll use a straightedge and a router, to do the final taper.

[bassmanhamilton]

Nice work sir! Very informative. Just curious why you didn't glue up the neck laminates with the grain quartered against the neck tension? I know that you see it done both ways and most one piece necks are plain sawn, just wanted your thoughts.
Joe

[Rickett Customs]

I'll get more adjustment from the grain being quartered against the tension of the truss rod, that and due to the CF rods, which will no doubt tension it up more. From what I've seen and tried, quartered (with the tension) necks tend to be more rigid. That and the total neck thickness will be 0.90" (with the fretboard 0.25" fingerboard, 0.65" neck) and a fretless to boot, I definitely want it to move and be strong too. Though I could be totally wrong and this theory will fail



Well, that and the above could become and inflamed statement somewhere along the way.

[Rickett Customs]

A little bit more work done today,

Planed down the thickness to almost final thickness with my trusty Safe-T-Planer and got the final taper done also.










Fit the neck to the body, however, I did leave a little more space between the pocket and the neck, for the finish, Tim wants a satin finish...

[LM Bass]

Good work here -looks great. I'm sure you're aware -but I hope you are using a respirator when making Carbon Fibre dust. Nasty stuff.

[Rickett Customs]

Yeah, mask is necessary. It's even worse trying to get it from under your fingernails too.... Also learned awhile back don't use any good bandsaw blades to cut it either, dull them in a fast second.

[LM Bass]

Cool. Back when I used graphite, I always made sure that I cut my channel 2mm deeper than I needed -that way I could just level the epoxy and leave the graphite rod alone.

Once again, it's looking great, good on you!
L

[Rickett Customs]

Thanks man.....