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2nd build:poplar neck-thru

#21
Rochey6957 said:
yeah to much like his ya think:confused:? i spent a good time lookin at his so i guesse it would inevitable look like his. i dont really like the f holes though i need to come up with somethin different. im still wondering about wat a good truss rod length would be.
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Well.. maybe not too much, but I just recognized it.. I think the F-hole in the upper horn would be rather difficult (or the camber underneath it) so maybe you need a smaller hole up there. Furthermore I can only say that it isn't bad at all to get some inspiration from other builders (I've done it myself), but you should go on, until you're satisfied and you think there's enough of your own in it.

About the truss rod: for a 34" scale I use (and I think it's quite common) a 24" truss rod.. so that's 70% of the scale length. I guess you could scale that down to your scale length, then the truss rod should be about 21"..
 
#23
Yvarg said:
Trussrod length isn't incredibly important (to my understanding). Somewhere between 21 and 24 inches is probably "standard" and would work fine.
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Well, that's not completely true. The length of the truss rod does matter, because the center of the truss rod is the actually place the rod has most 'effect' (I find it hard to explain in English). So if this center would be too close to the body, the rod isn't as effective as it would be when it affects the center of the neck. Does that make sense?
 
#24
roberthabraken said:
Well, that's not completely true. The length of the truss rod does matter, because the center of the truss rod is the actually place the rod has most 'effect' (I find it hard to explain in English). So if this center would be too close to the body, the rod isn't as effective as it would be when it affects the center of the neck. Does that make sense?
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yeah i think i know what ur saying. basically the center of the rod needs to be lined up with the center of the fretboard. distance from nut to center of fretboard times 2 right? anyway i get the idea. thanks

i found a couple peices of ash that were laying around in my shed. they about 36 inches long each but in the top foot or so the get a little knoted but they should be pretty good. they'll need to be planed down to get the tiny bow in them out. I'll have enough wood left over though because they are about 6" by 2". so i think ill plane them down to 1 1/2". ill see if i can get some pixs up tonight.

For the pickups i was looking around ebay and soap bar and jazz bass pickups are pretty cheap and i was wondering if anyone has done a soap bar and jazz pup configuration? i have basiclly no experience with wiring so if someone could suggest a site that they have used that talk about wiring would be awsome.:help:
 
#25
Rochey6957 said:
yeah i think i know what ur saying. basically the center of the rod needs to be lined up with the center of the fretboard. distance from nut to center of fretboard times 2 right? anyway i get the idea. thanks

i found a couple peices of ash that were laying around in my shed. they about 36 inches long each but in the top foot or so the get a little knoted but they should be pretty good. they'll need to be planed down to get the tiny bow in them out. I'll have enough wood left over though because they are about 6" by 2". so i think ill plane them down to 1 1/2". ill see if i can get some pixs up tonight.

For the pickups i was looking around ebay and soap bar and jazz bass pickups are pretty cheap and i was wondering if anyone has done a soap bar and jazz pup configuration? i have basiclly no experience with wiring so if someone could suggest a site that they have used that talk about wiring would be awsome.:help:
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i've got not much expierence with pickups.. only thing i can tell you, is that a soap bar isn't a pickup type but just the casing type. you can have all different kinds of pickups within a soapbar (single coil or not.. humbucking.. you name it).
 
#26
roberthabraken said:
i've got not much expierence with pickups.. only thing i can tell you, is that a soap bar isn't a pickup type but just the casing type. you can have all different kinds of pickups within a soapbar (single coil or not.. humbucking.. you name it).
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oh sry i didn't know tht i was assuming most of the ones on ebay are humbuckers(which is wat a want to use along with a jazz). sry for the terminology screw up:o. i guesse im still a pretty big noob. ohh well. we'll chalk this one up to inexperience.:D thanks for the correction.
 
#27
Rochey6957 said:
oh sry i didn't know tht i was assuming most of the ones on ebay are humbuckers(which is wat a want to use along with a jazz). sry for the terminology screw up:o. i guesse im still a pretty big noob. ohh well. we'll chalk this one up to inexperience.:D thanks for the correction.
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well, nm, i'm a noob too in many ways.. just wanted to learn you something i learned a few months ago ;).. i think it's great to share!
 
#29
So the wood i found lying around my shed and my dad thought was ash turned out it is oak! Im going to use them any way. they look pretty darn good.
PICT0217.jpg

PICT0216.jpg

PICT0211.jpg

and a bad pic of the walnut.

i was thinking of puting a peice of the poplar i have in to the center of the walnut neck. i wouldnt run the entire length of the neck thru. but before i glue it in i will rout out a groove for the truss rod in the side then glue it in. i think it should work.
 
#30
wow its been a month since i posted last! some work has been done but it has pretty much slowed to a dead stop untill i get a peg head design set for sure. so far the body wings and the neck have been cut out. Some sanding has been done on the wings to get smooth lines but its really slow going because what my dad thought was ash was oak. Plus the peghead is really small so i had to cut up some of the other peices of oak and glue them on as ears, but its also too short. ill try to get some pics up a lil latter.

I was thinking about doing an adjustable wooden bridge when i thought of doing a violin with its floating bridge which makes it adjustable. if i were to do this i would do a string through. of course i would have to moddify or even come up with my own design for the bridge because one made from dimensions of a violin bridge would make the action far to high. right? would the holes in the body for the stings need to be at a slight angle for better intonation?

i was lookin at this site:
http://www.dunwellguitar.com/SolidBridge/SolidBridge2.htm
and even though its a mando i think it should be a good place to start. If anyone has some advice on this topic i would really appreciate it if u shared.
 
#35
codyAllen191 said:
do you still have the chipped out pieces on you?...I had a similar problem with my build, but it was with a router, so I had to make a matching piece to glue back in, it worked great and the best part is...no one will ever know but me.
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yeah the chips happened tht way for me too but i have one of them but i cant find the other. how did u make a peice to fit? sand the section smooth and then shave a piece to fit?
 
#38
Very cool tops indeed!

Your bottom and sides could easily be as thin as 12 mm, but making them thinner would rule out the option of rounding off the body sides.

You should *never* route half an inch of depth at once! This causes too much stress on the bit and then on your wood.. hence the chips. It wears out your router faster too I guess.

Be patient if you don't use a Forstner bit first to take out the major chunk of wood and never route more than 1 to 2 mm at each pass!!!
 
#39
well i guess my dad didnt think that way. i might ask him to take off a 1/4 inch more tonight because the chambers are wider than the base of the router so it fell through and dug about 1/4 deeper in two or three spots. if the router was placed on two piece of wood and clamped so the bit was in between the two boards then the boards could be slide over the body with out chance of the router falling through right?
 
#40
Rochey6957 said:
well i guess my dad didnt think that way. i might ask him to take off a 1/4 inch more tonight because the chambers are wider than the base of the router so it fell through and dug about 1/4 deeper in two or three spots. if the router was placed on two piece of wood and clamped so the bit was in between the two boards then the boards could be slide over the body with out chance of the router falling through right?
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yes indeed, you could use guides / sliders to prevent the router falling through. you could either clamp them to your working piece or attach them to the base of the router.
 

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