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First Build - And May My Mistakes Be Minimal

#241
It certainly is much easier when looking at it from a theoretical standpoint. ;)

Something I do know, if I were to use a chop saw again for a scarf, it would need to be for a smaller (re: not APII) headstock! The extra length made for a tricky cut. A 10" table saw presents a maximum cut height issue unless the jig were to hold the neck blank flush to the table (as opposed to riding on taper jig sled).

So, we are back to the bandsaw. In my case, my bandsaw has limitations on using jigs (in my eyes) due to it being a 9" bench top. It certainly can be done, but the drift can be pretty pronounced.

So that is my frustration, which may simply boil down to my inexperience in making the most out of my available tools. That said, this is all about learning for me. I will get better, and I may even have a successful first build! As it stands, I can cover up my errors (I am fairly sure), so consider this project quite successful so far.

As for future builds...to scarf or not to scarf. Maybe, maybe not. I may go with the approach of trying to minimize waste while at the same time cutting the angle out of the blank, as many folks do--hopefully gaining a second neck. That presents its own challenges, but hey, if it were all easy....
 
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#242
Oh! Since I am going to veneer the top, and possibly add a backstrap to the headstock, what species of veneer would look nice? Do I need to give it any special treatment before cutting and gluing? Special thickness needed?

For the species, I think walnut would look quite nice, but I'd like some opinions based on the current woods I am using:

Neck: Maple/Walnut/Purpleheart/Walnut/Maple
Body: Hickory
 
#244
Small update: I planed down the headstock to close to thickness. Next up, I need to cut some wings for the headstock and glue those up. Then, I will laminate purpleheart (bottom) and flame maple (top) veneer to the face. Interim tasks: Make headstock and neck templates. The neck template will serve as a router template for both neck and fingerboard.
 
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#245
I cut some of my extra Peruvian walnut into wings and clamped em up.

We are organizing our basement for my wife's new hard cider operation so that consumed much of the weekend. We did get our LLC and company name though! ^5 Cider (high five). :)

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#249
Lonny - thanks! It was the best of the sheet. Any and all finishing tips more than welcome!

And yup, it is a goofy long headstock. It will be pretty nice looking when done I hope.

I just finished carving headstock and neck taper. Belt-sanded as well. Now time for some manual sanding to get things nice.

Bought a couple small hand saws to tackle headstock top a bit later.

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#251
So I made a template mistake somehow and got an unwanted hourglass-like curve on both sides of the neck. To counter that, I will make a new template 40mm (nut) to 50mm (heel) tomorrow and route the problem out.

Bridge is 56mm e-g strings. If it fans too wide, I'll get a different bridge.

The older SB Pros had a fairly parallel string spacing so this may work out for the better... More tomorrow!
 
#258
PDX Rich said:
Indeed! I am just glad I can potentially save myself from my near-catastrophic mistakes. I lose the use of fancy hipshot bridge and brass nut from China. I need to find a new bridge with narrower spacing and it'll be easy to find a 38mm j bass nut :)
Click to expand...
What bridge string spacing are you needing due to the changes?
 

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