• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

First Commission Build - Is A Super-Tele A Thing?

#181
Beej said:
My own workflow is to:
1. slot the board
2. trace and cut the inlays on the full-width slotted board
3. re-slot any slots that need recutting through inlays
4. glue board to neck
5. radius board
6. cut neck taper

If the board will be bound as well as inlaid, I will either cut the board's taper and then install the binding, or do it after step 6 above. Depends on the complexity of the binding layup. :)
Click to expand...
Yeah, this is in line with my thinking. :thumbsup:
And no, I'm not doing binding. My brain says it would just be too "busy" looking.
 
#182
TerribleTim68 said:
Sooo.....just a small update on this one. Nothing earth shattering, since I haven't really touched it in a very long time now. But....

I sent the client a couple screenshots with some thoughts and asked for his input. I presented this as "Option 1" and stated "The gap between first and last name sits at the 12th fret" -
View attachment 4756092
And presented this as "Option 2" and stated "This centers the whole thing between the low E and high E strings, but it cuts off the tail on the g" -
View attachment 4756093
I also asked him to tell me if he likes this font or if I should reboot and try again, and told him "This is the Fender font, I thought it would be a fun play on that given we're building a Telecaster here. Alternatively, if you don't like this font at all, we can try something else."

His response was basically "Holy crap, option 1 is perfect! I love it!" :cool:
So it looks like I'll be moving forward with that. Now all I gotta do is learn how to do custom inlays! :roflmao: :laugh: :roflmao:
I mean, I understand the process. I even think I have the tools to make it happen. But I've just never done it before. On the other hand, I had also never built a 5-string multi-scale neck-thru bass either and I did that. :smug:

Now I just need to decide what I'm gonna use for inlay material, get that, and get back to work! In the mean time, a question for the hivemind -
My previous builds I slotted my fretboard off the neck, then glued it on the neck, then radiused it, then installed frets, then carved the neck profile. But I didn't do any inlays on it. At what step would you guys do the inlays? Would you -
Slot fretboard, glue fretboard on neck, do inlays, then radius, then fret?
Or -
Slot fretboard, glue fretboard to neck, radius, then inlays?

I'm just not sure if I should do the inlays with the fretboard still flat or not. Part of me thinks it would be easier to do it flat. Part of me is worried about the depth of said inlay once I start radiusing the board.
Click to expand...
Looking at the mockups, it might look cleaner if you played with the kerning a bit to get the letters to flow a bit tighter, like the original Fender text. It also looks like the font is bolded, and if that's the case, I'd also recommend trying it unbolded to compare. Lastly, I like the bottom one where the majority of the text is centred down the middle of the board, but I might try to rework the G so that it doesn't get completely cut off.

Just a bunch of annoying suggestions. :thumbsup::woot:
 
  • Like
Reactions: instrumentalist and Reedt2000
#183
I almost hate to post this in the middle of the SBO, but I actually did a thing today! :eek:

I know, I know, it shocked me too. But it's true! I really need to get back to this thing, and one of the things I need to do next is sort out the scarf joint cut so I know...well...where to cut it! o_O
I decided the first step to that would be to figure out how long my headstock needs to be so I can determine, roughly, where the nut lives along this neck blank. Hmm....maybe I better make a headstock template then!

So, I taped a print out of my headstock design to a piece of 1/2" MDF, went to the band saw to rough cut it, then to the spindle sander to clean that up and bring it to my lines. I then marked the nut location and used my Tele neck/fretboard template to rout the area "below" the nut.

From there I had to make an additional template, but slightly different. Same, same, bandsaw to rough cut. But this time I could use a pattern bit in the router table and do "the trick" to just use my first one to make a duplicate. Once I had a duplicate I could then modify that one to be "slightly different" at the spindle sander. In the end I had this -
20220804_205239.jpg


20220804_205244.jpg


So the "bottom" one is a bit "shorter". My plan is to stack it and use the shorter one to basically rout a recess along that lower edge and the tip (you get more than just the tip with this). So they kinda look like this stacked -
20220804_205303.jpg


Yes, I'll fully admit that I totally ripped this "idea/concept" off from fellow TB'ers. Hopefully I don't get a "cease & desist" letter. ;) I haven't decided if I'll just let the "step" speak for itself or if I'll laminate a veneer on the top and rout the step in the laminate so that the neck laminates show through at the tip. Time will tell where I go with that. But, regardless of that decision, I now have a template for my headstock shape.

Anyways, now I can start overthinking my scarf joint! Yay me! :thumbsup: :roflmao: :hyper:
 
  • Like
Reactions: Videojunkie, BishopJP, Max Bogosity and 6 others
#184
So I think my next step is to figure out my scarf joint cut location, which I think I have that under control. Then make that cut, which I'm not exactly sure how I plan on making it yet. My table saw (the ShopSmith) isn't terribly accurate for something like this, and I really need a new blade. It has been bogging down something fierce any time I try to actually use it as a table saw and on occasion pops the breaker. I'm not badmouthing the ShopSmith, I still love it. But I think the blade is just so damn dull that it's causing issues with hardwoods. It cuts plywood and even MDF like nobody's business. But man, you stick a piece of wenge or purpleheart at it and I swear the breaker pops before you even turn it on. :meh: I'd run over to the depot of homes and buy a new one, but ShopSmith uses a 1-1/4" arbor hole, which believe it or not was industry standard way back in the day, and the industry moved to 5/8" arbor as the current standard. So finding an 1/1-4" arbor saw blade is tough. I can order one straight from the mothership, but shipping and proprietary pricing kinda sux. Not to mention that I really like those Diablo blades and you ain't finding those in 1-1/4" arbor. :meh:
All that being said, I'm seriously considering just whipping out the Ryoba saw and getting it done. My only concern here is just keeping the cut straight enough. Granted, I could just get it as close as my limited skillz allow and then set up a router sled to square it all up, but that takes another jig and I'm running out of plywood/MDF.
I really need to get that scarf done so I can move on to routing a truss rod channel and then consider headstock shaping now that I have templates.
Mostly I'm stalling so I don't have to start in on that fretboard inlay. :p
 
  • Like
Reactions: Rôckhewer, Matt Liebenau, instrumentalist and 1 other person
#186
dwizum said:
Hold up. I haven't been following every post in the thread, but you're doing a scarf on a tele neck?
Click to expand...
Yessir. I mean, it's not really a "Tele neck" since it's neck-thru anyways, right? Client wants it shaped like a Tele with Tele pickups, but I get to do whatever I want with the rest, and he specifically wants a neck-thru so I went my own direction at that point. It'll be "Tele from the neck heel down but from neck heel up to the headstock I do what I want. :smug:
Thus, scarf joint with a 10 degree tilt-back and my own headstock shape. And I'm totally planning on ripping off @HaMMerHeD for his cool scarf detail too. :cool:
 
  • Like
Reactions: ronknor, Rôckhewer, Beej and 2 others
#187
That sounds great!

I have a simple jig that's just an angled fence screwed to a big piece of MDF, so you can clamp a neck blank to the fence and it sticks past the edge of the MDF at the desired angle. With a good ripping blade, I get glue ready cuts that way, with no cleanup afterwards. Worth it if you're going to be making more than one neck at a given angle.

Although, that said, my last 5 or 6 necks with angled headstocks, I've just used a slightly shallower angle and a big volute for strength and cut them without a scarf. I do like a scarf for material efficiency though, it's nice to be able to make a neck from the thinnest stock possible with the least waste.
 
  • Like
Reactions: TerribleTim68
#195
Okay, I made a scarf joint! :cool:
Paralyzing fear is a yuge thing, bigly even. Sometimes you just have to make a move, even if it's wrong, otherwise you sit there questioning yourself forever. That may have been where I was on this. there's steps along the way that I always say "This is one of those points where you can make some really expensive firewood!" :roflmao:
This scarf joint thing can be one of those points. But, I gotta do "something". Since my table saw isn't up to the task, I went old school! Marked everything out where I wanted it, pulled out the dovetail saw to start the cut, got a kerf started with the dovetail saw and then switched to the ryoba. Why the ryoba you ask? Good question! I find I like the Japanese style pull saws better. So why start with the dovetail saw, you ask? Another good question! man, you're full of good questions tonight, aren't you? ;) The dovetail saw tends to start a straighter cut and is easier to keep parallel and level. The ryoba can be a bit...flexy. Once you have a kerf started, the ryoba will follow it quite well, so that's what I did. It's a lot of additional hand work, but it came out pretty nice and true. -
Screenshot 2022-08-05 215557.jpg


From there I clamped it down and went after it with the #6 plane to true up the cut face and make sure it was flat all the way down both faces. -
Screenshot 2022-08-05 215719.jpg


That was straight off the ryoba before I started planing it, so not bad at all. After the plane it was as perfect as I can get it. Gotta make sure it's square as well -
Screenshot 2022-08-05 221002.jpg


I had said I wanted to do something "unique" on this scarf. I had this chunk of wenge/purpleheart left over from my Diva build. It was part of the body offcut, so I squared up a chunk of it to go in the scarf along with some maple and black veneer to act as pinstripes. I have that black veneer in the neck blank, so why not? -
Screenshot 2022-08-05 221048.jpg


After I cut a rectangular chunk out of it -
Screenshot 2022-08-05 221139.jpg


And then here's the whole mess being clamped up. You can kind of see the veneers in this, black against the maple neck, then maple veneer, then the wenge/purpleheart chunk, then another maple veneer, then black veneer, then the maple headstock. -
Screenshot 2022-08-05 221359.jpg


Screenshot 2022-08-05 221459.jpg


I had to drill some small holes in it near the edges to stick pins (nails) in to act as locating dowels since it just wants to slide apart when you clamp it up. You can see a couple of them in the shot above. I'm hopeful that I got them far enough outside the fretboard and headstock area so that they are in the waste area. We shall see, we shall see. For now, I will let this dry and unclamp it in the morning and clean it up and see where we are. It's hard to visualize when it's still a block, but I think once I start carving this it should start looking really super cool. The other advantage to something like this is, you don't need to get your neck stripes perfectly lined up, just close, because the scarf detail separates them enough that it isn't so noticeable. :cool:

Another step done. Progress! :cool: :cool: :cool: :cool:
 
  • Like
Reactions: Videojunkie, BishopJP, Gary_M and 10 others
#197
That’s going to be the scarfiest scarf in all of scarfdom. I gotta ask though: does multiple scarf lams increase or decrease the neck strength? Since the glue is stronger than the wood, I figure it increases strength? I’ve seen with own eyes that a dropped bass breaks in the wood either side of the glue joint, not in it.
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back