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

[ctmullins]

Usually just the center lam. And just one side of it - there's no point in doubling that work!

Taper is the desired width of the fretboard at one end minus the desired width of the fretboard at the other end.

 

[RichterScale]

Don't do it!!

 

[RichterScale]

At least, don't do it like I did it.
I thought I figured it out and took careful measurements and calculations. I managed to screw it up somewhere along the line.
Still not sure how I screwed it up.
If you don't mind, I'd actually prefer not to talk about it.

 

[TerribleTim68]

You should have worked it out in AutoCAD first.

I think the dilemma I'm having is just deciding on aesthetics. I'm planning on doing a 9-lam neck here. Maple/veneer/purpleheart/veneer/maple/veneer/purpleheart/veneer/maple.
Real similar to this, but with black veneer between each layer -

I know how I want the lams to look. But given the nut width of a Tele, I think I want each lam to be 3/8" thick. So if I do them 3/8" thick at the nut, that center lam is going to taper down to 1/4" at the end of the headstock, yet still taper out to 5/8" at the butt end of the body (we're going neck-thru here). I'm just trying to decide if I like that or not. And I know, it's totally up to me. I just can't decide.

Alternatively, I could just run 3/8" lams with no taper and let the "outside" lams of the neck taper. I won't lose them at the nut, so it's not like it would look wonky. I'm starting top think no taper would look better here anyways.

 

[Gary_M]

So as I sit here pondering life's questions, I find myself wondering....

For those of you who taper the center lam on a multi-lam neck blank, what angle are you using? How do you figure out your taper amount? Do you just taper one side of the lam, or both sides? Do you taper just the center lam, or do you taper each lam?

I've never actually calculated the angle. It just "is what it is"... and I really dislike that phrase. But, in this case, it's true. What I do calculate is the neck width at the nut, the last fret and at the bridge. OK, so it's more like the spread at the bridge, and the nut, then connect the dots. I use the fret2find utility to calculate string spacing, overhang, etc. Then I print that out, or draw it out using the dimensions.

Once I have the outline, I draw in the laminates, keeping the outermost lams parallel to the outside edge. The center laminate is straight and parallel with itself. What's leftover is two angled laminates. You could leave out the straight center lam, or add more parallel lams on the outside and end up with one single tapered center lam if you want.

So, to actually make the pieces, I measure the taper in a couple of spots on the drawing, ( at the nut, and scale length) and use those measurements to make my pieces. I don't know what the angle is, cuz it doesn't matter.

Cutting them is a bit fiddly. You can use a taper jig with a table saw, or with a band saw for that matter. I laid mine out on straight grained maple trying to keep run-out to a minimum, then freehand cut them on the band saw. (I make them larger than I need to) Then I trued up one side of each piece with a hand plane. I glued those two faces together using the tape/CA trick. I then roughly true up one outside face and ran them through the drum sander... flipping as needed. That's probably tough to get a mental picture of what I'm talking about. I'll see if I can find pictures to post.

 

[TerribleTim68]

I've never actually calculated the angle. It just "is what it is"... and I really dislike that phrase. But, in this case, it's true. What I do calculate is the neck width at the nut, the last fret and at the bridge. OK, so it's more like the spread at the bridge, and the nut, then connect the dots. I use the fret2find utility to calculate string spacing, overhang, etc. Then I print that out, or draw it out using the dimensions.

Once I have the outline, I draw in the laminates, keeping the outermost lams parallel to the outside edge. The center laminate is straight and parallel with itself. What's leftover is two angled laminates. You could leave out the straight center lam, or add more parallel lams on the outside and end up with one single tapered center lam if you want.

So, to actually make the pieces, I measure the taper in a couple of spots on the drawing, ( at the nut, and scale length) and use those measurements to make my pieces. I don't know what the angle is, cuz it doesn't matter.

Cutting them is a bit fiddly. You can use a taper jig with a table saw, or with a band saw for that matter. I laid mine out on straight grained maple trying to keep run-out to a minimum, then freehand cut them on the band saw. (I make them larger than I need to) Then I trued up one side of each piece with a hand plane. I glued those two faces together using the tape/CA trick. I then roughly true up one outside face and ran them through the drum sander... flipping as needed. That's probably tough to get a mental picture of what I'm talking about. I'll see if I can find pictures to post.

Nope, makes perfect sense. I'm with ya'.

interesting thought on leaving the center lam straight and tapering the next two.

 

[Gary_M]

Nope, makes perfect sense. I'm with ya'.

interesting thought on leaving the center lam straight and tapering the next two.

Hey, I just found the original post in my first 5 string build about this procedure. Hope it's OK if I repost it here. You may get some thoughts about how to process the pieces... my description in my earlier post was close, but not quite right, here's what I did.
_____________________________________________

I did start to prep laminates for the necks. I'm building two necks for sure, not sure if I will go through with building 2 basses like I mentioned previously, but a spare neck won't go to waste.

I decided to do 5 piece necks with tapered cores. I really like the look of that technique, but it does add additional challenges to milling, clamping, etc. I may also add some black dyed veneer layers in there... but not sure yet. The wood layout will be wenge, hard maple (taper), bloodwood, maple (taper), wenge.

Here I'm jointing an edge of a piece of wenge before I rip it. I don't own a jointer, so I'm starting with a #5 and finishing with a #7 plane. I have to say that this workbench is fantastic for a variety of work holding options.

My tapered cores will be made from hard maple, so I trued up some 8/4 hard maple blanks. I'm going to cut 2 nested tapers from each blank. This picture shows the layout lines along with some reference points for the scale line and nut location for reference. I took this blank and cut the angle on the band saw.

Once the tapered pieces were cut, I needed an efficient way to true up the rough band sawed side. I considered several options, but in the end I just used some simple geometry.

Since I had made the blanks 4-square, the outside edges were already true. So, I just joined the tapers back together in an inverse manner using painters tape and CA. The complementary angles resulted in an easy-to-process "square" stock.

After that, all that I had to do was to joint one rough cut side. Then I ran the whole assembly with the jointed face down through my thickness planer. I processed both sides through the planer, then ran it through the drum sander until the desired dimensions were reached.

I'm not sure if that makes sense... but I hope so.

Here are a couple of pictures of the dry clamped up neck assembly.

 

[Rôckhewer]

....After that, all that I had to do was to joint one rough cut side. Then I ran the whole assembly with the jointed face down through my thickness planer. I processed both sides through the planer, then ran it through the drum sander until the desired dimensions were reached.

I'm not sure if that makes sense... but I hope so

That makes the best sense.
That's how I was going to do it. (But I decided not to)
That's how I've seen Randal Fulmer do it (Wyn basses).

 

[Gary_M]

That makes the best sense.
That's how I was going to do it. (But I decided not to)
That's how I've seen Randal Fulmer do it (Wyn basses).

Yeah, I'm glad I looked up my original post... I knew I was off on some of the details. Randal is pretty amazing and a big influence for sure!

 

[TerribleTim68]

Template set arrived today!

I'm pretty excited about this. I now have everything I need to get to work on this one. I just need to wait until Memorial Day weekend to go out to the wood shop and get cracking!
Initial thoughts on this template set is, it's nice. It's very well done, looks to be very nice quality, and very accurate. I ordered the full set, even though I didn't need all of it. But at some point I may want to build a classic Tele and I'll have everything I need! Plus, if I build some other 25.5" scale guitars, I'll have some parts that will work very well for that too!

 

[TerribleTim68]

Yeah, soo..... It dawned on me today, we're going scarf joint here so tapering lams isn't gonna work. Glad I went down that rabbit hold for nothing. Welcome to my mind.

Anyway, I did put this together today -

Yay for working from home!

 

[RichterScale]

One if these I'll have to have someone show me how to make a YouTube.

 

[TerribleTim68]

One if these I'll have to have someone show me how to make a YouTube.

Well, first you make a YouTube account, or use your Google account to log in. Then you film yourself being stupid (I'm super good at that, and there's generally plenty of stupid moments to pick from) and then you upload it!

The truth is, I film all my stuff on GoPro cameras, because I have them. But you can use your phone too, as long as it's not one of those flip phones. I then transfer my footage from the GoPro (or phone, because I've started using it for some footage for my racing videos) to the computer, then load said footage in my editing software and edit it into a video. I've been using Cyberlink PowerDirector for about 14 years now, so I'm pretty familiar with it. But for someone just starting out, I'd point you to Davinci Resolve, mostly because it's completely free and works very well. -
DaVinci Resolve 18 – Edit | Blackmagic Design
There's tons of pro YouTubers who still use Davinci Resolve, so it works.

Feel free to PM me if you want to dig deeper. I'm a bit of a mess, because I have three different YouTube channels. I keep my guitar stuff on that channel, I have a separate channel for my woodworking/turning stuff and then my "personal" one that has all my racing stuff as well as personal videos like motorcycle rides or trips we took. It's not a good method because you are splitting your subscriber base between three channels, but they all have such different focuses that I'm okay with it. And honestly, I don't really care about being some money making content creator, I just make videos so that when I'm dead, someone can watch me in the future and go "this guy is cool". Or maybe my grandkids will watch it and go "Grandpa was amazing" or something, who knows.

 

[RichterScale]

Thanks Tim. If I ever seriously consider it, I will definitely bother you with questions.
Although, I have a feeling that I'm not very video friendly. I imagine I'd sound something like Steven Wright.

 

[Flamingo21]

Although, I have a feeling that I'm not very video friendly. I imagine I'd sound something like Steven Wright.

C'mon, there's a market for it.


Somewhere.


I think.



..

 

[Flamingo21]

Glad I went down that rabbit hole for nothing. Welcome to my mind.

Thanks, I feel right at home now.

 

[TerribleTim68]

Watch some other YT guitar builders (other than the bald headed Canadian in the UK), there's lots of them that never show their face and there's plenty that don't talk too, they just work and play music over it. There's thousands of ways to format your videos.

 

[Snert]

But for someone just starting out, I'd point you to Davinci Resolve, mostly because it's completely free and works very well.

Thanks for the tip.

 

[TerribleTim68]

Not much of an update, but everything is packed. As soon as the boss lets me off work today we head to....the bosses house.
For those who remember, he is the one who owns the big shop that I get to use whenever I want -

I'll be doing the major lumber milling over the weekend. The plan is to come away from there with a neck blank glued up, we shall see how it goes.

Stay tuned!

 

[RichterScale]

Do you ever have trouble finding the garbage can?