Wenge Rhoads Build

[JacksonRR]

So I have the body pieces clamped up right now and it's freakin me out a little. I did a little test joint last night with some scr@p and it turned out better than I thought it was going to. Looks like I knew what I was doing. Still, I'm not gonna know until tomorrow when I can take the clamps off, sand it some and see if my stick with frets is gonna turn out nice. Anyone else been down this path?

[JacksonRR]

Starting to take shape. Here's a pic of it still clamped up. I wanted to show how I had to put some steps for the clamps to pull in squarely. Those got nipped off with the band saw. The little blackish triangular piece there is my truss rod cover. I had to keep my hands busy for awhile after to keep them off the curing piece. It's wenge, made from scr@p that came off when I ripped the original piece of timber. I put Tru-oil on it, so there's the difference between the body color now and later when it's wearing a bit of protection. I did have a slight shift after gluing the longer wing on, it was about a piece of paper's thickness, but it's standing out in this photo though it's been sanded now. Next pic update will be right before I start routing things, so after the neck heel is carved, the bevels routed and a good bit of sanding done. I'm gonna have to research how to take better pics, mine kinda suck, lol.

[tekbow]

I have to say, this thread is fascinating, i have neither the knowledge or know how to even put a parts guitar together, let alone build a guitar from scratch. How do you even start to learn how to do something like that?

[FernandoDuarte]

:o

[JacksonRR]

Tekbow:
     A year and a half ago is when I started looking into construction methods and I'm still asking questions. Feline Guitars here has answered some for me and the man who built the neck part, Doug Darling, has also been really informative. I also have a luthier who lives about 15 mins away from me, who has been great. The bridge that's going on this was bought from him. It's a NOS Kahler Killer 2700. Flawless and as old as I am. Well I've picked up a few items from him for other things and every time I'm there I pick his poor brain ragged. He might make 5 bucks off of some trem part or whatever, but I leave with a bunch of questions answered by someone who feeds himself doing this. He's a real good guy, too. Loves talking shop and smiles the whole time. He'll go grab items for a visual presentation of an answer, lol. "Hold on, this will be cooler."

Guys like to explain how to do stuff to other guys. I don't know why, but I'm not complaining.  :D

[JacksonRR]

Doug also does really great looking bolt-on necks. Similar prices to Warmoth, but a longer wait time. The trade-off here is his woods are absolutely exceptional and his product is well worth that wait. If you don't wanna go joining wood together or do a finish, maybe something like this is up your alley:

[JacksonRR]

Girlfriend told me about Imageshack and it's unlimited uploads. I can do more pics of steps. Here's the neck heel with it's final rough shape. Did this today. Ready for sanding. The two blobs of wood on the top there are what's left of the difference between the neck wood and the body wood. Neck was an eighth of an inch thicker. It's flush on top. I decided I don't wanna drive 30 mins to borrow a plane so I decided to route it flush, well it's still sticking up just a bit, enough room to sand the router marks out. I guess I still have to go get that hand plane... Couldn't get those last bits. The fins are still a bit thicker than what I need, even after sanding I have room for my tremolo block to move without bottoming out on the cover.

[FernandoDuarte]

Very very cool... I just think that much recessed heel will be unecessary :)

But this wenge RR will look stunning! :D

[JacksonRR]

Thanks Fernando! I worked it pretty slowly. My thumb stops in just the right spot for reaching the 24th fret. Don't have to reach or change hand position at all.

[FernandoDuarte]

That's great! :)

[JacksonRR]

So I've been planning on doing the standard tapered bevels with a 45 degree chamfer bit with my router, but then I saw these:

YES? NO? Give it a shot and if I hate them, sand them smooth after? I don't even know what tool they used here.

[JacksonRR]

[FernandoDuarte]

I guess a rasp file...

Not sure if it will look good on the RR... :?  Try it on the wood that you're not going to use...

[WezV]

its not rasp marks - just chipped off with a carving/pen knife.  i would say dont do it

[Transcend]

+1 it looks a bit of a hack job in my opinion. Stick with the nice clean bevel look