Wez venables guitar build - Done and dusted!!

[WezV]

i went with bocote for the middle laminate to match the fretboard.  Although bocote goes through a few colour changes before it settles into a browny orange so they dont quite match just yet.

[WezV]

also, dont forget the fretboard grain will change yet again when i radius it!!!

I think the black headstock veneer is going to look more appealing - because as it is now, we almost have too much woodiness and i want to balance it out

i usually plan everything out carefully firstbut simpler designs like this can be winged to a certain degree.

i went with 25.5" scale length and i have left 24 fret slots as well - can still cut it down to 22 though if that more popular

[dave_mc]

that's a nice fretboard!

[WezV]

sorry dave, just cant take you seriously with that avatar   if you say its nice (with an avatar like that) it makes me think its awfull!!

[WezV]

the good news:

well i have done some more work on the body today.  



i used a strat template and a router to get it to its final shape.  There is still a ledge on the bottom because the body is still thicker than standard, will sort that out soon!

the bad news:

I have been hit by the curse of documenting a guitar build!!!

i had got as far as rough cutting out the neck today when i noticed something bad.  One of the joins in the heel had a gap about 1/2mm wide.  as i was examining it i squashed it closed which caused the fretboard to pop off in that area!!!! :(

ok, so what went wrong...  well i was sure my joins were all good, sure i had glued it properly but there must have been something i missed!!  its very frustrating when this happens

anyway - i decided to see how easily the neck blank would come apart, and it came apart shockingly easy!!!  what i can tell from looking at it is that the zebrano has soaked up glue as normal but the glue hasnt penetrated the bocote at all!!!!   I have only worked with bocote once before a few years ago... what i forgot to do was wipe down the gluing surfaces with acetone before gluing.  This is neccisary with bocote because it is extremely oily/waxy and needs some of the oils removing before gluing.

because it came apart so easily i could save this neck  but i think what i will do instead is proceed with another idea.  I reckon i will save that fretboard for something else

How about a solid one-piece indian rosewood neck with figured maple skunk stripe and possibly a bit more inlay than would have suited the bocote!!!  I think that may suit the guitar better anway


I speak to a lot of people that say they could never build a a guitar because they dont have the patience - its these moments that make me think they are right...  It all went wrong  this morning so i put the neck to one side, got on with other stuff and took a few hours to think how best to proceed.  Half the battle is not throwing it against a wall when something goes wrong, if you can get past that moment of frustration you usually end up with something better in the end!!

[blue]

ooo shame about the neck, but excellent attitude!

that body is looking stunning! earlier i would have leant towards the flamed maple, but that really does look fantastic.  almost seems a shame to ruin it with a neck and hardware and such

looking forward to further developments.  i know if this was me i'd still be sitting looking at a couple of pieces of unworked wood, i'm a real procrastinator!

[ToneMonkey]

Yeah man that sucks.

I had to scr@p a maple:zebrano:maple neck as when I was shaping the headstock I came across a BIG patch of duff wood right in the end (if you were to look straight down the headtock and neck, towards the body).

You couldn't see it until until the wood was cut (you certainly couldn't see it when I spent over and hour in the wood shop choosing my wood).  I tried to chop down the size of the headstock a little but couldn't get to the end of the wood.  Typically I had already shapped the neck (the headstock was going to be a sort of organic shape, rather than have sharp corners where the front of the headstock joined the sides), it was going to be a much more free flowing carved shape (got to experiament ain't ya).

As much as I like wood, it can't half be a pain in the arse sometimes  

[WezV]

I did tell you it would be warts and all!!

I will say one thing though, just incase anyone thinks it means i sell substandard guitars..  i inspect everything fully to check structural issues because, like tonemonkey said, wood can be unpredicatable.  I was trying to flex the neck this morning to check everything was ok when i noticed the problem.  i leave no possible way for structural problems to get onto a finished guitar because i check everything carefully like this and i would much rather be honest about the fact that things go wrong because, well,  thats just life

[WezV]

new neck blank:



never done a one-piece fender style neck like this before so it should be interesting!!!

[noodleplugerine]

Shame about the neck - I do think that fretboard would have looked superb with the spalt - But the new neck blank also looks stunning - So no harm done.

[WezV]

started work on the rosewod neck - i think i will get that part finished first before returning to the body but its looking ulikeley it will all be done this week.  oh well i still have four more weeks of work so thats at least another guitar after this that should get done!

first job was to put the truss rod slot in the back of the neck. and now i have to do the fretslots into the actual neck blank.  I have cut awy one side of the neck blank to make it quicker but it wont fir into my fret slotting jig so it looks like i am doing it by hand

here its is now:

[Transcend]

i reckon you should put a more modern styled headstock on.... like the ones on the LTD mh400.


i hate fender headstocks they just look generic

[WezV]

it wont be exactly like a fender one - i would rather not copy anyones headstock directly

It will be something inspired by the peavey/teisco/schecter headstock, like these below:

http://www.dobuita-st.com/shop/yamaguchi/20060411/P2h.jpg
http://www.goodtimesmusicstore.com/product_images/128545x250.jpg
http://www.ishibashi.co.jp/report/gakkifair1999/gd/gif/ele-054a.jpg

obviously i will try and make it a bit more original though.

I drew the fender shape onto the headstock because thats the shape my templates have.  i dont usually use templates for necks but this is different to how i usually build anyway so why not!!.

anyway, onto slotting the fretboard/neck..  like i said before the whole neck blank wont fit into my fret slotting jig  - but i can use you scale template from it to make out the fret locations  so at least i wont have to do lots of measuring.  I used to have to mark out fretboards by measureing every single fret.  i could do it quite accurately but it took a long time and a lot of patience!

here is the fretscale taped onto the neck blank:
 
while is taped in place i notch all the fret locations with the fret saw.

then i removed the template and cut the fret slots carefully with a fret saw and square - thats why i left the square edge on the neck blank.

here it is slotted:


at this stage i have left the fret slots a little shallow because i would rather get them to there final depth after i have radiused the board.  that way the fret slot will follow the radius of the fretboard.  I havnt done that yet because i want it flat so i can stick the template to it and route the neck to shape:



all ready to glue the truss rod in!

[Jp.]

i reckon you should put a more modern styled headstock on.... like the ones on the LTD mh400.


i hate fender headstocks they just look generic

I find that comment interesting being as Fender created the genre of electric guitars. I'm not saying they invented the electric guitar but they pretty much brought the genre of electric guitars into being.

dont get me wrong I'm not having a go at you.... just mearly thinking out loud.

I often read threads for a observing human reaction as well as entertainment. (Ok now I'm rambling)

[deg0ey]

I think what hate growth meant by that statement is that the Fender headstock shapes are often imitated by the vast number of strat copies etc on the market. And it is this imitation that has made them much less distinctive than they once were. And therefore people that use the Fender shapes on custom guitars are giving themselves a less individual instrument by copying the thousands of other similar guitars on the market.

That was my interpretation :P