project one officially underway!!!

[sbgodofmetal]

Todays progress,



I ordered some maple it'll be in tommorow and next week I'm ordering some walnut to make the top and fret board with as well as the control cover and pickup mounting rings.

[newey]

You are making good progress! Keep it up, you'll be shredding it soon enough . . .

[sbgodofmetal]

Thanks newey! ;D

I've been planning this build all year, and I'm glad I finally got it started. The body blank should be done by tomorrow but it'll be a while on the top wood depending on how long it takes exoticwoods.com to process and ship it. Its no figured clairo like I wanted, but its still walnut so for $9 per 4' board, I'm not complaining! ;D $24 per 4'x8"x1/4" board im still not complaining.

[sbgodofmetal]

Ok I started working on getting fret board measurements and I used one of those fancy fret spacing calculators and got this,

NOTE: all units are inches

Enter Scale Length 24.5 inches Constant 34.93 inches
Nut to Fret 1= 1.375
Nut to Fret 2= 2.673
Nut to Fret 3= 3.898
Nut to Fret 4= 5.054
Nut to Fret 5= 6.146
Nut to Fret 6= 7.176
Nut to Fret 7= 8.148
Nut to Fret 8= 9.066
Nut to Fret 9= 9.932
Nut to Fret 10= 10.750
Nut to Fret 11= 11.522
Nut to Fret 12= 12.250
Nut to Fret 13= 12.938
Nut to Fret 14= 13.587
Nut to Fret 15= 14.199
Nut to Fret 16= 14.777
Nut to Fret 17= 15.323
Nut to Fret 18= 15.838
Nut to Fret 19= 16.324
Nut to Fret 20= 16.783
Nut to Fret 21= 17.216
Nut to Fret 22= 17.625
Nut to Fret 23= 18.011
Nut to Fret 24= 18.375


now heres were things get difficult, no tape measure ive ever seen has decimal measurements. and my personal tape measure only measures in inches, 16ths 8ths, and 4ths, feet, milimeters, and meters but no decimals. can anyone send me a link to a good unit converter?

[col]

Why not buy a meter long steel (or aluminum) ruler marked in millimeters? I dare say some of the luthiers here might have some other suggestions. Certainly, you must be very precise in your measurements. My guess would be that you should aim for better than +/- 0.25mm (1/100th of an inch), and I think this is possible. I would clamp down the ruler, and mark off your measurements with a very sharp knife. You will also need to do this square to the scale (not the side of the neck) with a 'try square'. You really need some proper advice - these are just some general principles I would employ if I was attempting this.

[cynical1]

The best advice I can give you is to cough up the coin for a real fret ruler.



In your case, grab the Gibson scale rule.



For $30.00 it's a real must have tool for neck fabrication.

The list of tools expands from there...a precision mater box and fretting saw is another indispensable tool for achieving consistent results. Quality will cost around $150.00 on up...garbage is cheaper, but your results will reflect in your finished work.

Some radius sanding blocks are a cheap find. Depending on how you plan to purchase your fret wire you'll be looking a a good pair of nippers and a fretwire radiusing tool. You can make one of these if for around $30.00, or you can buy one for around $50.00-$95.00.

You'll also need a small arsenal of files and leveling tools, so save another $100.00+ for all of that.

Sure, it's a heavy hit on the first build, but building necks works off of an economy of scale.

Happy Trails

Cynical One

[col]

Sept 1, 2012 23:22:43 GMT -5 cynical1 said:

The best advice I can give you is to cough up the coin for a real fret ruler.

As I said, "proper advice". I had no idea such a thing even existed. But, of course, a new ruler would be required for each scale length. At $30, that must still be worth it.

[sbgodofmetal]

Yeah that is a good deal for it but does it come in a bass. Scale as well???

Files I'm not so worried about since there's a box with a million and one different types of shapes, sizes, radiused and non radiused files at work. But most deffinately the fret rule and radius blocks are in my shopping list.

As far as fret wire I'm ordering a 1lb bulk lot of "pre" radiused medium/high fret wire for $49.99

www.cbgitty.com/cubecart/fret-wire-bulk/1lb-bulk-fret-wire-medium/high-nickel-silver.html

[cynical1]

Sept 2, 2012 12:12:33 GMT -5 sbgodofmetal said:

Yeah that is a good deal for it but does it come in a bass. Scale as well???

Yes.

Dual Fret Scale Templates

HTC1

[sbgodofmetal]

Thamks again c1 ;D

[sbgodofmetal]

Well the wood I ordered arrived yesterday and wouldn't ya know it they sent the wrong wood . so now I've got to wait again befor it comes in yet again. If they get it wrong again ill be looking else where. No further progress has been made yet. Ill update as soon as the right boards get here

[sbgodofmetal]

Well it came in my first maple board and I got to talking to the delivery driver and he's bringing me some 6 to 8 ft boards of walnut abolutely free of charge next Tuesday! ;D ;D ;D

[sbgodofmetal]

Todays progress

cross cut boards at 21"

pick panels for bottom and glued together.


chose the middle pieces and glued those together



. Final body glue up. I got the cavity routed out and started the rough cut out of the body shape but my phone died before I could get pictures of that work so be expecting more by wednesday

[sbgodofmetal]

Sorry for the delay its been hectic lately. But the walnut finally arrived after being late twice in a row



The board is 13/16"x 6"x10' which I cross cut at 22" and the ripped down to 5 3/4".



Since the board widths won't make up the entire body width I added another 2" wide strip of maple down the middle for a total of 1/4"x13 1/2"x22"

Marking center lines with the template

at this point in the photos the walnut and maple strips are "NOT" glued together yet.

Although I did glue the up before leaving the shop ill have more on that later.