First Build - DC Junior

PeteC

Hi Folks, 

I thought I would try and detail (some of ) my first guitar build here on the forum - and hoping that it will be of interest. 
I am a complete guitar building novice, but have enjoyed woodwork all my life and have a reasonably good set up and power in my workshop (i.e. garden shed)
I've been playing guitar most of my life - from age 15 to 57 - and have been lucky enough to own a good selection of guitars which I have acquired along the way, as well as many I have owned and sold on.  My favs are a 94 PRS McCarty Goldtop, and a '76 Firebird. 

All through my time as an amateur musician I have been interested in electronics ( I took everything apart as a kid ! ) and have built many amps from scratch, including making the cabinets, chassis and electronics.  I eventually sold all my existing amps because I was able to build my own.   I built myself a home studio in what was my garage and most of the outboard gear I built myself, using the experience I had gained from making valve amps and effects pedals and the like.   

As far as DIY amps go, my "pride and joys" are my clone of a Park 1210 Rockhead (I owned and sold two of these fabulous amps), a 50watt Plexi copy, a 50watt Dumble ODS copy and a copy of a 50w Silver Jubilee combo I owned back in the 80s. 

A couple of years ago I started thinking it would be nice to have a few self made guitars to go with these DIY amps so that I owned the whole "signal chain". With the home studio being mainly self built outboard gear there would be something special about having the guitar, amp, effect, signal processing all done myself.  I even built a very high spec tube mic ( using Gyraf;s excellent plans ) and ribbon mics to record my guitars with. 

So now its about trying to fashion a decent guitar or two ( or more ) from scratch, myself. 

To make this achievable I decided to go with a DC Junior as a first build. I have always loved Juniors and having seen some of the threads here ( Ivison, Daniels etc ) I was so inspired I knew I had to try...

Illogically, I started by making a myka jig for the neck pocket.   

   

Then a scarf jig ( using Fletchers design ) 

 

Then the templates ( using these plans ) https://www.dropbox.com/s/gxzbb6524doqtn0/Double%20Cut%20LP%20Jr.pdf

more to follow.....

Cheers
Pete 

PeteC

Next I did the neck profile templates/guides from mdf.  ( unfinished in this pic ) 


Then built a Mitre box ready for fret slotting...



And then made a radius gauge from old oak worktop offcuts ( which didn't turn out perfect but has worked OK so far ) 



Some nice wood ( what I now know to be mahogany after all courtesy of helpful replies to another thread on the forum ) 

PeteC

Some Panga Panga blank being planed to 6mm for the fretboard, which seemed to give me a very interesting allergic reaction - breaking out in itchy sore spots on my lower arms and legs !!! 

PeteC

The router planing jig for the thicknessing and surface trimming of the fretboard blank



A couple of slotted fretboard fresh from the jig ( I used a bought laser cut steel template for the Gibson scale ) 



Starting to look like it might be possible to make a neck .......!!

PeteC

Bit of elbow grease on the fretboard...





To be honest this is where I realised the DIY radius block was a bit deficient - the ends of the fretboard came out very slightly thinner than the middle of the board and I realised that the sanding block was slightly concave , and not 100% true along its length. I tried to compensate for this by shimming the centre of the fretboard up on the bench with a couple of layers of sandpaper to offset this , and its worked to a degree, but I still worry that the fretboard isn't as perfect as it could have been. I am hoping that I will be able to compensate for any variation in the depth of the board when I install and level the frets ( hoping so anyway ). 

Then over to the cheap, shitty , must get a better one....Aldi bandsaw for a bit of neck shaping..

PeteC

And then some body cutting out and rough shaping before routing to final shape on the router table ( pics to follow

Thats it for now folks - I am sure there are lots of mistakes here but so far its progressing OK, and I am really enjoying building and learning as I go.  Great to find so much valuable info on this forum which is helping enormously. 

Cheers
Pete 

PeteC

Sorry my photos haven't linked properly ......how do I embed the photos ? 
Pete 
Edit - now sorted , I just needed to includ a space after pasting in the direct link code - and ten the pics appear.  Just in case anyone else has the same problem.   

Mods - pls delete the blank posts !!! 

PeteC

forgive the typos too - bloody autocomplete !! 

greggreg66

PeteC said:

Sorry my photos haven't linked properly ......how do I embed the photos ? 
Pete 

I upload mine to Imgur......

• Upload to Imgur
• Click image and copy the "Direct Link" code
• When writing post click on the "Attach Image" icon and post code in there
  

greggreg66

Looking wicked Pete, look forward to seeing it progress!

I'm attempting to build my first guitar too, which won't be half as good as any of the ones on this forum, but I'm all for trial and error and enjoying the process. 

greggreg66

Don't know..... let me edit my last post and see if I can attach an image........ 

I'm using a mac too.

greggreg66

PeteC said:

cant seem to get it to work by editing the original post ! 
when I do attach and paste in the direct link code nothing shows up.  ( I'm using a Mac if that makes any difference ? ) 

Yes you should be able to do it as I've just edited my comment without an image and managed to edit one in.... which I'll now delete so your post isn't cluttered!

PeteC

Still won’t work.  I’ve uploaded all my individual images to imgur from my OneDrive, and when I copy and paste the direct link code into the attach picture box for any of the pictures ,and hit return , it just disappears and goes back to being an unedited post.  I’m stumped ! 

Pete.  

PeteC

I’m going to try repost them here and see if it works ...

Myka jig.  

PeteC

greggreg66

PeteC said:

No !  Pic appears then disappears ! 

What am I doing wrong ? 

Not sure! This is what I do....

Copy this link:


Then paste into this box:



Don't even need to press enter, it automatically appears. 

Hope that helps!?

PeteC

Thanks. I will try again. I have been hitting return after pasting in the direct link code.    Cheers 

PeteC

Quick question regarding the P90 rout .   What is the best way to get the classic P90 rout shape - with the deeper channel down the middle    Strangely there is a lack of info on this web / YouTube.   I don’t mean the dimensions ( which are easy to come by) rather I mean the best procedure.  

Cheers
Pete
 

PeteC

And for anyone interested in valve amps - this is what the DC junior will get plugged into when it’s built . 

Cheers 
Pete 

IvisonGuitars

PeteC said:

Quick question regarding the P90 rout .   What is the best way to get the classic P90 rout shape - with the deeper channel down the middle    Strangely there is a lack of info on this web / YouTube.   I don’t mean the dimensions ( which are easy to come by) rather I mean the best procedure.  

Cheers
Pete
 

Morning Pete, great build so far!

Regarding the P90 route, you route the deeper/middle section first and then the outer 'recess/ledge' second.

PeteC

Thanks Neil,  any tips on what bit to use ?