Finished Pics! SG-style in Yew

Andyjr1515

Thanks all.

And I now have a nice AAA ebony fretboard blank.  But I'm not going to rush into things - I'm going to ponder a bit first.  Because I'm not quite sure of the best sequence.

I have a nice set of Mother of Pearl crown inlays

I will be using the G&W radius rig for radiusing:



I don't have the right template for a 24.75" scale, but I will nevertheless still use the G&W fret-slotting mitre block to cut the hand-measured fret slots to give me slots that are square with the blank and at a consistent depth:



And I will be hand-marking round the inlays and using my Dremel with the precision router base to cut the inlay recesses:



So what's the problem?

Well, there's a few.  For a start, the Gibson-esque crown inlays are very wide.  And the fretboard is quite radiused.  And the MoP I only just over 1.5mm thick.  
Have the eagle-eyed amongst you wondered why the earlier frets on Pete's are crown and the higher frets are rectangular?



Well, basically, I ran out of Mother of Pearl at the tips!  Just sanded right through with my radius block!  So I squared them off and turned it into a 'feature'.

So my choice is:

- Slot
- Cut crown recesses
- Fit crowns
- Radius

This would be easier for the precision routing and ensure that the recess bottoms are flat.  But, it would rely on the inlays being sunk to exactly the right depth and the radius jig likewise.  Also, it means the router would be routing Mother of Pearl!

or:

- Slot
-Radius
- Rout crown recesses
- Fit crowns
- Radius fitted crowns with a radius block

This would ensure that I knew exactly where the inlays were going to fit in the curved fretboard.  But routing on a curve is trickier (although I have done it before) and the rout bottoms will be also curved.

And that's why I'm going to have a little ponder first 

Roland

One of the benefits of lockdown is that you have fewer distractions, and can make progress every day..

PeteC

Whichever route you take I am sure it will be fabulous    It’s going to be an amazing looking guitar for sure.  

Andyjr1515

OK - decided.  And the first job on the list is radius to 12".

After driving myself to the brink of madness in the past trying to radius an ebony fretboard with a radius block alone, I then made my own routing jig and then saw sense and bought a proper one from G&W:




It always takes a bit of time getting it all set up, but the rout job itself took less than 20mins to this level:



Ready for the final 10mins sanding off of the tooling marks with the almost-redundant radius block.  I have a terrible memory, but I always remember to keep the sanding dust!! : 



Now, I'm one of those people where, if I drop a piece of toast it always lands butter-side down.  Except when I try to demonstrate that certainty to anyone, when it lands, of course, butter-side up.
 
So imagine my disbelief when this natural aberration that was lurking under the surface: 

...turned out to be 3mm BEHIND where I will be cutting at the end of the fretboard   Well, if that was karma, I clearly must have done at least one unbelievably good thing in the recent past! 

Roland

Andyjr1515 said:

... I'm one of those people where, if I drop a piece of toast it always lands butter-side down ...

There’s a PhD thesis on this. Based on average table height and average weight, combined with and dimensions of a piece of buttered toast made with sliced bread, face down is the likely outcome. Without butter the angular momentum of the toast is different, and the probability changes.

Andyjr1515

Roland said:

Andyjr1515 said:

... I'm one of those people where, if I drop a piece of toast it always lands butter-side down ...

There’s a PhD thesis on this. Based on average table height and average weight, combined with and dimensions of a piece of buttered toast made with sliced bread, face down is the likely outcome. Without butter the angular momentum of the toast is different, and the probability changes.

PeteC

Close call on the ebony flaw !    Looking good.....

Andyjr1515

Given that I generally use 25" or 25.5" scales on electrics, it wasn't worth getting a template for the 24.75" of this one.  And so I would still be using the G&W mitre box but hand marking the positions.  

For this, I used the Stemac fret calculator and double-side-taped a decent quality steel rule along the centre-line, with the rule end flush with the nut-end:



To mark the positions, standing vertically above each position to avoid parallax errors, I used a sharp ended centre-punch (pictured above) to mark the position with a small indentation.  After double checking the position, I then added more pressure to the punch to make a larger indentation (for reason explained below).



Having marked them all, and before lifting the ruler off, I added a reverse double-check by reading the position of each dot against the rule and checking the answer with the Stewmac measurement.  The ticks above means that my reading of the positions matched within a minimum of 0.05mm to the calculator.  There were a couple where is was a bit more that that.  For those, I just put the punch in the dip and added a teeny sideways pressure until the required measurement was exactly in the centre of the adjusted dot.


Then, with clamps at either side and the board held against the side with tight packers, I positioned each blade-thickness-sized dot until it was invisible at both sides of the blade and I thus knew that the blade was right in the centre of the dot.  I clamped both sides simultaneously to ensure that the dot remained directly under the blade and then cut the slot.




So here we have the board fully slotted.  Next job is to position each of the MoP crowns, seen here laid on top, score round them and rout the chambers:



This may take some time!

  

PeteC

This is just epic - thanks for the detailed updates 

impmann

Fantastic job, Andy! 

Andyjr1515

Thanks, folks!  Much appreciated 


Well, it's taken all afternoon and evening but....



...using the Dremel with precision bass, I started by 'dotting' around the outline:





Then joined up the dots, then roughed out the middle and then finally started the final tidy up and fit for each:



...and a few hours later, they are all in and ready to glue



But that will be tomorrow

MattNovak

Lovely neat work which would test my patience! I have a Dremel-alike, I wonder if the precision bases are a universal fit? 

Andyjr1515

MattNovak said:

Lovely neat work which would test my patience! I have a Dremel-alike, I wonder if the precision bases are a universal fit? 

Hmmm - not sure.  While I would have thought so, you can never be sure.  Maybe someone here will know?  What make do you have?

MattNovak

Andyjr1515 said:

MattNovak said:

Lovely neat work which would test my patience! I have a Dremel-alike, I wonder if the precision bases are a universal fit? 

Hmmm - not sure.  While I would have thought so, you can never be sure.  Maybe someone here will know?  What make do you have?

Mine is made by that well-known household name Ozito  

Bought cheapish at B&Q for fretwork etc as the collet is standard. I'll have a gander online and see what I can find out about it.

DannyP

MattNovak said: I wonder if the precision bases are a universal fit? 

Just remember: never use a jazz base.

Andyjr1515

So this is where my little stash of sanding dust comes in - mixed with epoxy to glue and gap fill at the same time:



And sanded.  





While they take quite a bit of effort, on a scale of 1 to 10, just how satisfying is that!

Andyjr1515

MattNovak said:

Andyjr1515 said:

MattNovak said:

Lovely neat work which would test my patience! I have a Dremel-alike, I wonder if the precision bases are a universal fit? 

Hmmm - not sure.  While I would have thought so, you can never be sure.  Maybe someone here will know?  What make do you have?

Mine is made by that well-known household name Ozito  

Bought cheapish at B&Q for fretwork etc as the collet is standard. I'll have a gander online and see what I can find out about it.

I have to say, it looks identical.  Ozito have a website with a 'Contact' facility - why not ask them?

Andyjr1515

Little by little.  

This is my hobby and usually is interspersed with a lot more 'life' stuff.  With the lockdown and building a guitar on a bit more 'doing something everyday' basis probably makes me realise how much work there is involved in one! 

But - in actual terms - decent progress.  This morning I have tapered the fretboard to it's final size and rough-tapered the neck:



Next job is probably putting the frets in the fretboard.  Nowadays, I do that before gluing to the neck - easier to handle, easier to keep stable for hammering and clamping the frets and MUCH easier for getting the fret ends square and straight with the fretboard edge.

paulnb57

Superb Andy!

merlin

Drop dead bloody gorgeous Andy!