Starting out in guitar building - There will be questions!

WezV

There you go.  Solid fix, and one you won't see once painted.

SteveF

Decided to take a short break from the build while I waited for the repair to cure, so I threw together a bench top router table with some leftover wood I had from when I made my bench. Or at least it will be when the insert plate arrives from amazon.  



I still have some MDF left over so I might make a fence and rout it for T-track down the line, but I am not sure whether I really need that for my purposes.  I see a lot of the YouTube woodwork guys doing that, but when I have watched people doing guitars they haven't been using one.  

It's fairly solid so shouldn't move around but I have made it so it can be easily clamped to the bench just in case. 

SteveF

Another thing that popped into my head today. 

My template is for a 21 fret neck.  I want to do 22 frets, so was planning on just having the usual Fender style overhang.  Is there anything I need to watch out for (e.g. are my vintage style templates likely to have the neck pickup in a different spot from a more modern tele)?  I assume not, because as far as I am aware, scratch plates are pretty standard. 

SteveF

From Warmoth's site, it seems fairly straightforward.  I guess this is why when I did the Bolt kit, I had to drop the pickup into the cavity and screw it to the plate after the plate had been put onto the guitar under the fretboard overhang. 

WezV

You are correct, no difference in pickup position.    

SteveF

Wonderful  

davros

These are all mistakes I've made before, generally only once!! All part of the learning process - especially learning how to fix them.

I definitely agree with building a router table it will make climb cuts (the wrong way) safer and easier to control. Just go slow with a shallow cut and a good grip on the workpiece. Routing necks to templates is very difficult with a handheld router.

I would also recommend building a router sled - it will make flattening much easier.

SteveF

Thanks @davros it’s reassuring to hear that these things have all happened to others too! 

I did think that the handholding of a router to do the neck would be very difficult, even just doing the slot was pretty tricky, so I imagine the edge work would be really easy to mess up. 

Any more info/example uses about what you mean for flattening with a router sled?  Do you literally mean hovering the router above the body/neck/fingerboard and going back and forth to gradually flatten/thickness the workpiece?  That feels like it would take a long time? Although I guess it would give easier and more consistent results than using a hand plane. 

WezV

yes, that is what you can use a router thicknesser for.   You can do a big one for surfacing a whole body, or a small one for other jobs, Cutting the headstock depth on  a fender style neck for instance.

I just made this small one which is getting used for a lot of small thicknessing jobs

davros

This is my sled. Very useful for flattening and thicknessing. I have a wider 22mm flattening bit to make it quicker but a smaller bit works fine.

SteveF

Thanks both. Looks like two different but fairly straightforward ways to do it. 

WezV

I do have a big version like Davros too, wouldn't be without it.   You can also angle the bottom rails for doing things like neck angles 

davros

WezV said:

I do have a big version like Davros too, wouldn't be without it.   You can also angle the bottom rails for doing things like neck angles 

And angling the top/neck plane for les pauls!

WezV

that's what I meant, Althoguh I have done them on the heel too with the same jig

SteveF

Amazing what a bit of sandpaper will do! 



I need to round over the edges where they finish at the neck pocket - just need to work out the best/easiest way to do it - they're pretty thin and fragile at the ends.  I'm currently thinking just a sharp chisel to cut down vertically and then just rub the corner over with some sandpaper. 

Also need to get the holes through the cavities.  I am assuming it's 3 holes - one from neck pocket into peck pickup and straight through to the small central channel, one from the central channel to the control cavity and one from the bridge pickup cavity to the control cavity? 

WezV

Can't even tell you had to glue a new bit on the body

WezV

Are you using a neck plate.... if so, have you added too much roundover in that area..

I did it on one of my first fender style builds,  solved it by angling the whole heel section 

SteveF

WezV said:

Can't even tell you had to glue a new bit on the body

 

WezV said:

Are you using a neck plate.... if so, have yoy added too much roundover in that area.

I am planning to.  I don't think so. I stopped the actual roundover before the neck pocket area and just softened the edges by hand.  



I did try and blend down to the cutaway though, so it is possible.  I will have to check with the plate I have (should have done that at the time, clearly! ) Worst case, I can always get one of those curved corner ones like the American Professionals have and then totally round off that corner and make it look like it was on purpose. Or I could use inset washers I guess. 

WezV

I just took a rasp from the corner to flatten off an angled section... then blended into the flat plane of the body.  Softens that sharp corner, but still looks stock from the back.  I actually did it on purpose after that

SteveF

I think I am just about ok - close though 



Could potentially go down the route of a curved neck plate or bushings if that looks too close. 

Something like this perhaps: set-of-4-guitar-neck-joint-bushings-ferrules-14mm-x-5mm 

SO MANY LESSONS!