Because a chick is a small bird......... God, I need a holiday.
My bandmate was impressed with my last 9/10ths NRFB, so I am building one for him. He's asked for something wiith a telecaster / ric vibe, and I have a few ideas.
The biggest change from the first build is scale length and neck / body join position. We've gone for 25'' PRS scale, with 24 frets. The neck will join the body around the 20th, rather than the 18th on my original - this will move the bridge forward a bit, and hopefully make the overall design hang together better.
In order to bring the Ric influence in (apart from the 24 fret neck), I currently plan to bind the back edge of the body and do a large roundover on the top, ala one of these:
Not much going on with it at the moment, picture-wise - but I have joined a two piece mahogany body, thicknesses and radius'd a walnut board and cut a rough cherry neck blank. Going through my phone, all I can find is this which shows a few bits and pieces related to this build and others:
www.theflyingacesband.com
Comments
We used to have something similar, but my wife insisted that it was a garden table!
I *may* have used a bandsaw in the kitchen once too.
Very interesting configuration and the neck sounds good - PRS 25" scale and 24 frets. Keen to see the layout of the fretboard/body join.
Its jointed slightly off centre - I had to, to get the shape on. It doesn't metter though, as its having a one piece 'back cap' (is that the right term?) with the binding on the bottom edge only, as per the Ric above.
I think I'm going to attempt a dog hair finish on this, so I've shot a coat of black. Tomorrow I'll try some thinned white grain filler and give it a sand back to see how it looks.
You can see some of the flat spots in lower part of this pic:
I'd been thinking about neck joins, not sure what its called but I decided to cut a narrower tenon underneath the fretboard with a reciprocating route for the mortice. As this build has a tele bridge there's no neck angle needed, so the neck can sit flat on the body. Here's the template which shows what I'm on about:
I did a test run and it worked, so I went for it:
And the matching route in the body:
Everything fits well enough, so I'm happy with that. I need to dress back the treble shoulder and taper the fingerboard but whilst there's been a few moments which needed some thought it's not a disaster!
What pick up are you going to use - A single coil or stacked humbucker ?
@DrBob, I know what you mean - I think its my dodgy eyesight as I tend to notice most bits that need attention once the body has a thin coat of paint on... which means re-doing some bits, but hey-ho. Undecided whether to go with the dog hair finish or plain black for the final finish.
Once I sort the neck join out, I need to add the back 'plate' (I was tempted to chamber the body in places, I still might) and route for bottom edge binding.
Just to say, I'm often hesitant about posting pics here, as everyone elses builds look much neater than mine during the process itself!
A lot of these things I'm doing for the first time, and without an overall plan to follow. So, recoveries aplenty!
I did, however, make a wooden box at school when I was 15.
Needs to be trimmed to size and the binding channel cuts; I also cut the control cover - I think I have done a neat enough job to use the removed section as a matching backplate, which I always think is a nice touch.
Note to self: using a large forstner bit to chamber mahogany with a cheapo cordless drill is quite the task. My kingdom for a drill press.