Thread: BluesTone guitars- semihollow neck through telecaster

Originally Posted by woodturner777

Stu,
Tell me about this neck through, How long is the neck, how wide and what thickness.
Cheers Bob

For neck through billets, allow 1000mm length, width around 80-90mm and 70mm
thick for a one piece without the headstock requiring 'ears'. Thickness is directly related to what type of bridge you are running and how much of a neck angle required for your neckk through build.
ie. Tunomatic requires a greater neck angle than a fender style bridge which is close to none.
What also makes a thicker billet required is if you're using an angled headstock without scarfing.


This was scarfed due to thinner timber neck billet. around 48mm thick was the stock and I just squeezed enough out of it for a scarf jointed neck with neck angle also.
Wings were 35mm thick and Qld walnut 5.5mm thick.

Here's the beginnings



And now for the control cavity routing.

that looks great man!!

that bloody piece you glued in the back there looks too good to hide away lol....

i wonder if martin sniffed out the brace

Gawd another Lefty???

Havent you got enough south-paw-axes?

your builds intimidate me Stu!

Keep it up!

Stu

you said the next time you do such a build (hollow), you would bend the sides instead of routing out the billets

what thickness should the sides be if you were to use bent sides?

and also how many and where would you put the vertical bracing and what size would such bracing be?

also, the brace you glued in from the side to the centre; is tht meant for structural support or increased gluing area for the top or both? and would you be gluing more of such braces in?

hope not too many questions

Andy- Thanks. No word from Martin. He's got a phobia of all things electric you know.

Mongrel- This one is a commissioned build for another forum member. This was his grand design
and the only alterations I've made to his brief have been in structural areas to do
with the hollowbodied sections and headstock shape. I' will enjoy having a
bash on it when done later this week.
I have strung her up out of curiosity and played it acoustically, and shows a much louder, fuller and resonant sound. It's definitely going to be one hard to say goodbye to.

Perry- There's nothing here for you to be intimidated about. We all know that !!!

R3R- I would do a bent sides approach to the body next time with a spanish style
attachment into the neck core. No extra bracing would be used as the top and back
would be 5/6mm thick and not required. Tops this thick have no intrinsic ability as
a soundboard as you need a great deal of flex out of the top and you won't get that from
tops this thick.
Think the same type of centre core, bent sides with kerfing holding the top and back.
I would be shooting for 2mm sides with possibly 1.5 around the tight curves to aid bending.
Strengthener blocks or laminated side material to beef out the tighter curves too.

The angled brace behind the f-hole is for strength where the forearm is placed
and to negate the chance of a split forming from the f-hole from forearm pressure..

why is one of the 'e's around the wrong way in bluestone?
















hahahah

Why...you little.....(shakes fist)


Scraping the sides prior to binding.

This is looking good Stu.
Bob

aah forgot about the kerfing!

thanks for reply Stu - full of helpful info as usual

tht angled brace explanation is quite illuminating too

most excellent design aspect imo

No probs R3R. Happy to share info.
Thanks Bob.

Hi all,
I'll chime in here as the new owner of this little baby.
A bit of history,,,
I planned this build late last year, drew it up, made a template, ordered and recived
all the bits in November, then circumstances at home changed a bit, and I found myself unable to continue the build, probably not until much later this year.

So the dilemma, could I sit and wait nearly a year, with all this wonderful stuff in the garage, or did I want an instrument to play earlier. NO CHOICE FOR ME.

I was impressed with Stu's work, and a particular build, I think the Qld Maple neck thru somewhere earlier in the forums, as this was the style I was looking for.

QUOTE:
This one is a commissioned build for another forum member. This was his grand design and the only alterations I've made to his brief have been in structural areas to do with the hollowbodied sections and headstock shape. I' will enjoy having a
bash on it when done later this week.
I have strung her up out of curiosity and played it acoustically, and shows a much louder, fuller and resonant sound. It's definitely going to be one hard to say goodbye to.
UNQUOTE

There were a couple of changes done away from my original thoughts, as Stu mentioned, and I was happy to allow these. I had bracing where the walnut back cavity plate has been put. I had the neckthru bit cutoff just behind the bridge and then 4 braces to secure this to the butt.

When we orginally met, we discussed the thickness of the walls (sides), the bent sides would certainly suit this style of build and I think the end result would be amazing, especially with a hybrid system eg Fishman.

The only thing that I can say that plays on my mind with this build is that Stu will hear it thru the amp before I will. That little buzz you get when you play Dr. Frankenstein and the monster comes alive.

Still, I couldn't be happier so far.


BBM

Wow, that's beautiful clean work Stu, I'm jealous