Thread: First guitar build worklog.

Cheers Jon. I love your work, and your praise as a result means an awful lot to me. Goes for everyone else here, too!


Neck end mucked around with, and now fits snugly into the pocket. Still need to deepen the pocket OR reduce the thickness of the neck heel a few millimeters to attain the right height, but I'll wait until tomorrow lest I wake up the neighbours with a router. They don't like that much.




Oh, and the fretboard has been radiused to 12", too.

Starting to carve the neck.


Neck profiles at frets 0 and 12 are rasped out;







And starting to level out the thickness of the neck down its length. Just trying to get a perfectly level surface between the two set profiles. Then I start doing the same for the curves on either side. Looking rough at the moment, but that's because I've just finished with a rasp and am about to move to something a bit finer.

Bulk of neck carved. Need to blend heel and headstock now.

Thanks for the positives Stygian....my work also has loads of room for improvement but it is amazing what perserverence and practice can achieve . Looks like your on the right track with the neck carve....how's the arm .

Hahaha yea i bet the arms a bit sore!!! Really good work so far but.. Very impressive first build! I bet youve planned a few more while working on this one lol.
Its a very addictive hobby and I dont know about anyone else but I become very attached to the ones i build lol..

Arm sore? Not at all! Still good...

Thread title a bit misleading there floody, this is the second build. The first one isn't yet finished - need to get around to fret dressing and all that jazz. I managed to squeeze this build into the same thread

And yes, I most certainly do have a few more in mind already! There's a piezo pickup bridge on StewMac that I noticed the other day, which I'm considering working into an electric with no conventional pickups - just a large design in the middle of the body.

It's just the cost will hold me back more than anything - like any other hobby, I guess

neck carve looks good man, nice work

Cheers Andy


Heel mostly done, just needs some tidying up;







Neck profile taken at the first fret.

Another test fit of parts, this time with the neck fitted.



The colours of the fretboard and body look rather similar here, but I reckon the body will turn out deep red whereas the fretboard, a more brown colour. I'll be cutting out a piece of shell to cover the truss rod access hole there.

A bit more work done. Pictures speak for themselves. Headstock volute still needs a tiiiny bit of evening out, but most of it is done. Again, all done with a rasp, 2nd cut half-round file and sandpaper. Daunting to start, but once I got into the swing of things, I found my eye to be accurate enough, and fingers moreso.

Frets are in.







Using pretty primitive tools while waiting for the real deal, but they work just fine & dandy.

Now lots of work cleaning them up. Levels seems very good - just a couple of frets a fraction of a millimeter tall currently, but that's easily fixed. Soldier on!

Well - the body is sanded down to a smooth surface, using high-grit paper. The grain is showing nicely, and it's ready for a couple of coats of polyeurethane to seal the grain, before a few more to build up the finish. I'll probably start that tomorrow, through the day, when it's a bit warmer.

First couple of coats of polyeurethane are on!

I'll wait for this to cure properly, and then sand it back a tiny bit with 800 grit paper, just to remove the peaks, leaving the grain nice and full. Then coat, sand with 1200, rinse and repeat until I've got a finish thick enough to satisfy myself. Then the buffing! The neck just needs a little bit more in way of dressing frets - purely to remove a couple of slightly sharp edges up near the heel. Then that'll cop a few coats of poly too, with some oil for the fretboard. Almost finished! This is the fun part I reckon - every day is one day closer to completiion

Photos!





This I wasn't expecting from the ash - the raw timber showed none of this character. All good!

So, while the neck dries with its second coat of poly, I took the time to finish the body! A few grades of wetrub later, it's looking mighty fine, but not shiny enough. Out comes the turtle wax car polish! Here are photos of the completed body. With (always!) a few exceptions, really happy with how this turned out.

First, a 'before' shot showing the electronics cavity plate:




And here's the rest of 'em.










Soldering is yet to be completed, but that's straightforward and poses no issue at all

Not sure if it's apparent in the photos, but I managed to snap one of the bridge screws in the hole - it took quite some effort! Stubborn thing Coloured the exposed screwend with a gold paint pen, and now it's only obvious when you're looking for it up close