Thread: Qld Walnut Thru-neck

Originally Posted by old_picker

templates are a pain thats fer sure
my least favourite part of the process
after you messed up a few you certainly treat em with a lot more respect

the shape for my walnut guitar was actually due to a routing mistake on the template (i was using a router freehand to get closer to where i wanted to be, but went way off) i thought i might aswell try a strange cut in the back, and ended up keeping it.

that carve looks nice oz tradie

What sort of binding (if any) will this one have oz tradie?

Looking good Stu. Very good. That carve on the top is a great idea (double dip). I don't recall ever seeing a carve like that on a guitar before. Was it your idea?

Is there a reason why you have done the truss rod channel a bit off center?

Looks good Stu!.
You made some serious progress from when I was last at yours.
How did you do the lip around the edge of the guitar, and does the 'second' carve sit higher than the actual body?. It looks like it in this pic.

I've just gotten back from Metung after the whole weekend ripping our jetty apart
and replacing bearers, joists, deck and deck runners over a 20 metre section that had rotted away. Working over water kind of made it that little more problematic.
Anyway, all done and I'm totally knackered.

Thanks for your thoughts guys.
No binding around the body on this one ,Sundancewfs .

Hammered, You had me going there with the offset truss rod thingy, as I ran out into the workshop to check it.
I hope you weren't serious though, as it doesn't say good things about your 'Sunday eyes'.




Deano, I did the complete carve in under 2 hours using a 100mm angle grinder with a flapdisc and an orbital sander from 120 grit to 320 grit.
No hand rubbing on this one required for I could get really good control using both tools, especially the outer lip and carve cut-ins.
This carve is really comfortable in the playing position too.

cheers, Stu

Simply awesome carve work their Stu....speechless! .....LIke others have said, I have never seen this style before either and I really like it. Great job!

Originally Posted by oz tradie

Hammered, You had me going there with the offset truss rod thingy, as I ran out into the workshop to check it.
I hope you weren't serious though, as it doesn't say good things about your 'Sunday eyes'.

It looks much better in the second set of photo's. I don't know what I was seeing on Friday arvo at 4:30 (probably the clock hitting 5, and nothing more)

I think it was this photo that looked a little off center


It might be the LCD at work. I can never get that thing to display how I want it too. Too dark, too light, bad resolution, sometimes it likes to reset itself to default settings etc.

No Sunday eye's this weekend. Was the boys 10th birthday today, so naturally everyone was woken up with the birds to hand out presents . We had a nice quiet family day at home.

Good job getting 20 meters of jetty replaced in one weekend. Did you have a whole 'Backyard Blitz' style crew on hand or something! At least the weather was fine if you happened to fall in.

Originally Posted by Hammered

Good job getting 20 meters of jetty replaced in one weekend. Did you have a whole 'Backyard Blitz' style crew on hand or something! At least the weather was fine if you happened to fall in.

There was myself, a good mate and his father. It's their jetty they share with a neighbour. The neighbour was supposed to chip in but he sat around, talking about how great he was while we got on with things.
And what's more, a bloody dentist(him) telling a carpenter(Me) how to ply his trade.
He would have been straightening his own teeth had he not heeded the 'big' warning.
Dead set, I reckon his mother should have swallowed him, instead of bringing him into the world. A waste of precious air !!!!
Oops, pent up aggression..................feel better now.

Anyway, here's the more subtle back carve.



cheers, Stu

Damn Stu, this guitar is coming along so nicely. I still can't get past how good that front carve looks. The back carve is nice and simple and compliments very well. Plus, the colours of the timbers look fantastic too. When it's finished, I think this is going to be one hell of a nice instrument.

Originally Posted by Hammered

Damn Stu, this guitar is coming along so nicely. I still can't get past how good that front carve looks. The back carve is nice and simple and compliments very well. Plus, the colours of the timbers look fantastic too. When it's finished, I think this is going to be one hell of a nice instrument.

Thanks for the compliments, DJ.

I'm going to use this carve style with this body shape as a given.
I'll use other carve options on differening body shapes like the 'Raging fires' build.
Hopefully there will be quite a few more that come up as good, if not better than these ones.

When it's finished, hopefully somebody likes it enough to make it theirs.


Cheers, Stu

i agree, nice looking carv, like that cut out at the rear of the body. suits the shape well.

Thanks Blacklabb. The ideas seem to be gelling together better than I previously thought they would. I nearly canned this body shape for being............different.

The fretboard was glued using 3 small brads drilled into the fret slots to stop slippage. Everything is looking spot on down the centreline and to the boookmatch line. Yeehaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!

I worked out my spacings on the nut, did a stringup to make sure everything is O.K. and then marked for the 6mm paua dots.
24 frets on this fretboard so it gets the extra octave markers at the 24th.

The fretboard has now also been radiussed . I'm ready for frets after I do the side dots.

In the second pic you can still see my centreline pencil mark on the fretboard end.




cheers, Stu

Looking very nice Stu!!
And might I say, it's nice to see your pace slowed down to more like the rest of us! 3 builds on the go still?

Thanks Archer. I've got three builds on the go and 5 necks sitting there just waiting to be matched up.

O.K. the frets were pressed in this morning and then I hit the neck carve this arvo. This has a wipe over with thinned white shellac.
I'll be spraying this baby come next weekend for sure.



cheers, Stu