Homebrew guitar project update

[Jonnda]

Don't panic, this is a good thing. For me at least. A member of my church said he dumpster dived this or found it in an ally somewhere. A friend told him he should give it to me and he did so now I can stop worrying about tuners and how to pay for them.

[NeoFauve]

Are those Grovers on that salvaged neck?
If they're some unkown thing, make sure the shaft and bushing diameters are common to a Grover/Kluson or whatever, in case you want to upgrade.

FYI- Those 18:1 Sta-Tites are very good tuners. I had them an old Guild. They only cost around $35-$40.

[Jonnda]

As you can see, there is no name on the back but they do look similar to brand name tuners. They also feel similar to the big name tuners when you turn the knobs, and if they are the same ones as on my Ibanez AS-73, then i think they will do a great job. The ratio is 14:1. The shaft appears to be 3/8" wide, but the hole they drilled for it was about 1/16" wider for some reason. Does this sound about standard?

[chuckocaster]

most of the import guitars are drilled a little bigger, you don't want a super tight fit but 1/16th of an inch sounds like a little too much to me. i usually go one size bigger than required.

[Jonnda]

most of the import guitars are drilled a little bigger, you don't want a super tight fit but 1/16th of an inch sounds like a little too much to me. i usually go one size bigger than required.

One bit size? Yeah okay, I guess that makes sense. Thanks Chuck. The holes on that head stock did seem rather large. Also one of the tuners was installed at a weird angle, none of them were quite perfect but the A string tuner is rather obvious. Point being is the guitar this headstock came from may have not been built to the most precise of standards.

[chuckocaster]

i'd guess that they drill those holes prior to painting, and then don't clean them out, thus the looseness. BUT, if you are the luthier you can make the tolerances tighter beings you are the only one touching and working on the guitar.

[Jonnda]

Here is the fretboard all tapered and prettyfied with the fancy cut I just did with my brand new coping saw and a 28 tpi blade. Man, that thing cuts real nice. I have limited use with them and I've never had a real good experience with them until now. I will definitely use this saw more often! I'd have the inlay dots in by now if I had not gotten banned from the school wood shop for the rest of the semester. I am not sure what happened, but I think it is just a new prof trying to stake out his territory or something dumb like that. Can ya tell I am annoyed?

[chuckocaster]

find a cabinet maker (or other local woodwooker) and see if they'll let you you work in their workshop for a low cost. some will let you work there for free, not all mind you, but some will help you also. best of luck man.

[Jonnda]

find a cabinet maker (or other local woodwooker) and see if they'll let you you work in their workshop for a low cost. some will let you work there for free, not all mind you, but some will help you also. best of luck man.

Thanks Chuck. I figure the semester is almost over, and I'm betting I'll be able to use it again later. Also I have access to two woodshops in Illinois, and I'll be going home now and then for orthodontic reasons. I used to have access to the shop of a friend out here in Ohio as a back up, but he moved away. If things get real bad then I will put an announcement out in the local church bulletin or something sayn I'm looking for someone with wood tools i could use. You know what? I might have a few people in mind that seem like the kind of people to have such tools now that I think of it.

I have a stylistic question for y'all, it's the kind of thing I think of when a build goes so slow like this one. On the 24th fret, should I only have one dot or keep the two dot idea. I mean it should be all too obvious that it is the 24th fret because the is no more board. I feel like the second dot at the 24 kills the pattern, but also there should be something special at the 24th fret. thoughts on this?

[Jonnda]

I've discovered that with a little ingenuity and effort I can use the hand tools I have on hand to shape the ivory dots. When I went home last weekend I managed to drill the holes for the inlay and found a broken drill bit that (after some simple grinding) worked great for making the holes flat bottomed.

So here is low quality picture of the holes in the fret board and the inlay almost half done, please note that the dots are not that white and are in fact a little creamy. Not the most exiting news, but I wanted to say that the project is slowly progressing. It was crazy of me to want 3/16" dots but in the end I'll be happy to know all the work I put into trying to be different.

[chuckocaster]

ingenuity!

[Jonnda]

No picture right now, but I have all the dots in and sanded flush.

I hope I don't try to make my own dots for a few years using nothing but a few somewhat dull hand tools, it's a pain and not my brightest plan. Plus the dots are not always perfectly round. I got impatient, and stopped caring about being perfect. So some dots are softly diamond like, but I doubt you'd ever notice from the 10ft away.

If y'all really want to see it I can accommodate, but I think your imagination can figure it out in the mean time.

[ziess]

If you can drill the holes nicely and you want a clay dot look you can use pine woodfiller. Seriously.

[Jonnda]

If you can drill the holes nicely and you want a clay dot look you can use pine woodfiller. Seriously.

Thanks I keep that in mind for a production model if I ever am requested to make another.

The idea on this axe was that most of the wood came from friends and family, and the use of the ivory was a part of that. My missionary grandfather got it as scrap from carvers, and he was they type of guy that made lots of stuff mostly with hand tools. So I guess while the dots were a pain to make with crude hand tools in my dorm room, it was a fitting tribute. If I ever use ivory dots again I'll use a 1/4" plug cutter. If I ever use smaller dots I'll use the method described by zeiss, or I'll buy premade dots.

[D'Mule]

Keep up the good work!

[as90]

Cool!

[Direstraits]

My Luthier keeps his eye open for old coloured plastic knitting needles-
they are useful if you want colored position markers - already round so they just have to be cut to the right depth, and they are easy to measure the diameter for drilling the holes.

[elicross]

Genius!

[Jonnda]

I have been doing other things like graduating college (official as of september 2). My dad wanted me to make a fretless bass for him, and that kinda got me going on this project again. I got a new cheapo kinda crappy Vivitar camcorder. So here we go. I am reviving my project threads and maybe I can get myself to show up around here more often now that I live with my parents and can't find employment.

This video shows that I have carved the back of the neck and started to make the neck pocket

Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRyCdAsuZIM