Octave mini-strat-clone mod

[Jonnda]

Hey TFF Long time no see. I guess I must have run out of things to say... until now!

Some of you may recall that I have been slowly making a guitar of my own design. It has been stalled for a while out of fear I might screw up. So I decided to get some neck building practice in, before doing it for real.

A friend gave me a box of broken instruments a while back. One of them was a Power Play brand mini strat copy with broken electronics, shoddy construction and a warped neck. So over the past few weeks I have been making a simple neck out of maple from home depot and cherry from a local hobby store.

I thought it would be cool to make a guitar that's tuned up an octave, from that hunka junk. That means I had to replace the 19" scale neck with a 15 3/4" scale neck and relocate the bridge.



It's almost done too. I just need to order fretwire, a black plastic rod for the dots, and a nut. Then I gotta radius the fretboard, install frets and stuff, relocate the bridge, sort out the issues with the electronics, and add a neck pickup from the stash I bought off Chuckocaster.

Okay well maybe not that close to being done- I am just so exited about this project.

[Billy Porter]

Looks like a great project. I'm currently building my own spec'd guitar and also went for the 4+2 machine head route but bought a 'paddle' neck as I don't have the skills to radius a fretboard. Did you align your machine heads for straight string movement over the nut?
I've had to redo the front of the headstock as I 'overdid' it putting a design on it.

[Jonnda]

Sorry for the late response, I got sidetracked by responsibilities. To answer your question about tuner alignment: I searched for, and eventually found useful a picture of a Ernie Ball headstock that could be easily edited into a B&W line drawing via Picnik.com. I managed to print it to the size that I needed, and that was my template for the entire headstock. The strings are not perfectly aligned, but it is really close! I decided on this method because I was wanting to get'r done quicker without me nitpicking all of those details like I tend to do. Have confidence in your skills! If you have a good quality wooden radius-sanding block that is at least 8" long (longer is better IMHO), sand paper, and patience, it is one of the simplest steps to do. Can I see the rest of your guitar project?

Octave guitar Update:
I was an idiot and did not check to make sure that even though the fretboard was evenly radiused, it was not leveled. I blame my cheapo sanding block and myself for not paying attention. I got the frets on, noticed the issue, took 'em off, leveled the board, and carefully put the same frets back on. Before I leveled and re-fretted it, I relocated the bridge and strung it up with a custom string gauge set to see if the amount of relief was alright, and to hear what it sounded like unplugged. I am getting a surprising amount of sustain from this little bugger, despite it's 100% laminated wood composition. Yay!

Other build issues, the tuning posts are taller then I expected and the angle of the headstock is not enough. So I have to fabricate a string retainer.

Next steps, finish the electrical side of things, acquire missing hardware, polyurethane the neck, do a quick set up and then it's time to make a youtube video to share it with the world. :

[Billy Porter]

Yup – you learn by your mistakes – hopefully . I had to redo the front of the headstock as I added a ‘design’ plus initials. I also used an Ernie Ball picture, blew it to the right size on MS Word but changed the design slightly. I spent a lot of time on the string alignment as I intend to use a twem. I eventually couldn’t stand the look of it so will leave it blank.

I’ve a one piece body blank of African Mahogany which will be Strat shaped. I’ve already got a Seymour Duncan JB for the Bridge and a Seymour Duncan Jazz for the neck - haven't decided on teh control layout yet. I intend to put a figured maple veneer on the front plus binding. I’ve a few more important things to do first around the house and am taking my time with it and seeing how it evolves. I’ve never used a router before - should be fun. The pic below was taken in fun


Looking forward to the Youtube clip

[Jonnda]

Word of advice on the router: don't try to cut to much at once and try to always have the rotation of the bit pulling it's self toward the work. If the bit of the router were a wheel, you want it rolling the opposite way along an edge it would want to. Does this make any sense? I saw a diagram once and it all became clear why this works better.

Kudos on the progress so far. That is a huge body blank, are you planning a shape that will require it?

Today I mounted the pickup, burned a logo into the neck, and polyurethaned the neck. I tested the electronics too, and I goofed the connections to the switch. It will eventually switch the coils in the humbucker between parallel and series wiring for a little tonal variety.




and here are newer neck phtots:

[chuckocaster]

cool! nice project.

[Cogs]

Cutting frets: WAY over my head! You are to be commended. That looks like a cool project!

[Billy Porter]

That is a huge body blank, are you planning a shape that will require it?

It was the only size I could find for a one piece Mahogony blank in the UK as I didn't want poplar,ash or alder. It'll be Strat shaped so a fair amout of wastage.

I'll start a new thread rather than hijack this one. Please keep posting your progress. I love these threads

/keith

[Jonnda]

71818... really?

I got it together. It's missing pickgaurd screws because I misplaced them. I need to make a string retainer, I can't stress this enough. I tried to make one like the one on my favorite Japanese guitar, but out of stainless so it would match the chrome. Then I discovered that the stainless I had was quite hard and I was rather unsuccessful in threading it. I guess I will just have to either keep buying threading dies until the job gets done, or start over and use brass. So for now I have to keep a capo behind the nut.

It sounds nice. I am glad I added the parallel/series switch for the humbucker. It gives me a choice of fat and full or thinner and sparkly. I need to buy a linear taper pot for the tone control. Turns out audio taper only works well for volume control. The more I screw up, the more you know what not to do.



And here's a picture with additional stuff lying around for size comparison. The body in the background is what goes with the neck in the background in a previous picture. The full size guitar is my beloved Kimberly, a 70's Teisco originally sold through Montgomery Ward.

[Cogs]

Yes, really. I know there are a number of formulas out there to show you where to cut fret slots for just about any scale, but I just don't have the patience for it. Anyone that has the skill to cut those slots in a blank neck & do the fretwork has my admiration.

[Jonnda]

Oh... Now I feel like a dumbass. I thought you were talking about cutting fretwire. Yes cutting the fret slots was tricky. I bought 12" calipers to place the frets, which I can use because the scale is only 15.75" For full sized guitars I have a ruler with the fret locations marked on it. it's the only way I can make fretboard-less necks. Otherwise I'd buy a pre-sloted fretboard.

All the calculations were made at StewMac.com

The hard part was keeping it all square with out an actual miterbox. I guess I should get one for next time. This time I used the jaws of the calipers and a square, but that was inefficient.