A slightly oddball guitar (completed)

[profchris]

Carving the neck shaft is the easiest part. For the profile I like I simply divide the neck into thirds, across its width and depth, and then remove the outer section using drawknife and rasp. Any tool you are comfortable with - spokeshave, chisel, pocket knife, works.

Then knock off the corners, and work the neck until you have a profile which feels nice in the hand. Blend in the heel, shape the headstock and blend that in too.

A useful trick is to take a strip of coarse sandpaper about two feet long, clamp the headstock to the workbench so the neck sticks out, and then use it like a shoe-shine boy. Yes you're sanding across the grain, but this gives a really nice curve to the back of the neck.

All this rough carving is pretty quick work - less than an hour in total. But then I attach the fretboard and take the sides of the neck back to meet it precisely (I've found that trying to make the neck to the right size usually means I'm slightly wobbly somewhere, and so the fretboard needs adjusting to fit. Of course, the truss rod goes in at this stage, held at either end with a little silicone sealant to make sure it doesn't rattle.

After that I spend at least another hour refining the shape, pretending I'm playing the guitar and feeling where it's not quite right.

Here is pretty much the final result, all the curves blending smoothly into each other. The toolkit is all there - rasp, half round engineer's file, cabinet scraper, and sandpaper with half a wine cork as the block.

Next up - drill for the tuners and fret the neck.

 

[Woodmonkey]

Watching with interest, as I will be fretting my bass neck very shortly (and I'm fretting about it!)

 

[profchris]

Fretting is easier than you'd expect - I'll try to explain the process in enough detail so you can follow it or adapt it to suit your own build.

 

[Paul200]

Fascinating post Prof! I can't play guitar but have always thought that a beautifully crafted instrument is a work of art. Keep it coming

Paul

 

[profchris]

Thanks Paul, most kind!

And a PS for Woodmonkey - dig out an offcut from your fretboard if you have one. It's really helpful to have a trial run on scrap if you can because each board is a little different - some might tend to chip, others are so hard it's like fretting iron, etc. At the least, you'll discover whether your saw is cutting slots the right width.

 

[profchris]

Time to fret ...

Before anything else it's important to have a level fretboard surface. Adjust the truss rod (if you have one) until the board is level and then true it up.

There are complications if you have no truss rod but still want some relief in the board (relief is a very tiny dip in the middle of the board, which helps to get the string action low without buzzing) - in that case you'd put some backbow in the board by clamping, and then level. But with a truss rod, start level and use the truss rod to insert the action later.

You can choose to fret with the board attached to the neck, or fret first then glue on the board later. A precision woodworker will take the second approach because it's the easiest. I use the first, because my board might not be a uniform thickness, the neck might not be entirely level, etc. If I glue it all up and then level the board, I have a fighting chance.

Next you have to choose the width of your fret slots, and there are two schools of thought. The old school says the frets are held in by the barbs on their tangs, which dig into either side of the slot. So you need a fairly narrow slot and a decently heavy hammer to tap them in. The problem with this method is you can drive the frets too deep, or leave them too high, until you get a feel for it. And the sideways pressure of the frets tends to backbow the board.

Other (and lazier) builders like me cut the slots so the fret only needs light taps to insert it. To ensure it stays put, a little glue is smeared on the fret tang - I use hot hide glue because the cleanup is so easy. Titebond works, so does liquid hide glue. You can wick CA in, but it always wicks out somewhere and stains the board. Plus water-based glue lubricates the tang, so it slides in without problems. I doubt the glue does much in terms of adhesion, but it does fill the fret slot so the barbs have something to bite on.

Cut your fret slots making sure they are deep enough. You can make a specialist tool for this - take a scrap of fret wire, snip through the tang and bend it to near 90 degrees. Then file off the barbs on the short piece. If you slide this along the slot and it doesn't bottom out anywhere, you're good to go.

I have a flat fretboard and straight wire, so I can get started straight away. If you have a radiused board then you want your fretwire bent to a tiny fraction more than the radius. Buy it in a coil, or make a bending device (three nails in a board works, set so the fretwire curves as it goes under the two outer ones and above the inner, pull the fretwire through to make the bend).

My toolkit for inserting the frets is as below: fret slot saw, flush side cutters, plastic faced hammer, bag with sand in. You need to support the neck without bruising the wood, and this is what the sandbag is for. If you have to buy sand, pet shops sell nice clean sand for cage birds! Put it in a plastic bag inside the old pillow case or it will go everywhere.

 

[profchris]

The process is really simple:

1. Smear of glue on the tang.

2. Insert in slot and tap down one end.

3. Tap down the other end.

4. Tap ends to middle until the fret is flush to the board.

5. Wipe off glue (and clean up properly later with a warm, damp cloth).

Once your fret is in, snip off the excess with the side cutters.

Many tutorials on fretting say to buy a pair of pincers and then grind the end flat. I did this, but the side cutters seem to me to cut at least as close, and are far less likely to twist as you cut and thus distort the fret.

If you've been heavy-handed and your fret is flush to the board in the middle but sticks up at the ends, then don't try to hammer down the ends - the fret wire has bent the wrong way and you'll never persuade it to stay put. Remove and bin that piece of fret wire, start again but more gently.

With the method I use, I genuinely mean "tap" the fret. If it won't slide in, then either your slot is too narrow or your fretboard is so hard that you can't get the tang started. In the latter case, run a three-cornered file along the slot just to chamfer the edges a fraction and all should be hunky dory.

This is where you should end up (though I've only done a few so far):

The frets look a bit scabby because of glue residue, but they are all lying nicely flat on the board.

Next up: tidying the fret ends and levelling the frets. Not today though.

 

[custard]

I always find your builds fascinating and inspirational. But let me ask you a question.

Can a non musical instrument player ever follow your lead and build an instrument? Or is that really just a pointless exercise?

 

[profchris]

I always find your builds fascinating and inspirational. But let me ask you a question.

Can a non musical instrument player ever follow your lead and build an instrument? Or is that really just a pointless exercise?

There are some builders who don't play a note, so it's possible!

I think they begin by working from plans, and then adjust their builds based on customer feedback until they become good.

They probably couldn't start off with a general idea like I do and then make it up as they go. Just as an example, if you don't play, you have no idea what a good neck feels like, and how to adjust it to be even better.

But for all those things you could copy something known to work - take a neck profile off a good guitar and build to that.

There is even some very serious work out of Australia (the two-volume Gore & Gilet book) which has researched how good sound can be created by using empirical measuring techniques (I flex my soundboard until it feels "right", they measure its deflection and the modes in which it vibrates).

From what I've seen of your work I reckon you could pull it off. It would be worth visiting a local luthier to flex a few soundboards which he or she thinks are ready, and maybe to handle a neck at various stages in the carving so you get a feel for when it's right. The rest is precision woodwork (you) or improvising around inaccuracies (me).

 

[profchris]

All the frets are now on:

A pretty good test is to squint along the fretboard - if they look pretty-well lined up, you're good to move on to the next stage.

 

[AES]

Absolutely fascinating thread, clearly explained and well photographed.

I doubt very much if I'll ever build a guitar, and I can't play a note (thanks for asking that Q custard), but a VERY interesting read, thanks for taking so much trouble over this. And "mistakes" or not it's going to look lovely (to my eye they always do, just hanging up in the shop - where I buy my sheet music).

I'll press the "LIKE" button in a mo, but meantime have a proper "thanks" or two =D> =D>

 

[Woodmonkey]

Looking good prof, our builds are nearly in time with each other!

 

[profchris]

Looking good prof, our builds are nearly in time with each other!

I reckon you've overtaken me. And my finishing will take a couple of weeks, so unless your electrics go wrong you'll be done first.

Nice job on the fretting, not sure why you were apprehensive!

 

[Woodmonkey]

Yeah, after devouring books and YouTube videos for a few weeks, turns out it really is just hammering bits of metal into a bit of wood!

 

[profchris]

OK, I've levelled the frets. Exactly the same process as shown by Woodmonkey in his own thread (flying-v-bass-build-luthiers-look-away-now-t112357.html) so I won't run through all that again. For those who want the highlights:

1. Bevel the ends of the frets.

2. Mark the tops and then with a flat abrasive device, level them until there is thin line of metal visible on the top of each fret.

3. Reestablish the crown with a triangular file with one edge ground safe, or a proper crowning file if you have one.

4. Polish up and deal with the tiny burrs left at the fret ends until they feel comfortable.

One further tip which might be useful is that you can check your fret levelling using a fret rocker. This is any straight edge which spans three frets - a bank card is pretty good here (use the short edge at the higher frets).

Hold the card at either end and see if it rocks as you push it up and down. Test the full width of the frets. If it rocks, the middle one is high. If the middle one is low, it will rock on the next set so you'll find out, and as you can't easily raise a fret you just have to take the others down to match.

I've done all the building now apart from drilling for tuners, attaching the tailpiece and making the bridge. So at present I'm brushing on ready-made French Polish, one coat per day. Nothing to see here, so there will be silence until I make the bridge or start polishing up the finish.

 

[profchris]

Right, we're done! This is how it turned out:

This was the finishing schedule I used, working with ready-made French Polish (i.e. shellac).

1. Wipe on a couple of coats with paper towels, sanding lightly after each because they roughen the grain. The reason for wiping on is to get an even colour - if brushed on, end grain can become very dark.

2. Brush on 5 or 6 very thin coats (i.e. don't load the brush very much), using overlapping strokes and never going back over previous brush strokes (after 20 seconds or so the brush sticks to previous coats). Let each coat dry 24 hours, lightly sand before next coat.

3. Rub out with T-Cut automotive compound. This would give a lovely finish if I'd filled all the pores, but I'm going for a semi-filled look. So what I'm left with is yellow specks/streaks of compound in the pores. Don't panic!

4. Wipe on two more coats with paper towels, allowing a couple of hours between each and maybe just dusting with sandpaper between. Farewell yellow streaks, and the pores are a little more filled. This is like pumice and shellac for traditional French Polishing, but without any level of skill.

5. Between 24 and 48 hours after the last wiped on coat, buff up with a yellow duster. The shellac is hard enough to be buffed, but still soft enough to shine up some more.

Ideally wait a week before playing it to allow the shellac to cure fully, but that's never going to happen, so play it really carefully and only for short periods during that week.

The final finish is really thin, probably thinner than a sheet of copier paper. For guitars it's important not to slap on a thick coat, because that kills the sound. A full gloss finish on a guitar is quite a long process unless you're spraying something like catalysed polyester - if I'd wanted that I'd have run through steps 2-5 multiple times, rubbing back to *just* before bare wood each time until all the pores were filled. Then leave it at least two weeks to cure, followed by a final rub out with T-Cut and then up through increasingly finer polishing compounds. Several weeks in total to achieve that, though most of that time is just waiting for curing.

It's off to its new owner tonight, and I'll see if I can get video of her playing it.

 

[Woodmonkey]

Great job (and you beat me!) Love the shape, although the fret board material is not to my taste I have to say. I've got a ton of stuff left to do on my bass but very little free time to do it.