Pickguard and pickup route.

Made a pickguard from some scrap pickguard material I had. Routed out the area for the P-90 I will use. I think I will go with a rear-route of the pots. Designing as I go along. I like that.

Neck glued in.

I glued in the neck. I made a groove along the bottom of the neck tenon as well as the end of the neck tenon. That will allow glue to escape when applying the clamps. The groove might've been a bit large, but the squeeze-out just flowed out of that groove. Maybe it relieved some pressure. That little amount of surface won't make or break the neck joint. I was worried about the glue escaping very slowly, if at all. The last thing you want to do is to trap air and glue in pockets. No amount of pressure will get the glue out once the gluing starts. I took this advice from readings by James D'Aquisto in New York. He makes arch-tops. I applied a clamp to the neck as a base for the long clamp. I wanted the neck to be forced just slightly, into the body. There was minute play in the tenon. This way I'll keep the neck from wandering away from the body and keeping the joint tight. I made a caul that goes on the fingerboard for the clamp. I grooved it for the frets to fit into. This keeps the force of the clamps from pushing the frets deeper in the fingerboard. There was plenty of space between the fret grooves, but the clamp still forced the caul against one of the frets. I'll keep an eye on that fret for any lifting or distortion. I have that clamp very tight and it still moved. If the heel was more pronounced, I could've used that to clamp against. I used wax paper between the cauls and the clamps. This keeps the wood cauls from sticking to work.

Ready for glue-in of neck.

Today I angled the neck tenon about 2 degrees. The fit is snug and if the angle is shallow, I will carved the top of the body back and give it a "sweep" towards the butt end. The joint is nice, but the hand sanding gave a slight bow to the body tenon and a small gap is visible. Only cosmetic, as the joint holds the guitar body on it's own. I may sand the neck tenon a bit more to increase the angle.

I am back.

I came back over a month ago, but had other things to tend to. The warmth of today's weather made me decide to work on the guitar, before the cold, damp winter hits. I sanded the sides of the neck to get a nice tight fit. The amount that needs to be cut off to make the neck flush with the top needs to be figured out. Once I cut an amount off, I will calculate the neck angle. It should be very shallow, if at all. I am planning on cutting 22/32" off ther bottom of the neck to start. There is a slight gap at the edge of the neck and neck slot. That's not too criticle, as that's where the pickup slot will be routed.

I'm going to the UK.

Be back on the 8th of October...

Fretting the guitar.

I fretted the guitar using my drill press. It withstood the pressure of the fretting force nicely. I have a 1950's Delta drill press and it is solid steel. I read where some drill presses need a 2x4 to support the downward force. I used hard wire on the first seven frets and soft, wider wire for the rest. Remember, it is what was left over.

I like this way of fretting. It caused less shock to the neck, and made it very easy. I applied a dab of glue to the fret tang tip. Just a smidgen.

Neck shaping.

I was just about to fret the guitar, when I realized that it would be better to have the neck rest onto the neck support I got for fretting. I am planning on using the drill press to fret this guitar so it needs some backing when pressing them in. I have a half-round neck support that the shaped neck sits in. The neck must be shaped to use it. I used a rounded spokeshave, a chisel, a rat-tail file and a smooth file to shape the neck. In total, it took about 30 minutes to get a rough shape.