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.

Headstock binding.

I decide to bind the headstock only at the side edges. It will accentuate the unusual shape, I think. Used the hairdryer to soften up the binding to conform to the curves. I experimented with two types of binding glue. The Stew-Mac #14 glue and the LMI white binding glue. I glued them up last night and this morning both held on well. I chose the LMI as it held just a tad better. Very close to call. One problem with the LMI glue, it is not meant for long-term storage. Once you open it, it will start to evaporate. On a previous bottle, I went in to my garage and found it had shrunk quite a bit in the bottle. The LMI glue dries real fast, so you may want to hold it on with one hand, while taping with the free hand. Keep tape strips handy. Lots of them. The LMI glue does seems to conform to the contour of the headstock much better, as it seems to melt/soften it some.

Turqouise position markers.

I used MOP dots, but a few were too low once I started to sand them. I noticed that some holes were a tad off of center. The brad point bit, didn't work too well. The brad point bit can wonder if the tip starts to drill on a grain line. On the very first guitar I made, I used a 1/4" router bit in a small drill press to drill the holes. Those came out perfect. Once I removed the MOP dots, I used the router bit technique again and installed fake turquoise dots. That's the way to make the holes from now on. The router bit goes in regardless of grain. They weren't perfectly round, so I had to do a little sanding first. They were just right. Draw a white line and eyeball the bit as it makes the hole.

Headstock shape.

Here's how I got the headstock to proper thickness once I got close enough with the chisel.

Headstock and neck shaping.

I used a jig saw to cut the excess from the neck. Careful, because the blade tends to bend at times. The face I was cutting looked straight, but the back side cut was too close to the line. I scraped and sanded the sides of the neck to get it ready to route the tenon slot. I need to fret it first. I used a chisel to take the headstock down to size. I was going to use the Saf-T-Planer I have, but opted for the chisel, scraper and sand method. I'm glad I did. I had more control over what I was doing and I felt safer doing it. Lot's of work today.

Neck almost there.

Glued on the fingerboard and the head plate. I used sharpened nails that I filed to a point to keep the fingerboard in place. I used a spare nut to space the plate from the fingerboard. I angled the edge to keep it nice for the nut. I used two small brads to hold the plate while I glued it. They were nailed in an area where they'd be away from the headstock when cut.
I thought of this headstock design a while back. It gives the body and head a 50's kind of look. Perfect for the Surf Green I have. Since I planned on the shape, I started to see several others with similar shapes. Oh well, it must be nice if others like it too.

Fingerboard slots deepened; board glued.

I had to deepen the fret slots. All were too shallow. This was the best way. I tried the LMI slotting machine and tried making a miter box. Free hand with this saw was best. I got this saw in 1985 when I worked at Charvel. It was the fret saw I used when fret slots had to be deepened. It was dull and they threw it out. It was good enough for me, so I took it home. For production, it is too dull, but for the one-off, it is fine. If you ever had a Charvel or Jackson from 1985-1986, then this actual saw might have worked on that guitar. I thought that interesting, the history right here. I didn't steal it mind you. It was garbage bound. It's Japanese and it cuts on the pull. It is narrower than the normal .023" cut. My guess, it's in the >.020" range. Not all Charvel and Jackson guitars needed deepening. In fact, it was rare to do so. The ones that did, I did them with this saw.

Headstock trimmed and glued.

This procedure is becoming very easy. I used a chisel to get the angles close, then sanded with a block using 80, then 150 grit. I checked the angles and made sure I had enough clamps. I had to cut two cauls for the glue. Lucky I did a dry run. I spread the glue with a flux brush. They work great and they are cheap. Bag of 50 for about $7. When I went to spread he glue, a red color came from the brush. I saw it before, but thought it was just the color of the bristles. I hurried and rubbed the red marks off, then applied more glue. What was it? I don't know, but it made the brush red. I hope it doesn't affect the glue joint. Lesson: make sure your brushes and anything used in gluing is clean. If this joint fails after I string up the guitar, I will be very pissed. The clamping went good.

Verwey's machine

This is the jig that Captain Verwey made for me out of heavy angle iron. I adjust the height and clamp it down, and use the router adjustment to get it to the right thickness. The wood is help by clamps and repositioned after cutting. Worked like a charm.

Body sanded, neck routed and cut.

Today I was able to scrape and sand the three-piece body. It looks good. I used captain Verwey's router guide to rout a flat face onto the back of the neck blank to accept the angled headstock piece. I used the belt sander to try and remove marks that the bar clamps left on the wood. The glue bled onto the wood and stained it. Once I remove the stains with the sander, I'll go back to the scraper.

3-section body and peghead glued.

Did the last gluing of the body and head. I sawed one of the leg ends to make the headstock. I didn't think I would have enough wood for the headstock.

Body and neck glued.

Yesterday I glued up the neck and body. Next step is to take the surfaces down to get ready for the fingerboard. I also need to get the body shape cut and the body cavities routed. I used the joiner and it took a while to get the surfaces perfect for gluing. The birch looks nice.

Guitar of scraps.

So I could use up the stuff that I had saved, for the "just in case I ever need them" moment, I am planning of a guitar of scraps. Nothing will be bought for this guitar. It's stuff just from around the shop (garage). The wood came from the legs of an old artist table. It was at least thirty years old and the fingerboard was from an old project that never took off.