First Build: 8 String

A "like" and a "thanks" due to including the obligatory foot shot!
Some nice looking wood there!

 

I agree with Mr Bodes! That wood looks amazing.
Hey dude, a suggestion from a mate working on the same thing: why not try to design your own guitar? I mean, since you are going to go through a relatively long and expensive process to create your guitar, make it something unique! Haha well that's subjective and totally up to you, but I had to say it . Have you decieded already stuff like what bridge you'll be using and so?
Keep it up mate!

 

Im also a fan of the accidental foot shot. I have at least one in every build.

That fret board looks stellar. please don't ruin it with inlay. just leave it blank... Just my opinion tho. your build.

ManuHB - for a first build I think he's buit off more than most.. 8 strings is plenty to be worrying about without worrying about body shape and how it will work sitting down vs standing + upper fret access and all that junk. copying an established body and headstock design will allow him to focus on the important things like level frets, a nice tight neck joint and proper neck angle to name a few.

 

Beautiful wood!

 

No, they should be in there pretty tight. make sure of the following.
A) correct fret slot width
B) fret slot is deep enough that the fret can COMPLETELY seat.\
C) take a triangle file and bevel the tops of the fret slots where the fret crown will meet the fretboard. there is a very small radius here and putting a small bevel here helps the fret seat completely.
D) clean out the fret slot 100% RIGHT before fretting.
E) fret slots must be 100% perpendicular to the fretboard.... this is more important the larger your fretwire gets....

now try to fret your scrap again... when you think you've got the wire seated 100 take a piece of paper and run the corner of the paper along where the fret meets the fret board. if the paper slides under the fret you are not 100% seated.

another thing to try.... once you've finished fretting, clamp your radius caul that you used to sand the fret board radius to the frets... now run some water thin CA glue from each side of the fret.... leave it to dry for a few hours.... that should hold down any frets that want to spring up and should help keep everything more level.

 

I love the fret board. I'm going to be doing my first soon.

 

I highly recommend you build yourself a router sled... it should only cost you about $10 bux or so and it's ideal for cleaning up the scarf joint and leveling the rest of the neck all in one setup....
then you can flip the neck and shim it and use the sled on the back side of the neck to bring it down to the correct thickness and taper... this helps ALOT with getting a nice consistent carve.
but that's just my 2 cents... YMMV

 

Setting the headstock piece a bit higher than the neck should be more than fine when gluing it. It's like you said, leveling off that bit from the headstock will be a lot easier than leveling the whole neck. Try using nails on the sides towards the edges to keep the headstock piece and the neck together when gluing, it should make it a lot easier and it won't slip around on you.

Good luck, and happy building.

 

drool ! this is incredible, can’t wait to see how it looks like on the final product !

Hope you’ll have a ton of fun with this man !

 

That fretboard is the dogs

 

I've never seen redwood Burl like that, is it quartersawn?

 

Some really nice woods you've got there. About how much would one expect to pay to embark on a similar project? Including woods, tools, pickups, electronics etc. I'm really interested.