# Building a new 7. (lots of pics)



## DistinguishedPapyrus (Mar 21, 2015)

Finally starting to get my act together... sorta. Technically this is kinda my 3rd build, I put my second one on pause for a while to do this. Just wanted to make a nicer body than what I had been working on. 

7 string
bolt on construction with tee nuts or threaded inserts inserted into the heel
clear poly finish on the body, tru-oil on the neck
25.5" scale
22 fret
16" radius
maple / wenge 5 piece neck
maple headstock
wenge fretboard
swamp ash 2 piece body
hipshot bridge
bone nut
fretwire TBD
pups TBD
electronics, probably the good ol' 1 vol, 1 tone and a 3 way

PICS!:

Starting with a full sized hand drawn schematic. The acrylic template is home made in my garage, that thing itself takes about 3-4 hours. 






I didn't like the shape of the heel on the original template so I cut it off, cemented an extension from some scrap and re-shaped it into the current heel shape. It suits the upper bolts a little better so they fit into the "corners" of the heel.





I'm just working with what I got. No bandsaw (yet) so I did the rough cut of the body blank with a combination of drill press, jig saw, circular saw, file and chisel. 





So heres the results of the rough cut... fair enough for the router.





Ready to fine shape the blank. The template is secured on top of an MDF spacer piece so that the first pass of my router bit only goes about 1/2 inch into the blank. Multiple shallow passes has yielded me less tear out and better overall results in the past than one or two deeper passes. The pieces are all screwed together in the areas on the body that'll later be removed for the neck pocket and bridge pup.





Deff happy with the routing. I did get a couple of very minor sore spots but overall it's a good blank.









I almost ALWAYS get some burn from the router bit. This is fairly light compared to what I've had in the past though and should sand out without much fuss. 





So heres where I'm at today. I'm gonna start glue up of the neck lams tomorrow hopefully. This is gonna be an interesting neck job for me. The two skinny Wenge pieces are actually salvaged cuts from a partially done practice piece I did a couple years ago (you can see they still have some walnut glued to them. Not gonna use the walnut in this build, just cut it off.). I had this neck blank that was nearly done but I buggered up the truss rod slot so bad I had to scrap it, but managed to save the Wenge bits. So I have very tight tolerances to work with in this lam job, its gotta be built to suit the dimensions of the Wenge... should be a good test of skill... anyway, thats yet to come.


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## Negav (Mar 21, 2015)

I like where this is going


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## skeels (Mar 22, 2015)

skeels likes this


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## immortalx (Mar 22, 2015)

Looks like a very clean start, man  That's a lot of work drilling the holes in the body. You deserve a nice bandsaw!
Also: That wenge fretboard


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## Knarbens (Mar 22, 2015)

Looks good! Very flowing shape.


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## pettymusic (Mar 22, 2015)

Nice specs man! Subbed!


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## DistinguishedPapyrus (Mar 22, 2015)

Thanks everyone for the comments!!!

So, I did get a couple lams done today. it went really well I think. 

I like to do most of my work on a 4" x 4" piece of lumber sticking out from my workbench, it makes it really easy to get to the piece from all angles, and that's whats going on in this pic. Hanging off the end of a 4 x 4 beam there's a marble slab with a sheet of tin foil to keep the marble clean, then the wood is clamped to the marble to help tension in as straight a glue joint as possible. I do each glue joint, one at a time this way if I can.





Here's the Wenge and maple glued up, with the walnut still attached. I do kinda think its a shame to cut the walnut off, but I originally glued it with Titebond 3, which I later learned is not best suited for this kind of job. All my other glue joints since then are Titebond original.

So there's no squeez out? Its been scraped off in preparation for milling down the maple to be flush with the wenge. I hope that goes well...





^ also, about the marks on the end. I cut my maple from one piece of lumber, then try to consider the orientation of each piece for the best stability, then just number and lable them accordingly so I don't mix them up.


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## rwupetui (Mar 23, 2015)

Looks good! Very flowing shape.


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## DistinguishedPapyrus (Mar 24, 2015)

awww yeaaa... got some more lams done!!!

Blasted off the walnut. Left as much wenge as possible.





I managed to get the maple flush with the wenge by making this fancy little jig. 

Prettymusic, you might be interested in this, I think its kinda like what you pm'ed me about if I read it correctly. Sort of a miniature joiner using a router table. I set the height so the bearing would ride the wenge and the bit shaved about 1/32" per pass.









Finally got it all glued up, it went nearly as well as I expected.









When I clamped up the last joint it shifted just a little bit, only like 0.04, but I still have to shave the whole blank front and back to level it and I have a total of 0.95" to work with.
I estimate that after leveling and flattening the blank its gonna be roughly 0.85", just BARELY enough to make it happen. I think I might wind up building up the heel with a little wenge cap on the back of the heel. 

I thought I'd throw this in, maybe I'll make it a point to do a time lapse of the progress on my messy man-cave floor. 





I got a long work week coming up so it'll be a few days before another update, that'll give the freshly glued neck blank time to settle.

BTW, sorry for making these things so wordy and step-by-step, but I like to write a thread keeping in mind that some lurking n00bs might be reading... after all that's kinda how I learned...


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## Renkenstein (Mar 24, 2015)

VERY nice work, bud! I love that body shape and the wenge!


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## DistinguishedPapyrus (Mar 24, 2015)

Thanks Renk, I designed this body over a year ago, this was the original:
http://i1359.photobucket.com/albums/q785/Schweet119/image_zpsfc745263.jpg

But I thought it needed a little something... I made the horns thicker, changed the heel shape and I took inspiration for the current tail shape from this guitar:
http://www.scottfrench.com/i/Finished%20Customs/Eddie%20Morin's%20SF3%20Singlecut%20Guitar/99_frontFull

I'm really digging it, but I'm contemplating giving the top some carving. I don't know if I should keep it full flat, forearm contour only of a full carve... hmmm...


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## Renkenstein (Mar 24, 2015)

oooOOOOooo...what happened to the original version? Did that ever get built? I see a body there...


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## DistinguishedPapyrus (Mar 24, 2015)

yeaaahhh... uh. I still kick myself sometimes over that guitar. It never got finished. It was one of my earlier attempts that I just take now as a learning/practice piece. Best body I had made up until that time. But I got impatient with the neck, (which of course had to be set neck construction) it turned to crap, after it was glued in. I messed up the headstock and scarf joint area. I tried to remove the neck from the body and messed the body up too. so... the whole project got scrapped.


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## Taylor (Mar 24, 2015)

DistinguishedPapyrus said:


> 22 fret
> 
> 22 fret
> 
> ...



I take issue with this! 22 frets are for posers! 24 fret Master Race!!! 

Your build is looking great so far! I'll have to use the router trick for flushing up laminates!


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## Renkenstein (Mar 24, 2015)

Dang, I feel your pain. People still ask me about the 'Paul all the time, and I'm just "MANNN, I don't wanna do it!"

I've found a way to finish a guitar without any major hiccups and they turn out straight and true. Before I found what that method was, I was fumblin' and bumblin' and makin a fool of myself. On luthier forums, no less! I groan when the LP thread is bumped...hahaha.

I've got 4 projects on my bench right now, so I now know what it's like to have a few irons in the fire.

...feels goooood!


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## DistinguishedPapyrus (Mar 24, 2015)

GraveyardThrone said:


> I take issue with this! 22 frets are for posers! 24 fret Master Race!!!
> 
> Your build is looking great so far! I'll have to use the router trick for flushing up laminates!



Yep. 22 frets. funny stuff eh?


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## pettymusic (Mar 24, 2015)

Haha! Man, you beat me to trying the router/ planer set up! Glad it worked though! This build is looking really good!

Question: The side of your fence that is after the cut, did you cut it a little longer than the pre-cut side? If that makes sense??


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## immortalx (Mar 24, 2015)

I'm really liking the offset curves on this body, great design man 
0.85" sounds perfectly fine for a neck blank (without the fretboard). I once did a 20mm (~ 0.79") although I prefer making them about 25mm.


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## Renkenstein (Mar 24, 2015)

Same...I'm working my way down to a 3/4" neck blank, so you've got plenty of meat on there. Really you're only limited by the 3/8" truss rod slot anyway. 

Once you've got your neck all glued together, you can always adjust the depth of pocket to fit the neck to the body. I always like to leave like 1/16" of the neck heel sitting proud of the body so the fretboard isn't slammed down.


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## KnightroExpress (Mar 24, 2015)

Yeah, I've got a box of bodies and necks that were used as practice... I definitely know how you guys feel.


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## DistinguishedPapyrus (Mar 24, 2015)

pettymusic said:


> Haha! Man, you beat me to trying the router/ planer set up! Glad it worked though! This build is looking really good!
> 
> Question: The side of your fence that is after the cut, did you cut it a little longer than the pre-cut side? If that makes sense??



No I just used a straight edge all the way down the MDF piece. The piece I was trimming needed to come all the way to the bit until the bearing was riding the wenge, and that determined the depth stop point. If it was just a single piece of wood I was trying to trim I would've built up the edge of the MDF on the recieving side after the bit with a veneer or even spray glued a strip of poasterboard (it's basically MDF, compressed wood fibers). I have done something similar to that before though that I'll try to post pics of tomorrow if I can get some time to.


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## Taylor (Mar 24, 2015)

DistinguishedPapyrus said:


> No I just used a straight edge all the way down the MDF piece. The piece I was trimming needed to come all the way to the bit until the bearing was riding the wenge, and that determined the depth stop point. If it was just a single piece of wood I was trying to trim I would've built up the edge of the MDF on the recieving side after the bit with a veneer or even spray glued a strip of poasterboard (it's basically MDF, compressed wood fibers). I have done something similar to that before though that I'll try to post pics of tomorrow if I can get some time to.



Who needs an adjustable outfeed table when you can just DIY something up?


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## DistinguishedPapyrus (Mar 25, 2015)

this is the other router / joiner jig thing I was talking about. MDF sheet on top of the table, half of it has a piece of poaster board spray glued to it. Router bit sticks up to be flush with the poaster board. start your piece of stock on the left side sliding it back and forth over the bit and moving from the bare MDF to the poaster board side and it'll shave off really thin layers each pass. 

Takes some time to get it set up right and get a good feel for it but can be used effectively. 

This helps in alot of things, I used it to sort of re-surface a headstock cap.


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## immortalx (Mar 25, 2015)

That's a very nice jig man! I've only seen this setup with a router fence (like on your other jig), but this one is pure genius! Thanks for sharing that!


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## electriceye (Mar 25, 2015)

Can't wait to see more! 

How thick is that body?? It looks huge, but maybe it's just the picture.


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## DistinguishedPapyrus (Mar 25, 2015)

It's the standard 1.75" blank. It is a little thick for my taste so I'm probably gonna mill it down some depending on how the whole guitar balances after I make a little more progress into this build.


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## DistinguishedPapyrus (Apr 3, 2015)

I finally got a few days off so I got back in the garage on this build, just did some neck work today. Got the neck blank flattened, leveled, scarf joint cut and glued...


I was worried it would be too thin, turns out after this initial flattening, its 0.92", enough to make it happen 





Cut the scarf joint with the router on angled rails.





After sanding. How nice a raw scarf joint looks... 





Clamping up the jont I used 6 clamps... which leads me to wonder, does anybody have any advice on the appropriate amount of clamping pressure to use? I've always just clamped the crap out of it, but if I remember I think I read somewhere that this could "choke out" the joint??? does this ring a bell at all?





Again, just working with what I got... drill press, chisel and hammer for bulk material removal on the excess headstock material above the 1st fret area.





Cleaned up real nice with the router table and sanding. It did get a few real light tear outs on the fretboard face of the blank cause I went a little too fast over the router bit, I have to thin the blank down a little past that 0.92" mark, but at this point I'm happy with today's results and I'm not worried about having to take a hair bit more off.









Tomorrow I'm gonna try to cut the neck to its final taper, possibly cut the neck pocket in the body too, and see what else I can get done.


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## DistinguishedPapyrus (Apr 4, 2015)

More progress!!!

Truss rod slot has been cut on the table router, neck tapered.





This is the way I've been doing neck pockets for a while. Clamp up the neck exactly where it'll be positioned, build up straight edge pieces around the heel then take away the neck and the pocket template remains perfectly in place and the right size too. The straight edge pieces are usable for plenty of other work.





B-E-A-utiful!





It passes the pocket test, sorry for the blurry shot. I's kinda dificult to hold the guitar in one hand and camera in the other.





I actually thinned down the body and neck to their final thicknesses too. The thickness of the neck is now 0.8", and the body is 1.65"






I'ts my cleanest build so far, really digging how this thing is going. As it sits in the following pic it weighs 5.38 lbs (not including the truss rod, just the wood), and I still got alot of meat to remove off the back of the neck, pickup cavities, electronics cavity and belly contour. Not sure what the final weight will be but I think around 7 lbs with the fretboard and hardware.

Ohh, also I cut out the 5-2 headstock shape.


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## immortalx (Apr 4, 2015)

That's some ultra clean work man 
The body and headstock shapes seem to fit so well together. I'm liking this 5+2 configuration and it seems you designed it for a nice straight string pull


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## DistinguishedPapyrus (Apr 5, 2015)

Exactly. Straight string pull. There's just something about a string being pulled sideways out of the nut slot that I don't like so I always try to make them pull straight from bridge to nut to tuner.


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## DistinguishedPapyrus (Apr 5, 2015)

Just a small update today, installed the SS tee nuts. Some fancy work on the drill press yielded really nice recesses to seat them in to.






Pilot holes for the prongs. Works like a charm!










In that last pic I noticed the tee nut on the bass side, closest to the body edge is not fully seated, I since have seated it down all the way so no worries  

Next step in this build is gluing on the fretboard, does anybody have advice/suggestions about how to glue up the fretboard without getting glue into the truss rod slot? I always seem to have trouble with that.


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## DancingCloseToU (Apr 6, 2015)

DistinguishedPapyrus said:


> Next step in this build is gluing on the fretboard, does anybody have advice/suggestions about how to glue up the fretboard without getting glue into the truss rod slot?



For my build I was thinking of using a thin strip of painters tape to cover the truss rod before gluing the fretboard on  
Pretty sure I got the idea from someone on here. I'm not quite to that point just yet.

This thing is looking great so far, I really dig the shape.


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## pettymusic (Apr 6, 2015)

Next step in this build is gluing on the fretboard, does anybody have advice/suggestions about how to glue up the fretboard without getting glue into the truss rod slot? I always seem to have trouble with that.[/QUOTE]

Yeah man! What I have been doing is: I cover the channel with masking tape, I cut the tape just outside the channel with an exacto knife. I spread the glue and pull the tape off right before I clamp the FB. Even if there is some glue getting into the channel, it's not enough to make a difference.....well unless you use too much glue, then I suppose it could be a prblem.


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## Pikka Bird (Apr 6, 2015)

Man, it's rare to see an original headstock shape that's not complete arse. I really dig this one.


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## DistinguishedPapyrus (Apr 6, 2015)

Pikka Bird said:


> Man, it's rare to see an original headstock shape that's not complete arse. I really dig this one.



Thanks again for the comment man!!!


Another small update for today, but its a good one. Last piece of wood in the build, the fretboard!!! (except for the fretboard binding strips to be installed later)


So I wound up just covering the tee nuts' threads with masking tape and trying to be careful not to let the glue get to thick near the truss rod slot when I spread it out. Some glue may have got in the slot, I'm not worried about it though. The truss rod still turns fine.






Gave it the anaconda squeez!!! I like to glue the fretboard on full width and trim it to match the neck afterward, as well as the final leveling, fret slots, radiusing and binding, all after being glued to the neck blank. Just a personal preference. 









After a rough trim of the overhang on the sides of the neck, here she sits on my messy man-cave floor. Trippy fretboard! The look of it will change a little after I give it a few thicknessing passes to finalize the dimensions of the neck.





I used to hate it when a guitars headstock was a light colored wood with a darker colored fretboard, but now I kinda like it. Reminds me somewhat of old Strats.


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## DistinguishedPapyrus (Apr 13, 2015)

Another small update today, pup cavities!

I was gonna save this for when I get the electronics cavity done too but I gotta finish deciding what electronics to use and the layout as well. 


First made an acrylic template for the cavities and then did the bulk material removal with the forstner bit.





Routed clean.






Here she sits for a vague mock up with a pair of old 2008 Ibanez el-crapos that I had laying around. 







I'm really excited about how quickly I've gotten to this point in the build counting from my first post, which was the first day I laid tools into the wood. I prepared for this build better than I have in past builds, but after today the progress might be a little slower, I still gotta order fretwire and a bridge. (yes I made the neck without actually having the bridge in hand, I know, risky but I've bought multiple hipshot bridges before and I trust their product specs.)


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## Renkenstein (Apr 13, 2015)

Lookin' really clean, man! Good stuff!

I'm really getting the itch to try Ash. Ash itch. Itchy Ash.

I've got a Bad Monkey on my pedal board too....along with a TS9 and a Yngwie OD. I love OD pedals.


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## DistinguishedPapyrus (Apr 15, 2015)

Thanks man, deff love the bad monkey pedal. Thats something of a whole different type of project I gotta dig into sometime, getting a proper pedal board setup. That little board you can barely see in the pics is just something light weight I used to carry with me to play, but it's in need of a complete overhaul.


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## StarbardGuitar (Apr 15, 2015)

I absolutely love the shape of the body! Can't wait to see how this one turns out, nice work so far


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## Sang-Drax (Apr 15, 2015)

An original shape without being over-the-top. That's not easy to pull off! I like where this is going


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## Renkenstein (Apr 15, 2015)

DistinguishedPapyrus said:


> Thanks man, deff love the bad monkey pedal. Thats something of a whole different type of project I gotta dig into sometime, getting a proper pedal board setup. That little board you can barely see in the pics is just something light weight I used to carry with me to play, but it's in need of a complete overhaul.



I got a crazy good deal on an SKB PS45 a few years back and I've been using that since. Before that, it was a plank of particle board and a One-Spot....haha.


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## Bolwede (Apr 17, 2015)

DistinguishedPapyrus said:


>



What size is the T-nuts and the screws?


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## DistinguishedPapyrus (Apr 17, 2015)

Bolwede said:


> What size is the T-nuts and the screws?



The tee nuts are stainless steel, 0.75" diameter with a 1/4"-20 thread pattern, 4 prongs. If I remember correctly the 1/4"-20 thread is compatible with M6 thread too, right?

These are the bolts I plan to use, also with stainless washers, I think the head on the bolts is 0.65" dia., the same thread pattern and the length will need to be cut a little to make sure they don't dig into the back of the fretboard when installed.


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## DistinguishedPapyrus (Apr 17, 2015)

StarbardGuitar said:


> I absolutely love the shape of the body! Can't wait to see how this one turns out, nice work so far





Sang-Drax said:


> An original shape without being over-the-top. That's not easy to pull off! I like where this is going



Thanks again fellas for the comments!!!


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## DistinguishedPapyrus (Apr 17, 2015)

Renkenstein said:


> Before that, it was a plank of particle board and a One-Spot....haha.



Yeah I think mine's not even that good, that little pedal board I have wasn't even built by me, it has been through 2 previous owners and the back is riddled with holes from where different prdals have been mounted and removed. The power supply was something I assembled from 2 different converters, an office supplies extension cord and a daisy chain (all those parts also had a previous owner too)

I can do wood all day long but electronics is still way over my head


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## immortalx (Apr 17, 2015)

DistinguishedPapyrus said:


> The tee nuts are stainless steel, 0.75" diameter with a 1/4"-20 thread pattern, 4 prongs.
> 
> These are the bolts I plan to use, also with stainless washers, I think the head on the bolts is 0.65" dia., the same thread pattern and the length will need to be cut a little to make sure they don't dig into the back of the fretboard when installed.


I really like these bolts man  I've seen them listed as furniture bolts, connector bolts and even...sex bolts  But I couldn't find any M4 or M5 (I believe 8-32, 10-24 ?) in black oxide finish


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## DistinguishedPapyrus (Apr 17, 2015)

--- duplicate post, oops. ---


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## DistinguishedPapyrus (Apr 17, 2015)

immortalx said:


> I really like these bolts man  I've seen them listed as furniture bolts, connector bolts and even...sex bolts  But I couldn't find any M4 or M5 (I believe 8-32, 10-24 ?) in black oxide finish



I know man, they're like my favorite bolts to use for both aesthetics and structure. I wanted to get them in stainless steel to match all the other hardware but it's hard to find the right ones online, like within reasonable shipping distance, so the only ones so far that I found locally are these brown/chocolate looking colored ones at a hardware store. It's the only color they had and they actually had a bunch of them, I will keep loking around online and see if I can eventually find the right SS ones to swap out later, but for now I figured at least it'll match the brown wenge strips.

If I remember correctly the 1/4"-20 thread is compatible with M6 thread too, right?


IDK, maybe I'll keep the brown ones...


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## metallidude3 (Apr 17, 2015)

Super cool grain on that board, dude! I dig.


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## charlessalvacion (Apr 22, 2015)

nice work man!


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## SHORT (Apr 22, 2015)

noob here, so bear with me... What are Tee nuts and why are you using them? Google is just a tab away, but I've never heard of them and it'd be nice to hear from someone on here. 

Also, this build looks sick! I love the grain of that fretboard!


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## Knarbens (Apr 23, 2015)

The neckpocket looks like a nice fit.


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## Mehnike (Apr 23, 2015)

SHORT said:


> noob here, so bear with me... What are Tee nuts and why are you using them? Google is just a tab away, but I've never heard of them and it'd be nice to hear from someone on here.
> 
> Also, this build looks sick! I love the grain of that fretboard!


As screws are threaded in and out of holes in wood repeatedly(which can happen to necks over the years), the holes and threads loose their initial dimensions. The hole widens as screws compress the wood. This decreases strength and can cause stripping. 

T-nuts are flush mounting nuts that look like a "T" from the side. The T-nut embeds itself into wood/composite materials with four metal prongs as the screw is tightened. They are used in bolt on neck joints to provide a better to alternative screwing into wood. Being made of metal, the T-nuts allow assembly and disassembley of the neck many more times than a screw in wood would allow. The threads are much much stronger than those in wood and are less prone to stripping.


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## DistinguishedPapyrus (Apr 23, 2015)

^ yep, basically what he said, that's why I went with tee nuts. And also because I feel they make a much stronger joint, the tee nuts apply force over a larger surface area. When this neck was bolted up for test fitting, it felt as solid as a set neck, but still very easily removable.


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## Renkenstein (Apr 23, 2015)

immortalx said:


> I really like these bolts man  I've seen them listed as furniture bolts, connector bolts and even...sex bolts  But I couldn't find any M4 or M5 (I believe 8-32, 10-24 ?) in black oxide finish




No sex bolts here, but a couple of BIG nuts.


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## DistinguishedPapyrus (Jun 8, 2015)

Time for another post, after a little bit of a hiatus. Making some ground on the fretboard, albeit frustratingly and slowly, but progress none the less.

Glued up the binding with rope to clamp it.





I glue on a binding strip thats bigger than needed, and used to use my router to trim it flush, but it was late and I didn't want to annoy the neighbors with loud power tools so I used a hand plane instead to flush trim the bonding... WHY HAVENT I BEEN DOING THIS ALL ALONG??!?!?!!? best binding flust trim I've ever done. much smoother than with the router.









Here she is 16" radiused...





And this is the frustrating and slow part. I decided to coat/harden the fretboard with CA glue, since theres so much of the lighter brown area of the wood exposed, and that area is a little soft, I can press my thumbnail into it. The process is slow and makes an awful mess of the fret slots, which will be quite the chore to clean them out. The lower pic is after I cleaned out several of them. 









I've never CA glued a fretboard, but after getting a few under my belt I feel the process will be smoother and look much better in the end. This one still has 2 more layers to go and a full sanding/polish to finish.

BTW: This is why I leave the back of the neck square until I have the fretboard fully finished, fretted and playable, then contour the neck afterward. If I mess the fretboard up too bad, it can easily be ground off with the router/planing jig to leave a flat neck blank ready for a new fretboard to glue on, but I hope that doesn't happen, going for bust on this one. 


Also, this is my totally rad CA glue fumes exhaust system. An air filter, trash bags and duct tape, vents from the desk around the bass neck and out the back window. Fumes are nasty stuff. First application, I didn't use a vent and I could only do a few frets at a time before I got a sore throat, watering eyes and the loss of a few brain cells, but now I can't even smell the fumes while applying the glue! Schweet!


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## Pikka Bird (Jun 8, 2015)

How do you actually clean out those slots?


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## DistinguishedPapyrus (Jun 8, 2015)

Pikka Bird said:


> How do you actually clean out those slots?



VERY carefully, with the same saw I used to cut the slots. Using a scrap piece of maple as a guide block placed exactly along the edge of the slot helps to guide the blade. (The bottom of the maple has the same radius as the fretboard sanded into it to apply even pressure.) I hold the saw at an angle to be sure not to cut into the binding. Then followed up with an x-acto knife blade thats been ground into a hook to get into the corners. Its a slow process but works really well. That pic above is really not the best example, I'll take plenty of pics of the fretboard when its done to show how well this technique can be used.

Best thing is prevention, most of the slots got verry little glue into them because I'm using a gel type CA glue, its a little more controllable than the watery thin type.


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## pettymusic (Jun 8, 2015)

Awesome work, man! This fretboard is gonna dominate!!


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## DistinguishedPapyrus (Jun 8, 2015)

pettymusic said:


> Awesome work, man! This fretboard is gonna dominate!!



I hope so, I'm doing this thing sorta like "I'm all in" style. any major mistakes now and its gotta get ground completely off and a different piece glued on to re-start. I'm already a little worried that I accidentally made it too thin. The very edge of the fretboard at the heel is 0.173 thick. Thats the thinnest point on the whole thing. 

Anybody ever done one thinner than that and gotten by?


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## pettymusic (Jun 9, 2015)

My Agile FF is thinner than that in some places. I've already pulled some of the frets off because I plan on changing the FB and truss rod. I just hate how it looks when they are that thin. Also, in my mind, thicker fretboards means more stability. 

Question: How do you get such an awesome fit on that neck pocket? I mean, I had the neck pretty much complete before routing the neck pocket. Are you just matching up the center line on the body to the center on the neck or are you using the string method? I gotta know. My neck pocket came out a little off on my build. Please share


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## DistinguishedPapyrus (Jun 9, 2015)

pettymusic said:


> My Agile FF is thinner than that in some places. I've already pulled some of the frets off because I plan on changing the FB and truss rod. I just hate how it looks when they are that thin. Also, in my mind, thicker fretboards means more stability.
> 
> Question: How do you get such an awesome fit on that neck pocket? I mean, I had the neck pretty much complete before routing the neck pocket. Are you just matching up the center line on the body to the center on the neck or are you using the string method? I gotta know. My neck pocket came out a little off on my build. Please share



No problem man, it literally is just done how I described it in this thread, in that same order. I start with a neck that's cut to its final taper and length, and a body blank that's been routed to its template shape. I mark out the exact center line on the neck and body, clamp the neck lightly in place and I tap it ever so slightly with a block of wood or a small hammer to nudge it perfectly over the body til the center lines match up. 

Next stand across the room and use line of sight to make sure the neck is straight in line with the body. Once it's ABSOLUTELY perfect, tighten the clamps a little harder so the neck doesn't accidentally get bumped out of line and place the 3 straight edge pieces around the heel real snug to sorta "build up" a neck pocket template around the heel. 

Lift the neck out of place and you're left with a perfectly placed, perfectly sized template. Just route to the correct depth and it should be right. One extra trick I can think of is that my particular router bit is a little old and I know it likes to cut just a hair wider than the bearing, so I put a strip of masking tape inside the edges of the template after I take the neck out of place to cause it to cut the pocket so close to the size of the neck heel that I can shove it into the pocket when done, and pick up the neck and body together as one piece. They will hold together by tension alone, which means it passes what some call the "pocket test".



TLDR: Put into practice the whole measure twice cut once thing. Don't cut it til you know the cut will be as perfect as you can make it.


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## pettymusic (Jun 9, 2015)

^ Thanks for the details. I might try routing my neck pocket before I glue the fret board next time. I had mine fretted at this stage on my build. I think if I had a viewable center line on the fretboard, this might help me out a little.


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## DistinguishedPapyrus (Jun 12, 2015)

pettymusic said:


> ^ Thanks for the details. I might try routing my neck pocket before I glue the fret board next time. I had mine fretted at this stage on my build. I think if I had a viewable center line on the fretboard, this might help me out a little.



Maybe just tape a strip of poster board/cardboard down the fretboard and mark your center line on that?


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## DistinguishedPapyrus (Jun 12, 2015)

Got the CA glue pretty much done. It went really well for my first attempt at this type of finish. There are a few blemishes, but I decided to just let it be instead of trying to make it perfect and risk jacking it up in the process. 






When I was researching this type of finish I found it was sometimes used by fretless bass builders and I can now see why, this type of finish is hard, fills the grain very well and polishes out super shiny. It feels like its made of acrylic or some kind of polycarbonate or something like that. This is only taken up to 1000 grit and you can easily see the glue bottle reflection. I wasn't intending to go for a slick glossy finish on the fretboard initially in this build but I'm not gonna complain, it's turning out as my cleanest build so far. 





Heres a better example of the post-slot cleaning. I've got the first two done, 22 more to go...  this by far is the most tedious and nerve wrecking part of the build. I'm not too keen on taking sharp tools to my newly finished board, but its either this or no frets...





Total progress so far: 
Frets still need to be installed, I got a small roll of SS jumbo stock from LMI to dig into as soon as the slots are done.
Body has been grain filled, needs electronics cavity routed, final sanding and finish.


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## DistinguishedPapyrus (Jun 15, 2015)

Another small update but this is sort of a side note to the main build. So I got a little carried away in the garage and one thing lead to another... and well... I made a fret bender!!! Really cool little device, and simple to make. A few nuts, bolts, washers, scrap ply wood and skateboard bearings yielded this simple hand-fed bender all for less than $20. I saw some dudes online make these with bearings and it took me a while to source some good cheap ones. I wound up going to a local Waterboyz surf and skate shop and they had a pack of 8 skateboard bearings for $10. Its a great start if anybody is looking for bearings for various crap, only downside is they are all the same universal size if you buy them in a place like that. 

Anyway, here's what I did. LMI ships their wire rolled into a much tighter circle than you probably need. I had to unbend it, and so this wire bender kinda works backwards from what most wire benders do and it did so fantastically for the price. The top roller has a wider hole that its mounted in so I can adjust its position and change the radius of the wire. I just hand-fed the wire back and forth through the rollers a few times until there was little resistance.










This was really more of an experiment for me hence the crappy looking piece of wood that the rollers are mounted to, I will eventually do some tweaking and build a nicer, more permanent set-up with the rollers mounted vertical instead of horizontal. and maybe a more precise adjustment system...


Before and after with the neck as a reference. Digging the accuracy of the bent wire:






I have a 16 inch radius on the fretboard, so naturally the wire needed to be bent into a perfect 32" dia. circle, and when I measured it across it came out to 31". That's good enough for me! Especially since this is the first time I've ever made a wire bender.


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## Neilzord (Jun 16, 2015)

Awesome work so far!

But looking at the image second up, Surely the curve should be passing through those bearings the opposite way to curve it in that direction? The way it's in at the moment looks like it would be straightening the fret wire? (Confused)


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## WillT90 (Jun 16, 2015)

Neilzord said:


> Awesome work so far!
> 
> But looking at the image second up, Surely the curve should be passing through those beariI think it was straightening it in this instance as OP said it came packaged in a super tight coilngs the opposite way to curve it in that direction? The way it's in at the moment looks like it would be straightening the fret wire? (Confused)



I think it was straightening the wire in this instance as OP said that it came packaged in a tighter coil than needed.


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## ElRay (Jun 16, 2015)

DistinguishedPapyrus said:


> ... put a strip of masking tape inside the edges of the template after I take the neck out ... Put into practice the whole measure twice cut once thing. Don't cut it til you know the cut will be as perfect as you can make it.



Actually, this is a good idea regardless. You can always remove the tape on one side or the other if you need to make the pocket wider, but you can't uncut the wood of it's too wide. Plus, this allows for the final pass with the router to be a thin cut.

Ray


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## DistinguishedPapyrus (Jun 16, 2015)

ElRay said:


> Actually, this is a good idea regardless. You can always remove the tape on one side or the other if you need to make the pocket wider, but you can't uncut the wood of it's too wide. Plus, this allows for the final pass with the router to be a thin cut.
> 
> Ray




I see what you're saying, that reminds me that I wanted to try doing that for template routing a body shape. Less chance of tear out when the final pass is really thin.


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## DistinguishedPapyrus (Jun 16, 2015)

Neilzord said:


> Awesome work so far!
> 
> But looking at the image second up, Surely the curve should be passing through those bearings the opposite way to curve it in that direction? The way it's in at the moment looks like it would be straightening the fret wire? (Confused)



Yeah its like what WillT90 said, the wire was shipped in a tight coil, I needed to straighten it out. So the rollers are doing opposite what a regular bender would do in that pic. I actually had to re-configure it a couple times to get it right, both bending and flattening the wire, trial and error...


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## DistinguishedPapyrus (Jun 23, 2015)

Frets about halfway done. 16" radiused, stainless steel, hemisphere ends, CA glued in place. all new territory for me


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## Knarbens (Jun 24, 2015)

Looking wonderful! You could chamfer the fretslots slightly to ensure the frets go all the way in.

May I ask how you do the hemisphere ends?


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## DistinguishedPapyrus (Jun 24, 2015)

Knarbens said:


> Looking wonderful! You could chamfer the fretslots slightly to ensure the frets go all the way in.
> 
> May I ask how you do the hemisphere ends?



I shape and polish each one before installing. Measure the exact width of the fretboard at the slot, cut a piece of fretwire about 0.03" shorter than that, file, sand, polish, and press it in. I'm still working on perfecting the process. Theres alot of specifics that take a bit of a learning curve.


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## TamanShud (Jun 24, 2015)

Possibly the best fret job I've seen on SSO, or anywhere. That's gonna play like butter.


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## pettymusic (Jun 24, 2015)

That looks so good, bro. Stellar work!


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## DistinguishedPapyrus (Jun 26, 2015)

pettymusic said:


> That looks so good, bro. Stellar work!





TamanShud said:


> Possibly the best fret job I've seen on SSO, or anywhere. That's gonna play like butter.




Thanks all for the comments!!!


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## DistinguishedPapyrus (Jun 27, 2015)

Finally finished the frets...













I don't want to show JUST the good side of this build, it did have a few blemishes too, like some of the CA glue squeezed out of the upper frets. It took me a while to learn how to press them in without any squeeze out. All but like 5 frets were glued in, the adjacent ones are fairly clean by comparison. Oh well, I'm learning alot in this build to apply to future builds, at least it'll still play really well.





Also the frets did not all align on the edge of the fretboard as well as I hoped, looking down the treble edge in this pic. I think I can file back some of the worst ones, but mostly they're gonna stay as-is. Stainless is way harder to shape than plain nickle-silver frets. 





And finally, SS is not nice to your tools. I'll need a new pair of snips and new file for the next fret job. Luckily these were cheap.


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## pettymusic (Jun 28, 2015)

I really like the way you frets turned out despite the fact they aren't perfectly I line. I would take that small sacrifice for amazing feeling frets/ neck. 

I have been using CA on my frets as well and usually end up with some on the FB like that. I've been able to clean that up with a razor blade. The dry CA just chips right off without any affect on the FB.


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## Knarbens (Jun 29, 2015)

pettymusic said:


> I have been using CA on my frets as well and usually end up with some on the FB like that. I've been able to clean that up with a razor blade. The dry CA just chips right off without any affect on the FB.



Yeah! It's easier to do it afterwards with a razor. Use some acetone to clean the main mess right after you've pressed them in!


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## Renkenstein (Jun 29, 2015)

I found a bit of Johnson's paste wax on the board before fretting helps that CA squeeze-out chip right off.


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## Blue1970Cutlass (Jul 1, 2015)

That is an amazing looking fretboard


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## electriceye (Jul 1, 2015)

Do you not have a fret end file to go up and down the board? And you should still be able to clean up the super glue.


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## DistinguishedPapyrus (Jul 3, 2015)

electriceye said:


> Do you not have a fret end file to go up and down the board? And you should still be able to clean up the super glue.



I don't have that particular type of file, I know it's not too hard to get one but I'm just a little cautious about accidentally damaging the fretboard. I'm probably gonna get this guitar fully finished and strung up, play it for a week or so then see how I feel about it then, weather to proceed with further adjustment to the frets or be happy with it as-is and apply what I've learned to future builds.


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## Steinmetzify (Jul 6, 2015)

In and subscribed. Really cool job so far, can't wait to see it done. Ideas for the finish yet or did I miss that in an earlier post? REALLY like that headstock, man.


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## DistinguishedPapyrus (Jul 6, 2015)

steinmetzify said:


> In and subscribed. Really cool job so far, can't wait to see it done. Ideas for the finish yet or did I miss that in an earlier post? REALLY like that headstock, man.



Thanks man!, I originally thought about just leaving the body natural color but I think I'm gonna attempt a black stain on the ash, then spray a clear poly over it. I like a hard glossy finish on bodies. The neck will still be finished in tru-oil just cause I prefer the way it feels on the neck.


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## DistinguishedPapyrus (Jul 6, 2015)

I finally cut out the electronics cavity using a template for the cavity itself and another template for where the cavity cover plate will be recessed in. It's totally worth it to take your time and plan out all the cuts with templates where possible. The little v shape in the bottom of the cavity was not originally planned, but I left that area a little thicker since I don't currently have anything to put in that area, just figured its some extra bracing for now.


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## shikamaru (Jul 11, 2015)

OMG that fret job ! certainly going to steal some of your ideas man, this is one stellar build !


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## DistinguishedPapyrus (Aug 9, 2015)

Time to throw in an update. This build has kinda slowed down alot cause applying finish just isn't my strong point. I have a coat of clear shot on the body already but much of it sank into the pores (as evident by the shiny low spots you can kinda see in the pic). Thats after 2 applications of Color tone grain filler from Stewmac. 
I found that super glue works great at filling in the low spots to build it back flat and get it ready for another layer of clear. It's just a tedious process.

The pick guard was a spur of the moment thing, I have not yet drilled the mount holes for it so it's not 100% set in stone, but I really dig it so it'll probably become a permanent part of the build. Means I can go 1 pup 1 knob, and expand later to 2 pups if I wanted to. 

Also the neck is really close to getting some oil. Just a little more sanding and it's gonna get finished.


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## BlackMastodon (Aug 9, 2015)

I'm digging the pickguard.


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## Steinmetzify (Aug 10, 2015)

+1 on that guard dude. Looks good!


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