# Building my first 7. :D



## cerfew (Nov 2, 2010)

This is going to be my first build. I have already designed and cut out templates for the body/neck/headstock out of plywood, and I'm building the neck 5 piece out of maple and walnut.

Here's my question though...

From LMI or StewMac or anything like that, you can buy body blanks for well over a hundred dollars, depending on the wood. However... You can buy plain old lumber of the same types of wood for like $5 a foot. What's the huge difference here that I'm obviously missing?


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## MaxOfMetal (Nov 2, 2010)

cerfew said:


> From LMI or StewMac or anything like that, you can buy body blanks for well over a hundred dollars, depending on the wood. However... You can buy plain old lumber of the same types of wood for like $5 a foot. What's the huge difference here that I'm obviously missing?



There's little to no difference in the wood itself, depending on how the lumber from suppliers is cut. The body blanks from LMII and StewMac are cut, glued, sized, and planed to be ready for band sawing to make a standard guitar body.

Often the wood from regular lumber suppliers are just long boards which haven't been prepared the same way, so you'll often have to get it planed, cut, glued, etc. If you have the tools to do all this, then it's much better to buy "raw" hardwood boards.

Also worth mentioning is that neither LMII or StewMac are known for having the most "economical" lumber.


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## cerfew (Nov 2, 2010)

I am currently a high school senior in woodshop with access to every high-quality machine tool you can think of. I'm a bit lucky 

In that case, I'll just try and get some mahogany lumber for the body. Any suggestions for a top wood for this guitar?


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## MaxOfMetal (Nov 2, 2010)

cerfew said:


> I am currently a high school senior in woodshop with access to every high-quality machine tool you can think of. I'm a bit lucky
> 
> In that case, I'll just try and get some mahogany lumber for the body. Any suggestions for a top wood for this guitar?



Unless you're 100% dead set on a certain set of pickups, the top wood selection really doesn't matter that much, as you'll be able to compensate and accentuate any significant tonalities with the pickup choice.


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## cerfew (Nov 2, 2010)

I'm thinking an Alder top on Mahogany body. Maple and walnut neck like aforementioned. Pickups: X2N and Blaze. Think that'll sound good?

EDIT: Oh, and a Pau Ferro fretboard. 26.188 scale (all LMI had close to what I wanted). 16" radius.


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## defchime (Nov 2, 2010)

cerfew said:


> However... You can buy plain old lumber of the same types of wood for like $5 a foot. What's the huge difference here that I'm obviously missing?


 
Max is correct on all fronts, I'd just like to add that the moisture content of some lumber may be higher than what you require. Construction grade lumber is around 18% where manufacturing lumber is like 8-10%, the difference is that the 18% will be kind of moist or wet when you work with it and this bound water within the wood cells will eventually want to leave the wood; causing it to warp....this is no good when your making a guitar/cabinet/bookshelf/entertainment center/etc.

I'd suggest instead of ordering from lmii or stew mac to simply ask your shop teacher where the nearest lumber supplier and ask what types of hardwood they carry (specificly mention you need mahogany/alder/maple/ebony etc). Then shoot over there and check it out...they might even carry body blanks or neck blanks there. The local mill in my area does and they're only about $35 one piece depending on the wood and figure and shit.


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## scherzo1928 (Nov 2, 2010)

you could go with the tried and true maple top on a mahogany back. purple quilt or black flame could look amazing with a pau ferro board. Hell, even a lizard burst.



cerfew said:


> I am currently a high school senior in woodshop with access to every high-quality machine tool you can think of. I'm a bit lucky
> 
> In that case, I'll just try and get some mahogany lumber for the body. Any suggestions for a top wood for this guitar?


 
Oh how I wish I had access to a woodshop. At least a drill press.

Btw, I bought all the mahogany and walnut for my build at a lumberyard. I simply spent some time looking at boards, and picked up the ones that looked best. which were also quite dry.

Best of luck with your build, and make sure to post many many pics for us.


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## cerfew (Nov 2, 2010)

So I got some mahogany today. only complaint is there is going to be a SLIGHT crack where the lower horn is... Hopefully it will fill up when I cut out the shape.
My question, however. Is it possible to route out holes for pickups without putting a top on the guitar? How do you get a hole for the wire to pass through to the control cavity if you don't use a top? I ask because I definitely don't want a pickguard, and I don't want to invest more money in getting a top. Although if it is the only way, then it must be done.


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## aslsmm (Nov 2, 2010)

ive seen some folks using a long ass drill bit. it looked like it was between 12-18", then just drill the hole at an angle.


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## JaeSwift (Nov 2, 2010)

aslsmm said:


> ive seen some folks using a long ass drill bit. it looked like it was between 12-18", then just drill the hole at an angle.



Just use the afore mentioned long ass drill bit, or a flex drill. I personally just did it on mine with a long ass drill bit and it worked fine. Remember to put a thin plate on top of the body when you drill, because you'll be drilling at an angle the ''mouth'' of the drill will touch the wood if you dont have something covering it. We had a piece of an airplane (jumbo 747 XD) laying around that we used today haha.

About the crack; where did you get your lumber and can you show a pic? 

When it comes to wood, my wood supplier has a specific section dedicated to instrument wood; one reason is so that they can make more money out of you buying it  the second is that they are pieces that have actually been selected on weight, figuring and I guess moisture content. For certain types of wood, weight is very important. I find that, for example, the heavier pieces of Swamp Ash do not offer nearly as good of a tonal result as a mid-weight to light-medium will offer. Usually Swamp Ash that's very heavy can be billed wrongly as just Ash though.

There's one thing I learned from a luthier, which was his little tip to selecting good tone woods; bring a hammer and gently tap the piece of wood you would want to buy whilst holding it with the other hand. The louder it sounds, the more it vibrates and resonates, the better tone wood it will be.


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## cerfew (Nov 2, 2010)

Swift, to answer your question, I got the lumber from my school, along with all the other lumber I'm using in this project.  I did the hammer test you were talking about. First, I tapped it with my knuckles, and damn it was loud. when I used the hammer, OH MY GOD. hahaha. I think it'll be good  it seemed to have a pretty bright sound to that, which makes me happy.

On to the pictures:
First of all, here's the template:






Here is the two pieces of mahogany:





Close up of the grain.





And here's a couple pictures of the crack.. I assume they are just from the board drying out. They are only on 1 end; I will be able to avoid the majority of them when I cut out the template. However, I may have to fill in a tiny bit of it.












That's all for right now. In about 20 minutes I'll be rough cutting the body shape. That'll be all I'll be doing with the body for a while though, untill I finish the neck laminate. Pictures of that tomorrow.


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## cerfew (Nov 3, 2010)

Woo! Finished shaping the body.  A spindle sander is an amazingly helpful tool. Here it is with the neck template. I would show it with the laminated neck, BUT that's at school all clamped up.


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## scherzo1928 (Nov 3, 2010)

Damn you are going fast. And it's looking great.

questions:
Did you decide on the wood for the top?
how "tall" is the neck laminate... what angle are you making on the headstock.
what kind of bridge are you using?

keep us posted!


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## cerfew (Nov 3, 2010)

The neck laminate is 3" tall. It's gonna be cut to 2" thick through the body, and 1/2 for the neck section.

Headstock will be about 12 degrees. I ordered a TOM bridge, with string-thru ferrules.

And I think I'm going to make it purely mahogany, no top.

I got the pau ferro fretboard today! 





Awesome looking grain. The picture doesn't do the color justice:





And here's the neck laminate with the body, before I planed it flat on both sides.




The fact that I have such access to machine tools REALLY helps this process along. 

Going off to start cutting the neck now. I'll try and get a more detailed process of what I'm doing to it.


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## iRaiseTheDead (Nov 3, 2010)

niiiiice I can't wait to see how it turns out. specs?


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## cerfew (Nov 3, 2010)

If you ask questions about specific specs I'll tell you, otherwise, I'm not really sure what to say lol.

Finished cutting out the basic neck thickness. I decided to not to do an angled neck, and recess the TOM instead. 

Here's a picture. The headstock isn't actually glued on yet (when it is, it will be on top of the neck piece). When I cut the angle for it, the saw blade took off more than I expected, so I glued on a layer of material to make up for it. I just have to plane the ends of the extra material flat with the neck. I'm sorry I didn't get progress pics, I forgot my camera.











Here's an example of all the woods put together. Obviously the fretboard is going to be much farther down the neck, but the clamps are currently in the way.


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## scherzo1928 (Nov 3, 2010)

friggin tight!!

+1 on recessing the bridge. Also, the pau ferro board is beautiful.
your build is going to take 1 week man!! while mine is going to take like half a year .


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## cerfew (Nov 3, 2010)

I think it's going to take a LONG time to carve the body. The top is going to be carved, then I need to carve the lower cutaway into a nice round shape. Then I have to carve the neck pocket as well as the whole neck shape. I think that'll be the hardest part... Tomorrow, if I get enough done, I'll be routing the truss rod cavity. :O


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## JaeSwift (Nov 4, 2010)

cerfew said:


> I think it's going to take a LONG time to carve the body. The top is going to be carved, then I need to carve the lower cutaway into a nice round shape. Then I have to carve the neck pocket as well as the whole neck shape. I think that'll be the hardest part... Tomorrow, if I get enough done, I'll be routing the truss rod cavity. :O



Use a spokeshave  It's my favourite tool for carving, the only time I use anything else is when I do cutaways on the inner sides of the horns since I wont be able to reach that fully with the spokeshave.


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## cerfew (Nov 4, 2010)

Glued in the headstock today. Feels nice and firm. Hopefully the lines from where I glued in the extra material will mostly disappear when I carve the neck.






And here you can see about where the 24th fret is going to be. Just a bit deeper cutaway than a Schecter. Plus the fact that it's neck through, this is going to play great. I was messing with it today, it ALREADY has better fret access in that area, and I haven't even shaped the neck or the heel yet xD


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## sk3ks1s (Nov 4, 2010)

Very nice. 
That excess glue should go away after a bit of sanding/carving. Especially if everything fits flush beforehand.
Best of luck to ya.


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## cerfew (Nov 5, 2010)

Btw. The specs:

Scale: 26.188" (fretboard from LMI, didn't want 27")
24 frets
Mahogany body, walnut/maple neck
TOM bridge with strings thru body
Neck-thru (obviously)
16" fretboard radius
Natural finish, unless someone suggests a better idea
Pickups: X2N-7 bridge, Blaze neck
Tuners-- 7 inline. Think they're gonna be ltd or something from gpdusa, I don't want to spend >60 for a set of grovers
No inlays. Just dots on the side. I MIGHT do small dots on the bottom of the board, from 15 up (in the normal pattern)... I think that would look cool. Kuz that's the only place I would get lost without fret markers, playing high on the neck on the highest strings.

And that's about it. I would like some idea for my headstock though. I have the shape decided on, but it's going to be covered with a plate of walnut or purpleheart, and I need some sort of design or something to put on it.


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## cerfew (Nov 6, 2010)

Alright, got the truss rod routed today  Also put a purpleheart cover on the headstock.

Measuring it out:







The finished route  I was a bit nervous to do it. Glad it's centered though 





Here's the purpleheart with the template on it. The truss rod cavity looks offcentered here, but that's only because I screwed up when I glued the scarf joint, and misaligned the walnut strips.  It's centered for the majority of the neck, just not past the scarf joint.






The piece I have originally had a jointed surface. I sanded it with 220 grit to get out some imperfections, and it lost its sheen. Does anybody know how I can get it to look like this? The top piece is the original, lower is what is on the guitar.






Notice the angle on the end that I filed by hand so that it would set flush against the nut. Doing this was a pain in the ass...


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## Stealthdjentstic (Nov 6, 2010)

Fastest build thread ever 

Nice work!


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## theclap (Nov 6, 2010)

this is really impressive i'm watching this like a hawk. I'm really rooting for you on this cerfew this is persistent and nice clean work


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## aslsmm (Nov 6, 2010)

dude your flying. i wish i was in a woods shop. im so jealous.


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## cerfew (Nov 6, 2010)

Got some hardware and stuff today. 

The hammer is actualy a $3 jeweler's hammer I found online. Has a plastic and rubber head, definitely a cheaper alternative to StewMac's option.

The fretwire is a bit smaller than I expected, but that's ok. And also, I thought the truss rod was going to be allen wrench, but it's actually a hex nut. Totatlly wasn't thinking when I ordered it, haha. But it'll still work.






If anybody wants to buy a 7 string hardtail piece, I've got one I don't need.

Today I'll hopefully be cutting the neck taper and headstock shape, and gluing the body on. I need some dimensions for the X2N bridge cavity and the Blaze neck cavity though...


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## cerfew (Nov 6, 2010)

So. I drilled the hole for truss rod access.

First, I used a tap to start the drill with, then used a really long skinny bit to make a pilot hole. I started drilling pretty vertical, and as it slowly went in I tilted the drill back untill it was at the right angle.











Rough result of the first drill. I then started going up bit sizes.






Super extender for short bits xD






And here's the final result. It didn't come out nearly as clean as I would have liked, but I'll have to deal. Maybe I'll put a cover on it or something.






Ugh. i just saw an article on making the truss rod access with a router bit. I SO wish I had done that instead. Oh well..


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## scherzo1928 (Nov 6, 2010)

holy nuts, went away for 2 days and this thing is almoast done


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## cerfew (Nov 7, 2010)

It really is almost done now, xD

Got a ton of progress this weekend. Say hello to a wall of pictures. 

First of all, I cut the majority of the neck taper with a table saw. I planned out the taper on the fretboard side, then double-sticky-taped it upside down to a piece of wood that would carry it through the saw, making sure my plan line was along the edge of the wood. Here's the first cut: 






And here it is after both of those cuts:






Notice that the taper continues on through the body area. I figured it would be easier to attach the body if I had a constant flat surface from the neck all the way through.

I then used a jigsaw to cut the rest of the taper and the headstock. And... we have a guitar neck! 






Did the same process for the fingerboard. Here you can see it before being cut:





More on that pain in the ass later. xD

Then, I had my neighbor use the table saw to make the headstock thinner.






BIG problem though. Remember my truss rod access cavity thingy? I cut that way to deep, and made a hole in the back of the neck :'( I had to fill it with putty:






Here you can actually see both of my worst mistakes on this guitar. That chunk towards the bottom is all misaligned, I screwed that up when I glued in the piece to make up for the saw thickness when cutting the scarf joint.

Then, we drilled the pegholes and glued on the body!






So hold on, I have to upload more pictures...


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## cerfew (Nov 7, 2010)

So the next thing I did was make the fingerboard. First came radiusing the face with a block from Stewmac. Holy hell was that hard. Had to take off a lot of material.






Every time that much sawdust built up, I vacuumed it up. Had to do that about five times. But finally...

WE HAVE RADIUS!





Next came smoothing it out. I went up to 100 grit, then 220, then finished it off with 400 and got this 






Nice and shiny. Next problem: this board was so thick that it lined up perfectly with the top of my nut. :O not good. So I had to take a lot of thickness off the back... I decided sanding was going to take hours, so I looked around for a better solution and found this...





Yay! That let me take material off pretty quick.






And I finally got it to the right thickness.






Then I had to fret it. First I cut out all the pieces. Then, I would take one, bend it, pound it in, and repeat. I bent the first few by hand with a pair of pliers... They didn't come out smooth, and didn't stick too well either. I HAD to find something better. And... here's my fret bending tool of choice xD






There was enough gap between the white lid and the body of it for the tang of the fret to fit into, allowing me to perfectly radius my frets. Eventually, I had a fretboard.






As of this moment, I've trimmed the ends down, but I still have to bevel them. I will level them once I glue it on the neck, after installing the side dots.

To make myself busy today, I worked on the neck joint. My neighbor gave me an AWESOME tool...






Electric chisel FTW!
Here's the (pretty much) finished neck joint. It's patented as the Awesome Neck Joint. Hahaha jk.






And that's about all I've got so far. Off to eat oysters now


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## scherzo1928 (Nov 7, 2010)

1 week long build ftw.



cerfew said:


>


is there black binding on the headstock? or is it just the shadow?


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## cerfew (Nov 7, 2010)

Wow, that would look really cool if it WERE binding. But sadly, it's just shadow.


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## TheWreck (Nov 7, 2010)

^^I agree that a black binding on headstock would look awesome!


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## cerfew (Nov 8, 2010)

I have a concern. My headstock is currently almost 3/4" thick... Most are about 1/2." I'm afraid my tuners aren't going to fit (they get here sometime this week) and there isn't much I can do to make it any thinner. Has anybody ever seen recessed tuners? I think that might work... Not sure how it would look though. I'd only recess them about 1/8...


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## TheWreck (Nov 8, 2010)

I've seen recessed tuners and it looks great! Someone does it in a recent building thread...


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## sk3ks1s (Nov 8, 2010)

You can try this...






It's RestorationAD's build. 
A 1/4" recess may be a bit deep though. I'd make sure there's enough clearance before you bore out a 1/4" thick hole...


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## cerfew (Nov 8, 2010)

It's more like 3/16 it would need to be, and I might be able to get away with 1/8. I'll have to see when the tuners get here. Do you know what kind of drill bit he used for those?


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## sk3ks1s (Nov 8, 2010)

My guess would be a forstner bit? If you use one, make sure you drill the recessed holes before the tuning peg holes. Forstner bits are useless unless they have wood to bite into.
So in other words, do the recessed holes (w/ forstner bit), then drill your tuning peg holes.

Edit: Just noticed that you have already drilled your tuning peg holes... Someone who actually knows what they're talking about should be able to help you out.


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## dudeskin (Nov 8, 2010)

thats where i come in..........



















scrap it, send it to me, its all its good for 


awesome thread, and axe you got there dude!!


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## cerfew (Nov 9, 2010)

Got a bunch of work done today! 

But first of all was last night. I layed out the bridge. I didn't have tuners yet, so I had to improvise my own way of holding strings...












The body end was a ridiculous pain in the ass. Anyways, I then put the bridge underneath the strings. I moved it around untill the strings were centered down the neck, the scale length was correct, and I had the correct angle to compensate for the lower strings. To hold it in place, I taped it down. xD











I must've measured the scale length ten different times to be positive. Next, I picked a drill bit that was JUST small enough to fit inside the bridge's holes. This would ensure that the resulting small pilot hole would be as centered as possible to the bridge. Then I used a tap to create a small divot in the center of the resulting hole.






That was all I could do at home. Today, I drilled the entire post holes. Here's what I did:

1st, I drilled a 1/8th inch hole as a pilot hole down about 3/4 of an inch, to provide a center for the next holes.

2nd, I drilled a hole that would be the radius of the bridge recess- this was 3/16" deep.

3rd: A hole big enough to recess the lip of the posts.

And lastly, the hole for the posts themselves.

Don't worry, I actually had very specific sizes for all of these holes, and practiced twice on a spare block before committing the act to the body. Here's the result:






By putting just the very bottoms of the bridge posts in, I could tell... It fit! Although I couldn't be quite sure at this point.






When I got home, I got impatient and didn't want to wait another couple days for the router bit to get here. I decided to use a chisel for the bridge recess. I actually surprised myself, it came out quite well.. Here it is with the posts tapped into place.






Notice how they are flush with the recess... Well, the one on the right is a little deeper, but that isn't a problem. Now for the big test...






IT FITS!!!! I whooped for joy extremely loud when I did this. I was so happy that I managed to get it precise enough for this. 

One little benefit from a mistake... When drilling the post holes, one of them walked a little bit, so the hole wasn't perfectly centered. When I put the bridge on the posts and screw them down all the way, due to the one being a little off, the bridge gets locked into place. Kinda neat, and completely accidental, and REALLY lucky. Haha.

Lastly, I put the side dots on the fretboard:






And that is the last I will be doing for a while, untill I get my router bit.

Oh, btw, any suggestions for how to fill the slots beneath the frets?


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## aslsmm (Nov 9, 2010)

sheesh man. this is the best build thread ever


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## dudeskin (Nov 10, 2010)

this build is going so fast!!

cant wait to see it done!


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## dudeskin (Nov 10, 2010)

you going string through body? i need to see someone else do it before i know what i need to do.lol.


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## cerfew (Nov 10, 2010)

Yeah I am going string through body. I drilled the holes today, I'll post pics a bit later.


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## cerfew (Nov 11, 2010)

So, here's the pic of my string ferrule holes. Like the arc?






Next, (well before really), I drilled the holes where the knobs & switch would be, before routing the electronics cavity. My bit came today! That was exciting. But anyways, because my body is so thick, I also had to recess the knobs and what not down. After I carve the top, the knobs should look just like a Schecter's.






Next, I cut out the templates for the pickups & the electronics cavity out of plywood.











Then it was time to route the cavity! First of all, I had to figure out how to mount the template to the body. I made them extra large just for this purpose, but I actually didn't make them big enough to successfully clamp them down without being in the way of the router. So I used a bunch of double stick tape, it worked pretty well. I also clamped the guitar to a table so it wouldn't move around. Well, here's the mess from just the first 1/4" pass...











If you look closely, you can see sawdust covering EVERYTHING. I decided that wasn't going to cut it, so I cleared off a different table to work on to be easier to clean up afterwards. 

After I got to a certain depth, I was able to take the template off and route using the cavity itself as a pattern. That was a little odd and definitely scary.

Here's the result after all the routing:






There was dust on the floor about ten feet towards me, and also on the other side of the table. xD Messy router!

And, here's what you've been waiting for...






By far the most professional looking cut on this entire guitar. Lol. I will be routing out the pickups tomorrow 

Btw, you can see all my pictures (including some not shown here) at Image hosting, free photo sharing & video sharing at Photobucket


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## Sebastian (Nov 11, 2010)

Thats a quite fast built h\you have goin on 

Awesome work ! Can't wait to see more pics


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## scherzo1928 (Nov 11, 2010)

arc = 
cavity looks quite pro.

edit: as for the dust, I just connect my shopvac straight to the router.


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## cerfew (Nov 11, 2010)

WOO!!! Just won a ceramic Warpig on Ebay for $81. I'm super excited.


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## cerfew (Nov 12, 2010)

Just finished carving the neck. The guitar now has a super orgasmicly thin Wizard-style neck. I'll have some finishing touches to do once I glue on the fretboard, but oh god is it nice. 

Anyways, I routed the pickup cavities earlier today. First, I used the template I used to make my template (It's supposed to sound redundant xD) to position the cavity and drew lines around it.






Then I clamped down the actual routing template and went at it. The template had JUST enough extra space to put a clamp at 2 of the corners and still be able to route all of it (thankfully). For the last pass, I used the cavity itself as a guide, which as always is a scary/cool experience.

And this is what I ended up with 






Tomorrow I'll be getting my tuners, string ferrules and knobs; that'll be the last of things I need. Then I'll be able to recess the tuners and drill the holes for the ferrules, and then carve the top  I really can't believe how quickly this is coming along. And I'm really excited about the neck


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## scherzo1928 (Nov 12, 2010)

wow, those are some pretty clean routes. i guess you did make your own templates?


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## cerfew (Nov 12, 2010)

Yeah I did, out of the good-quality plywood stuff. The templates weren't perfect though, and it's evident in the pickup routes.


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## cerfew (Nov 13, 2010)

Currently working on carving the top. It's amazing how much better it looks already. I can't friggen wait to play this thing.

Updates on today's work later, I'm too tired to upload stuff right now.

Btw... I found out you can totally shape a carved top with a plane... Idk how it works, usually those are used to flatten things xD


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## cerfew (Nov 14, 2010)

There is so much screwed up on this guitar it's not even funny... I can't wait to build my next one to redeem all these stupid mistakes.

Anyways, big update today.
First of all, yesterday I drilled out the holes for the string ferrules. Found out that I placed the string holes too close, so the ferrules were going to be slammed right next to each other. If you remember, I already drilled the holes through the body where the strings would go through the top- all I did here was enlargen the bottom to fit the larger ferrules.

First FUUUUUUUUUUUU of the day:







So, I had to file the ferrule's lips down when I put them in. 






Tell me that doesn't look like shit... Next came recessing the holes for the tuners. Was a slight FUUUU-- here when one of the recesses came out off center.






After that crap was done, I carved the top. I don't have any progress pics, but here is the result:






It's really hard to get a good picture of thses curves. It looks awesome in person. 

Next came drilling holes for the output jack. First, I positioned where I wanted the jack:






Then I used a tap to mark where the two screw holes were.






Then I drilled those taps about 3/16 of an inch deep with a 5/64 bit, as a pilot hole for the jack screws. Then I screwed the jack to the guitar. I left about 1/8" of the screw left out, so that when I installed it for real, the screws would have something to bite into.

So then I tapped the center of the jack hole.






Then I unscrewed the jack and found my weapon of choice... 7/8 bit, drilled 1 1/8 deep.






Final result:





It fits!





Then I had to connect it to the control cavity. I used a long drill bit and drilled from the cavity towards the jack hole... Final result:





Then I used a larger bit to size it up a bit for the wires to fit through. 

I spent some time smoothing out the body carves, then it was time to glue the fretboard.

First of all, I set up a couple of clamps on the neck to act as guides to keep the fretboard from slipping sideways once I clamped it down.
















Yay squeezeout! But it actually didn't turn out that great. Here is the biggest FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU----
of this entire project. I checked on the guitar a while later and found this...






Only the center of the fretboard is firmly clamped down. There is a huge gap on a couple of places on the sides of the fretboard. I should've used clamps on each side, instead of the center... This really upset me. I mean, it should affect tone or playability or anything, but that's gonna bug me the rest of my life. Maybe one day I'll take the time to pull it off and reglue it.

By the way, see those round holes where the knobs are gonna go? I actually made my own tool to drill those...


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## scherzo1928 (Nov 14, 2010)

yeah, Ive seen the ferrules mistake a coouple of times in these threads, but that's no biggie since nobody will see it.

also, about the truss rod...
did you glue it in as pictured below? I havent seen the rods from stew mac, but I think that might be the wrong way around? (anyone care to confirm?)





and yeah, I always spread all the glue before clamping because I hate the mess it leaves.

On the other hand tho, the recess for the knobs look fantastic!!

of topic, did you see the Paquiao fight? fucking brootal.


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## cerfew (Nov 14, 2010)

The truss rod is definitely in the right way, lol. What you're probably seeing is right behind the truss rod is a wooden plug that I put in because the route was too long. The adjustment rod is on the bottom, and the hex head is up in the headstock. It's done right 

Off topic, no I didn't see it.


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## Rusti (Nov 14, 2010)

Hi, 
i suggest you next time to press down frets once the fretboard is glued on the neck cause if pressed on a "free" fretboard they will bend it, then when you glue it on the neck it has to go back to straight position and its easy gettin some problems with it.


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## scherzo1928 (Nov 14, 2010)

na, I meant that the metal bar goes on the fretboard side... but I just saw the stew mac truss rod, and it's definately the right way. It's just that it doesnt have the flat metal bar like the ones I'm using, so i thought it was facing the bottom of the channel.


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## cerfew (Nov 14, 2010)

Oh ok, I see what you mean now. You probably got yours from LMI?

And Rusti... I put them in before hand because I didn't have anything to support the neck with, so I wouldn't be able to pound them in with enough force.


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## TomParenteau (Nov 14, 2010)

Dude, that is mighty sweet! You're gettin' good in a very short amount of time and having a blast. Way to go!


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## scherzo1928 (Nov 14, 2010)

yeppers, and one from warmoth, with the same design as the one from LMII.

btw, I like the idea of the clamps to keep the FB from slipping. Did you put something between the metal and the wood so it didnt end up glued? I've been using waxed paper for those purposes, and it works like a charm.


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## cerfew (Nov 14, 2010)

I took off the side clamps about 10 minutes after clamping on the fretboard, so they wouldn't get stuck..

Just finished all the shaping and sanding. Ready for oil now. 

I found that once I cleaned away the glue from the fretboard and sanded it flush, the gap wasn't noticable. And it's much more pronounced on the bottom side, where I'll never see it. So I was happy about that. I can't wait to get my pickups so I can play this thing


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## cerfew (Nov 19, 2010)

Made the electronics cavity cover a while back, so I'll show how I did that. Also, I've been oiling it the last few days. It's really coming along 

So, to make the cover, I traced the inside of my cavity template onto my piece of wood and cut it out with a bandsaw. I don't have any pictures of that, but here's the piece:







I drilled all the holes for it, then realized I wanted to document it. So what I'm gonna be explaing is already done in the pics, but oh well. 

What I did was put the template I used for the INSIDE of the cavity on top of the wood, so I knew where to drill the holes:






Result from the inside:





Then I used a 1/4 bit to drill the screw recesses. Here's the final result:






Then I oiled that piece up. Look at the difference between oiled and natural purpleheart... 






Then, for oiling the guitar itself. I didn't want to oil the fretboard, so:






Here it is with wet oil. With 4 coats on now, (not what's in the picture), it looks great.






After finishing it all, I took off the tape and found this...






Uh oh! But wait, that oil looks pretty good...






Accident turned out for the better.  

That's all for now. I really hope I get my pickups this weekend so I can wire this thing up. 

I later found out, NEVER oil something over newspaper! The oil will get the ink all over the wood. No bueno. Luckily I was able to sand the shit off, and it looks good.


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## scherzo1928 (Nov 19, 2010)

I'll say it again... that electronics cavity came out really pro.


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## ZackP3750 (Nov 19, 2010)

Very nice work dude!


Little off topic, but what the hell is that pot leaf doing in your newspaper? Haha my eyes went right to that for some reason


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## cerfew (Nov 19, 2010)

Scherzo, I guess that's what a $30 dollar router bit that I only used once is supposed to do, lol... I am proud of the way it came out, though. 

Zack, ha, I never even noticed that in the first place. I live in california, it was probably some ad about legalization.


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## scherzo1928 (Nov 19, 2010)

If you mean the one from stew mac, then I got that too... havent used it yet tho.


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## cerfew (Nov 20, 2010)

When I routed, I took off 1/4" at a time, maybe more maybe less. Went around the edges first, then routed the middle area (for each pass of course). Once you get deep enough, you take off the template and use your previous route as a guide. Cool concept, haha.


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## TheWreck (Nov 20, 2010)

scherzo1928 said:


> Did you put something between the metal and the wood so it didnt end up glued?


 
I was also wondering about this?


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## cerfew (Nov 20, 2010)

By between the metal and the wood... Are you talking about the truss rod? In that case, no. Becase the truss rod has a plastic sheath over it, I wasn't worried about it.


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## TheWreck (Nov 20, 2010)

Even if it's wrapped in plastic, if glue went all around it, your rod is now fixed in the slot, so to move she will need to fight against the glue holding it or the other issue I think about is that glue dry with the contact of air, once in the slot with a fretboard on top of it, there's no more air....you could have permanent humidity in there... just my


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## cerfew (Nov 20, 2010)

Hmmm, I didn't think about that... I had forgotton to account for the truss rod when I spread the glue on the fretboard.  OH well. Nothing to do about it now, other then watch out for that next time...


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## TheWreck (Nov 20, 2010)

Happy to ear you take it, that way!! Your doing a great job by the way!! With the experience you gained in this built, i'm pretty sure your next build will be flawless!!


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## cerfew (Nov 20, 2010)

Finished oiling it, with 4 coats of Deftoil Danish Oil Finish followed by a single coat of Tru-Oil, which I smoothed out with 0000 steel wool. Here you go 





















Now I'm installing the hardware, and wiring it all up minus humbuckers, which arrive next week.


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## cerfew (Nov 20, 2010)

So. I put in all the hardware, wired up what I could without the pickups, and strung her up. 


1st thing I found was that I did a piss-poor job of leveling the frets, lol. There are a few dead notes I need to fix.

2nd was that the nut was way too high... Anybody know how to file nuts without proper nut files?


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## GuitaristOfHell (Nov 20, 2010)

Dude nice build!


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## scherzo1928 (Nov 20, 2010)

man, pics of the entire axe!


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## cerfew (Nov 21, 2010)

Wired up the electronics.. First came the output jack and the bridge to ground.






Then I added in the switch and the pots...






It'll get more crowded once I put the pickups in.

I then put all the hardware on...






Strung it up, and attempted to play it... Damn that sucked.

The fret job was horrible, and the nut was way too high.

So I did what I saw in a video once...






Little tap with a hammer, and...






Woohoo! Cleaned it all up, sanded the nut way down and then reglued it in. 

Next came leveling the frets. First came taping, this took like half an hour.






Then I used my radius block to sand and sand untill I could tell all the frets had been sanded down an even amount. Did a quick 3-fret-level check all up and down, and all was good.  

As I was tightening the strings back up... The G string slipped, and then broke where I had bent it around the tuning post.

FUUUUUUUU--

Oh well, I can pick up a new string Monday.

Anyways, I tightened up the rest of the strings and played around with it a little bit. The action feels much better now, and as far as I could tell there aren't any dead spots. While I'm at the guitar shop Monday, I'm gonna see if the guys there will let me use their nut files to lower the slots a bit more-- when I was sanding down the nut, I was careful not to take off too much.

I'll post a pic of the full axe once I install the pickups.


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## scherzo1928 (Nov 21, 2010)

what pickups are you throwing in?


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## cerfew (Nov 21, 2010)

I've ordered a Ceramic Warpig for the bridge, and a Dimarzio Blaze for the neck. Warpig should be here monday, the other hopefully wednesday or so.


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## cerfew (Nov 22, 2010)

God damn, it's a killer waiting for things to arrive by UPS. I live 8 miles out of town, so the truck usually doens't make it out here till late. ESPECIALLY on mondays. Ugh.


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## cerfew (Nov 23, 2010)

Alright. Installed the pickup. 

It doesn't quite blow my mind like I thought it would, but it sounds pretty decent. Plays nicely too  i'll post more pics once I get the neck pup later this week.


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## TheWreck (Nov 23, 2010)

Cool!! can't wait to see the final product!!


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## cerfew (Nov 23, 2010)

Ahhhh.... I set the intonation, and it plays much better. 

For some reason, bringing the bottom string's saddle towards the nut (shortening it) made it feel much tighter and I like it. 

I also lowered the action to the point where the strings get a bit of percussive bite when you pluck them... Not sure how to describe it, but it really brightens up the sound.

And after tweaking my amp a bit.. this guitar sounds GODLY.


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## dudeskin (Nov 23, 2010)

this thread is worthless without pics!!!


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## cerfew (Nov 25, 2010)

Got pickups a while back. Here's the story 

Woo! Package in the mail.







Opened it up... Huh?






That's the pickup I was GOING to order... A little ironic. xD

Ah, That's better.






Woohoo!






I wrapped the lead around the pickup before going into the pickup cavity to keep it neater.


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## TheSilentWater (Nov 25, 2010)

This is FREAKIN' BADASS. Good job, man.


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## cerfew (Nov 25, 2010)

Ouch, damnit! I tuned my guitar up a full step to drop B to play some All Shall Perish. I did a full-step bend on the high E (er... F#) and the damn thing snapped. Looks like 10's aren't made for tuning up xD I'll have to get a .009 to pu there instead.


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## cerfew (Nov 29, 2010)

Alright, considering my neck pickup FINALLY shipped today, I figured fuck it, I'll put up some pics.


























Glossy neck  several coats of tru-oil.


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## airpanos (Nov 29, 2010)

Very nice for first build!!!!


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## GuitaristOfHell (Nov 29, 2010)

Looks great so far, just needs a neck pickup installed and she's all set to sail right?


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## cerfew (Nov 29, 2010)

GuitaristOfHell said:


> Looks great so far, just needs a neck pickup installed and she's all set to sail right?



Exactly. 

I've been playing her without a neck pickup, and it's awesome. Nice, low action. Only complaint is the neck isn't as smooth as I'd like, so I keep putting on more thin layers of tru-oil, and it's been helping. Probably still needs 1-2 more coats on the neck.


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## GuitaristOfHell (Nov 29, 2010)

cerfew said:


> Exactly.
> 
> I've been playing her without a neck pickup, and it's awesome. Nice, low action. Only complaint is the neck isn't as smooth as I'd like, so I keep putting on more thin layers of tru-oil, and it's been helping. Probably still needs 1-2 more coats on the neck.


 Get some videos up or sound clips, I'm dying to hear how it sounds.


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## scherzo1928 (Nov 29, 2010)

Awesome job mate. I cant believe how fast you built this.


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