# KR - Build #3



## KR250 (Feb 25, 2016)

Wow, this has become addicting. 

I'm looking for some advice on a few points before I start on the next project, mainly with the neck construction. I'm about 80% complete on the planning so far with the goal to surpass the 2nd build and not make any of the same mistakes.

Here are the specs of what I'm looking to build so far:

Style: 7 string bolt-on neck
Scale: 27"
Bridge: Hipshot Hard Tail
Tuners: Hipshot open tuners - 4 bass/3 treble- SK1 black buttons (ignore the drawing)
Pickups: EMG 57-7x/66-7x (haven't tried this before, may also go with 81/85 or try some SD's)
Electronics: 1 toggle, 1 volume
Body: Black Limba 1 piece
Top: Burl Poplar 3/8" thickness - slight carve top
Neck: Figured Macassar Ebony - Carbon reinforcement 
Fret board: Pale Moon Ebony or Macassar Ebony
Head Stock: Custom 4x3 with Burl Poplar laminate
Nut: Black Tusq XL
Frets: 24 Medium Jumbo (StewMac)
Truss Rod: Spoke wheel at neck pocket 
Finish: Tru-Oil on neck / Poly on body

I spent a lot more time on Sketchup to get the design better, and have been comparing against my existing guitars/templates to get it right. Once it's finalized I'll probably try a clear template from eMachineshop to use as a master. 

Shape is similar to the previous build but a little more developed. Basically a super strat with a slight carved top. Probably go with 1 5/8" total thickness. The top curve is meant for the tummy cut on the backside.






Here's the top wood, I haven't decided whether to keep it natural or do some type of dye/stain burst with black. 





Body wood, not as nice as the previous piece I had but still good and 1 piece.





I ordered this piece of quarter sawn figured Macassar ebony. It's plenty long but about 2.75" wide, but not wide enough for the headstock without either adding laminates or tacking on pieces to widen it at the top.





Seeing all the other PME fret boards turned into impulse purchase. I got "B" on the right.





The original fretboard I bought is Macassar Ebony, I'll likely save this for future use.





Ok, questions:

If I laminate the neck as a 5 piece, any recommendations for the accent wood? I haven't done a laminate neck before, so that would be something new. I've read I want to keep the grains opposite for strength. 

Thinking of doing either a pearloid or ebony binding. Any suggestions? I've never done binding before.


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## Pikka Bird (Feb 26, 2016)

KR250 said:


> The top curve is meant for the tummy cut on the backside.



So the scoops in the cutaways are for the backside too, with the tunny cut blending into the upper one? That's a very good shape. 



KR250 said:


> If I laminate the neck as a 5 piece, any recommendations for the accent wood? I haven't done a laminate neck before, so that would be something new. I've read I want to keep the grains opposite for strength.



If you rip the neck blank in three lengthwise (taking care to keep the grain as close to vertical as possible) then you just flip the middle piece like that truck in The Dark Knight and that'll be spiffy.



KR250 said:


> Thinking of doing either a pearloid or ebony binding. Any suggestions? I've never done binding before.



If you wanna do hardwood binding you're gonna need:

1) A bending iron (you can make one yourself with a metal pipe and some kind of proper heating element).

2) Patience!

For pearloid a simple heat gun should do nicely. Use CA glue or acetone according to your own preference. Plenty of Youtube tutorials will show you how.



...also, the picture of your ebony neck piece is missing.


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## KR250 (Feb 26, 2016)

Oops, picture fixed! Great advice, I'll likely try the pearloid binding, probably test on a mock up piece first.




Pikka Bird said:


> So the scoops in the cutaways are for the backside too, with the tunny cut blending into the upper one? That's a very good shape.



The scoops are meant for the top, and then again on the backside (at least the bottom horn). I find I need just a bit of relief back there, especially when the body transitions away from the neck more gradually. I will probably cut these deeper than last time, so the body wood is showing through, or close.


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## KR250 (Apr 4, 2016)

Finally made some progress on this, it's been tough with a 2 month old baby. When Grandma comes over to help, I run into the shop 

I bought a few new tools since the last build that have been super helpful, mainly the spindle sander. I bought a table for my router which has sped things up considerably, and lastly bought the StewMac Safe'T Planer to thin down the wood. Worked out really well, especially for $50. 

Rough cut of the body, I made the same wiring routes as before, but this time I punched all the way through for the electronic cavity, then routed to a template. The body on this build is a little thinner than last time (1 5/8" total).





Gluing this time didn't go quite as well, but all turned out ok. I left out a clamp on the neck pocket area which lifted overnight. I was able to cut out some of the glue and re-clamp it. No visible seams luckily. Next time I'm going to sandwich it with two sheets of plywood and drive the car onto it. 





Palm sanded it with 150, still needs a bit more.





Slight round over added on the back side.


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## electriceye (Apr 6, 2016)

I think a nice strip of flamed maple would look great in that neck.


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## KR250 (Apr 8, 2016)

electriceye said:


> I think a nice strip of flamed maple would look great in that neck.



Hmm, thinking about that now. Either way I have to widen the head stock area by a small amount to fit my template. The blank is long enough I can use the ebony to do it, but probably would look better with a laminated neck. I haven't done this before...but, always a first time! 

Maybe two 1/4" strips of flame maple on either side of about 1/2" of ebony in the center, then ebony out to the edges?

The body is nearly done, so I'm just about to start on the neck.


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## KR250 (Apr 16, 2016)

A little progress, carved out the tummy cut. Forgot to take a picture. Scarf joint on the neck glued up and drying now. I tried to do a laminate for the neck but without a table saw I can't get additional strips anywhere close to flat so I'll save that for a future build. 

Jig I made for the miter saw. I did the initial cuts on the band saw with another jig that I used in the previous build, but adding this step gets the pieces really close to gluing up with just a touch of sanding needed.





Not perfect, but fresh off the miter saw. Never worked with Ebony before, really oily for sure. Used a respirator the whole time.





Starting the carve on the body. I suppose I should wait until the neck pocket is complete but oh well. I'm tracing out from my template, so far feels really good. 





I'm thinking about trying something new with the truss rod. I want a thinner neck profile with this build (modeled after my ESP) but want to retain the spoke wheel at the neck pickup location. I ordered the Stew Mac low-profile truss rod with a 4mm hex, and also the separate spoke wheel which uses 10/32 threads. Trying to figure out how to adapt the two to fit together?

Basically this:





To this:





Otherwise the hot rod spoke wheel will work but is 1/16" taller.


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## KnightroExpress (Apr 16, 2016)

Man that is a tasty neck blank. Nice score!


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## KR250 (Apr 22, 2016)

Work from home day ended up in the garage working on the neck. 

Scarf joint came out well. I like the new jig and process for this better, but will have to figure it out for a multi-scale. 






You can see the alignment during gluing wasn't perfect, requiring some sanding after the fact. I drilled two small holes and used finish nails to keep the joint in place. Could have shifted it up slightly before drilling. 





Rather than route the edges, this time I got close in shape with the band saw, then used the spindle sander to get closer, then finished up with sand paper attached to a long level. Needs a bit more work but the shape is really close to leave just a bit of head room.





I've made a lot of use out of the recently acquired spindle sander. Head stock is shaped and used the Safe T planer to cut down the back side to roughly .625". I'm planning to cut it down some more and use a thin veneer of the Burl Poplar on the top, but also debating leaving the ebony. I glued two small wings to either side trying to keep similar grain. 





Scarf under the fret board, my last build placed this over the head stock. Almost finished sanding, it's really close.


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## TamanShud (Apr 24, 2016)

That neck blank is amazing  Can't wait to see this carved.


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## KR250 (Apr 24, 2016)

TamanShud said:


> That neck blank is amazing  Can't wait to see this carved.



Thanks, making little bits of progress every few days. I have a piece of pine I'm doing a mock up on as well. I went ahead and got another hot rod truss rod, so my goal is to have 3/16" of thickness below it. Going to do carbon this time as well. A few more steps but hope to have it carved in the next week or so. 

Cheap jig for routing. Needs just a bit of cleanup in a few spots but came out much nicer than the previous attempt.


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## pettymusic (Apr 24, 2016)

Hey bro, looks like you already used the SM truss rod but, in case your looking for a good low profile spoke wheel rod here's one. 

http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&id=231779918400&alt=web

Looking good! That ebony is a beautiful piece!!


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## KR250 (Apr 24, 2016)

pettymusic said:


> Hey bro, looks like you already used the SM truss rod but, in case your looking for a good low profile spoke wheel rod here's one.
> 
> http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&id=231779918400&alt=web



The link didn't pull it up, is it this one? Two Way Dual Action Truss Rod 460mm 18in for Guitar Spoke Wheel Soldered 2pcs
 They don't list the actual depth though, do you have dimensions on it perhaps? The SM is 7/16", while their non spoke wheel low profile is 3/8". 

I asked SM if they could make the low profile version with a spoke wheel and they said they'd look into it. In the meantime it's a bit frustrating not finding the right piece. Would also be nice to have another inch for a 27" scale length as well.


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## pettymusic (Apr 27, 2016)

KR250 said:


> The link didn't pull it up, is it this one? Two Way Dual Action Truss Rod 460mm 18in for Guitar Spoke Wheel Soldered 2pcs
> They don't list the actual depth though, do you have dimensions on it perhaps? The SM is 7/16", while their non spoke wheel low profile is 3/8".
> 
> I asked SM if they could make the low profile version with a spoke wheel and they said they'd look into it. In the meantime it's a bit frustrating not finding the right piece. Would also be nice to have another inch for a 27" scale length as well.



Yep, that's the one (or 2)

Just under 11/32 on the headstock end and 7/16 the last couple inches on the spokewheel end.


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## Hate (Apr 28, 2016)

Thats an interesting setup for your miter saw, do you recall what angle you set your blade at with the jig in place? I'd like to "borrow" the idea


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## Pikka Bird (Apr 28, 2016)

Definitely liking where this is going! 

I do think I'd make the tip of the headstock jut out a bit less though. It's not a bad design, but it'd be a little more balanced to my eye if that point wasn't so radical.


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## KR250 (Apr 28, 2016)

Hate said:


> Thats an interesting setup for your miter saw, do you recall what angle you set your blade at with the jig in place? I'd like to "borrow" the idea


It's at about 12 degrees. In order to make the miter cuts I have to make a first pass on the band saw using another jig with the same angle. Then I basically just line up the angle on the miter saw and take a little bit off until I get a good clean cut. I made a few short passes then realized I had gone just a hair over into my head stock length.  The good thing is that I only had to do a tiny bit of sanding to clean up the cut, hardly at all on this wood. 




Pikka Bird said:


> I do think I'd make the tip of the headstock jut out a bit less though. It's not a bad design, but it'd be a little more balanced to my eye if that point wasn't so radical.



You mean the horn tip on the left? I may play with it bit since I still need to glue on the laminate then sand it. Easy enough to do at this point. It's also slightly skewed from my original CAD drawing from said error above. Appreciate the comments, all the feedback is great while still in the midst of building.


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## KR250 (May 1, 2016)

Managed to route the neck pocket today. Made one tiny mistake with the router, but fixable. The joint came out super tight, just need to clean it up a bit and adjust the depth and allow space for the spoke wheel. 

Carbon rods are glued in here as well. 






I have the head stock laminate gluing up overnight. Will trim up the shape a bit tomorrow or Monday. The body carve isn't quite done yet either, spent some time on it tonight but need another evening to complete.










Still debating on fret board choice, I have a really dark piece of ebony, a nice macassar ebony piece, and some pale moon ebony.


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## KR250 (May 7, 2016)

Looking for advice on fret board choice. Leaning towards using the bottom piece of macassar or the PME (I think it might be better suited for another build). The top piece needs quite a bit of work and is a bit warped (really cheap on eBay). 

The body is going to stay natural with a gloss lacquer over it for reference.


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## Hywel (May 7, 2016)

They both look good but if I prefer the macassar. Never been a fan of PME (although your piece is one of the nicer ones I've seen).

It's looking great so far and that neck is drool worthy.


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## KR250 (Jun 8, 2016)

Well, time for an update. Made some progress on the neck, everything is glued up and then started slotting the fret board after radiusing to 16". I used a fret find 2D template to cut to, and clamped pieces of wood to align the saw cuts straight to it. Thought everything was going great until I peeled off the template and then saw the cuts off around fret 20  WTFH

What would SSO do in this case? fill in the bad slots and re-cut? It's just enough to be noticeable, which I figure means a redo to get it right.






Otherwise really happy with the wood combo. I just need to get past amateur hour. I have yet to make the final carve on the back of the neck. Planning to do frets first (going SS on this one).


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## KR250 (Jun 19, 2016)

Slowly but surely this thing is coming together. I cleaned the lens on my cell phone camera, so hopefully the pictures look less blurry. Too lazy to take out the DSLR to the shop.

I made a new jig for the cavity cover and finished routing. Pretty happy with how it turned out. Near perfect fit with the SM cover plate. May use a piece of thin Ebony instead though. 





The pickup routes could be better, the template I'm using isn't perfect so I'll make a better one with cleaner lines for the next guitar. I left a little bit of meat between the neck pocket and the pickup route, the fret board overhangs right up to the pickup. I also should have routed a little deeper for the wiring as there is a slight step up. Note for next time. 

Drilled for Hipshot .175 bridge.





I decided to fix the bad slotting job on frets 20 and 24. I filled it with glue and left over Ebony then re-slotted. Some imperfections but will be masked by the fret. Also installed Luminlay for the top dots, went with a fairly traditional layout, nothing fancy. Still sanding down the tops a bit, but almost done. 





I drilled for the sides which are supposed to be 3mm using a 3mm brad point bit, but the holes isn't quite big enough to put in the side dots. I may need to re-drill one size up to get them to fit.

I clamped a fence on to my drill press and took my time marking properly and lining up the bit. Turned out better than my last build in that regard. 





Started celebrating a bit too early, so re-drilling or figuring out what I'm going to do will have to wait :/ 





Next steps after inlays will be fretting. I've already pre-radiused the SS fret wire. I'm using a Jescar SS 51x100 profile. After that, hopefully radiusing the neck, drilling tuners, nut, test fitting, drill for jack and knobs, then finishing.


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## KR250 (Jun 25, 2016)

Finished installing the Luminlay. Fretting next. I went with a single dot at 24, in retrospect I could have made two dots fit.


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## KR250 (Jul 4, 2016)

I had really hoped to be done with this build by now, man time is flying. I did finish marking and drilling tuner posts, should be really close to having the strings completely parallel, but need to sand a few spots on the head stock still. Body is nearly there, will start applying finish soon. 

I started faceting the neck and almost finished with the first pass which has about 4 hours into it so far. I need to get some sharper rasps or figure out a better method. I cut the last maple neck in about half the time as this ebony. I'm at least happy with how the profile is starting though, it's copy off my ESP and so far feels really close. 

Blurry progress shot.





In the process of making so much horrible dust, I found out a co-worker has a wood shop nearby and was selling his dust collector. He dropped it off this morning and it's a behemoth, but got it for a great price. He mentioned the expensive part being all the plumbing which I need to go pickup. I'm also a bit short on space until I sell off a car project that has been sitting for 2 years taking up an entire bay of the garage.






The can is for large particle collection before it goes into the fine particle bag.


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## KR250 (Jul 27, 2016)

Mini update, neck is basically done. I still need to seal and grain fill the head stock and body, as well as more finish sanding. I put 1 coat of Tru Oil on the neck, it feels perfect. 

Next update when it's complete. 
















Frets are not perfect, but about as close as I can get them. I undercut the tangs, but not flush enough on a few of them.


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## KR250 (Aug 7, 2016)

Not quite complete, but couldn't resist taking a few more pictures with a few coats of Tru Oil on. I'm planning about 50 coats so I can buff out to a gloss, marking a tally for each coat applied so I don't forget. 

I mocked up all the parts before hand and found a few issues with the neck center line to the bridge. Fixing the neck would have been impractical, so I plugged the bridge holes with dowel and moved it over and shimmed the pickup routes over as well. Not happy with the mistakes, ugh. At least they are not terribly noticeable. 

I also cut the neck thinner, so total thickness at the 1st fret is .85 inches including fret board. My goal was .75, but I'm worried about cutting into the trus rod if I go any thinner.


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## KR250 (Sep 9, 2016)

Finally finished this damn thing! NGD posted here:

http://www.sevenstring.org/forum/showthread.php?p=4642669#post4642669


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## Hywel (Sep 9, 2016)

That came out looking great! Awesome build


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## electriceye (Sep 9, 2016)

Beautiful job, man.


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## neun Arme (Sep 10, 2016)

Beautiful guitar, that neck is gorgeous.


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## pettymusic (Sep 10, 2016)

Ah she looks so awesome!!


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## KR250 (Sep 10, 2016)

It feels awesome, plays great, and sounds great. Pretty happy with this project, it's a really close second to my ESP so I'm getting better with each one. I really had doubts I'd be able to make something I truly enjoy vs. something I'd have to buy for $$$$$. I'm now convinced that I'll keep working on new projects exclusively, unless I can save for a custom shop job some day. I'll post some sounds clips once I finish a track I'm working on using this guitar. It has a really nice mid range growl to it. 

The one thing I really need to work is the finishing process. I think I know what I need to do now and will try that out on a build I have for a buddy which I'll post once complete. I'll probably also make the head stock on the next build a little more mainstream. 

I appreciate all the comments and help from people here, really helped out.


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## J_Mac (Sep 13, 2016)

Amazing stuff man, and quick work!


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