Rabs Posted May 11, 2013 Author Share Posted May 11, 2013 Love the 12th fret "mistake". Looks cool and original. Cheers man.. Im getting really excited.. the end is nigh :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blueblooded Posted May 12, 2013 Share Posted May 12, 2013 ..."So.. as well as this I made sure my neck pocket was good today so tomorrow I will go at the frets.. If that goes well I will also glue the neck and body together then we will really be cooking." Amazing progress Rabs. I'm really enjoying this. Wouldn't it be easier to complete the shaping of the headstock and drill the holes for the tuners before attaching the neck to the body though? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rabs Posted May 12, 2013 Author Share Posted May 12, 2013 ..."So.. as well as this I made sure my neck pocket was good today so tomorrow I will go at the frets.. If that goes well I will also glue the neck and body together then we will really be cooking." Amazing progress Rabs. I'm really enjoying this. Wouldn't it be easier to complete the shaping of the headstock and drill the holes for the tuners before attaching the neck to the body though? Thanks and yes I may do what you say. I already realised that I should probably have done the neck shaping after the frets as I have to be really careful I dont dent the neck now. But this is what learning is all about. I will know better next time around :) Am just taking a quick break and about to go at the frets now. Scary. Will report back on my progress later :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Farnsbarns Posted May 12, 2013 Share Posted May 12, 2013 I look forward to seeing the frets in a bit later. I assume you'll drill for the tuners before gluing the neck? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rabs Posted May 12, 2013 Author Share Posted May 12, 2013 I look forward to seeing the frets in a bit later. I assume you'll drill for the tuners before gluing the neck? Haha yes... I think I was getting a bit over excited yesterday :) Of course it makes sense to do those things first and I will.. But I need to sort out the veneer first.. That first one I did was ok but im not 100% happy with it.. So I need to finish the frets (see progress below) and then glue the veneer and drill the tuner holes.. THEN I can stick it to the body.. I do reckon I will get that done this week though :) In fact most of the build should be done by then.. Then comes the painting.. Ive been wondering if I should put the bridge and tail piece on before I paint it, just to see that it all works as it should.. Just worried about getting them out again. I have to be real careful with the pieces now cos its easy to dent and then you gotta sand again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rabs Posted May 12, 2013 Author Share Posted May 12, 2013 Hello all... Today I went at the frets.. Its mostly done.. I still need to level some out a bit but im pretty happy with it.. And also of course I need to file the sides down and profile each fret which will take some time.. What I did today took about 4 hours :o But this is still my first time.. So still learning.. Build #2 I will time more.. Anyway.. so heres how I did it Firstly I had to make sure the slots were clean of dust that builds up when sanding and at the right depth Nice.. all clean Then I used a triangular file to give each slot a slight indent.. This helps guide the fret in and apparently if one day someone re-frets it, it will make them much easier to get out without ripping the board apart You can just about see it here So I did that for each slot. Then I radiused my fretwire by hand :) I know.. it wont be prefect like that but its better than nowt Then cut the pieces to rough size Then I got everything ready.. My frets, a soft faced hammer (a metal one will mash the frets too bad), glue and a damp cloth Now there are several theories about to glue or not to glue.. I decided to glue.. As your not actually gluing the frets, they stay in with tension, but what it does is fill the fret slot up meaning that it just makes everything more solid. So I ran some glue in the slot like so then bashed them in with the hammer.. Now you can see the glue coming out the sides.. That's what you want cos you know that the slot is full of glue and you will have a nice solid connection there. Continued below Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rabs Posted May 12, 2013 Author Share Posted May 12, 2013 So at this point the frets were sort of in. So I decided to make my own fret clamp to try and make sure they go in nice and even And look at that.. not bad :) they still need more levelling of course.. But that's a good start So I did that for all frets.. and hey presto I thought itd be cool to have a look with the body NICE !!! :D So that's done for today.. Whenever I glue stuff I like to leave it overnight to settle.. So I will level and crown tomorrow.. Then get at the headstock.. THEN (yes really this time :)) then I can glue it to the body.. And on a side note. One of the really good things about doing this in my parents garage now is that when im ready.. I get dinner cooked for me aswell :D you cant knock that ;) More soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daveinspain Posted May 12, 2013 Share Posted May 12, 2013 Looking good... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Izzy Posted May 12, 2013 Share Posted May 12, 2013 Wow, you've come really far! Are you gonna tighten twice (remembers the glue incident)? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rabs Posted May 12, 2013 Author Share Posted May 12, 2013 Wow, you've come really far! Are you gonna tighten twice (remembers the glue incident)? Thanks... And yes indeed :) I have thought about it many times.. Not making that mistake again ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbreslauer Posted May 12, 2013 Share Posted May 12, 2013 it's been said by others already: the 12th fret inlays look awesome. really nice work! D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
surfpup Posted May 12, 2013 Share Posted May 12, 2013 Go Rabs! Still amazing to me how you get this done with the simplest of tools. I'm learning a lot by watching this. BTW how are you gonna get the fret nibs on there? Can you get binding with nibs? Gotta have nibs, ya know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rabs Posted May 12, 2013 Author Share Posted May 12, 2013 Go Rabs! Still amazing to me how you get this done with the simplest of tools. I'm learning a lot by watching this. BTW how are you gonna get the fret nibs on there? Can you get binding with nibs? Gotta have nibs, ya know. Cheers man its not been easy but I too have learned a lot :) and I am glad other people are getting something out of it.. I wonder if it wernt for videos like this if I would have gotten this far And yeah its all part of profiling the frets.. You have to make the ends level first and then use a file at a 35/45 degree angle that will give you your nibs :) and level the tops down at the end.. And no binding this time around.. but I will try it at some point for sure Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Searcy Posted May 13, 2013 Share Posted May 13, 2013 This is really getting to the cool part. On the whole 12th fret thing I'll tell you what Mark Swanson told me about 10 years ago when I started making guitars. I had just showed him all the screw ups on my first guitar. He told me... "A novice guitar builder apologizes for his mistakes. An experienced luthier hides his mistakes. A master luthier refers to his mistakes as design features." I like the 12th fret design feature a lot!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rabs Posted May 13, 2013 Author Share Posted May 13, 2013 This is really getting to the cool part. On the whole 12th fret thing I'll tell you what Mark Swanson told me about 10 years ago when I started making guitars. I had just showed him all the screw ups on my first guitar. He told me... "A novice guitar builder apologizes for his mistakes. An experienced luthier hides his mistakes. A master luthier refers to his mistakes as design features." I like the 12th fret design feature a lot!! Haha... lol Thanks.. that means a lot coming from you (and everyone else of course ;)) And yeah I cant wait to get this done and hear your pups man.. I am getting a tiny bit impatient but have s far managed to restrain myself.. its the details that take so so long to get right.. It will be interesting also to see how much quicker my second build goes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
btoth76 Posted May 14, 2013 Share Posted May 14, 2013 Hello Rabs! Great job! You made me want to make one too. As soon as I finish my last guitar stand, - which gives me some headaches - I'll start one too. Even, I have the whole concept ready! Hehehe! I'll start with a lap steel. I will only use local wood, like oak and cherry. It will have a SD P-Rail Hot pickup. The shape going to be arch-top violin-like. The whole point will be to experiment with all the guitar building techniques, like binding, inlays, so on. Can't wait until I can start it. If it's going to be half as great as Yours, I'd be happy! :) Again! You are very brave that You started this project and, - obviously - You have the talent for it! To be honest, I never thought that someone without years of experience can make such delicate work, like inserting the truss-rod, creating the neck joint. Hats off to You! Cheers... Bence Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rabs Posted May 14, 2013 Author Share Posted May 14, 2013 Hello Rabs! Great job! You made me want to make one too. As soon as I finish my last guitar stand, - which gives me some headaches - I'll start one too. Even, I have the whole concept ready! Hehehe! I'll start with a lap steel. I will only use local wood, like oak and cherry. It will have a SD P-Rail Hot pickup. The shape going to be arch-top violin-like. The whole point will be to experiment with all the guitar building techniques, like binding, inlays, so on. Can't wait until I can start it. If it's going to be half as great as Yours, I'd be happy! :) Again! You are very brave that You started this project and, - obviously - You have the talent for it! To be honest, I never thought that someone without years of experience can make such delicate work, like insertint the truss-rod, creating the neck joint. Hats off to You! Cheers... Bence Thanks :) And wow... that sounds like a great idea man When I first started all of this I wasn't even sure I was going to do a neck.. I thought at first I was going to buy one as it seemed way too much for me, but since I had the wood there seemed no harm in trying. And now im glad I did it cos I have learned so so much. Already when I did my second truss rod I did it with no fuss and almost 100% accuracy (I shocked myself when I saw the results).. So the lesson I guess is you never know till you try ;) And I think that it just take some common sense and some research which anyone can do online now.. Let us know how you get on from your stand work I reckon you will have no problem. Just remember that the best way is to get all your prep done.. make sure you know exactly what steps your physically going to take. And just go for it man, you got nothing to loose and only to gain Good luck :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rabs Posted May 14, 2013 Author Share Posted May 14, 2013 Hello Rabs! Great job! You made me want to make one too. As soon as I finish my last guitar stand, - which gives me some headaches - I'll start one too. Even, I have the whole concept ready! Hehehe! I'll start with a lap steel. I will only use local wood, like oak and cherry. It will have a SD P-Rail Hot pickup. The shape going to be arch-top violin-like. Cheers... Bence You know what.. I just wanted to say thanks again for what you said.. It really made my day actually. If all I ever do is inspire one other person to do this sort of project, be creative and do whats in your heart, then as far as im concerned its a success even before ive finished :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rabs Posted May 14, 2013 Author Share Posted May 14, 2013 Welcome to day two of fret profiling. Today I was basically making sure everything is right (its all in the detail).. I have some video of me sanding the ends with a hand sander.. Ive never actually seen anyone else do that before :).. Also I checked the frets and one of them was actually a bit loose... So I decided to pull it out. Even a bit loose it took some pulling. So I cleaned up the slot and used the saw to make sure it was clean and deep enough Then I clamped it down using my home made press :) (I really need to get a proper fret press if im to do more of these). And its all good :) So I started getting the sides right down to the board using a file.. Not good.. You can see here I was hitting the fretboard So time to cover up for protection :) You can see it needs it So im sort of getting somewhere and decided that im really gonna damage the board if I keep going like this So heres where my video comes in :) I decided to try and use my hand sander to do the job.. Now ive never seen anyone do this before in all the builds ive watched. They use a special fret file which I don't have... Its just one of those times I was feeling a bit frustrated so thought sod it.. Im gonna try.. See results here More below (this is a long one today as I had a lot of fiddling and learning to do). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rabs Posted May 14, 2013 Author Share Posted May 14, 2013 Soooo... after that success (well I thought it was good :)) I still wasn't happy with all of the frets.. I bashed away (nervously) with a hammer and they just wernt going down.. So I had to invent something to combat that.. So what I did was make a small wood block and radiused the bottom so it fit nicely on the fret Then clamped it down (with some wood protecting the back of the neck) Before tightening After tightening Then I filled in the holes with rosewood sawdust and used a drop of super glue to seal it all in place And after it dried and I sanded it back REALLY getting there now Some of the frets were awkward and needed some extra wood to get the end down.. So I did this for every fret that was being awkward. Also in this pic you can see that some of those small holes when I glued it together have come back due to all the bashing.. So I will fill those in aswell. And here you can see the difference between a filled flattened fret to one that hasn't been done yet Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rabs Posted May 14, 2013 Author Share Posted May 14, 2013 If you can believe it, it took me like 4 hours to work all of this out and do just one side :o But its getting there (slowly :)) So tomorrow I will finish the other side, and make sure they are all smooth as... Then on to finishing the nut and getting the headstock ready.. :) Thanks for watching.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daveinspain Posted May 14, 2013 Share Posted May 14, 2013 Looking very good, you can be proud of yourself... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buxom Posted May 14, 2013 Share Posted May 14, 2013 Heh, maybe I'll send off my old Guild S-70 and let you refret it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rabs Posted May 14, 2013 Author Share Posted May 14, 2013 Looking very good, you can be proud of yourself... Cheers man.. And Buxom... I am getting there for sure.. I am determined to make something that not only plays and sounds good but will look professional.. I know its my first build and I know it wont be quite prefect but I am going to aim as high as I can .. So we will see soon.. :) When I get the headstock done and glued the neck and the body I think im gonna string it up and make sure it plays in tune etc.. Then the body cap needs gluing, then the pup and control holes then it gets painted :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buxom Posted May 15, 2013 Share Posted May 15, 2013 With this kind of work, you should use it as a resume for a guitar tech and be his apprentice for a while. You could learn way more from an experienced tech just by watching than you could from the internet. Great work, though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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