Buddy's Building a Guitar...

BuddytheReow said:
OMG, you guys. It worked!

The final route depth, at least for now, measures about 9/16". A little short, but once the top edge is cut out it's almost a non issue to keep going. These flush cut router bits are a godsend. Extending the taper of the neck, you can see my original center line is off. Not a dealbreaker at this point. I'll need to redraw it using some string. The center line will be super important for the bridge and pickups.

My next step will be rounding off the edges. I'll probably also need to make a forearm bevel. Not sure if I want a stomach bevel yet.

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Excellent work!
Remember on those edges that routers only go on one direction.
Forgot/ignored that once when I got my first router years ago.
"I'll just do it for this last corner. I'll hold on tight, it'll be... F√€#!"
 
In the morning in between the gym and work is usually my guitar practice time IF I have the time. Today I said to myself I want my other guitar time. Taking the router out again, I rounded off the edges with a roundover bit and then sanded by hand with 120 grit, then 220 grit to smooth it out. I'll definitely need more sanding time on this, but I need to install the bridge and route out pickup/wiring cavities first. Either way, more sanding will be done and I'd rather do it on the back end. No need for pics of the roundover process. Any youtube search will give you that.

You can still see a lot of dings in it. Wood filler should take care of that. Remember, I am going to paint and seal this with poly once the weather gets warmer. Do I really need to wait 4 months for that? Sigh...


I still need to name her. Any ideas? I'm sure it will come to me as I'm working on her.

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This was a needed step in the overall process, but not required to make my new body. I decided to cannibalize my old build for parts. Good gosh, look at that wiring! I can see I used nail polish to color coordinate and a metric f*&( ton of solder to do anything! Oh, yea I also picked up orange drop caps years ago because I heard toan isn't in the fingers... In hindsight, that was a lot of money to spend on some 47n caps...

Seymour Duncan Dimebucker pickup for chug reasons

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BuddytheReow said:
Using this method on this specific test piece, the pocket was WAAY too wide. Wait...this worked before. Why doesn't this work now. The answer is pretty simple: consistency. The tape has a little bit of give to it. I probably didn't use enough tape each time.
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3m green masking tape on both surfaces, and super glue. Less wiggle than any double stick tape I’ve ever tried, and it comes off cleaner too
 
Bricksnbeatles said:
3m green masking tape on both surfaces, and super glue. Less wiggle than any double stick tape I’ve ever tried, and it comes off cleaner too
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That's the best and most secure. Although I just use plain old double sided tape. The trick is to "feel" the template and not "push" it.
 
Before I keep going I have a question for anyone who's interested. I pulled the trigger on this Musiclily hardtail bridge. I was originally planning on making the strings go through body with ferrules. Upon closer inspection it looks like I can load the strings through the back of the bridge here? Perhaps this is a question for our local luthier @MichaelW or anybody else who can chime in.

Thinking this through as I'm typing this up I think this may screw up the intonation and through body may be the best way to go about this...

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BuddytheReow said:
Before I keep going I have a question for anyone who's interested. I pulled the trigger on this Musiclily hardtail bridge. I was originally planning on making the strings go through body with ferrules. Upon closer inspection it looks like I can load the strings through the back of the bridge here? Perhaps this is a question for our local luthier @MichaelW or anybody else who can chime in.

Thinking this through as I'm typing this up I think this may screw up the intonation and through body may be the best way to go about this...

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My preference is "string through body".
 
Took some time on my lunch break to route out the neck pickup cavity. Lots of measuring/tracing the current pickup ring and old cavity just to use as a guide. The main cavity is about 3/4" deep and where the height adjustment screws are about an inch. I used some scrapwood as a straightedge for the sides and free handed the edges. Took longer than I thought.

She's looking good so far. Next step is the bridge and I will be using the one in the previous post.

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BuddytheReow said:
Before I keep going I have a question for anyone who's interested. I pulled the trigger on this Musiclily hardtail bridge. I was originally planning on making the strings go through body with ferrules. Upon closer inspection it looks like I can load the strings through the back of the bridge here? Perhaps this is a question for our local luthier @MichaelW or anybody else who can chime in.

Thinking this through as I'm typing this up I think this may screw up the intonation and through body may be the best way to go about this...
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I think the string break-angle is better with the string-through body. I have a top-loader telecaster that I drilled out a few weeks ago. I didn't notice any appreciable difference in intonation before and after. I think there might be less buzz, but that's probably because I set it up after I put it back together, post-drilling. I can say that I prefer to restring through-body instruments. I thought the top-loader would be easier. That's why I got it. I used to break strings at every show I played and wanted to be able to replace them faster. But fiddling around trying to grab the strings and get them onto the bridge takes like 30 extra seconds that I can't abide.

Also appreciating that angled neck pocket and fret access on your build. I have no idea why that's not more common.
 
I've seen some Teles and some basses that MIXED both top-load and string-through on the SAME instrument at the same time...

I'll be F@#$%^ if I can find a pic, though. Everything comes up as ST vs TL, all one or the other....
 
I've heard of telecasters being strung through body on half the strings and top loaded on the other half so that the high strings are more mellow and the lowest three strings are brighter. Or there's less tension on the strings high strings so it's easier to bend. I dunno. Whatever it's supposed to do, it's been a while since I read about it over on TDPRI.
 
Since string through is slightly longer, there is a bit more give when you bend. Conceptually, it also is directly connected with the body (well, through the ferrules), so there’s some appeal in that, although I doubt sonically it makes much difference. And, as has been mentioned, you get a steeper break angle on the bridge, which also seems like it should be beneficial in transferring vibrations.
 
I like the string through bridges from an engineering standpoint. With the strings through the body it pulls the bridge toward the body instead of toward the headstock. In practice it doesn’t seem to make much of a difference.

The one time I did string through I thought drilling the ferules straight and evenly spaced was kind of hard.
 
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