BUILDING A S EMI -H OLLOWBODY EMI -H OLLOWBODY INGLE -C UT GUITAR S INGLE -C UT by Chris Verhoeven
BUILDING A SEMI-HOLLOWBODY SINGLE CUT GUITAR Chris Verhoeven Editor, typesetter: typesetter : Greg Pettit
©2006, 2007 Chris Verhoeven Permission is granted to copy and distribute this document in its original form, without altering the presentation, text, or credits. Printed copies may be produced for personal personal use or free distribution; however, no printed copy may be sold unless otherwise authorized by Chris Verhoeven. This document is distributed in the hope that it will prove useful to new guitar-builders, but without any warranty, nor even an implied warranty, that the techniques and resources exposed within are free from risk to the builder or his materials. Published by Chris Verhoeven
BUILDING A SEMI-HOLLOWBODY SINGLE CUT GUITAR Chris Verhoeven Editor, typesetter: typesetter : Greg Pettit
©2006, 2007 Chris Verhoeven Permission is granted to copy and distribute this document in its original form, without altering the presentation, text, or credits. Printed copies may be produced for personal personal use or free distribution; however, no printed copy may be sold unless otherwise authorized by Chris Verhoeven. This document is distributed in the hope that it will prove useful to new guitar-builders, but without any warranty, nor even an implied warranty, that the techniques and resources exposed within are free from risk to the builder or his materials. Published by Chris Verhoeven
Table of Contents Introduction.................................................... ......................................... ................................ 2 1 Design.................................................................... ............................................... .................................................................................. ................................... 1 2 Building Your router Template............................................................................. ....................... 3 3 Gluing Your Woods.............................................................. ............................................... .............................................................. ............... 7 4 The Body Back............................................................................ .............................................. ......................................................... ........... 9 5 The Top......................................................... ............................................... ....................................................................................... ........................................ 12 6 Adding It All Together....................................................................... ............................................ 13 7 The Neck.................................................................. ............................................... ............................................................................ ............................. 17 8 Fretting................................................................................. ............................................... ............................................................... ................ 30 9 Finishing Up the Woodworking........................................ Woodworking........................................ ............................................... ......................................................... .......... 35 10 The Finishing Process............................................................... .............................................. .................................................. .... 38 11 Assembly and Setup........................................................... ............................................... .......................................................... ........... 44
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INTRODUCTION This book is a collection of tutorials based on my own personal experiences and growth as a luthier. It starts with the very very first electric guitar that I built built from start to finish, and then continues on to other styles including basses and acoustics, acoustics, adding new knowledge as each instrument is completed. This book is designed to work like a “building block” program. The reader will will not generally find it useful to read the later sections until the fundamentals of previous lessons are learned. The first section, section, “Building a Semi-Hollowbody Single-Cut Guitar” , is a lengthy and at some points arduous learning experience that takes the new builder from knowing nothing to understanding the principles of design and construction construction of a complete complete instrument. instrument. This section also shows sample mistakes and possible fixes, so that you can get an idea of how to troubleshoot your builds builds if you run into problems. Even if your end goal is to build build an acoustic, you should read the section on electric guitars; it is the basis for the book, and all the other sections assume you know these skills and tools. Keep in mind that I am by no means an expert; nor is everything I do the “best” or only way of doing it. I’m a student like you, just a couple couple steps ahead of those those reading this book. book. However, the value of my book is that you get to learn from my mistakes, see things through the eyes of someone who’s been in the same position as you, and have it explained the way you need it explained. Lastly, I would like t thank all those those people who have contributed contributed to my learning. I can’t stress enough how important important it is to learn with others. It's fun, and you learn from each other's successes and mistakes. Join a forum or two and and get to know the guitar-making guitar-making community. Some notable ones are are the Official Luthiers Forum Forum (OLF), Project Guitar (PG), and the Musical Instrument Makers Forum (MIMF), all of which are full of great people. I would like to send out special thanks to a couple of people that have greatly facilitated my learning and without whom I would never have gotten as far as I have: Todd Stock for helping me tackle my first acoustic; without Todd, I probably would have delayed my growth as a luthier for quite some time out of fear and and lack of understanding. understanding. Rich Fry for
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always helping me troubleshoot and for teaching me just about everything I know about wood. David Myka for always being a great source of inspiration and stomaching stomaching my plethora of forum messages. messages. Russ Garehan for being being a driving force on my electrics electrics builds; and finally Greg Pettit for his time and effort as editor and senior layout consultant for this book. Enjoy, And above all— Learn. Chris Verhoeven
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1 DESIGN The first thing you’re going to want to do is to design your guitar. FedEx KINKOS has large enough paper for this. Keep in mind the things (besides shape/look) that you’re going to want to know: scale length, number of frets, radius, all the information about which bridge you’re going to use, and the width of the neck at the nut. For this guitar I’m doing a semihollow body guitar with a set neck at 2 degrees, 25” scale, 22 frets, 1+11/16” width nut, with a Hipshot Baby Grand Bridge. It’s going to have a flat spruce top, a lacewood body blank/back, and mahogany (sapele) neck. Now, find a guitar you like the feel of. Use its radius, nut width—maybe even use it’s body as a basis for your shape’s design (but don’t copy, or else your guitar won’t be truly unique and thus defeat the purpose of a custom guitar). Once you have this information, go to http://www.tundraman.com/jigs/fretcalc/NeckAngle.CFM and enter all the relevant information to find out what your neck angle is going to be. You’re also going to want to know how deep you want to set your neck in, which will depend on your preferences. You will be able to design your guitar so that the neck connects at any point you wish, but the further out you leave the neck, the more you should extend the tenon into the body for support. A good rule of thumb is to have the neck tenon continue into the body all the way to the end of your planned neck pickup rout. This provides enough structural support, as well as not sticking out in places looking ugly, because the pickup cavity will be routed over the tenon without eliminating all the wood. There are a couple of things to keep in mind when designing. First, your sides for the hollowed out body need to be at least ½”; I’d make them ⅝” to be safe due to all the end grain and shaping/sanding you’ll do later. Also, you’re going to want 1 ½” of un-hollowed wood around every point where the neck is set (you can see this in the next photo). Finally, leave a strip of wood a good amount wider than your pickups and bridge’s posts down the center to give them somewhere to attach. Also, leave ¼” thickness on the back. You’re going to want to next cut out the shape of your body, but make sure you make a ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪
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same size photo-copy to ensure you’ve always got a set of your complete plans. We’re going to take this cutout of the body shape to make a template out of ¼” MDF for routing. I acknowledge that some of these dimension requirements I’m giving are a tad bit on the conservative side, but if this is you first guitar you want to be sure you end up with something use-able. Save the experimentation for when you have a little bit more experience. Another way that FedEx KINKOS is really helpful is you can use Photoshop and pictures of guitars you like from the Internet to take all the most appealing parts and morph them into one guitar. You can then use a mask to do a solid color fill over the body shape, make it 1:1 scale, then print it out life size. What comes out will be very pixelated, but you can still use it as a basis for designing your guitar.
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2 BUILDING Y OUR ROUTER T EMPLATE Take your paper cut out and tape it down to the MDF flat at several places underneath to make sure it doesn’t move. Since paper is very thin and hard to outline trace with, I usually use a plate or bowl and push it to the very edge in order to keep the paper stiff and in place while I draw around it.
Once you have the outline traced you’re also going to need to mark your centerline and other important lines pertaining to where you will be hollowing out. To do this, keep the paper taped down and simply cut with a exact-o-knife along the lines you need to mark, and then cut in a loop around that through the “hollow” area of the paper template so that you have an opening to the MDF. You can then draw guide lines in a couple strategic places, after which you simply take off the template and connect those lines. You can then use a band saw—or if you’re as unlucky as I am at this point—a coping and/or jig saw to cut out along the lines that make up the edge of your template. You’re going to want to finalize the edges and make sure it looks good, cause this is how your body will turn out when you use the template. For manual work, use some rough (100-80 grit) sandpaper, a scraper, and a Surform rasp to clean up the edges and make them exactly ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪
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how you’d want them. If you have an oscillating spindle sander and palm sander, I find they work much easier. However, hand tools are always good to understand regardless. After finalizing the outer shape, go back and check that your inside guide lines are still ½” to ⅝” from the edge. If you have brought the outside edge too close to these lines, redraw them to ensure you are keeping the wall thick enough. To cut out the inside, drill a pilot hole so that you can use a coping saw, jig saw, or scroll saw to cut out the inside. Having a router to get rid of a large amount of the inner wood mass can be very helpful, especially if your saw won’t reach everywhere. If you do rout, always remember: start routing by going against the cutting edge of the bit; if you don’t, the wood can be grabbed by the non-cutting part of the bit and get thrown, which is very dangerous. A router is by far one of the most dangerous tools the luthier uses. You should end up with something like the partially-finished template to the right (notice how I’ve started one side cutting it out, and the other side is uncut with the original pilot hole for the coping saw so you can see the steps.) While doing the inside, you don’t have to be as careful with the cleanliness of your cuts. What you want to pay attention to is to not go over the line that you’ve drawn (½”-- ⅝” from the edge), because that will make your guitar too thin on the sides, and you’d have to start your template over. It’s better to have your cuts bumpy and ugly than to go over this line. Also, don’t worry too much about the angle of the sides of your inside cuts: as long as it follows the line on the top side of the template, you’re fine. It’s OK if the angles of your sides aren’t 100% straight (pictures A and B), because when you’re done with your template, we’re going to ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪
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use our bearing guided router bit set so it only follows the top of the template (picture C) and removes the excess “angled” wood. It's a bit more troublesome if the angle goes the opposite way (compared to picture A), but we can apply the same router bearing trick while transferring the template to the blank, “riding” the good edge. However, don’t use this as an excuse to do sub-par work. MDF is cheap enough to make second and third attempts. You should enjoy building, so try and make it as perfect as you can.
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The sorts of rough edges pictured here are OK for the inside edges of even your final template, but not for outer edges. You can skip the next couple clean up steps if you want, particularly if you're not picky that your template is precise and pretty on the inside. We’re now going to use the bearing trick to straighten out the edges: Set up your router table so the bearing just sits above the top of the table a tiny bit ( note: the darker metal piece is in fact the router bit). Then place your template “good” side down (this should be the side with the lines). The bearing will follow the accurate lines of the face-down part of the template, cleaning up those rough edges and making everything flatt er (it may not be 100%, especially if you have some angles going the opposite way, but it will be better). Always keep downward pressure on the wood you’re routing. Wood may be slightly warped, or lift while working, and the last thing you want is for the bearing to no longer “follow” the good side, and to rout through your hard work. Once you’ve done this you should end up with your final template and it should look something like mine: ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪
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If the unthinkable should happen and you gouge a piece out, don’t fret, there is an alternative to redoing the whole thing. Buy some putty, fill up this mistake and clamp two pieces of wood on the top and bottom so that the putty doesn’t overflow. Once it’s dry, remove the clamped “walls “ and sand down the putty to perfection. For your sake I’ve made it so both of these things happened so you can see what they look like, and can see first hand how to fix them.
We’ll start with a deeper-than-wished cut made with the original band-sawing of the shape. It was too deep to sand down without changing the body shape too much. The following three pictures at the right show the first the mistake, then the putty fill and “overflow walls”, and then the finished touch-up after sanding. Although a scraper is a fine alternative to sanding in many cases, here it will only undo your hard work, so stick to sanding.
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The next step is going to be getting your wood glued up and ready for shaping and routing. We’re going to do the body wood first and then move onto the top. What I started out with was a 2”x7 ½”x42” piece of Australian lacewood. The first thing to do was cut it down to size. For my guitar, I cut a 20” piece and a 19” piece and kept the 3” long piece for future projects. Scrap woods are always great to have around. Unless specifically stated and you've confirmed for yourself, don’t trust the edges of the wood to be “true” when you get them from your supplier. You’re likely going to want to run any edges for gluing through a jointer (if you don't have one, try to borrow time on a friend's or at a local wood shop), or trim a little off with a table saw if you can be dead-accurate with yours. Be mindful of which edges do you want to join together. Take note of where the figure on your wood is, and choose a way that looks best to you. Once you’ve decided this, orient your pieces the required way as per the photo (assuming you have two of different lengths like me; if not, then it doesn’t matter as much). Apply glue to one surface that is going to be glued and then with your bar clamps, push them loosely together and slide them back and forth to further spread the glue onto both edges, and then tighten the rest of the way. I recommend Franklin Titebond (the original) for this and all applications in solidbody guitar-making where wood is being glued to wood. Make sure to follow all the directions, especially wiping away excess glue with a wet cloth. It’s much easier to get rid of now than when it dries. Gluing the spruce top is very similar, but uses a couple different tricks. Follow all the same steps as you did with the back wood, except this time, before you tighten your bar clamps you’re going to want to use some other clamps to hold down the wood to keep it from buckling up when pressure is applied. The more clamps the better because this top is a lot thinner than the body wood. Since you probably can’t clamp down the middle part, you ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪
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can put some heavy textbooks on top to keep it flat in the center. The last thing you want to do is end up with a top that isn’t flat. ( note: the tin foil is only to protect the books and the surface underneath).
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4 T HE BODY B ACK Chances are, when your wood is all glued up it’s not going to be the exact thickness that you want it. Therefore, you’re going to want to get your wood thickness planed; or for the thinner woods and any highly-figured woods (flame, quilt, etc.), thickness sanded. If you don’t have a planer there are other ways around this. All you have to do is be creative. For example, I live in a large city that has furniture and other types of woodworking shops and warehouses. By calling around, chances are good that someone will have a planer and will plane wood for free or for a minuscule amount of money.
Once you have the wood in the condition you want it, take your template and line its centerline along the glue seam of the wood (which in turn becomes the body's centerline). Since you’ll be putting the template on the side of the wood that will have the top glued onto it, it’s OK if we make some holes in it; they won’t show on the finished guitar. Therefore we are going to use nails to attach the template and keep it in place. Be sure to use nails on the sides also, because they are quite thin and may bend slightly if they are not nailed down. I chose to use two nails down the center, and one nail on each side. This should be enough. Instead of just nailing the nails in, use a countersink or slightly larger drill bit to make an indent around the hole. You don’t want the nail’s head catching on the surface while you’re routing. Before you start routing you’re going to want to use a saw to rough-cut your blank as close to the template as you can. The ideal distance is anything less than the diameter of the router bit you will be using. The less wood removal for your router, the better; less wood to remove minimizes the risk of router tear-out. When you actually start routing, make ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪
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sure that your follower bearing and cutting edge are set at the right height. I recommend only doing ¼” cuts at a time. Once again, the less you cut out at a time, the less you’ll have to worry about tear-out.
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A few tips for hollowing out the inside: you should use a drill with a large bit to make a large “pilot” hole so that when you get to the router table you have a big space to accommodate the bit before you start up the router; even better, use a large drill bit (forstner bits are ideal) to “hog” out the bulk of the wood before doing any routing, which will make things safer and easier. Once you’ve done a couple passes and the remainder of the cutting you need to do is becoming out of reach from your current router bit you can take off the template and start using the cuts from your previous passes as the surface for the bearing to follow, or keep in mind you can always change router bits to get deeper. Towards the end you’re going to need a longer bit. Just a couple of things to remember when routing; when you change bits, remove the template, or raise or lower your router, always check that your bearing is still following how it should. If you don’t take these measures you could end up with a mistake like the one pictured to the right (which I’ll show you how to fix in a minute). Also, when routing out the hollow section, you won’t be able to see where you’re going with the bit, so use common sense and feeling. Alternatively, use a plunge base with your router—instead ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪
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of the table—if you happen to have one.
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As for fixing my mistake, I was very lucky that I caught the router not following the template correctly in time, and it therefore only cut ⅛” too deep into the body’s side. This is one of the reasons I suggested designing your guitar to have ⅝” side thickness even though ½” is perfectly structurally sound. Because I followed that advice, I could sand down that extra ⅛” to smooth out the mistake and the guitar will still be sturdy. I simply marked a new line that still followed my general design, and sanded away the excess wood until the mistake was gone.
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5 T HE T OP For the top we are going to follow the same process of nailing the template to the wood and then using a bearing router to cut it to shape. However, there are a few things that are different when routing the top out. First, you need to position the nails at strategic locations, such as where future pickups will be, where the neck will be, or where hardware will be. Since this is the top, we must pick spots that we know the wood will later be removed by routing or hardware placement. Consequently, you can’t put any nails on the thin outer wings of the template; therefore, when routing, be careful to avoid applying too much pressure, which may bend the wings and distort the shape. You should end up with a nice edge like the one shown below. I’ve since discovered that double sided carpet tape is extremely strong, and a great alternative to nails that doesn’t leave any traces.
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The next obvious step would be to glue the two pieces together to complete the body. But there is some preparation that should be done first. One of these things is designing and cutting f-holes if you want them. My own f-hole design has changed from the original “circles and vines” idea seen on my plans earlier in the first chapter. This happened for several reasons, one being that my vision for the guitar changed and I felt that a more traditional look was needed (though it is still not a typical f-hole). Another reason is that I wanted f-holes on both the top and bottom of the guitar for practical reasons. You have to have some way of getting the electronics into the guitar later, and a means of wiring everything. No matter what, you will need a hole in the guitar somewhere, be it on the front (an fhole on the bottom half of the guitar), or on the back (a control cavity with removable cover). I opted for a second f-hole because I felt it was more appealing, allowing me to keep the back of the guitar untouched. I was able to easily integrate the new f-hole into my design, incorporating the knobs and other controls in an organic way. Once f-hole design is finalized, we’re going to use a Dremel Rotary Tool with a router base to cut them out. Be very sure of your design before you start cutting. To me, f-holes should be more than an afterthought. In my personal opinion they are what really make the whole semi-hollow/hollow-body look, ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪
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and are almost like the luthier’s “signature”. To cut the f-holes, first drill pilot holes, then use a hand jigs saw—or a scroll saw if you have one available to you. You should only rough-cut with these tools, to end up something like the picture to the left. We’re going to use various Dremel cutter bits and sanding bits to perfect the shape of the fhole, and then use the correct sized drill bits on a press drill to cut out the circles. Your cutting can also be cleaned up with hobby files and sandpaper. When using the press drill, place another piece of wood underneath where you are drilling to help reduce tear-out on the backside of your hole. When you’ve finished, and especially if you used the Dremel, you may end up with some burnt wood, which will naturally be a dark. Use some sandpaper to clean this up, or, do what I did: mask off the f-holes from the top and then lightly spray some coats of black from behind to make the walls of the f-holes black as well. You should end up with something like this:
The line above the bottom f-hole is the slot for the 5-way switch; it was cut the same way as the f-holes. Also, to make sure black paint on the ‘inside’ didn’t cover where the glue would be, I placed the template on top on the back of the top when I sprayed the black. I also hid a little note on the inside of the top. Somebody might be crafty enough read it some day! Guitars are a personal thing when you build them, and I think that the note was a neat little personal touch.
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6 A If you plan to finish your guitar with a light or natural color, like mine, you will want a nice amount of contrast for your f-holes. To accomplish this, a good idea is to paint the inside of your body cavity with black paint. I used nitrocellulose for consistency (since it will be my final finish as well), which I bought from the Guitar ReRanch store. One of the first things you’re obviously going to want to do is to tape off the sections you don’t want the paint to hit, like the outside of the body, and the surfaces where the top will be glued to. The outcome of a significant amount of contrast can be done with remarkably little black paint. Get the paint just thick enough to cover all the wood’s color, you don’t need any more, cause keep in mind, the inside of the body will be quite dark already when the top is glued on. One of the last things that I did before I glued the top on is something that most of you won’t have to do, but I’m including the process anyways. My f-hole has some small, suspended pieces that are fairly fragile; therefore I wanted to reinforce them. I bought washers that had an outside diameter equal to the diameter of the little “suspended” pieces of my f-holes. I then used a Dremel grinding attachment to bring the washer down to the right size. I painted them black and glued them into place:
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6 A Now for the moment we’ve all been waiting for: gluing the body. To keep the body in line, I nail the top down to the back in the same spots that I know will later be routed out. This keeps the top from sliding out of position while gluing and clamping. I used books in the center to ensure that the top is being held down correctly there, as well. Use as many clamps as you can around the edges. It’s very important to have no gaps, or else your guitar won’t look professional later on. Apply a good amount of glue to your surfaces, and wipe away any glue squeeze-out with a wet rag. Over the years I’ve come to prefer C-clamps for this step. Their screw design allows you to lock in a lot of pressure, giving a great glue joint. If your clamps don’t feature rubber covers, as many Cclamps do not, use some scraps between your clamps and the wood to protect from dents. The final step for now is to line up the edges. You may find that not everything lines up perfectly, so if that's the case, take a sander to it and sand everything flush. An alternative technique to the one I used in this chapter is to glue the top to the back before routing the body shape, thus ensuring a perfectly flush top and back. Yet another alternative is to rout the body, glue the rough-cut top, and use the body itself as the template for routing the top. Both those methods will mean flush sides with minimal or no sanding. Lastly, if you want rounded edges, use your router and a roundover bit with a follower bearing. They come in a variety of radiuses to suit your needs and taste.
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7 T HE NECK Now that we have the base of the body built, we can begin work on the neck. The first steps—just like with the body—are to get your wood, make your design, and create your templates. To get a perfectly straight line for the sides of the neck taper template, use double-sided tape to stick a perfectly straight object (for example, a length of wood that you know to be “true”) to the MDF and use a template router bit to rout the straight line. I used mahogany, but other common choices include: hard maple, rosewood (my personal favorite), walnut, and any number of other fine choices. Warmoth is a good source for information on many of the common choices for woods used in guitars. When choosing your wood for the neck, quartersawn wood (grain is vertical to neck top surface) is generally preferred so that the wood is more stable and resistant to warp. Flatsawn (grain running horizontal to neck top surface) wood is also a fine choice for necks using stronger and stiffer woods like hard maple. Also, you can make a neck blank my laminating two or more strips of wood, which can add a new design element by using multiple colors, widths, etc. One notable perk to this method is that you can use riftsawn stock (grain runs at an angle to the top surface) by opposing the grain patterns so that they make a ‘V’ shape in the end-grain. The wood's natural movement tendencies oppose one another and effectively “cancel” each other out. You can also laminate multiple flatsawn pieces to create a quartersawn grain pattern. My headstock is going to have a 13-degree back angle, which I will create using a scarf joint. However, you can also make headstocks the ‘recessed’ Fender way, or if your neck blank is thick enough, the angled headstock can be cut directly into the wood. To make the scarf joint, cut the blank at 13 degrees on a bandsaw or ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪
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7 T handsaw in the proper place. For the kind of scarf joint I use, the smaller of the two flat sides must be large enough to accommodate the headstock, plus some “wiggle room”. The pieces are then made perfectly flat. If you’re skilled with a hand plane, this is a good way to go; or if you have a large belt sander these are good too. There are also router jigs you can make to help true your gluing surfaces. Flip the pieces and glue them together. Then once again sand, plane, or joint everything flush. This time however you must be careful not to over sand, cause then you’re left with an uneven surface to glue your fretboard on. Be careful when you’re gluing, because the angle causes the pieces to slip when clamped. I’ve found that using not only top-tobottom clamps (that press the joint together), but also side-to-side clamps keeps everything from slipping because you have one or more clamps gripping both pieces on each of the clamp surfaces. I’ve also found that clamping the joint on a flat surface keeps the joint flush and facilitates leveling after glue-up. To do this, the angles on the two pieces must be exactly the same or it won’t work right; if you sanded the scarf surfaces instead of using a router jig or hand plane then this may not work. While you’ve got out the glue, if your design requires a heel block, you can go ahead and glue on the correct-sized piece of wood to accommodate your heel. This will be the final preparation step, and should leave you with something starting to resemble a neck, albeit in raw form. Now that you have your neck’s wood ready, find the centerline for the blank. Draw a nice big pencil line down the center so there’s no question about where it is. Our next step is to rout the truss rod channel along this centerline. ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪
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7 T We will use the same router table as we did for the body; however, instead or having the bit follow a template, we will use a fence to ensure a straight channel. My table came with an integral fence, but you can use anything, such as another piece of straight wood clamped to the table. Set the distance from the fence to the center of your bit to be the same as from the centerline to the edge of your blank. Use a router bit that will fit your truss rod perfectly, since you don't want the rod banging around in a loose channel. I ordered a specialized router bit from Stewart-MacDonald, which matches the Hot Rod truss rod that I will use. You can get these from Stew-Mac as I did, or from a source such as www.routerbits.com (7/16” diameter dado bit for straight cut undersized plywood). For the first pass, set the bit’s height to about half of the final depth of the channel. Mark on your table where the outside edge of the bit lines up with the fence, and also make a line wrapping around the blank of where the end of your truss rod channel needs to be. When you’re routing, stop when these lines meet. Make a pass holding the blank down and firmly against the fence. You don’t want your blank shifting while you’re routing or else you’ll end up with a mistake like I made. Luckily I made this mistake only on the first pass, and not at either end of the channel; my rod will still be held tight by the channel and the fingerboard will cover up the mistake. Raise your bit to the final depth of 7/16”, make your second pass, and you’re done. The next step is to cut the thickness of your neck. My headstock will be about ½”, and my neck will be 10/16” at the thickest point, not counting the fingerboard. We’re going to pencil in the starting heel shape, as well as the angle we’re going to cut into the neck. Since we’re going to be doing a flat neck pocket, we have to angle the actual heel instead. With my guitar the angle was 1.75 degrees, you can find yours with this handy website: http://www.tundraman.com/jigs/fretcalc/NeckAngle.CFM ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪
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Since this build, I have found angling the pocket suits me better than angling the heel, resulting in a tighter fit and allowing me to avoid fixes like the one seen later in this chapter. When making your heel taper, keep in mind that if your guitar is a single-cutaway, the heel will have to extend further and be less contoured on the upper part. Therefore, when cutting your heel taper, plan for the upper; we’ll final carve it later to taper properly to the lower bout. Don’t cut to the exact depth at this stage, because you will want a little room to clean up and make everything flat. If you cut to the final thickness now, you’re stuck with it. If you look closely at the pictures above, you will see the pencil lines I drew as guides for the bandsaw cut. Pictured right is the neck after rough-cutting the profile. The next step is to get your neck ready for routing the taper. Using the same technique as did with the body, attach your neck template to the wood. Make sure everything is lined up nicely before attaching with nails or tape. Be very careful with nails: you don't want to use nails that are long enough to poke through the wood (including future wood removal during the carve), and you don't want to use beefy nails that split the wood at the grain. Also, remember to make sure the nails are recessed to avoid snagging on the router table. You’ll notice that you can't attach both the taper ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪
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7 T and headstock templates at the same time, so for now just trace the headstock and attach the taper template. With the template on, follow the same method we used for the body. Use the saw of your choice to rough-cut the wood down to a safe but small distance from your template and the lines you traced for the headstock. By removing as much wood as possible in advance, you will put less strain on your router and will minimize potential tear-out. Rout the taper and then the headstock, using the exact same method as we did with the body, working incrementally. When routing the headstock, the main part of your neck will be angled up into the air. This is fine; just make sure your template/headstock is flat on the router table, and keep firm pressure so that the neck doesn't tilt the headstock area up. Once routing is done, you should be well on your way to a killer neck!
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7 T To prep the neck for gluing, we have to make sure that our heel is flat. Even though the bandsaw cuts nicely, it does not leave a perfectly flat surface. Get out your plane, sander, or whatever “flattening” device you’re most comfortable with, and make your heel is flat and smooth. My favorite tool for this is a stationary belt sander. The stationary platform ensures you have a perfect 90-degree heel, and a quick pass or two with a scraper perfects the surface. If you’re not using a tool that guarantees a 90-degree angle, you’re going to need a level. Every couple of minutes or passes, place your neck on a surface you know to be perfectly flat, while at the same time placing a level on top of the neck, going across width wise. The level will help you immediately identify if you are not creating a 90-degree plane on the heel's gluing surface. A trusted T-square, held against the sides and gluing surface, will also help you identify a 90-degree surface. Next, we will tackle the fretboard. If you don’t already have some, go out and buy some double-sided tape. I personally like the doubled sided carpet tape, which is not too thick. Line both edges of your neck template with a strip of the tape. Then, before placing your fingerboard on the tapering template, remove any excess wood at the end. For example, if your neck will have 22 frets, saw off everything past the 23 rd fret line. Once this is done, place your fretboard on the template, making sure everything is lined up along their centerlines. As always when routing, use your saw first and rough-cut as close to the template as you can. Use your follower bearing bit to rout the fingerboard to the taper template. Voila! this step is done. I used a pre-slotted board, but if you are planning to slot your own, you should research the necessary steps in advance.
Before Routing
After Routing
Before we can get the fingerboard on the neck, we’re going to have to install the truss rod. However, if you try and put it in the channel now you’ll notice something… it doesn’t fit! That is because the adjustment piece that sticks out at the headstock is actually wider than the truss rod channel has to be. Therefore, we’re going to have to make a small ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪
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adjustment at the end of the channel to allow the rod to sit flat. For this, I chose a ball shaped cutter that came with my Dremel when I bought it. Mark out how wide you need this little channel addition to be, and then carefully make a freehand cut. Since my cut was a bit rough, I then took a thin sanding drum bit and used it to make the roughed walls smoother and more uniform.
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The last thing to do before we attach the fretboard is to inlay it. To keep it simple, we’re just going to be inlaying dots. However, I’m not a huge fan of boring old dots on the standard fret locations; therefore, I’ve spiced up my design a bit. You can choose to do whatever you like with your dots. Be creative, or go with the just normal markers; it’s up to you. But keep in mind, the standard frets for inlay are 3, 5, 7, 9, 12, 15, 17, and 21. If you alter this standard, it will throw the player off. I have centered my design around the 12th fret as a familiar “landmark.” You can usually buy premade dots off of eBay. They come in a variety of sizes and materials. If you use shell, which most likely you will, you must use a respirator/dust mask while sanding. I also suggest you do all of your sanding outside. Nacre (shell dust) is a bad carcinogen. Once you have your design thought out, measure everything and mark the center points for all of your dots along your fretboard. Then, using the appropriate corresponding drill bit size (in a drill press if at all possible) make your holes. When drilling, the bit will not make a perfectly flat bottom; instead you’ll end up with like an inverted cone for a bottom. Make your holes about as deep as your inlay material is thick—not deeper, and not including the coned bottom of the hole since the dot will not go down into it. Once you have double-checked that your pieces fit, remove them and fill the holes to the top with super glue and then press the pieces into the holes. The excess Superglue will squeeze out, surrounding the sides of the inlay as well. Make sure there’s glue all around the inlay; you want glue everywhere around these dots. The above picture shows both the ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪
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empty holes as well as some dots already glued in, illustrating the large quantity of glue surrounding them.
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Let them dry, and then using your favorite method of sanding, sand almost flush to the fretboard. Using a radiused sanding block that matches your fingerboard's radius, (mine is a 12” bought from www.stewmac.com) and proceed to sand everything flush with 120 grit paper. When you start seeing actual wood dust and not just the dust from your dot material, this means you’re sanding the fretboard too. This is expected, and you’ll have to sand right to the wood in order to get rid of all the glue, but at this point you need to take care with your technique. Start sanding the entire length of the fretboard, not just the area where your inlays are, because if you just concentrate on that one area it will become lower and you won’t have an even fretboard. Not cool! Once everything is flush and level, switch your paper over to 220 grit, then 320 grit, and so on until you reach the point where your fretboard is smooth, level, and the scratch marks are gone from your inlays. To me, seeing your inlay come out in the end is one of the most rewarding parts of a build, and you should be very pleased (as I was) to get a beautifullooking end product:
Now we’re ready to attach the fretboard to the neck. Lay your truss rod into the slot and follow any additional instructions. In the case of the Stew Mac Hot Rod it is recommended to use some silicon sealer at both of the metal “nuts” to reduce rattle. Next, put a piece of ¾” wide masking tape the full length of the neck and over the truss rod cavity. Apply a normal amount of wood glue to the neck’s surface. Once done, remove the masking tape and you should end up with a section bordering the truss rod channel that has no glue on it. This is to make sure that when you glue down the fretboard, the squeeze-out doesn’t go ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪
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into the truss rod channel. Align your fretboard in the correct position and then begin clamping. If you’re worried about sliding and shifting, you can send thin nails through fret slots (since they will be covered with frets later) to keep the fretboard in place while gluing.
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It’s a good idea to have a number of “cauls” to clamp with. I made mine out of an extra radiused sanding block. These work well because they are radiused like the fingerboard and provide equal pressure on the entire surface, leaving you with a nice even glue job and a seamless joint. Once you’ve put the cauls in place, you’re going to want to clamp the sides as well; this will keep the fingerboard in line and prevent slipping. Remember: when it comes to clamps, the more the merrier. Just don't use harsh metal clamps directly on your neck's wood. While your neck is in the clamps, you can get a head start on your neck shaping templates. Pick a neck similar in design to your own; ie., scale, width at nut, width where the neck connects to the body, etc. My neck is based on the feel and comfort of my PRS CE22, so I used that guitar’s neck for my templates. Get some poster board or any type of cardboard/stiff paper that is rigid but easy to cut. We will use this to make profiles of the neck carve at various points, which will serve as reference points for shaping the back of the neck. Take some masking tape and find 4 (or more if you wish) spots down the neck that you think would be good reference points. I chose the 1st, 5th, 9th and 13th frets. Using a pair of scissors, make an underestimated guess at the width, depth, and shape of the neck at that point. Check this cut against the neck itself, and cut away small amounts of paper, attempting to create a profile that is a seamless fit. Eventually if done right you, will end up with a relatively accurate template of the shape of your neck at that fret/point. Do the same for all of your different reference points. Mark the corresponding fret number on ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪
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each card so they don’t get mixed up. I also write the guitar model and which side of the template is the treble side of the neck, and which is the bass. The entire process is much easier if you have a contour copying tool (readily found at most hardware stores), which you can press against the neck, and then transfer the resulting shape to paper.
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Next, we can make the neck pocket template. When the neck is removed from the clamps, draw an extended centerline around all surfaces of the heel, and also from the body top around the outside (following the glue joint). Place the neck down on the top of the guitar, and align it so that all your centerlines on the neck match perfectly with the centerlines of the body. You might need to partially clamp, wiggle a bit to make small adjustments until it’s perfect, then clamp it solidly in place. Take a pencil and trace to whole way around the positioned neck. Find some of the leftover MDF scraps that you know to have a perfectly straight edge. Find two long pieces and a very small piece and place a good amount of double sided tape on the undersides. Butt these up against the neck and stick them down. You can now remove the neck. Last but not least, take a thick piece of tape such as duct tape and line the edges, which will make your pocket even tighter. Using these pieces as a template, rout out your neck pocket, all the while keeping in mind how deep it needs to be. Check after every pass how much farther down you have to rout, being careful not to go too deep. If everything goes well, you should end up with a nice neck pocket that is tight enough fit to hold the neck in place without any glue. You may see ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪
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that when you put the neck in you have a gap at the end. Don’t panic, this is normal. If you remember, we angled our neck, not our pocket. Angling the neck makes you end up with this gap, as seen to the left. Now that you have your neck in the pocket, this would be a good time to turn over the guitar and trace the line where the two meet, which tells you up to which point you can carve the neck’s heel. Also, go up to the headstock, and draw some lines telling you how you want the intersection of the headstock and the neck to be carved. With this done we now have all the lines on the neck and templates that we need to begin shaping the back of the neck. Find a way to secure your neck at the edge of a table, using the same cushioned clamps we have been this whole time, and placing an old rag between the neck and the surface in order to prevent fretboard damage. Keep the section that you’re carving relatively close to the table, but extending over the edge so that you can get at all the sides. Move the neck forward or back as needed, re-clamping as you go.
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To carve we’re going to use a Surform rasp to get rid of the bulk of the material as well as a file to smooth out the work of the rasp and get a better idea of how much material we’ve removed. Don’t forget to periodically check your progress with the ‘neck shape templates’ we made earlier.
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They’ll show you where you need to remove more wood, as well as areas which require no further rough work. All we’re doing is removing material; don’t carve all the way down to your final shape, since the tools that we’re using right now are way too rough and you risk going too deep and having ditches and tooling marks in your neck. Once you’ve got a reasonably shaped neck it’s time to calm it down a little bit. Replace the rasps with sandpaper. I like a bit of “power” assistance at this stage, and I find the easiest way is to use sanding drums in a hand drill. Put an appropriate one into the chuck, and use duct tape to hold down the trigger at the speed you want (not too fast) and then use a clamp to clamp it to a table edge or something similar. This creates a makeshift stationary sanding station. The curved end of a stationary belt sander serves the same purpose. I use this setup to continue removing wood in a more controlled way. When it starts getting really close to your profile templates, lose even the files and sanding drums and switch to good ol’ 80 grit paper and your hands. My rule of thumb for gauging when to switch is simply to use common sense—if the tool in your hands risks leaving scratches that go deeper than final neck shape, then obviously stop using that tool and go to something less aggressive. I’ve found the best way to carve the heel is with a Dremel and very rough Foredom burrs, followed by smoothing with Dremel mini sanding drums and half round hand files, and finally sanding by hand. One of my favorite stages is the last, which also makes use of one of my favorite tools—my hands. With a piece of sandpaper in your palm, use your hand's natural curve to go around the neck, sanding everything nice and round while moving both side to side and also up and down (think of how a shotgun is cocked). The side to side ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪
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7 T motion will make the neck perfectly round, the up and down motion will be along the grain, getting rid of the scratches made by the previous side to side motion. Once the neck is shaped so that your templates slide perfectly onto the neck, it’s time to install your side dots. These are done in a similar way to the fretboard dots. I chose to use 3/16” dots that I made from turquoise, to match the inlay. Use a drill press rather than a hand drill, because these must be very precise and accurate on the small side of the neck! Once the holes are drilled, pop the side dots in with glue, let them dry, and sand them flush just like you did with the fretboard inlays. Congratulations! Wood-wise, your neck is finished!
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8 F RETTING Before we can glue the neck to the body we are going to need to fret it. When buying your fret wire, make sure to get the kind that comes in looms or 2-foot lengths, not the kind that is precut to individual fret size. We need sufficient lengths in order to use a fret bender to prep for installation. The reason for bending your fret wire prior to installation is that since the fretboard is radiused, flat wire (even if hammered down) wants to return to its old shape, and is therefore prone to popping out! If we bend it first (and even over bend it slightly), it has a tendency to grip into the fret slots and stay tighter. Since it’s already curved to follow the fretboard radius, it’s also much easier to push into the slots. Our shop-made fret bender is very simple to construct: Draw a ‘T’ shape 1.25” high and 2.25 wide and put bolts at all these points. Then at one of the side points, elongated the hole an extra ¾” so that it's adjustable. At the top hole location, install a stack of 3 washers: two 2.5” washers sandwiching a 2”. Then on the other two holes put sliding glass door wheels. The wheel in the elongated hole can be attached with a wing nut for quick adjustments. Use as many spacer washers as needed so that the wheels all line up. The fret crown will then ride on the wheels, the tang will be held by the ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪
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8 F washer “sandwich”. When you push the fret wire through (which may take some work!) it will come out curved. Check against the radius of your fretboard wood, remembering that you want it to be slightly more curved than the fretboard. You might need to send the fretwire through a few times, adjusting the wheel in the elongated hole to produce a greater or lesser radius. Once you have bent your lengths of fretwire to the correct radius, go ahead and measure and cut all your fret lengths (cut them slightly wider than the fret slot) and put them somewhere you can easily keep track of the corresponding fret numbers. An optional step is to trim the fret tangs. Once you’ve seated the frets, they may seem fine, but if the wood shifts due to climate changes, you may have a problem with little bits/burrs of the tang sticking out the sides. I file them down so this won’t happen. This is actually an easy process—it’s just that it's grueling and time-consuming. All you have to do is align the fret to its corresponding slot, mark this spot, and then file the tangs ⅛” or less in from the fretboard using a nice fine triangle metal file. Use a corner to file a triangle where you want to file up to, then use a flat side of the file to file the rest of it down to where there is no tang left. Then repeat for all the frets you need. If you have the money for more and more specialized tools, and find yourself doing this on all your guitars (which is especially needed if you use fretboard bindings) you may want to look into getting a frettang nipper from a lutherie supply. They are pricey, but will do this to each fret end in one squeeze of the hand.
Now it’s time to press them in the slots! For this we’re going to fill the fret slots with Titebond. The reason we’re using Titebond is because it’s a wood glue and will therefore adhere to the sides of the fret slots, but it does not adhere to metal. Essentially, the glue just fills the extra space between the fret tangs and the slot holes, and forms around the tangs; even though it won’t hold onto the metal itself, we’ll get a nice hold on the frets, but not something impossible to remove in the event of a repair or refret. Titebond will also become workable again with heat; therefore, in a future refret, a soldering iron applied the ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪
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fret before removal is all that is needed. Spread some Titebond glue over the first couple of fret slots and then wipe it clean with a damp rag, leaving no glue on the fretboard, and just a nice little line inside the fret slot. Fill about five or six at a time, press those frets in, and then move on. You don’t want your glue to harden before you press the frets in, so don’t fill them all at once. To press the fret, align it in the slot and give it a gentle push to hold it in place. Then using a fret pressing caul (either purchased for the purpose, or shop-made drill press jig shown below) to fully seat the fret into the slot. Here's how to make a drill-press jig if you decide you need one: 1. Cut the end of a radius sanding block to an inch or an inch and a half. 2. Glue a sturdy metal dowel glued into the block. 3. Tighten the dowel into a drill press chuck. When pressing, use a cradle to hold the neck secure, which is simply ½” MDF with the neck’s shape sanded out and lined with cloth. Bring the pressing caul down and press the fret in. Don’t be afraid to really put some pressure down on the drill press; after all, you’ve got that neck cradle under there for support and your caul should perfectly match the fretboard radius. Once you reach the heel, the neck cradle won't fit directly under the fret. Simply keep the cradle as close to the fret you’re pressing as possible. Never remove the cradle even when pressing the frets that are above the heel, because the 2 degree angle will cause you to you risk pressing your frets badly. Once the frets have all been pressed, use your fret nippers to cut off the overhanging pieces of fret. This will leave some pretty sharp points, but we’ll be getting rid of them shortly. Next, put a little dab of Superglue where the underside of the fret meets the ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪
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8 F fretboard. This will help keep gaps from appearing and prevent strings from getting caught underneath frets when you play. When the Superglue is dry, use something small and pointy to clear out the empty hole left by the unfilled fret slot. Mix some fretboard wood dust with Titebond and fill in the ends of the fret slots on both sides of the fingerboard. This will make those fret slots disappear, and is a nice touch that can separate a good guitar from a great guitar. Go ahead and really get that mixture into the side fretboard slots. When we sand the fret’s sharp ends, we’ll also sand down that “putty,” giving the fretboard edge a seamless look.
Once everything has had time to sit and dry, file down the fret ends until they're flush to the fretboard and have lost their sharp points. Then go ahead and put some 80-grit sandpaper into your sanding block, and work the side of the neck until all that’s left of the putty mixture is what's in the fret slot gaps. The fret ends will now also have softer edges. Continue working the frets by tilting the block at a 35-degree angle while you sand. Once you have beveled the edges to your liking, move to 120-grit. A file works well for beveling fret ends as well. If you run your hand along the side of the fretboard you’ll still feel a little bit of roughness. We have to do something called ‘fret dressing.’ Before dressing them, make sure that they are level. Take something long and 100% “true”, like a large professional ruler. When laid across the frets, it should contact each one of them. Check across the entire width of the fretboard to ensure that you have no high or low frets. If there is inconsistency, and there usually will be, you will need to level them with the help of a precision-edged flat sanding beam: Darken the fret tops with a Sharpie, which will serve as a visual cue for removal of material. Using the sanding beam, work the frets lengthwise in one direction only and never stopping partway through a pass, until the Sharpie is gone from the tops. Now, take your triangle ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪
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file wrapped in sandpaper to sand down one of the three edges using 80- and 120-grit paper until there are no more file burrs on that corner. You must do this because in the next step, that section of the file will be riding along your fretboard and the last thing you want to do is to have that digging holes in the fretboard’s edge. Using whatever tape you prefer, tape off the wood around each edge of every fret. Painter's tape is convenient because it leaves behind very little adhesive residue. With the smooth edge riding along the tape, lightly file the ends of the fret into a nicely domed shape. The idea here is make sure the edges are slightly rounded and smooth to the touch. You can then use this same technique to recrown the frets which now will have a flat top due to the leveling process. Once again, it’s good to mark the tops with a Sharpie so that you can see up to what point you’ve recrowned. Many lutherie suppliers will sell special half-round files for this job. However, I have found they are rarely a good enough match to the fret size to work properly, and may just mess up your leveling. In my opinion, although it may be harder and longer, it’s a good idea to stick with your trusty triangle file instead of throwing away $60+ on a file that won’t work right.
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The glorious moment of gluing on the neck has finally arrived! Fill the neck pocket with Titebond and press the neck into place, wiping up any squeeze-out with a damp cloth. Then, attach as many clamps as you can. If your clamps don’t reach to your heel, take a scrap of MDF and place it across the body and the heel block. Then clamp down on the MDF as close to the heel as possible. Expect some more squeeze out, which should be cleaned up right away. If your neck pocket had some gaps, fill them with another batch of sawdust and Titebond “putty”, using the correct wood dust. The picture shows a gap at the edge of the pocket (the rest of the pocket was tight) filled, prior to sanding. Wait for everything to dry then sand flush. Using an angled pocket and square heel (instead of an angled heel and square pocket) have helped produce a tighter fit, minimizing the need for this step. With the neck on, we can rout the pickup cavities. There is still some neck wood angled out of the pocket which must be brought flush with the top, ensuring a flat surface for your template. Use a file, a router jig, hand plane, chisels, or any other tool to remove this wood, protecting the surrounding area with tape as needed. You’re going to need a pickup cavity template from a retailer such as StewartMacDonald, or one made in your own shop. Even with a commercially-available template, we will need a copy that can go right up against the fingerboard, as pictured. Take a piece of scrap MDF and using your follower bit, copy the original template onto your MDF. On one side, leave only a thin gap, equal to the width of your pickup ring. ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪
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9 F Center your template and stick it down to the body with double-sided tape. Rout approximately ¾” down for the first pass. Then go rout an extra ¼” in the ear area for the height adjustment screws. When routing the neck pickup cavity, the edge of the template against the fretboard is very thin and fragile. Your bearing should therefore follow it at a level at which it’s supported from the other side by the fretboard itself. Due to this fragile piece, I would recommend creating an additional MDF template for the bridge pickup, or using the original StewMac template. Once you’re done, take a bit of 120 grit paper and get rid of the “fuzz” on the edges of the rout. Next, we're going to position and drill our bridge post holes. The following directions are for a post-fitted all-in-one bridge like a Hipshot Baby Grand (which I’m using) or a Gibson- or Wilkinson-style wraparound. They do not work with a Tune-O-Matic bridge, which need to be angled with the bass-side post about ⅛” farther back compared to the treble-side post. If you’re using a Tune-O-Matic or other style of bridge, follow the manufacturer's instructions or find directions online. To determine the diameter for your holes, use calipers to measure the diameter of the bridge posts, including the “ridges”. Then—using the tips of the calipers—measure the diameter inside the ridges. In theory, your hole would be this second measurement, but in practice the fit can be very tight and you risk splitting the wood. To achieve a good balance, you’re going to want to find a drill bit that is about halfway between these two numbers. The post will then fit without excessive force, yet the serrations will still push into the wall and hold the posts in place. Move the bridge saddles as far forward as they will go. Use your long metal ruler along the center of the neck, measuring from 0” at the nut to your scale length (in my case, 25”). Place your bridge so that the saddles' breaking point are at this distance. In the case of pre-compensated bridges, use the high-”E” as your reference point. Mark where your post holes will be drilled.
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9 F The last actual woodworking step will be to create a hole for the input jack. Eyeball a place you like, and then trace your jack plate in that spot. Find the center of this area and draw a circle slightly over ¾” in diameter. Then, use your favorite Dremel cutting/carving attachments to carve out the hole, or drill one with a forstner bit. I used my Foredom coarse and fine burrs, as well as my sanding drums. I used the coarse burr to really dig down and through the full thickness of the side of the guitar, and then used the fine burr and sanding drums for the final shaping.
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The first thing I will say about this section is try this whole process on some pieces of scrap before you even think about doing it on your guitar. You will be able to check if all the finishing products you’ve chosen work well together, and you will learn firsthand about things such as the impact of sanding cross-grain and the importance of switching grits at the correct time. The knowledge you’ll gain from this practice is irreplaceable. If you’re not using any large grained pores you can skip this next section on grain filling. However, chances are that you’re using at least one. Many common neck and body woods require grain-filling; for instance, mahogany, swamp ash, and lacewood. If the wood has large open pores, they need to be filled. For this, we’re going to use a two-part epoxy. To prep for filling you’ll need to sand the guitar’s large-pored wood areas, starting with 120grit paper, moving to 220, and finishing with 320. Your goal with each grit is to get rid of all the marks left by the higher grits. After switching from 120- to 220-grit, you should sand until you see only the marks made by the 220 (and these will be very small scratches!), and apply the same principles when switching from 220 to 320. I've noticed that a palm sander leaves cloudy spots instead of linear scratches; these are in fact scratches, so treat them the same way. Before proceeding, if you’ve dinged the guitar while building, fear not, we can fix that. Wood fibers can be coaxed to rise back up out of a ding with heat and moisture. To fix a ding, take a moist paper towel, place it over the ding, and proceed to rock the hot tip of a soldering iron across the paper above the ding until it has risen back up. This may take a while and a couple tries, but it does work. When done, give it a quick level with sandpaper and move on. I cannot stress enough the importance of sanding with the grain. I know sometimes it may be difficult, because depending on the wood the grain orientation may change, but stick with it! Do not sand cross grain; this will leave bad scratches that will need much more work to remove. The only time that I ever sand against the grain is if I leave a really bad mark with my electrical sander. Only then do I sand against the grain until it’s almost gone, at which point I switch back to sanding with the grain to finish it off. Once you’ve sanded all the way up to and through 320 grit, it’s time to fill the grain. Before attempting to fill the grain, make sure they are not already filled with sawdust. I find the best method to get rid of this dust is with any kind of compressed air, be it a ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪
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professional system at your wood shop or a can of the compressed air you can buy at electronics stores to remove dust from computer towers and keyboards. You should use a slow setting two-part epoxy, that takes at least 30 minutes to dry clear. Here is where the practice finish you did already really comes in handy! It will have shown you if the epoxy you bought will actually work with the paint you’re using. The last thing you want is to fill the grain and spray your paint, only to see them react badly with each other! One epoxy I recommend if you can find it (I know it’s carried by ACE Hardware) is Devcon 2-Ton 30minute epoxy. Even better, get the epoxy filler from Stew-Mac. When applying it, follow the carton’s instructions. Don’t mix too much at a time; you want to mix just enough to do a small area of your guitar (½ to ¼ of the back) at a time. Use a plastic squeegee type device like shown in the pictures to spread it evenly and deep into the pores. I find that the filling is more effective when you squeegee cross grain. When you squeegee with the grain it will pull the filler out as you pass over it. Crossgrain, the pores are thin, giving very little time for cohesion to the squeegee, or at least that is my theory. Try not to leave too thick a layer on top. Get everything nice and spread out—the more excess you leave, the more you’ll have to sand off. Continue until all large-pored surfaces are filled. I advise doing one side at a time and laying it flat until it dries before attempting another plane (ie., don’t do the back and the sides at the same time; the epoxy will just run out of the pores on the side when you lay the guitar face down to dry). The pictures above show the general filling steps: 1. mask off areas you don’t want epoxy getting in (which I no longer recommend as it turned out to be more of a pain than it was worth) 2. flatten the epoxy out with a plastic squeegee thing ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪
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3. do all the surfaces that are on the same plane—at the same time, if you can, to save time Once all the pores have been filled, light becomes your best friend to help see if the pores are fully filled. Reflect light at different angles over the surface and you should be able to see any pores that still need filling. If you find any such pores, you need to apply another layer of epoxy. Don’t worry if you do; it’s normal to need more than one. Once they are filled, sand all the epoxy flat and sand the whole body with 220-grit if you used thick epoxy like Devcon, or 320 if you used Stew-Mac's, moving through the grits until you finish with 400. If you’re the kind of person that has difficulty sanding in tight areas such as around the neck pocket of a set neck like this, you might consider filling the grain on the body and on the neck before you glue the two together. However, if you opt for this then you have to make sure you’re 100% happy with the final shape of both pieces before gluing them together. If you need to do any further heavy sanding, you will have undone your hard filling work and will have to do it over again anyhow. In any case, you should now be left with a perfectly flat and very thin layer of epoxy over the wood. If you sand through to the wood, that area will look lighter, and thus need to be re-epoxied in order to maintain a good look. Continue finishing all the way up to 600-grit. For a really professional attempt, go all the way up to 1000; however, 600 should do the trick just fine. At this point, you should have first sanded 120, 220, 320, then filled the grain, then sanded 220, 320, 400, 600 grit—in that order. Each time,
you were watching out for scratches left by the previous grit and removing them, always sanding with the grain! I don’t think I can stress that point enough. You should lightly sand the fret ends as well: with the wood areas masked off, hold 400- and 600-grit paper in your hand and just lightly run it down the length of the fretboard. ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪
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Next, mask off the areas that you do not want paint to get on, like your fretboard (unless you’re using maple or another wood that requires finish), your truss rod area, and your post holes. Take some tissue paper and fill up your f-holes as well. Get a ¼” metal pole from your local hardware store and put some muscle into it to bend it into a nice hanger that you can stick through one of the tuner holes to hang the guitar while painting.
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We will be using nitrocellulose for this project—Deft Lacquer to be exact. This is some nasty stuff to breathe, so always use a respirator when applying it and always paint in a well-ventilated area. I find the great outdoors to be perfect for the job. Moreover, do not fully empty the cans. Only use the paint from about the first ⅔ of the can on your guitar. The last ⅓ is more likely to spit, be inconsistent, and otherwise work imperfectly...you don't want this to affect your finishing job! However, the last ⅓ of each of these cans is perfectly suited for small wooden accents you may have made, such the truss rod cover or hand-turned knobs. Another tip: letting the cans sit in hot water for a couple of minutes before spraying will help the lacquer flow better. Bring more than one can with you, and switch between them every 30 seconds or so to prevent them from cooling up too much: aerosol cans will chill up slightly during use, thus negating the hot water bath effect from before. Suspend some chain or sturdy rope from a tree at a decent height, attach the guitar via your hanger, and paint away. When you’re done, bring the guitar back inside and let it dry somewhere without little dust, particles, and other things that could mess up the paint layer. I use the hanger pole in an empty closet. Ventilation rules still apply, as nitrocellulose will continue to release fumes as it cures. Following are the steps for painting your guitar. I must give credit where credit is due: these steps are almost entirely based on Stew-Mac’s painting instructions, with a few minor changes: 1. Spray 3 heavy coats of lacquer onto your guitar, ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪
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waiting one full day for the first coat to dry, and a half day after the second and third coats. Lightly kiss the surface with 320-grit sandpaper between each coat once the finish has dried. If you happen to ding the guitar before block sanding, you can fix this by spraying into a cup and then using a small brush to drop a glob of lacquer into the ding/scratch to get it level with the rest of the surface. 2. Once the three ‘heavy coats’ have been applied, sand level with 400-grit paper and a block. Since you’re not dealing with wood grain now, you don’t have to worry about sanding direction. Wipe away any residual dust with a soft paper towel (Bounty works for me—it does not scratch the finish because of its softness). Do not sand the edges where sides meet top, because paint builds up very slowly here. You should end up with a dull finish like the one seen here. 3. Continue spraying with what I like to call “double coats”, which are one coat sprayed, a 3 minutes break, followed by a second coat. Do four double coats in a row—including the neck in only two of them—with several hours of dry time inbetween each. 4. Level sand once again with 400-grit paper and change up your masking tape. The longer masking tape stays, the more likely it is to leave marks and to not mask properly. Remember to change the tape every time you sand as a general rule. 5. Do four more double coats the next day, excluding the neck once again in two of them. 6. Add two more single/regular coats, one day apart, and each using the first ⅓ of the can only. Then let the guitar dry untouched for a month. If you have a fan, it’ll help to set the fan on high on the guitar for the first 10 minutes after a spray coat. Nitrocellulose lacquer will also cure faster in warm, dry areas. Humidity, however, has a detrimental effect. 7. Level sand with 600- then 800-grit paper, changing paper often, and cleaning up residue as you go. Shiny spots will show which areas are not yet level. Get rid of all but the smallest little shiny spots. However, beware of over-sanding: it’s very easy to cause a sand-through here. 8. Let the guitar cure for another couple days untouched (I know... it’s hard...!) ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪
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9. Follow up by buffing with Drill Chuck Finesse pads from Stew-Mac, or another suitable substitute you may have found. Use coarse, then medium, then fine compounds, with each having its own finesse pad. Don’t stay in one place for too long while buffing. Concentrate compound application to the pads’ edge, and keep the pad at a slight angle at about 1200 RPMs. Keep in mind when using the medium and fine compounds you will not need to use these nearly as long as the coarse, since the coarse compound will have gotten the bulk of the work done for you. When buffing, spin the buffer so that it buffs away from any sharp edges, not into them. If an edge is constantly bombarded with buffing, it will sand through: as I mentioned, the finish doesn’t build up as much on edges. Wipe off all residue after each compound.
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