Let's build a Tele....well, almost...

[John Coloccia]

I thought it might be fun to show the building of a prototype. I'm starting from basically nothing on this particular one because it's much different than what I normally build. I'm waiting on some wood, though, and even after it shows it will take a bit of time to acclimate, so I have nothing to do for a couple of weeks (very bad planning on my part...WOOPS). I've had this project kicking around in the back of my head for a while now so I figure now's a good time to explore it a bit.

It's not actually a Tele copy but it will be reminiscent of a Tele. It's fitting as that is the only factory guitar I really play anymore these days, so I figured I should add one to my line up.

It will be an alder body with a flamed maple top (not AAA flame, but this is just a prototype so it's good enough). No binding. No chambers planned at the moment, but if I feel it is too heavy as I start roughing it out, it may get some lightening holes to make it more comfortable for the pro musician.

It will be a bolt on neck, but will be Honduran mahogany with a pau ferro fingerboard and slightly wider than the standard tele neck....25" scale.

The body will be very reminiscent of a Tele, but with some key changes. My necks join at the 17th fret on the bass side, and 19th on the treble side. The cutaway will be rather drastically changed to accommodate this, and also to give better access to the upper frets, but I've tried to keep the look and feel very similar. I don't see any point in copying the Tele...there are far too many builders that make world class Teles, including Fender, so why bother?

I haven't decided what to do about the nut yet....slotted into the fingerboard? Eh...maybe. I think I may just butt it up against the end of the fingerboard. We'll see.

Bridge will see a Barden pickup...neck will see a Duncan 59'. All my guitars have a 59' in the neck, actually...and why not? :)

Anyhow, for a bit of fun, follow along. Being that this is a prototype and will be thrown together quickly, I'm likely to make a bunch of mistakes along the way, and it's always fun to watch other people mess up! :)

[Shawn Pixley]

I'll bewatching this. My son likes my tele so much, he wants to build his own. Mine is mostly an original 72 tele custom. I've replaced the Seth Lover pickup with a Gibson Burstbucker III. I also updated the bridge plate so I didn't cut my hand as much and cut a new pickguard.

I was suggesting putting a quilted maple top cap and ebony binding, but he wants simple paint. Who knows, maybe we'll do two at a time.

[John Coloccia]

update:

I decided on a different pickup than the Barden. I gave the Seymour Duncan custom shop a call this morning and they're building me a Tele style pickup voiced to my specs. I really love the Barden pickups, but again I'm not setting out to make a Tele copy...too many of those already. Anyhow, just sort of interesting how things evolve.

Pics to follow tonight.

[John Coloccia]

Okay, so here we go. Here is the basic shape.

http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/IMGA0005.jpg
It looks an awful lot like a Tele, but it's actually quite different, especially around the lower horn. The pattern is just made out of 1/4" MDF.



http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/IMGA0006.jpg
The white cutout you see is a tracing I made from my personal Telecaster just as a comparison. You can see how much different it really is, and how much improved the fret access and comfort will be.



http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/IMGA0007.jpg


http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/IMGA0008.jpg
Here's a neat little tool that Cumpiano taught me to make. You take a piece of paper and draw out the neck and bridge full scale, with a bunch of important points marked off (pickup positions, key frets...I join at the 17th and 19th so those are marked). The neck part of it is actually correct for the taper. Then you put little diamonds on the center line at some key points so that you can see you centerline. The acoustic one is more complex and more important, but it's quite useful or electrics too and only takes a few minutes to construct.



http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/IMGA0009.jpg
You can see how useful this is as a layout tool.

[John Coloccia]

http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/IMGA0010.jpg
While I'm at it showing patterns and the like, here's my standard neck taper template. It works for a 25" scale, 1.675" nut width, and a 2 1/16" bridge spacing. Now, the bridge spacing isn't all that critical....a bit wider or narrower and the neck still works fine. As a practical matter, this template gets used on practically every 25" scale neck I make though it wouldn't be a big deal to do any custom nut width or taper I wanted. This just reduces the chance to make a mistake.


http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/IMGA0011.jpg
Better shot of the template. No rocket science here.



http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/IMGA0012.jpg
What I want to do is mark out some screw hole locations so I can screw down the template. This is much easier than double sided tape. With tape, it's difficult to reposition and get things right on the centerline. Screwing it down makes it easier. Here I'm using a pickup routing template to mark the first hole through the pickup location. I won't need to do this in the future, but remember that I'm starting this guitar from scratch and had to make my templates and drawing from scratch...and they're not quite fully finished yet so I'll be modifying them and updating them as I go along and figure things out.


http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/IMGA0013.jpg
Here I do the same for the bridge pickup, again using pieces and parts from my personal Tele as the real parts have not shown up yet. Even at these beginning stages, you can see just how useful that pattern is.


http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/IMGA0014.jpg
Drill a couple of holes, and voila.


http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/IMGA0015.jpg
Put it on the body blank...in this case, it's a 2 piece Alder blank that I glued up a couple of days ago.


http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/IMGA0016.jpg
Trace is out. Note all the little notes to myself on the blank....arrows, notes, marking off imperfections. Now is NOT a good time to screw up or I will end up with expensive firewood.


http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/IMGA0017.jpg
Take it to the band saw and cut it out. Maybe you didn't notice but I left my outline intentionally much thicker than a normal pencil line. I blunt the edge before cutting. Then I know that I can hit the line, and even split the line, and I will still not cut too far.

[John Coloccia]

http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/IMGA0018.jpg
Then I tossed it through the drum sander as a final cleanup. I do this after cutting it out so I'm not sanding off a bunch of material that will just get cut away later. Can you spot the joint? I thought it was the mark I was pointing to. I was seriously scratching my head trying to figure out how on earth I let myself make such a bad joint.


http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/IMGA0019.jpg
Well, it took some looking but here's where the REAL centerline is. That mark is just that....a mark. What's neat is that often time it's difficult to tell it's a two piece body, even when I leave it a natural finish, and even without book matching. Alder is a marvelous wood to work with.


http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/IMGA0020.jpg
Bring the template back and mark for the pilot holes.


http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/IMGA0021.jpg
Screw it down...take it over to the router table and.....



http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/IMGA0022.jpg
There you go...a nice, cleaned up blank.


http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/IMGA0023.jpg
Now I'm going to make a route from the neck pickup to the bridge pickup for wiring. I don't over complicate this. I just use the router and an edge guide. I have a template that is exactly the same width as the edge of the router to the center of the bit. That in combination with a straight edge makes this an easy job.


http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/IMGA0024.jpg
I keep some sandpaper stuck to the back of this particular straight edge....SACRILEGE!!! It gives the straight edge some good bite.


http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/IMGA0025.jpg
Line up the template where I want the route to go, butt the straight edge up to it, clamp it down.....


http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/IMGA0026.jpg
And there's my properly spaced edge guide.


http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/IMGA0027.jpg
Then it's child's play to use a plunge router and make this little route.


http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/IMGA0028.jpg
Now I need to do a similar route to the control cavity....Out comes the pattern again. The control cavity on the tele is right below the bridge....so I mark out the saddle location...


http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/IMGA0029.jpg
Use a square to extend that line....and this is no ordinary square



http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/IMGA0030.jpg
Another Cumpiano trick. Take an machinist square to an edge of the plastic triangle, and scribe a 90 degree line. It's now child's play to line that up with the centerline and mark perpendicular lines.



http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/IMGA0032.jpg
Connect the dots. I forget exactly how I arrived at the proper position for that line. If it all works out in the end, though, I'll make a paper template for this so it's easy to mark out for next time.


http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/IMGA0033.jpg
Same drill, and done. Not sure why I didn't take a picture of the final route, but believe me, it's there.

[John Coloccia]

http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/IMGA0034.jpg
A random shot of my clamp storage. It doesn't need to be any more complex than this. The slots were made by drilling holes at the rear of the slot, and then cutting the sides with a bandsaw. It's then just screwed onto a 2X4. Nothing fancy and it works very well.


http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/IMGA0035.jpg
Here's the top. Some moderately figured maple. I had already resawed and joined this top and had it laying around. I mark it, bandsaw out the shape (roughly).....



http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/IMGA0036.jpg
And clamp it. This is the last time I clamp it like this. I've been doing it like this for years. I just ordered 10 press screws and I will make a press for next time. Doing it like this is OK for an occasional builder, this is ridiculous considering how often I do this. LOL. My glue of choice for this is Titebond Extend, BTW.



http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00247.jpg
And here it is. I didn't bother to wipe up any drips. They'll just get routed away in the next step anyhow.


http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00248.jpg
I simply take it back over to the router table and route the top flush, extending the bit high enough to knock off the glue drips too. BTW, here's how an expensive Whiteside bit cuts.....



http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00249.jpg
And here's how a piece of junk "Carbtech" bit cuts. This bit came out of a cheap set I bought years and years ago. I think this is just the second time I've used this bit. I just wanted to see how it worked. What a piece of junk. I tossed it, and will probably just toss the entire set next time I think about it.


http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00250.jpg
But there you have it...the basic body blank. The hole at the top is where I drove a screw to help align the top to the back. I just drove it through the neck pocket location.

[John Coloccia]

http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00251.jpg
Now on to the neck.....I'm not very organized, but there is SOME method to my madness. At least my fingerboard are neatly stacked and stickered.


http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00252.jpg
Here's some nice honduran mahogany neck wood. I need to cut more blanks soon.


http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00253.jpg
Here is why you cut blanks ahead of time and let them sit around. Can you guess which one I'm NOT going to use for a neck? I will take that one and probably use it for heels, headstock "wings" and things of that nature. The other two are OK.


http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00254.jpg
I cleaned up the blank (it was rough off the bandsaw so I squared it all up) and then did the layout for the truss rod. Again, out comes that pattern.


http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00257.jpg
Now at this point, it's fairly important that you establish a centerline. It doesn't actually have to be on the center, but after routing the truss channel, wherever that channel ends up IS your centerline forever more. I'm sure to mark this all around. If I just mark it on top, I will loose it when I route the truss rod, so I'm sure to mark it down the sides too.


http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00259.jpg
I use this little "centering" tool to help line everything up.


http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00261.jpg
The little piece of tape on the fence has a mark on it that represents the end of the router bit. In this particular case, I do not want to route all the way down the neck blank...I want it to stop. On my standard neck I would just route from one end to the other and not have to worry about stopping.


http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00262.jpg
I find having the router on a foot switch to be supremely convenient.


http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00263.jpg
Anyhow, done. Again, no rocket science here.


http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00265.jpg
Here's the fit.


http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00266.jpg
Now I make a filler strip to go on top of the truss rod. I COULD have fit the rod flush and not used a strip but my experience is that this can leave the rod slightly loose and lead to a rattle. When this strip goes in it will compress the top of the rod a bit and the whole thing will be very tight and will never rattle. I'm just sizing this strip with my little Lie-Neilsen model maker plane. Note that I'm just using a bench dog as a stop. No need for anything more complicated than this.


http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00267.jpg
Tada.


http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00269.jpg
Some small globs of caulk at the bottom of the channel...again this will prevent rattles. It will also prevent the rod from "singing" by making sure there's always something in contact with it to dampen it.


http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00270.jpg
The threads get a bit of oil and then vaseline, and in it goes...filler strip goes on top with a bit of glue, and....


http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00271.jpg
Done.

[John Coloccia]

http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00273.jpg
Then it just all gets planed flush. I also cut out around the truss rod nut.



http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00264.jpg
Hey, I forgot to mention that I square off the truss rod channel with a chisel....this is out of sequence, but you can't forget to do that.


http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00274.jpg
Now we'll make some pockets for carbon fibre rods. I've been doing this around the heel area, lately. I'm starting to notice that a very stiff heel seems to help keep the bass notes from getting too flubby. I can't explain it but I have to go with my observations, and that's what I've been observing. So now I use a couple of short pieces of carbon fibre to really stiffen up that area. Again, just down on the router table, and again I will square up the slots.


http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00275.jpg
And in they go....


http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00276.jpg
With filler strips on top and on the end too. It looks sloppy at the end but that will all get cut away. I just used scrap wood as filler...whatever I had handy. You'll notice on one strip that there's a chunk missing. I was a bit too aggressive and ripped out a chunk of wood. I will probably just leave it and not even bother fixing this. If it wasn't a prototype, I would simply remove it and redo that one piece, but it's really completely unnecessary. The only reason I would do it is so if someone works on the guitar in the future, he doesn't come away thinking I'm a bad and sloppy builder. This is just a prototype so I won't bother.


http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00277.jpg
Then I went ahead and trimmed the end of the neck....now it all looks nice and neat again. For you SawStop guys, like me, remember that carbon fibre is conductive.....be careful around your machine. Notice the marking on the neck. I'm getting ready to thickness and taper the neck. These marking will tell me where to start and stop.



http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00278.jpg
I tack glue some blocks right on these marks with a few drops of white glue.



http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00279.jpg



http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00280.jpg
This particular neck will be slightly (.01") thinner than my standard neck. My standard neck tapers from .82 at the first fret to .9 at the 12th. This neck will go .81" at the first to .89 at the 12th. My fingerboard is .250", so without the fingerboard I need the neck to be .640" at the 12th fret. Here's something I do a lot. I set my calipers to the proper measurement and then I use that to mark.

[John Coloccia]

http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00281.jpg
Here's the standard taper jig....big letters reminding me which way things go.


http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00282.jpg
It has my standard taper built in.


http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00283.jpg
I use double sided tape to stick the neck down and bring it over to the drill press with a Wagner Safe-T-Planer in it. Regrettably, this is a discontinued product due to the guy retiring. He made them right here in the USA. You can get a similar one made in China somewhere, but it's a piece of junk. Better than nothing, I suppose, but the Wagner version is a thing of beauty. I'm still a bit upset knowing that if something happens to this one, I'm out of luck and will need to rethink a bunch of my building steps.


http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00284.jpg
I use an auxiliary table with the SafeTPlaner. Notice the sheet of paper underneath the left front side of the table That ensures that leading edge of the tool is always the lowest point. If you don't do this, the tool can grab very unpredictable and you will not have a good time. Also, you run this thing FAST... I crank it to as fast as my drill press will go....3000RPM in my case. If you don't read the directions and you don't do these two things, this tool will not work well. A lot of people complain about this tool but I think it's because they don't us it the way it's meant to be used and they never read the directions.


http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00285.jpg
So there you have it.....



http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00286.jpg
This is now the finished dimension of the neck. It's just SLIGHTLY thicker than necessary, actually but that will come down during final sanding.



http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00287.jpg
I noticed a little imperfection around the heel area so I brought it back over to the DP, and remove the heel entirely, just continuing the taper. Then I glued on a new heel. That fixes that....it's acceptable to do a stacked heel.


That's all for tonight.

[Ted Calver]

John,
The step-by-step and photos are very much appreciated!!

[John Coloccia]

Sorry it's been a while since I had some updates, but I had some repair work to do. I've been working this on and off for a few days, snapping pictures here and there. The majority of the work was done today, though...

Anyhow, here goes:

http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00288.jpg
So we end up with this heel....it's all oversize at the moment. I can trim it all off later.


http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00289.jpg
Next, I get to work on a fingerboard. Like most of my guitars, this has a Pau Ferro fingerboard, my current favorite by far. I will thickness it in the drum sander, and then square an edge


http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00290.jpg
That edge is used against the fence on my fret slot jig. This setup is no more. The motor has developed far too much play and has been replaced with a small, old 'arn radial arm saw. I need to redo my jig to accommodate the different saw, but I think my accuracy will improve.



http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00291.jpg
Voila...a slotted fingerboard


http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00293.jpg
I still haven't decided on how to hold in the nut, so I cut the nut slot Fender style just in case. I can trim it flush or do something different later on.


BTW, someone once asked me how I align my jigs to the blade.


http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni%20Proto/DSC00295.jpg
I clamp a couple of squares to the blade, and line them up with a straight edge


http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni%20Proto/DSC00296.jpg
And then I align the jig to the squares.

[John Coloccia]

Now it's time to layout the headstock. I like keeping my designs simple and to the point. Remove what doesn't belong, and don't add what's not necessary. After a bit of head scratching and brainstorming with the old ball and chain (who's lovingly looking over my shoulder as I write this), I came up with a simple little design, and did all of the layout work.


http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00297.jpg
Knowing how to do basic drafting and transferring measurements using things like a compass are a real time saver here. Then I put some tracing paper on top, copied over the outline....


http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00298.jpg
Glued it to some MDF with spray adhesive.....



http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00299.jpg
Cut it out with the bandsaw....


http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00300.jpg
And finally smoothed it to perfection with drum sanders, rasps, files, whatever it takes. BTW, this template is a little wider than the widest neck I ever intend to make. It's designed to be used in two steps. Line up one end with the fingerboard and route, and then do the same with the other side. My 3+3 headstock is simply oversized on both side, gets lined up with the centerline, and I blend the neck into the headstock by hand. Either way is fine, but having a template designed for an exact fit every time sure is convenient.



http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00301.jpg
Now let's get back to the fingerboard. I tape it down to my tapering template (shown), rough cut on the bandsaw, and trim on the router table. Then I will lay out for the fret markers, if any



http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00302.jpg
Here's how I find the exact center of the fret quickly. I measure the fret......


http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00303.jpg
Divide by 2, set the calipers to that measurement and use them to make a little mark in the masking tape that I then darken with pencil. Perfect everytime.


http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00304.jpg
I buy most of my mother of pearl from Masecraft in Connecticut. Their selection is ridiculous and everything is very high quality. The little dots you see are side markers....


http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00305.jpg
But we're looking for the 1/4" fret markers. Any bigger than 1/4" and you will have trouble fitting them when you get to the upper frets.


http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00306.jpg
No rocket science here. I use a forstener bit to drill the holes. The most important part is that they are absolutely centered on the center line. Even a small deviation here will be obvious. For markers that are off center (such as the second marker at the 12th fret), I will make it slightly deeper than I think it needs to be. Once the fingerboard is radiused, it would be disastrous to find that I wasn't deep enough at the edges. I would never be able to make a clean hole again. If I'm too deep, it's no big deal. I'll just build up with a pinch of sawdust before installing the dot. These look a little wavy here, but it's just the frayed edges of the tape. I never get them absolutely perfect, but usually they're pretty good :)

[John Coloccia]

http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00307.jpg
Here's a new technique I learned for aligning the fingerboard during the glueup. Put it in position, line it up, and tack glue some guide blocks to the neck. All that will get cut off later anyhow.



http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00308.jpg
It makes a little channel....




http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00309.jpg
Glue onto the fingerboard....


http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00310.jpg
Slide it into the channel, and clamp.


http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00313.jpg
When it's dry, knock off the guide blocks and done. This isn't a bad way of doing it, actually.


http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00314.jpg
I trace out the headstock shape onto the headstock....



http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00315.jpg
And rough cut it on the band saw


http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00316.jpg
I also mark and cut the thickness of the headstock....again, just done on the bandsaw


http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00317.jpg
The last little cut to release the waste is done by hand with my trusty Veritas crosscut saw. I love these saws. I'm just using a dog as a bench hook.

[John Coloccia]

http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00318.jpg
Tada



http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00319.jpg
Now I start to roughly carve the transition into the headstock


http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00320.jpg
With one of these bad boys


http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00321.jpg

And then I'll use spindle or belt sanders to smooth out the shape a bit. This is still rough...it's just getting rid of a lot of waste.



http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00322.jpg
The final shaping is down by hand. Notice how I knocked off the Fender nut slot. I decided a couple of days ago that I didn't like that after, and that I would do something a little different, but try to pay homage to the original Fender design.


http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00323.jpg
I marked off, using a dummy nut that I keep around for such purposes, where I want the slot to be.

[John Coloccia]

http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00324.jpg
Then I grab my trusty Veritas crosscut saw again and cut precisely to the inside of that line. Okay, sometimes you can get close and trim later. This is not one of those times. You want to make a precise cut, and all those hours spent ruining drawer sides will pay off here.


http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00325.jpg
I monitor both sides. To the left, I insure that I am exactly kissing the inside of the pencil line with the saw kerf


http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00326.jpg
...and on the right side I am monitoring my cut for plumb....when the reflection makes a straight line, it's plumb. Usually, you could monitor for plumb on the same side as your mark, but I don't have any wood there! Poor planning on my part, but this is why we make prototypes.



http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00327.jpg
Then I do the same to the inside position. Notice the slot looks crooked but it's not. The end of the fingerboard is slightly crooked where it meets the headstock, but the headstock is swooping up at that point too, so it's kind of following the swoop of the headstock instead of the centerline. I haven't decided that I like that look yet...I've been going back and forth. I can straighten it out later so I leave it like this for now.



http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni%20Proto/DSC00328.jpg
Then I cut out the waste with a small chisel...


http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni%20Proto/DSC00329.jpg
Clean everything up with a bit of sand paper, and voila, a basic neck blank ready for radiusing and shaping.

Somewhere along the line, I made a pass on the router table to even of the edges of the neck with the fingerboard, and then blended the headstock into the neck. There's no magic there....just a bit of work with a draw knife, paring chisels, and Iwasaki files.


I think tommorow, I will rough carve the neck, radius the fingerboard, install the mother of pearl, finish off the headstock, and cut the pocket for the neck. This will be a bolt on neck, BTW, but the process is identical for my glue in necks up to this point. A bolt on neck requires a bit of additional work at this point to install the hardware, loosen the fit, etc etc. From there, I can locate the bridge, and thus the pickups and controls, and then finish carving the body. Really, there's just another day or two's worth of work in this thing before I transition to finishing, assuming everything goes well.

[John Coloccia]

http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00332.jpg
Here's by neck pocket jig, shamefully stolen from David Myka. Mine has no angle built into it, though. I build any neck angle into the heal. In this case, 0 degrees.



http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00333.jpg
The body gets taped down to the centerline.



http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00334.jpg
At the far end is a centerfinder ruler precisely aligned with the centerline as well.



http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00335.jpg
Myka uses a bearing bit on his jig, but I made what I think is an improvement. I use a bushing. To get the proper offset, I have these little things I made out of Walnut and MDF that are precisely 1/8" thick. Then I stick the neck between the straight edges, and clamp it down tight, careful to align the neck more of less wherever I want it to end up (there's some play here, but not much. Then I carefully align the whole thing so my neck's centerline is on the body's centerline, and the far end of the straight edges have the same reading on the centerfinder ruler. This is a very precise way of doing this.



I tighten it all down and remove the clamps, ending up with this:
http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00336.jpg
A custom neck template that is perfectly sized and perfectly aligned.



http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00338.jpg
The rest is pretty conventional. I route it out with a plunge base. I did put a couple of layers of tape on the edges, and then removed it for a final cleanup pass...I get very nice results that way. Notice the tearout near the feathered edge. Pay that no mind...it will be squared off later. I could never have a feathered edge like that survive on a bolt on neck If this were for a set neck, or if it had binding, I would actually offset the center line just a touch to leave me between 1/32" and a 1/16" at that edge. The body template is built to accommodate that. You wouldn't think it, but there's actually a lot of planning that goes into new designs. Starting from kits or at least plans for the first time builder is really a great help.


http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00339.jpg
And done. Really not complex at all. Setting up the jig is a bit fiddly, and it would be simpler to just make a neck pocket template, but then I'm locked into using one neck design. Doing it like this allows me to use whatever profile a customer fancies without concerning myself with custom templates for everyone



http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00340.jpg
There are two ways to approach the front of the heel. You can round the heel to fit the pocket, or you can square off the pocket to fit the heel. I square off the pockets...I think it's a more refined look. The rounded heel just looks like everything came straight off a router or a CNC machine, and slapped in there....which is essentially what happens in the factories, BTW. So I mark it out and with a medium sized Taylor paring chisel, I square it off. Actually, I undercut the corners slightly, and allow the neck to rest on the middle of the front edge. It's slight, but this way even if I get a bit of finish, polishing compound, dirt or whatever in the corner, it won't impeded the neck from seating properly.


http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00341.jpg
And this is what the end result should look like. You should be able to pound in the neck, and confidently pickup the guitar with no reservations whatsoever. Now, I would never ship a guitar like this. I couldn't even GLUE in a guitar like this....there's no room for glue. For a set neck, I would slightly loosen the joint until I could get it in and out with just a a bit of pushing and wiggling. For a bolt-on, like this one, I will loosen the joint to the point that I'm confident someone won't have to yank on it so hard to remove that they will blow out a corner....snug, but just barely.



http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00342.jpg
Finally, I square off that feathered edge. Nothing fancy here. Again, just a sharp paring chisel.

[John Coloccia]

Time for some neck work.

http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00343.jpg
I choose to use vintage style tuners on this guitar. The holes need to be drilled absolutely precisely or they won't line up properly because they have to fit end to end. Here I am test fitting in the headstock template.


http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00344.jpg
Nice.


http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00345.jpg
I tape the template to the back.


http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00346.jpg
...and the cutoff I saved from the front to prevent tearout. It doesn't matter that much, actually, because the front will get enlarged with a piloted reamer to fit the bushings, but I try to be a little neat anyway.


http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00347.jpg
I used a transfer punch to transfer the tuner locations to the back of the neck.


http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00348.jpg
Then just drilled them out on the drill press.


http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00349.jpg
Reamed the front for the bushings....


http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00350.jpg
Eyeballed the screw locations with an awl, drilled the pilot, and done. Personally, I don't like this style tuner, but I wanted something a little different. I'll probably not use these again unless I have a special request for them, but every now and then I like to change it up a bit.


http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00351.jpg
Then I loosened up the fit of the neck with my little Lie-Nielsen modelmakers plane. I'm just taking off dust, practically. Just a touch at a time.


http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00352.jpg
And then I stand back and have a look. If there's something I want to change, now is the time. This is really just a sanity check before I start drilling holes. I'm satisfied.


http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00353.jpg
I have a little template that I use on all my standard neck/heels to mark the screw locations.


http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00354.jpg
First I drill the counterbore with a forstner bit. The ones near the lower horn are deeper, with the deepest one being the one nearest the edge of the body. This is to accommodate the carved heel that I use.


http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00355.jpg
Then I insert the neck and match drill a pilot for the screws, using the mark from the forstner as my center. I just do this by hand as it's awkward to do it on a drill press. With a little practice, drilling a plumb hole (or close enough to plumb) is just not that hard. Finally, I remove the neck, drill the clearance hole in the body, insert my "dummy" hardware, and test fit the whole thing. We're good :) The dummy hardware, btw, is just a set of countersunk washers that I've filed to loosen up the fit. The real ones are just too hard to get back out once I stick them in there.


http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00356.jpg
Before removing the neck, I mark the location of the body so I have a guide to carve the neck. I can't go even a smidge past that mark or the neck will no longer fit flat and it will look funny.


At this point, the neck and body only need to be matched one more time in order to determine the bridge location and perform a final sanity check before drilling those holes. Other than that, all that's left is final shaping of the neck and body, and those are both done separately. I will probably finish that tommorow, route the pickup and control cavities, and fit the bridge. Then it's off to finish. With any luck, the body will be in the booth sometimes Saturday (no grain filling required). The neck is mahogany so it will need some filling. Also, I like to fret before applying the finish so any minor slip ups will just disappear. I also need to drill for the side markers. With luck, I can start applying finish to the neck Sunday some time. We'll see.

[Ted Calver]

John,
Thanks again for the update. The pictures and step by step are very helpful and I'm grateful you take the time to post.

[John Coloccia]

So everything up until now has mostly been the instrument equivalent of stock preparation. Right here is where the rubber hits the road....carving.


http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00357.jpg
Here's my neck carving fixture. It has an angled piece on it for carving my 14 degree headstocks, but this one is a straight headstock. No problem...I though about that when I built it and made the 14 degree part removable....




http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00358.jpg
Like that. :)




http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00359.jpg
So clamp the neck in like so. During the carving, I can flip the whole fixture around (it's just clamped into the bench vise, or move it right out to the edge of the bench. In this shot, you can see I've started blending the headstock into the neck.



http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00360.jpg
Then I blend the heel into the neck. Also, detail of my high tech clamping mechanism. Patent Pending.



http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00361.jpg
Then I start to round it, mostly with the drawknife at first. You can do the whole thing with rasps but it will take a long time.




http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00362.jpg
I don't use a contour gauge very much. I rely on my eyes and hands to feel what's going on. These are handmade guitars...if you want a perfectly CNC'd neck shaft, buy the guitar somewhere else. The only claim I make is my necks feel nice. For SMC purposes, though, here's what the contour looks like. I generally try to get a circular profile because that's what I find comfortable, but really any shape is possible. Notice the flat spot on top. The center of the neck is still straight off the tapering fixture and is the correct height. I'll not blend that in until the very end.



http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00363.jpg
Here are the tools that are used, BTW. Spokeshave, Dragon rasps, Iwasaki carving files...nothing exotic. One good rasp and sandpaper would do too, but it would be harder and take longer.



http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00364.jpg
I don't go right to the shape...I take a little off here, a little off there until I get it. Sometimes I'll make straight facets and then blend them. It all depends on my mood. This time, because it's just a quick prototype, I'm just winging it



http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00365.jpg
The heel area has a lot going on and can be tough to get right. Here I am roughing out some of the basic contours.

[John Coloccia]

http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00366.jpg
Notice how I carve right into the fingerboard. Not everyone does this....some do, some don't. I definitely do. I try to treat the fingerboard as just another part of the neck. The white charcoal on the side is there so I can monitor my progress.


http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00367.jpg
At this point, I've probably switched to sandpaper and am starting to blend my tool marks...it's starting to look nice.



http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00368.jpg
The headstock transition was fighting me. Here I am fiddling with it. It took some time to figure out what to do with it....it's a bit of an odd shape. I eventually got it later on.



http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00370.jpg
The heel is pretty standard, though, so it came along without much trouble.



http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00371.jpg
Now it's time to radius the fingerboard. I do this after shaping the neck because shaping will cause the neck to move as wood is removed. I want the radius process to leave me with a dead flat neck. So I start by marking it with the white charcoal again...




http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00372.jpg
So I can monitor my progress. You can see that I've started knocking down the edges.




http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00373.jpg
Now, there are a number of ways to approach this process. Best would be to "swing" the fingerboard with Grizzly's sander. As much as I'd like to have one, I don't right now. You could just use the sanding form you see clamped to my bench there, and go back and forth for 20 minutes. That works fine too, but is slow. You can use hand planes, belt sanders, scrapers, etc. Personally, I take it over to the belt sander for a few seconds and get a radius going. Then I finish it up in the sanding form. By varying pressure points and constant measuring, I can not only radius the fingerboard but make it absolutely pin straight.


http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00374.jpg
Here it is in process. The apex of the curve isn't perfectly centered but I will fix that by leaning to one side a bit.




http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00375.jpg
Generally, when you're dealing with these sorts of wood, and especially doing a lot of sanding, please be sure to wear one of these...



http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00378.jpg
Or better yet, one of these....



http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00382.jpg
So when I say we're going to get it flat, I mean flat. Here I am "candling" the fingerboard to check for straightness. This will make leveling the frets much easier later on. If I did this before shaping the neck, once I started removing material from the back, the neck would move and all this hard work would be ruined.


http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00383.jpg
I'm satisfied. The fingerboard is straight, all the white marks are gone (except just the tiniest bit at the end of the fingerboard where it doesn't matter)....


http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00384.jpg
And the apex of the curve is centered. Time to move on.


http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00385.jpg
I like to site from the nut end too to make sure I didn't introduce a twist. Now is the time to fix any nonsense like that.

[John Coloccia]

http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni%20Proto/DSC00386.jpg
Just a random shot of all the wood that ends up on the floor. I think that pile's from the last two necks :)




http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni%20Proto/DSC00387.jpg
Now I install the fret markers. I left them out until after I radiused the neck because mother of pearl is HARD. It could very easily push me off line, especially because my 12th fret marker is asymmetrical. Often times I will install the ones on the center line, and leave the second 12th fret marker for later, but this time I just did them all afterwards for whatever reason. They're just held in with a drop of super glue.




http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni%20Proto/DSC00388.jpg
The StewMac fret leveling file is perfect for leveling the mother of pearl and any super glue. I use this same file for beveling my fret ends. I also use it for leveling the side dot markers. Really the only thing I NEVER use it for is fret leveling. LOL



http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni%20Proto/DSC00389.jpg
Tada. I made a quick cleanup pass on the radiusing form again, and time to move on.



http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni%20Proto/DSC00390.jpg
I also installed the side dot markers.



http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni%20Proto/DSC00391.jpg
And now back to final shaping of the neck. The contours are almost all correct now, and it's looking nice.



http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni%20Proto/DSC00392.jpg
http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni%20Proto/DSC00393.jpg
It's very easy to end up with a convex shape at the heel and the headstock, but that leaves wood in place that doesn't belong. I like them to have a nice, concave shape. I finally figured out what to do with the headstock....it was sort of a funny shape but I finally got it under control. Just a mental block on my end I had to work through.



http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni%20Proto/DSC00394.jpg
Now it's really starting to look like a real guitar.



http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni%20Proto/DSC00395.jpg
A shot of how the heel blends into the body. Overall, it seems OK. I don't see anything that's standing out as terrible, so I'll get back to work on the body.



http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni%20Proto/DSC00396.jpg
First, I establish the REAL centerline, based on the neck. Sometimes this lines up perfectly with the top's centerline....sometimes not. It's often off by just a touch...usually not enough to matter either way, but why not get it perfect? I use a long straight edge (actually a 36" Starrett ruler....that's as straight as it needs to be, believe me). Then I measure the same distance from a fret...in this case, I think I measured from the 12th fret....and mark it along the lines you drew down the neck. Now go back to geometry class, grab a compass, and make two circles centered on the marks you just made. Voila, a centerline between two lines that aren't parallel.



http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni%20Proto/DSC00397.jpg
And that's enough for today. I just want to see what it will look like with the bridge on it. I didn't get as far as I wanted to today. It's my wife's off Friday, so I decided to goof off a bit too. Tomorrow, SOMETHING will transition to a finishing step of some point if I have to work till midnight!

[John Coloccia]

John,
Thanks again for the update. The pictures and step by step are very helpful and I'm grateful you take the time to post.

It's kind of fun to have someone looking over my shoulder in the shop :)

[Kevin L. Waldron]

Great Job John!!

Maybe this drawing will help novice know where your going.....

kevin

226072

[John Coloccia]

Great Job John!!

Maybe this drawing will help novice know where your going.....

kevin

226072

Thanks, Kevin. I was a bit hesitant to post a prototype at first because there are inevitably mistakes and missteps along the way. This one really hasn't been too bad. The headstock transition really fought me. I will approach it differently on the next one, but this one is good enough for now.

Do you CNC guitars, Kevin?

[John Coloccia]

And the beat goes on...no rest for the wicked.


http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00398.jpg
Time to locate the bridge. I took my paper template, and made a sharp bend at the nut. This will hook over the nut slot and index the whole template.



http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00399.jpg
Then I marked 25" and change for the bridge screw holes. Normally you would have to calculate this out yourself based on the bridge, HOWEVER if it's a bridge that StewMac happens to carry, you can use their fret position calculator and it will spit out the correct bridge SCREW location for your specific bridge. VERY useful. Here's the calculator. http://www.stewmac.com/freeinfo/Reference/Calculators/i-fretcalc.html Brilliant!



http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00400.jpg
And voila, the bridge is mounted. Nothing fancy here...just measuring, marking and drilling.



http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00401.jpg
Now to transfer the string through holes. I chuck a transfer punch into my drill press, and mark. The bridge is too thin for the punch to stay vertical on it's own.



http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00402.jpg
Here are the marks, and I drill about and inch down with an 1/8" bit.



http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00403.jpg
Then I tool another 1/8" bit, and cut off the shank with bolt cutters. I drilled a hole in my table, and stuck the 1/8" stub in there. This is an indexing pin.



http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00404.jpg
WITHOUT MOVING ANYTHING, I turn the body over and use the 1/8" stub to index the body under the drill bit. Then I use the 1/8" brad point mounted in the drill press to mark the correct locations.



http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00404.jpg
I draw a straight line to double check my marking. There's always one that's off...LOL. I don't worry about it. I just fix it when I drill the actual hole. I go through all this trouble because it's nearly impossible to drill a perfectly straight hole that's almost 2" deep. Sure, it will be close enough and it will work, but this is one of those places where if you're off even just a touch, it will look absolutely terrible. You can be off a little, but not much.



http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00405.jpg
I'm using countersunk ferrules on this one. Overall, not too bad. It's looks off in this shot, but it's actually pretty straight and even.



http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni%20Proto/DSC00407.jpg
Then I chamfer the holes on top...



http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni%20Proto/DSC00409.jpg
And I do the bottom by hand

[John Coloccia]

http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00410.jpg
Now I take the routing template, and carefully line it up with the centerline and the through holes. This is a StewMac template, btw.



http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00411.jpg
I remove a lot of the waste with a forstner bit, and then route it out. Very straightforward. The one thing to watch is that these templates are very thin. For the first pass, be sure that the bearing rides on the template AND that the bit is slightly into the template too. Too far one way, and you miss the template (making a horrible mess). Too deep and the bit won't catch the wood right under the template. These templates should be another 1/16" thicker. Oh well. They're usable. In this shot, you can also see the channels I routed way back when. Those will be for the pickup wires.

One more thing to watch routing is that when you get deep enough, if you let the bearing get too deep, it will fall into one of the routes and make a BIG mess. Be sure the bearing is always riding on something! Typically, I'll make a route, remove the template, route again, plunge, and finish. These routes are about 1" deep, and I usually knock it off in 3 or 4 passes.



http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00412.jpg
Out comes the magic template and do the same for the neck pickup.



http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00413.jpg
Stick it down....


http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00414.jpg
And route



http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00415.jpg
Hey...it's looking like something!



http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00416.jpg
To lay out the control cavity cover, Leo did us a favor. The forward screw lines up with the front of the bridge. This is a simple matter of drawing some lines, making some measurements, and done.



http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00418.jpg
Here's the general layout.



http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00419.jpg
Now I have to make a template....I usually don't go into this much detail, but I wanted to give an idea of the process. I'm using a bushing for this. I prefer to use a bushing for the deeper routes. This one goes 1 1/2". Now, there are all these fiddly measurement and things to transfer to a template. There are a number of ways to do that. You can mark and measure, and then try to cut out a template perfectly.....



http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni%20Proto/DSC00420.jpg
Or you can rip some MDF the correct width, sandwich it between two other pieces of MDF, and done. LOL. The other way of doing it is just too hard. I've never seen this method of making a straight template described anywhere, but I'm sure others must do it like this too. Well, consider it described!



http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni%20Proto/DSC00421.jpg
Here's a test route on a scrap piece from the burn pile. Looks like the same piece I tested my tuner template spacing on.



http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni%20Proto/DSC00423.jpg
Well, I screwed up the positioning of the template. I goofed on a measurement. That's why it's offset towards the lower mounting hole. It's OK....I got away with it. I double checked it before I routed so I knew I wouldn't go TOO far, but it's off, not perfect. The mounting plate will still go in the correct location, though. I asked an experienced builder once, "Boy, you must be very good at fixing mistakes by the time you get to your level." He smiled and said, "I am, but I make very small mistakes these days. At this point, I usually see the big ones coming." Thankfully, mine are starting to get smaller too. I caught the first 2 wrong positionings before removing wood!



http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni%20Proto/DSC00422.jpg
And the test fit.....nice.


At this point, there is no more machine work left except sanding. There is still the body left to carve (heel and belly carve), and that will be done by hand. Rounding the edges I do by hand. I think I have a pretty typical mix of hand work and machine work. Machines for the grunt work, and hand work for shaping, fitting, jointing, etc. More to come tomorrow :)

[Kevin L. Waldron]

John,

You have got this project going your way...... looks great...... and I like your explanation for what and why you do things........ including a rear peghead 3d and a 3d of the holes/cavities for a graphical view for others to see why you did what you did.... with the holes/pickup - template things. ( for me.... if I can see what I'm supposed to be doing graphically it just helps me visualize the process and why I need certain templates etc. )

Blessings,

Kevin

226174226175

[Bobby O'Neal]

John, will there be any additional shaping on the headstock?

[John Coloccia]

John, will there be any additional shaping on the headstock?


You mean beyond the paddle shape? Nope. I like being very minimalistic in my design. For this headstock, I set out to see what would happen if I removed all of the wood that I possibly could and just let that drive the design. When I was done, it turns out that I had redesigned Parker's headstock. Well, I can't use that of course, so I had to add a little back. Still, I tried to find a balance between removing everything that's not necessary and still vaguely implying the original Fender shape.

[John Coloccia]

http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00424.jpg
Just some finishing touches. I want to drill this jack hole before smoothing the sides. I know you're not really supposed to use these in a hand drill, but I do. I just eyeball the location, and then eyeball the correct angle.




http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00425.jpg
Got lucky again! LOL.




http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00426.jpg
Then I start to block the sides. The better you block sand your woodworking, the easier it will be to level and buff the finish. It's difficult to emphasize how important it is to get the wood flat and level before applying finish. Before I do the belly and heel carve, I want to have the sides block sanded to 80 grit so that I can complete the carving without anything changing later on.



http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00427.jpg
Ommmmmmmmmmm

No, I'm not pondering life. I close my eyes and run my hands along the edge, feeling for the slightest bumps or imperfections. Touch can be incredibly sensitive. I can certainly feel far smaller imperfections than I could ever hope to measure outside of a metrology lab. When the guitar is final buffed, you will see small imperfections in the form of wavy reflections. That's not the worst thing in the world, and I'm not really the world's greatest finisher, but I'd like to be one day and this is were it starts....surface prep.





http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00428.jpg
I have various different tools I use for this. I have a cork sanding block, some Iwasaki files, and various shop made sanding blocks. Here's one of my favorites. Just on old closet pole wrapped with leather. I use this EVERYWHERE and don't know what
I'd do without it.





http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00431.jpg
Now that the sides are nice and flat, I vaguely pencil is the heel and belly carves. I won't follow these lines exactly, but I find them useful when I'm roughing it out. I can't afford to have it take all day so I'm pretty aggressive and having a line to work to helps.



http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00432.jpg
I also pencil in a rough line on the other side. Again, I don't exactly follow this line. I just use it so I can be aggressive and will know when to stop. Ultimately the final carving will go wherever my eyes and hands tell me it should go. I didn't take any good pictures of the process for some reason. Basically, I knock off a bunch of wood very quickly with an Ibex convex palm plane. Then I smooth it out a bit with a smaller flat bottomed plane. Finally, I make the final shape with rasps, Iwasakis and sanding blocks....whatever it takes.

I'm very careful, just as on the neck carving, to not let the carves get a bulbous, convex look going. It should be a nice, crisp, mostly flat look. That's just my style and what I like. I just think it's a very modern and clean look. It will get smoothed out during final sanding and I will intentionally soften the edges, but I want to start with crisp edges.

Here's a little video my wife took of some of the roughing. It's only a few seconds long but shows just how aggressive you can really be with the Ibex palm plane. Everyone has this vision in their head of guitar builders sitting in an old dusty shop, with glue pots bubbling all around, candles burning and lovingly fitting tiny pieces to each other with the care of a Swiss watchmaker. The reality is that this can be a very physical task sometimes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JET_zUfgQEQ
Just look at those huge chips flying out of the plane. The right plane, a bad attitude and a bunch of elbow grease and sweat make short work of the body carving.




http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00434.jpghttp://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00436.jpg
The end results....





http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00437.jpg

I test these with my hand. If I find it comfortable, surely there's someone else out there that will find it comfortable too. You can see that this fits my hand almost perfectly. I don't feel the heel at all when I'm playing, and that's how I like it.


http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00438.jpg
It's Sunday, so it will be a short work day for me. I'm back on the neck, getting it ready for fretting. I hit the fingerboard with sandpaper up to P400. I have a small StewMac wooden sanding block for this. At this point, clean the fret slots, fix any chips, and sand. I also SLIGHTLY round over the fingerboard edges......and I do mean slightly. Just enough to break the edge and make it comfortable.




http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00440.jpg
Then I oil the board and buff it with a soft cloth. The end result is a silky smooth fingerboard, especially on this Pau Ferro.


And that's it for tonight.

[Shawn Pixley]

Very cool. What radius do you make the neck. Is it a compound or conical radius? From the look of the way you made it, my thinking is it must be. Do you use the Stew Mac gauge to check or is it just feel?

[John Coloccia]

Very cool. What radius do you make the neck. Is it a compound or conical radius? From the look of the way you made it, my thinking is it must be. Do you use the Stew Mac gauge to check or is it just feel?

I use a 12" cylindrical (i.e. straight) radius. I rough shape by eye with a belt sander and planes, and then I straighten everything out with 12" sanding form (the aluminum one from StewMac). If you look back a few posts, I talk about the process. I don't find much advantage to a conical, or compound, radius past 10" or so. 12" is flat enough that even with very low action, you don't fret out on big bends. I don't even setup my guitars as low as they can go. Most people are not comfortable below 1/16" of an inch, and at that point there's really no risk of fretting out. You can on 10" boards, and it's a major problem on 9" and vintage 7.25" boards. In fact, I changing my old 57' reissue into a compound radius for just this reason.

[Bobby O'Neal]

You mean beyond the paddle shape? Nope. I like being very minimalistic in my design. For this headstock, I set out to see what would happen if I removed all of the wood that I possibly could and just let that drive the design. When I was done, it turns out that I had redesigned Parker's headstock. Well, I can't use that of course, so I had to add a little back. Still, I tried to find a balance between removing everything that's not necessary and still vaguely implying the original Fender shape.


I dig it. And great instruments eventually start to look like a sound anyway. When I see a beautiful Gretsch, the senses that start to fire are related to sound much more than sight. Having said that, I really like the simplicity of the headstock as is.

[John Coloccia]

Time to fret.

http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/DSC00441.jpg
I'm using StewMac #152. First step is to bend it in this nifty bender. I made my own but eventually just bought a real one because it works so much better than the one I cobbled together.



http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/DSC00442.jpg
There's a shot of how it's over bent a bit.



http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/DSC00443.jpg
I cut them all to length...



http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/DSC00444.jpg
And stick them in my fancy organizer. Since the fingerboard is tapered, they will all be different lengths.



http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/DSC00445.jpg
Then I use this tang nipper to cut back the tangs so they don't reach the end of the fingerboard. You don't have to do this. I usually don't do this anymore, but this time I decided to for old times sake.



http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/DSC00446.jpg
Recently, I've been pressing frets in using a caul in my drill press. I don't have an arbor press, though I should, so I use my drill press instead. First step is to knock in the ends so the fret doesn't tip when you start to press it in.



http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/DSC00447.jpg
Then I press them in, first with a smaller radius caul to get the ends down (in this case, a 9" radius), then with the same radius as the fingerboard (12" in this case), and them sometimes with a larger radius just to be sure the center is well seated (I used a 16"). The whole process doesn't take but 5 minutes. This is a very fast and precise method of fretting.




http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/DSC00448.jpg
The end result is a pretty fret job. The proof, though, is in how easily they level. If we did everything right to this point, I should be able to level these frets with just a couple of swipes.



http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/DSC00449.jpg
I straightened the neck best I could with the truss rod, and marked the tops of all the frets with red marker.



http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/DSC00450.jpg
Then I measured the fret heights...this is something I've been doing lately. I measure before and after to monitor how well I'm controlling the neck and the frets. Ideally, I should be at practically the same height before and after, meaning that I've managed to get everything straight to this point. I'm at .049".



http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/DSC00451.jpg
Out of convenience, I temporarily reattach the neck to the body. I've started final sanding on the body so I'm very careful not to let anything scratch or dent it at this point. I will even mask off around the neck so I don't get metal dust all over the place.



http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/DSC00452.jpg
After just a couple of passes with the leveling bar (just a ground metal bar with sandpaper stuck to it), all the red is gone from the top of the frets. That means all the frets are level with each other.



http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/DSC00453.jpg
As you can see, I've not really taken any metal off. I probably could have left these without leveling and it would have been fine. I read .048" before, and on some other random fret I'm at .051". In woodworking terms, those are identical measurements and what we're seeing are the minor variations in the wood AND in the actual fret material. I remeasured the original fret and it still measured .048"



http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/DSC00454.jpg
Then I use a short, 12" radius form with and gently sand up to 600 grit. This insures that I have maintained the 12" radius. I wouldn't be able to do this on a compound radius fingerboard.



http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/DSC00455.jpg
I nip all the frets as flush as I can....

[John Coloccia]

http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/DSC00456.jpg
And file them nice and flush.



http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/DSC00457.jpg
So here's what I have at this point.



http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/DSC00458.jpg
Then using the same file, I bevel them. I'm probably at 30 degrees or so. Maybe less? I'm not sure, but it's not much.



http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/DSC00459.jpg
Then I remark the frets with marker, and crown them. In this case, I've removed so little that it only takes a few strokes.

Then I crown them until I have just the smallest little flat left on top of the fret. That's this picture. You can see the line at the top of the fret. This small edge will then get lightly draw filed to smooth it out. I didn't take much pictures here, mostly because I was concentrating, but it's nothing fancy. Then I shaped the fret ends hit everything with micromesh.




http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/DSC00460.jpg
And here's what I end up with. Nice, comfortable, polished up frets.

[John Coloccia]

Well, today was my last scheduled day working at Woodcraft. It's been a nice 1 1/2 years. I'm staying on to sub every now and then, but I'll no longer be there one day a week. It was just taking up too much of my time. Anyhow, I didn't get home until 5:30pm (1331076600 for you software engineer types)

I had to go out to pickup some distilled water. This is actually fairly important depending on the kind of water you have in your house. I'm on a well with a softener, and it's VERY important for me. Maybe you're different.

I pretty much finished final sanding the body, and then rounding over the edges. I also softened all the transitions, but kept all the nice, straight lines. Besides feeling better, it's practically impossible getting finish to adhere and stay put on a sharp corner, especially during leveling and buffing. It's also a point where just the slightest wear will eventually rub through the finish. Mainly, though, I just want it to feel nice. No magic here. Just a ROS up to 220, hand block sanding on the sides and in the little nooks and crannies, rounding over/easing with 220 on a flexible pad by hand, and then final block sanding by hand with 320.

Then I mixed up some Dark Vintage Maple Transtint with some water to a nice dark tint, and applied it with a paper towel. I'm not afraid to get a lot on at this point. This will all get sanded off in the morning when it's all nice and dried, leaving the color just in the curl and "popping" the grain. Normally I like doing this with alcohol and a little shellac w/transtint instead of water, but this will be a waterborne finish so I'd rather raise the grain first anyhow. After sanding, I will raise the grain a little one more time and give a light sanding before starting the finishing schedule.

Even at this early stage, though, you can see how that otherwise unspectacular board can be made to come alive....and it will look better and more natural one I'm done with it....with any luck.

http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00462.jpg
This is after dyeing with the water and Transtint. I was careful not to get any down the sides. Why make more work than necessary? I'm not worried about blotching at this point, but I try to get an even tint anyway. How often do you get to practice something like that on a real piece with NO repercussions (since it will mostly get sanded off anyway)? I need all the practice I can get.


Here's a little video that just shows how the figure moves around with this treatment. It's hard to appreciate it with a static picture.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUcLehmT4YE&feature=youtu.be

So I'm a couple of days late because I didn't make as much progress as I should have on the weekend, but weekends are unpredictable work days. I think the body will be in the booth tomorrow. I will do grain filling on the neck tomorrow and may even be able to start the TruOil finish.

Then 3 days of spraying the body and applying TruOil to the neck, 5 days of drying/curing, and then leveling/buffing the body and rubbing out the neck. Should be fun :) Then all that's left is final assembly, cutting a nut, wiring and setup. I'm still waiting on my custom pickup. It should be here just as I need it, so I think everything will work out just right.

[John Coloccia]

I couldn't help myself. I sanded everything back with 320, and here is the end result...


http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00464.jpg
A nice, subtle popping of the figure. I'm not trying to be outrageous here. Some people go as far as to use a black dye. I want to keep the effect very light and natural. This is a matter of taste. Want more? Use a darker dye. Want less? Use less dye, or maybe just skip this step. About the only thing you can do to really screw it up is not sanding enough. You have to sand it back to the natural color of the wood. If you stop, you will end up with a blotchy and not very good looking job. If you sand too much, worst case is you add more dye and try again. I don't think I've ever sanded too much, though.

How subtle, btw? Here's an earlier shot. You can see the figure here, but it's just not quite as pronounced as what we have now.
http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00400.jpg

So it really is very much just taking the natural look of the wood and amplifying it a bit.

Tomorrow it will definitely make it into the spray booth, and we'll start to get a sense of what the finished product will look like.

[John Coloccia]

The pictures are going to get fewer and further between. It's difficult to take photos when you have all sorts of junk on your hands and you don't want to destroy the camera.


Anyhow, I mixed up some 1lb cut shellac, and mixed in a bit of "Vintage Amber" dye. It's a Transtint color, but I get it from StewMac. They claim the color is different than standard Transtints and more closely matches standard guitar colors. I don't know...all I know is that I that their Vintage Amber and Cherry are dead on what I'm looking for, so there's really no reason to spend time experimenting with anything else. Then I sprayed one coat.
http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00465.jpg
Here it is after one coat. It looks like a stronger color than it actually was in person.






http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00466.jpg
Then I lightly sanded it back, went back into the booth and sprayed 3 more coats. The last coat went on nice and wet. It sounds like a lot but it's only a 1lb cut. Basically, it's just a color vehicle and light sealer...there's really very little build to speak of.






http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00467.jpg
And the back..... Then it all has to be set aside to dry overnight.






http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00468.jpg
In the meantime, I went ahead and did final sanding on the neck, grain filling, and final final sanding. Then it got it's first two coats of TruOil. Very light coats wiped on with a clean bit of cloth. For grain filler, I used Timbermate, cut with water until I got the consistency about that of molasses....maybe a bit runnier. I didn't quite have the right color so I mixed in a couple of drops of dark mahogany Transtint until I got it just right. This has got to be the easiest grain filling technique in existence.






http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac335/jcoloccia/Giovanni Proto/DSC00469.jpg
Today, I went back and sprayed 2 healthy coats of 1.5lb cut shellac, and here's what we have. It's starting to come alive. Remember that this was not a highly figured board...a highly figured board with this treatment, using black dye instead of the brown I used, would look unreal.

Tomorrow, I will come back and do a preliminary leveling of the finish. Most of the 2 coats from today will get sanded off. I won't get it completely level, but I will get rid of any fuzz, dust, etc. Really just a wipe sanding, and then some minor leveling to get it reasonable for the top coat. My topcoat will be Target EM6000. I will probably spray about 10 to 15 coats, 3 or 4 coats a day, and then it will sit for a week. If I have to do any major leveling or sanding along the way because I screw up, then it will be closer to 15 coats. If I do a good job, I can get away with 10. The TruOil will get about 10 or 12 coats, 3 or 4 coats a days, and then it too will sit a week.

Once everything is dried and cured, the body will get leveled and buffed (with my new buffing arbor...WhooHoo...should be here Saturday) and the neck will get rubbed out with steal wool to a dull satin. When it comes to necks, I put feel above all else, and I just love the feel of a smooth, satin neck.

[John Coloccia]

Delays, delays. I've taken the last few days to reorganize the shop, but a real door on the spray booth, setup a real buffing machine, etc etc. I should be done tomorrow and back to spraying soon. ::::sigh:::: Hopefully, this will be the last shop reorganization for a year or two, but I had to move a LOT of things around to mount the buffing machine. You'll see....new shop tour coming soon, I would guess :)

[David Myers]

Thanks for this great thread. Please include some shots of your booth and buffing setup.

[John Coloccia]

Thanks for this great thread. Please include some shots of your booth and buffing setup.

More shots coming very soon. I had some other projects to knock off and this playing around had to take a back seat, but it's out of the booth and buffed, and I should be updating again either tonight or tomorrow :)

I'm still waiting on pickups, though...that's been the other problem. Apparently the Seymour Duncan custom shop is running behind....way behind.

[John Coloccia]

Well, the pickups are the holdup, here. I'm finding the Seymour Duncan custom shop to be near useless. Don't know if I'm just catching them at a bad time, or what, but I'm about ready to cancel the order. That's too bad as I think it would have made a nice match for this guitar, no pickup=no guitar and this is getting ridiculous now. Maybe I just need to start making my own. Seems like a poor use of my time.

[John Coloccia]

Bah...order cancelled.

Barden Modern-T bridge and TwoTone Neck on the way. Should be here Tuesday, and this guy should be finished Weds. Yay!

[Jim Tobias]

John,
What do you use to cut/nip your frets so close?

Jim

[John Coloccia]

John,
What do you use to cut/nip your frets so close?

Jim

Depending on my mood, either large flush cut nippers or large diagonal cutters. The trick is that the backs are ground right up to the cutting edge so you can get get very close to the fingerboard when you're nipping. I used to just make them myself from hardware store cutters, but now I just buy them.

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Fretting_supplies/Pullers,_nippers,_sizing/Fret_Cutter.html

http://www.lmii.com/CartTwo/thirdproducts.asp?CategoryName=Fretting&NameProdHeader=End+or+Fret+Cutters

and now you can get some from FastCap too. I've never tried them so I don't know how durable they are. The LMII ones (the "economy" ones...SPE) are just modified Channel Lock cutters. The cutters themsevles cost around $20.00, so $28 for pre modified ones is a good deal and there's no reason to make them myself anymore. They now have a "professional" cutter. I'm not sure what that is...it's a new product. It must have much harder jaws and works well on Stainless Steel. SS will destroy your tools in just a few sessions of fretting.

Now, of course grinding the backs and removing all that metal makes the edge less durable, so I have another set of unmodified Channel Lock diagonal cutters here that I use to cut the fretwire to size. I suspect the unmodified set in this role will last me many years and it cuts the wear on the more delicate cutters in half. When they get too dull to use, you can slightly blunt the edge and use it as a gripper to wiggle nuts loose, or in the case of really stubborn nuts you saw a kerf down the center and then use the blunt pliers to crush the nut, and remove it that way.

[David Weaver]

They now have a "professional" cutter. I'm not sure what that is...it's a new product. It must have much harder jaws and works well on Stainless Steel. SS will destroy your tools in just a few sessions of fretting.



If they are hardened as hard as the klein side cutters that they specify for cutting steel, they'd be worth the price difference. I don't know if they're fully hardened or just case hardened. I have a pair of 6 year-old side cutters hardened for steel that I've abused and they're still in pretty good shape, but I would think that like anything else, they'll not last forever cutting stainless steel, just several times longer. At the time I got the hardened kleins, the regular side cutters were $25 and the hardened side cutters were $28. It wasn't a difficult decision.

I'll bet I ruined every pair of side cutters my dad had gradually putting dings in the edges from cutting guitar strings as a kid. Ruined being my term, my dad will use a tool until it falls apart, so if it gets a few warts on it, he doesn't care. they all look terrible now, though.

[John Coloccia]

In the end, I really disliked the neck I had made for it. I decided to use my "standard" neck on this one and retired the more traditional design. I thought it would look weird at first, but the first time I mounted it, I was convinced it was absolutely right and that there is no reason to use anything but my standard neck and headstock. I also didn't like how I carved that original neck. I tried a few different things that didn't work out...which is fine because that's what quicky prototypes like this are for. I made the neck rather thin...I used a very short heal....I thinned the fingerboard a bit. I ended up with a neck that has more flex than I like, and I really didn't like the feel of the smaller neck anyhow. If I do anything like that again, I will embed carbon fiber the entire length of the neck. The headstock really started to annoy me too. Sometimes designs grow on you...and sometimes they fester.

Anyhow, I had ended up setting this aside because I was just really unhappy with that neck, I knew it was wrong, and I didn't really have time to fiddle with it. The new neck really brought it alive, now I'm satisfied that it's not a pile of cow manure and most importantly it feels like "me".

So here it is:

236240


Body is alder with flamed maple cap. Neck is mahogany with a Pau Ferro fingerboard. I'm happy with the finish...it's a straight amber with a moderately flamed top. Nothing fancy but it works. Pickups are Joe Barden. Bridge is a Modern T, and the neck is an HB Two Tone. The Two Tone is setup with a real coil tap, so this setup is dead quiet in every position. Standard push/pull on the tone to activate the neck coil tap. Push/Pull has no effect on the bridge pickup. Bridge is a Gotoh.

236235


Here's the back carving detail. I used flush mount string ferrules. I build these things to be practical. I hate things sticking out the back that scratch up everything you lay it on. Sometimes it's unavoidable, but in this case it's not :)
236236


Here's the carving and relief around the heel area. It's amazing what just a little contouring will do to the feel of the guitar. Between the deeper cutaway and this bit of carving, that whole area practically disappears under your hand when you're playing. You can also see the neck screw inserts. Again, I really dislike have a big, metal plate there. Not only does it scratch things up, but it makes it impossible to carve this area.
236237


The back of the headstock has a walnut backstrap. I generally backstrap all of my scarf jointed necks. It not only coves the ugly discontinuity right at the scarf, but it reinforces that area as well. It looks nice too.

236238


Here's my standard headstock. Very simple and clean...slightly asymmetrical. The veneer is cocobolo. I have a guy out in Pennsylvania that CNC's the truss rod covers for me with my logo inlayed.

www.customluthier.com (http://www.customluthier.com)

This guy's work is far better than I can do by hand in any reasonable amount of time. I'll also say that every dealing I've had with him has been very pleasant and professional.
236239


So there it is...definitely one of those cases where the last 5% took the other 95% of the time, but before I posted back I needed to be happy with it.

[Shawn Pixley]

John,

Very nice! I have to agree with you on the necks. The first one felt "off" to me. It wasn't the traditional headstock, yet it wasn't different enough to look "right."Your craftsmanship is superb. I think the first one would have worked better aesthetically, if the body was more traditional tele.

I love the back carve and heel countours. As to your comments about the neck flex, do you think that is primarily from the neck wood, the truss rod or the carve? I tend to like thin necks for my guitar, though I think sometimes is dependent upon how "low" I hang the guitar and whether I finger pick or use a plectum.

Just out of curiousity, with the effort to recess the neck/body screws and the rear string ferules, you didn't recess the output jack. Do you find the jack cups undesireable?

Again beatiful work!

[John Coloccia]

John,

Very nice! I have to agree with you on the necks. The first one felt "off" to me. It wasn't the traditional headstock, yet it wasn't different enough to look "right."Your craftsmanship is superb. I think the first one would have worked better aesthetically, if the body was more traditional tele.

I love the back carve and heel countours. As to your comments about the neck flex, do you think that is primarily from the neck wood, the truss rod or the carve? I tend to like thin necks for my guitar, though I think sometimes is dependent upon how "low" I hang the guitar and whether I finger pick or use a plectum.

Just out of curiousity, with the effort to recess the neck/body screws and the rear string ferules, you didn't recess the output jack. Do you find the jack cups undesireable?

Again beatiful work!

Thank you for the kind words, Shawn. Getting the back and heel contours to come out like that does take a bit of work. It's easy to get them rounded and looking kind of unfinished. I really concentrate on maintaining straight lines when I do it, and then only soften the edges later. It takes me a long time because I'm not very efficient at it yet. I even use layout lines to guide me, and I really hate using layout lines, but I find it's too difficult to do it free hand at this time. Maybe one day :)

re: neck wonkiness
Well, I think it's a combination of things. The neck was really thin...I forget how thin, but it was much thinner than I normally make it. It also wasn't tapered like I normally taper it. It was a much flatter all around. Really, it does need to get bigger as it approaches the heel or you end up with a long lever and a point near the heal where it just wants to flex, instead of spreading out the flex over the long neck. That was something I didn't fully appreciate until that neck. It wasn't as wide as I normally make them, either. I was just trying something new. I think it would have done better as a laminated neck, and it would have maybe done better as a maple neck (though maple introduces it's own problems, namely with stability...millions of guitars have been made with maple necks, though!).

re: the jack cup

You know, i have some cups here that I was going to use. What I would never use is the traditional, Tele jack with the wedged in clip. I don't know what Leo was drinking that day, but that's a Rube Goldberg setup if I ever saw one. I have a nice one here, though. Electrosocket, maybe? In the end, I just didn't like the look. I think it felt to me like that recessed jack, though sleek and simple, was "over engineered" for the purpose. It almost felt like it would take away from the simple aesthetics of the guitar, even though it is a sleeker design. I like sleek, modern homes, but I also like seeing some exposed beams. To me it just makes it seem warmer and more inviting...maybe even more "solid", if that makes any sense. Maybe "industrial" is the right word. The other reason, though this isn't major, is depending on the plug you use, some plugs will have large cases, or other protrusions, that make it difficult to plug into a recessed jack. I've occasionally run into that, and though I don't know that's a problem with the Electrosocket, it's another one of those things where it's just over-engineered with an unnecessary feature that could potentially get in the way. I also don't really like that you thread the jack into the socket. That limits you on your choice of jacks. No problem for this guitar, because it fits a switchcraft jack. What if someone wants to fit an LR Baggs piezo in there? You have to use their stereo jack. What's the thread? I don't know either. :)

[phil harold]

Wow!
Amazing thread to watch you build your guitar!
Thanks

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

Thanks for sharing, John. Makes me itch to get back to building instruments. I've had a baritone on the back burner forever now, it seems. The band breaking up kind of kicked that stuff to the back of the build list.

Just stumbled upon this thread, and haven't had time to read the last page or so, but what size drawknife are you using? I've been meaning to pick one up for ages - I learned long ago that edge tools make the neck roughing a lot faster than raspy tools, but I'd like something a little easier than my favorite big chisel for those steps. . .

[John Coloccia]

Thanks for sharing, John. Makes me itch to get back to building instruments. I've had a baritone on the back burner forever now, it seems. The band breaking up kind of kicked that stuff to the back of the build list.

Just stumbled upon this thread, and haven't had time to read the last page or so, but what size drawknife are you using? I've been meaning to pick one up for ages - I learned long ago that edge tools make the neck roughing a lot faster than raspy tools, but I'd like something a little easier than my favorite big chisel for those steps. . .

I'm using this knife:

http://www.woodcraft.com/product/2001340/1214/pfeil-swiss-made-carvers-drawknife.aspx

Seems to be the perfect size for luthier kinds of things. It's really great if you have some layout lines. You can remove a LOT of material very quickly. I haven't really used it like that, but I will on the next neck. I have to start getting faster, and I think the way is to start using layout lines, wasting a lot with the bandsaw, and then using more lines and wasting in between with the draw knife. Then hit it with rasps and sanding blocks. Fast and accurate.

And now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go back to watching some video of my new favorite sport....Australian hurdling.

[Chris Fournier]

I'm using this knife:

http://www.woodcraft.com/product/2001340/1214/pfeil-swiss-made-carvers-drawknife.aspx

Seems to be the perfect size for luthier kinds of things. It's really great if you have some layout lines. You can remove a LOT of material very quickly. I haven't really used it like that, but I will on the next neck. I have to start getting faster, and I think the way is to start using layout lines, wasting a lot with the bandsaw, and then using more lines and wasting in between with the draw knife. Then hit it with rasps and sanding blocks. Fast and accurate.

And now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go back to watching some video of my new favorite sport....Australian hurdling.

I've used the same draw knife as John for 20 years now. In addition to this drawknife I have two Frost knives (available at LV 2.5" and 3"). To carve a neck quickly I have made up templates of the neck profile at the nut and at the heel neck transition and of the heel as well as at the 3rd, 7th fret positions.

I lay out the heel profile and use the Frost knives 2.5"er is my fave, to shape outside the line by .125". I then go to the nut and break it out by eye. Freehand I run lines down from the heel to the nut and the drawknife quickly hogs off to the lines. More templates to see that all is moving in the right direction and I carry on with spokehaves and knives. Good now? On to the patternmakers rasps and double cut files. Sanpaper to fair the playing surface of the neck - pulled across the neck - Low E to High E nut to heel. Very careful sanding at the nut and heel transitions because it is all too easy to follow the grain and make a mess. I prefer files until 180 grit is required. Grab the neck and feel for lumpy or chubby problems and I'm done. I most often carve a neck for a custom instrument with the client right there to tweak as the customer sees fit.

[george wilson]

John,a great presentation on building a guitar. Your shop is MUCH more organized than mine!! I just have too much stuff,trying to cram a full machine shop as well as a wood shop into the same space,PLUS,I'm a metal and wood pig!! Way too much of both,especially at my creaky age.

[John Coloccia]

Thanks, George. My shop was exceptionally neat at that time. I promise, it's a bit messier right now....back to normal, in other words.

I'm catching up with you. You just have a little head start with your tool collection, that's all :)