Let's go shopping!

The source of much debate

There are many things you can fabricate yourself when building a guitar but there are some bits that (to me) just make more sense to buy.  I've seen builders who do build everything from scratch (knobs, pickups, even bridges).  I am not one of them.  

My opinions may change if I ever find myself with copious amounts of extra cash and oodles of spare time.  For now - I'm good with adding to the GNP.  

To that end - I use a variety of suppliers when sourcing parts:

StewMac is a high-end guitar builder's website that has all the parts you could ever need (and all the luthier tools you could ever want).   Luthier's Mercantile (LMI) is a phenomenal site for luthiers that build acoustic guitars but obviously many tools and supplies are transferable to electric guitars. They always have interesting decorative bits that no one else has.  I use Guitar Fetish for mostly necks these days - although I used to get all of my pickups/humbuckers there.  I have also used Greasy Groove, All Parts, and Warmoth for everything from knobs to potentiometers to guitar necks.

Since I'm on the topic - these days I'm getting my lumber from a few places: Woodcraft, Boulter Plywood (in Somerville), and Downes and Reader Hardwood (in Stoughton). 

As you can see - there's no shortage of places to shop.

Every purchase then is a choice when building a guitar and there are usually more than a few options. Go Google, "humbucker" if you want to see what I mean.

And with every choice comes plenty of opinions.  There are people who have strong feelings about the first image on this page.  Strong enough to then turn those feeling to an intense like or dislike for yours truly.  

...although if all emotions in the 'morass of personality' that is the internet are this intense - is anything really intense anymore?

Sorry, I digress...

The first image on this page is what is known as a Tune-o-matic bridge or TOM.  TOM's come in two major flavors: ABR-1 and Nashville.  The one up above is an ABR-1.  The original Les Pauls from the 50's to the 70's used them - so they are the more traditional Les Paul bridge.  The more modern 'Nashville' style TOM is used on most production Les Paul guitars today.  

Other than the above information - I don't have an opinion about which is better/worse.  If I ever build another Les Paul - I'll use a Nashville TOM and let you know which one makes me sound more like a rock god.  Until then - let's just run with the idea that it's a bridge and it'll work.

Abbondanza!

This pile of tightly coiled linguini is binding.  I've messed around with binding twice before.  I used very thin plastic binding (and incredibly thin purfling) on an acoustic guitar build.  I've also used wood binding on a twelve-string electric build that is still unfinished.  The above binding is unlike either.

Kinda looks like a 'Messenger' icon got drunk and fell down..

The thin plastic binding I used on the acoustic build was like handling spaghetti - it took a lot of concentration to keep all the pieces together and in the right place because they were so flexible.  The wood binding was very stiff and would break if you tried to bend it right out of the box.  As it was cocobolo wood - it bent with the application of heat.  The above binding is not thin but it is also not brittle either.  I will likely have to heat it to bend it around corners but no where near as much as I had to heat the cocobolo binding.  Also, it's unlikely that this will break - it is plastic after all.  So, I'm hoping for good things...

The funny thing is that this guitar doesn't strictly need any binding.  Binding us usually used to hide or protect the point where two woods are joined together.  This guitar doesn't have a top or cap - so it is strictly aesthetic on this build.

Really pretty but also really tiny

These beauties are fret marker inlays that may or may not find their way onto the PRS build. They are made of wood (boxwood I believe) and glued to a flexible backing.  When you add them to a fretboard and fill in the cracks and crevices with black epoxy they look like this.

I was going to use them for the Les Paul build but then I saw the below knockouts and thought,"You know, I haven't made this build difficult enough yet."

Shiny

Those are mother of pearl fret markers.  They are the same style used on Les Paul Standard necks and because they are made of shell - they are quite iridescent.  They are purdy and they will make this look more like an actual Les Paul.

Everything's shiny, Cap'n. Not to fret

But they are also a major pain to install.  The above wood fret markers are circular and small.  All you need to do is drill a shallow hole with a forstner bit (preferably on a drill press), drop a dollop of glue in the hole, put the marker in the hole, and you're done.  

Not so much with these guys..

I see a lot of inlay work in my future.  Well, I guess this is better than watching re-runs of The West Wing (...okay, but just barely...). 

Not so shiny

There are other challenges  - like how do I cover up this unfortunate situation at the 12th fret?  I'm thinking maybe something like this but we'll see..

And last but not least - I had to buy some money...

Thankfully I didn't pay face value

I bought these two Irish 20 pence coins on eBay a few years ago (along with another 30 - 40 coins of different denominations).  Since the Irish moved from their own currency to the Euro these things can be had for pennies.  Which is kind of funny - seeing as they are worthless.  

But "a fool and his money..."

I haven't come up with a brand or logo yet for what I'm doing - so in the meantime I've decided to use these as a temporary logo.  It has worked out so far (here, here, and here) so I'm sticking with it for now.

While this particular shopping excursion was fiscally painful it was also successful:

Bridge - StewMac

Binding - StewMac

Celtic dot fret marker inlays - Purflex

Mother of Pearl fret marker inlays - StewMac

Irish 20p coins - eBay

(not pictured) Fretwire - StewMac

Now I just have to save up for those Humbuckers...

Covering my assets

Those are some big clamps

This picture may be deceiving.  I am not, in fact, gluing up another body blank.  The above photo is documenting the first stage of making a veneer for the headstock overlay.  I did this once before on a lapsteel guitar that I built.  But in that case I was using store-bought paper thin veneer and it was to cover up a rather glaring mistake.  This time I'm making it from scratch and it is to tie the neck and the body together in an aesthetic way.  The above laminations are some of the scraps left over from gluing the body blank together.   The two outer pieces are Lacewood, the middle pieces are Basswood and center piece is Purpleheart.  Instead of using the extra mahogany I had left over I just turned the Lacewood on its side - to really show off the laces - as I felt this was missing from the body blank.  I glued and clamped just like with the body blank and was left with this:

Hey, look at that...

A chunk of wood!

Since this was going to need a lot of work - I didn't sand or scrape it much at this point.  I did scrape away any excess dried glue (aka squeeze-out) on the face - but only enough so that this would be flat - not finished.

All your fetishes, nightmares, and guitar plans can be found on the interwebs.

As I am building a Les Paul style guitar - I wanted a Les Paul style headstock.  The Epiphone that I have been using to model/measure doesn't have the traditional Les Paul headstock - so I went digging (or is it trolling - I can never remember) on the internet.  The above image is what I found.  I don't love the above image.  It's close to the shape I had in mind but it's not exact.  The very top of the headstock looks like an open book (or a mustache).  This version is a bit too voluptuous for my taste. I think it should be a bit more subdued.  So, I'll probably modify this.

Anywho!  Depending on which headstock you are creating an homage to, you would: find the image, print it out and then take an exacto blade to it.  And you are left with:

No trademark infringement is intended or implied

One other issue that is a bit of a problem for me is that the headstock on the neck I am modifying isn't the same length or width as the above template.  So, I will need to nip and tuck a bit - on both the existing headstock and the template.  That may cause havoc with the tuning peg holes (the six circles in the above picture).  But we'll burn that bridge when we get to it...

You know the drill...

You trace!

It's the same as about...

You cut with a jig saw!

50% of the posts on here...

You sand!

It's all a bit repetitive, no?

Ah!  Here's something new and dangerous...

You are left with a big frickin block of wood.  How the heck are you going to add this to the headstock?  It'll be two inches thick...?  

Now is the time that you make yourself a veneer (aka a really thin piece of wood).  The best way to do this in a home shop is with a band saw.  Sadly, I don't have one.  And I wasn't wild about the idea of using the jig saw for this.  A jig saw would just make a mess of it.

You could try using a table saw and running the piece through once then flipping it over and running it through again.  But how do you hold such a small piece of wood with a spinning blade of death so close to your fingers?  (No, seriously, if any wood workers want to share that bit of wisdom - I'm open!).  The safest way (and the most time consuming by far) is to use a hand saw in a miter box.  

...so, of course I didn't do it that way either...

I covered the whole thing in double-sided tape, stuck it to the end of a 4 by 4 piece of stock, and ran it through the chop saw.

Kind of like this...

Lessons learned?  

Well... It worked!  

And the saw didn't kick the wood out and hit me in the teeth.  So, I'm kind of happy about that.  

In truth - even after it went through the saw - the workpiece was still pretty stuck to the 4 by 4.  So, it was fairly safe.  I didn't take pictures of this because I was concerned that someone would try it and lose an eyeball (wear your eye protection, you whippersnappers!) but I thought I should come clean - as a big part of this blog is to share my experiences - not just the outcomes.  

Having said that - just as a way to cover my own, ahem, assets - please test the adhesion before you try this.  I made sure that the workpiece and the 4 by 4 were strongly adhered to each other.  I kept my body and face away from the most likely kick-out path of the workpiece.  And I wore enough protection that most of my face was covered (eyes, ears, and nose/mouth).

Another thing that I didn't photograph (but should share) is that I had to do this a second time because the above veneer was too thick.  The second one was about two thirds as thick as the above veneer - and that's the one you see in the photos below.  I used the same process and had the same results.  

I'm always open to safer methods - so please feel free to comment if you have an opinion.

I mustache you...
Do you know how to use that thing?

After the veneer was cut to thickness - it needed to be reshaped to fit the headstock of the neck I'm using.  I used a coping saw to cut the rough shape of the top and also remove a bit from the bottom (where it meets the neck/nut) with the chop saw.  It's hard to see in the below picture but the existing headstock is asymmetrical - so that's why it had to be shorter - as the new headstock shape is symmetrical.

Pictured: Fiddly Routing

Once the headstock veneer was close enough to the shape that I want (yet still fit on the existing headstock) it was time to bust out the router.  Now, with such a thin template (the actual veneer) and the intricacy of the shape - this was some finicky (nay fiddly) routing.  I tried using the double-sided tape to adhere the veneer and the existing headstock - and it worked like a champ.  So, I didn't need to break out any clamps for this job - which made it easier.  Be careful though - if you don't use enough tape - the router will turn that veneer into a missile
.

That's when it goes from fiddling about to flinging about

As you can see - there is some clean up work to be done.  Much of it can be done with the belt sander. Some needs to be done with a coping saw, micro files, and a very sharp chisel.  

How sharp?
Very.

When we get to the part where I glue the veneer to the headstock I'll tackle this properly.  

There's still loads to do (tuning key holes, final shaping, binding, etc.).

Until then here is a preview of things to come.

Dirty Irish Money

Dirty Sexy Guitar

Don't Fret

Am I the only one that thinks this looks like a sad Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle?

You may notice that there are some missing frets in the above picture.
In my usual style I said, "F--- it! Why not?"
If you look closely - the remaining frets have some life left in them.  I probably could have just 'dressed' them and moved on with this build.  But I have too many plans for this neck.
...and not nearly enough sense in my head.

I really want to see if I can put some binding on this neck.  It's tough to do once the fret board is glued to the neck - but not impossible.

However, it is nearly impossible to do it with the frets still installed - so off they must come.
Also - I thought I could get over those diamond fret markers.  ...but I can't.  I'm just not a diamond kind of guy.  So, those will have to come out at some point too.  As you can tell - the neck is going to need some work.  Here's what we're doing today.

I'll cut a B...
Wait, I already used that joke...

First thing you should do is to score the wood under the fret.  This is an essential step on a fretboard that has been lacquered (many Fender maple fretboards) but it's also a good idea on a rosewood fretboard like this one.  The exacto blade let's you get under the edge of the fret and start the process of loosening it from the wood beneath it.  Scoring the wood like this can (should?) help minimize the wood's tendency to chip when you pull the fret wire out.  Also, many guitar manufacturers glue their frets into place.  This can help start to break that bond.

"Feelin' Hot Hot Hot!"
C'mon - who doesn't love a little Buster Poindexter?

Next I busted out (get it?) the soldering iron.  This is supposed to serve two purposes.  1) If the fret is glued in place - the heat will melt the glue enough to loosen things up. 2)  It's supposed to warm up the wood and make it expand a little.  Which seems counter to what you would want in this situation...  So, maybe that's bullocks.  I don't know.  But I did it anyway because smarter people than me have decided it's a good idea.  You heat one fret at a time.  I placed the tip of the iron on one side of the fret for about 30 seconds and then on the other side for about 30 seconds.  Then you remove the fret.

I'll cut a...
Oh, yeah.  Right...

This next step is one of my own making.  Most luthiers that I've seen re-fretting a neck don't use a utility razor in the process.  My rationale is that I don't have a set of pliers/clippers that are small enough to get under a fret that is properly seated.  But the blade from a utility knife does the job pretty well.  Would I use this process on a 1950's Les Paul?  Probably not.  But it works for me in most other cases.  I use the sharp end to get underneath one of the corners of the fret and then use leverage to pry up that corner - just enough to get a small set of pliers under there.

Resist the urge to just yank it out.
That would be counter-productive.

I then 'walk' the pliers from one side of the fret to the other.  Slowly lifting the fret out of the fret slot.
This has two effects:  1) It pulls the fret out (duh).  2) you are pressing and squeezing the wood fibers down - which keeps the chipping to a minimum.  All of this is to avoid having to fill gaps that you create when you pull out rosewood that you shouldn't have pulled out.

When you are done - you only have to repeat the process 23 times!

Once I got to about the 3rd or 4th fret I got into a rhythm and removing the remaining frets took about 2 to 3 minutes each.  This is one of those times when everything went my way.  If these frets had been glued in - it probably would have been a much longer process.

My successes and failures - in detail!

So, how did it go?

Not too shabby.  The very first fret (all the way to the right in the above picture) was the worst in terms of chipping.  It's not great - but most of that damage will be covered when I install the new frets.  I'm also going to sand the fretboard down a bit when I install new fret markers - so most of that damage will disappear anyway.  The rest of the fret slots look just like the other two in this picture - which works for me!  I'm satisfied this will do just fine.

How often do you get to describe a photo as full of studs and tang?

The pile of spent frets looks like this.  A fret is made up of three parts: The Crown, the Tang, and the Stud.  If you can't see it from the above picture - take a look at this fret cross-section to get a better idea of what I'm talking about.  The guitar string is pressed down against the crown.  The tang is what sits in the fret slot.  The stud is what keeps the fret in place.  It acts like an anchor in the fretboard.  It's designed to go in easy and come out hard (yes, I giggled a little when I wrote that sentence).
But in all seriousness - it is designed to be difficult to remove.  I'm very happy that this part of the process went as well as it did.  With a very dried out rosewood fretboard (or an ebony fretboard) the tendency to take out big chunks of wood with the fret is high

Hey buddy.  Yer slots are showing.

One thing I noticed about this neck right away made me wonder who the original manufacturer was.
None of the fret slots go all the way to the edge of the fretboard.  This is usually how frets look on a board that is bound - there's a space at the edge - like in the above image.

Most Strats and Tele's I've played don't have this gap - the slots go side to side.  And there's a good reason for this - it's hella easier to cut the slots and hella easier to cut the frets if the slot goes end to end.  It's cheaper too - when you are pumping out 10,000 guitars a day - like the big boys do.

If the slots are like this one - not only do you have to specifically cut the board this way - you also have to remove the fret tangs right at the edge (like in this image).  This is a much more involved process.  Which is odd if you are not binding the fretboard.  It looks like this was a board that was built to be comfortable.  Which has me thinking it was on a decent guitar in its prior life.

But it also means...
I now have to trim the tangs off all of the frets when I re-fret this - whether I bind it or not!
Good times...

Sticking your neck out - Part 2

Where to begin...

The neck that I chose for this build is about as close as you can get to a 'Les Paul' style with it still being a bolt-on.  The scale length is 24.75 inches and it has 24 frets - which are both characteristics of a Les Paul guitar.  It feels a bit thinner than a Les Paul neck but not too far off.  A purist would say 'pshaw!' but as I'm not building a replica - I see no reason to get my pantyhose in a twist.  It's close enough.  If that doesn't appeal to you - the woodpile is by the exit.

What?  Looks good to me!

As I hinted in my last post - this neck (along with all the others) will need quite a bit of work - some necessary some cosmetic - before it can be played.  I know for sure I will have to:

• Fill the existing screw holes
• Drill new holes to match the body blank and neck plate I have chosen
• Change the headstock shape to a more 'Les Paul' style
• Fix that chip in the fretboard at the 24th fret
• Final/finish sand
• Tape off the fretboard
• Stain and shellac the neck
• Finish with nitrocellulose spray
• Let dry for 3 weeks - then sand/polish
• Level/crown/polish the existing frets
• Clean/polish fret board
• Install a nut
• Install tuners

I'd also like to do the following:

• Add a lamination to the headstock that matches the body wood (the maple headstock kind of stands out)
• Inlay an Irish 20p coin on the headstock (it's my thing ...until I come up with a logo)
• Bind the headstock to match the body
• Change the fret marker inlays (the diamonds).  Nothing wrong with them.  I just have something better in mind.

I may have no choice but to:

• Re-fret the neck.  Which is a big fat pain in the butt - but it may have to happen...

What's wrong with my shape?
What do you mean I, "stand out?"

Here's where we start:

One of the synonyms for what I'm doing here is, "reaming"
I'm just going to leave you with that thought.

This neck came with screw holes already on the back.  I might have been able to reuse them but more likely I would have just been fighting them when it came time to screw the neck onto the body of my guitar.  It's best not to bump into an old hole (or make it bigger) when attaching the neck.  Better to fill them and start over.  I enlarged the existing holes so that I could glue some dowels in to seal them up for good.

Don't be fooled - nothing in my shop is level.
Even that Level has a twist in it.

I tried to level the neck as much as possible so that the holes wouldn't be angled.  I also put a foam pad under the neck so it would rock a little less.  ...at the end of the day - you're filling holes not launching rockets - so, see what works for you.

Perfect!  Don't change a thing!

Once the holes have been enlarged put a few drops of glue in there and tap in some pre-cut dowel pieces to fill the holes.  You can use wood glue or superglue (CA).  Wood glue gives you more working time but also takes longer to cure.  CA glue cures in minutes (if not sooner) so don't dally!
I used CA glue as I was in a hurry on this particular evening.

One note: I used a fret hammer to tap these in as they are like 3/16th of an inch and prone to breaking (as you can clearly see in the above picture). All this is a way of saying that a construction hammer may be a bit of an overkill for this job.  I also find it helpful to taper one end so that it fits in the hole better.

I'll cut a b--ch!
Branch!  I meant branch.

This little guy with the micro teeth is a flush cut saw.  It works great for delicate little cutting jobs just like this one.  It's not so hot for anything substantial as the blade is quite flexible but you can put it right up against a flat surface and it will cut fairly flush to that surface.

Like so...

After you are done cutting you can clean up the surface with a sharp chisel, hand plane or card scraper.  Then move on to sandpaper.  If you go right to sand paper - you may create valleys or peaks that weren't there before.  I used a card scraper and then some 100 grit sandpaper.

No one will ever see it!

How's that fit looking?

Wait a minute...

So, here's the thing.  The dowels felt pretty flush.  But the neck isn't sitting in the pocket all that evenly.  I wasn't convinced it was the change I had just made was the cause of this (hubris, much?).
So I took a straight edge to the neck.  Yep, the heel of the neck itself wasn't completely square.

For that matter - neither was my neck pocket.  I could still see little scratches from the router blade.
So, ignoring what I just said above about valleys and peaks - how does one sand something flat? There are a couple of ways...

Son of a..!

The best way to flatten the neck heel is to tape a piece of sandpaper to the top of your workbench or table saw and run the heel slowly across that with even pressure.  Just a minute or two of that (using 100 grit paper) was enough to flatten the heel so that it looked decent with a straight edge.

For the neck pocket - it's best to find something you know is square (or straight).  I used a 1 by 1 inch square dowel that I was reasonably sure wasn't warped and wrapped sand paper around it.  Press firmly and evenly while making slow passes.  

I saw another idea on the Fender website that I will try in the future: tape the sand paper to two sides of the square block but leave the other sides without sandpaper - that way you can sand up to a finished (or already squared) edge without taking any more wood off on that surface.  Simple but smart.

Looks ugly.  Feels real nice!

Don't be put off by how it looks.  Those rings around the dowels are dried glue and the pen mark is just so I know where the cut away starts.  That sucker is flat and smooth.  You can't feel the dowels at all.

That'll do pig.  That'll do.

Those two processes seem to have squared things up quite nicely.  The neck fits pretty snug in the pocket both on the sides and now on the bottom.  I need to see if there is anything that needs to be done to the 'back wall" of the pocket (closest to the neck pickup) as that was the sloppiest part of my template.

Lacey!

For now, things look good.  I should probably screw this sucker into the body.

(for those playing the home game, that was the ninth double entendre in this post.)

I'm kidding.  I don't keep count...

Sticking your neck out - Part 1

None of these things is quite like the other...

A while back I kind of glossed over the fact that I had purchased a few guitar necks online.

Here's why I wasn't too specific:  They were cheap.
...I mean really really cheap...
Cheap enough to make me ask myself, "Are they too cheap?"

Will I respect you in the morning?
...all four of you?

These were about $25-$35 each.  And while that's not an insignificant amount of money when you put four of them together - it's really peanuts vs. buying a new neck.

A premium aftermarket neck from some place like Warmoth starts around $160 (and can go up hundreds of dollars from there).  Even a more affordable option like Mighty Mite necks are still about $100 new.  So, we're not talking about chump change.

Once you get to a comfort level where you are building necks from scratch it becomes more affordable but it still isn't an inexpensive proposition - financially or temporally.  The prices I paid for these necks were in many cases less than what I would have paid for the raw lumber alone.
Which is exactly why I did it - obviously!

Nice backsides.

The reason these necks were so inexpensive is because they are used or rejects.  I bought all of them from Guitar Fetish.  Each one came from an unfinished or a damaged instrument.  Evidently they bought a bunch of these 'distressed' parts and are able to make a profit selling them.
It's a dangerous website - I almost bought two more necks just looking up the URL for the site.

Pictured: A big chip

Not pictured: Frets or fret markers
...but there's a lovely crack in the fretboard

Of course - nothing is for free.  The real cost comes after you buy the neck and you want to use it.  All of these beauties needed to be scraped and sanded to remove the old finish (and in at least one case remove the dents and dings in the wood).  Two of them came without frets installed - which actually is kind of a time-saver as I will probably have to re-fret the ones that are currently fretted due to existing worn or damaged frets.  Some are missing fret markers or tuning peg holes, or the nut.  The list goes on...

...but then some of them look like this...
...and you realize you still got a hell of a deal.

"The story of a boy ...and his headstock?"

In short, I knew there would be a cost for such savings.  I'm just now truly learning the extent of that cost.  As long as they are functional I should come out ahead.  My greatest fear was that one or all of the truss rods in these necks would be broken.  So far - so good.  I may have dodged that bullet.  So, let's see what it takes to get one of these bad boys up and running.