2010 TDPRI $210 Challenge "El Rey De Cobre"

[Mike Simpson]

Here is my piece of curly maple I found at Home Depot a couple of years ago and they sold me the whole board for $20... this is the third neck I habe made out of it and there is enough for 3 more if I cut it right. Also in the pic is my neck template that I made by copying an allparts neck.

[Mike Simpson]

First I cut off a neck length piece with my saw. (don't have a table saw...)

[Mike Simpson]

Next I wouted a slot for the steel reinforcement. The brass bar and little wood block clamped on are router guides and stops. I drilled a couple of forstner holes to get started. I have used square tubing epoxied in the neck instead of a truss rod on a few necks with no problems so I am doing that again. I bought 10 feet of square tubing for $1.92 and I am using 15" on this neck.

[Mike Simpson]

Here is the steel epoxied in the maple. I found that it is easiest to make the slot and then rough cut out the neck.

[Mike Simpson]

Here is the neck roughly cut out with my crappy little ryobi 9" band saw. What a hack job... good thing I am going to route away this ugly saw job. The epoxy was not completely dry and all the sawdust stuck on it.

[Mike Simpson]

Once again I don't have a router table so I clamp the work to the table and route around the template. I have to move it a couple of times to get all the way around but I get it done this way.

[Mike Simpson]

Here is where I stopped tonight. The neck blank is cut out, steel reinforced and routed to shape. I need to come up with a fretboard. I was going to use some "brazillian cherry" that I have but it is too hard for my saw to cut it. still need to thickness the headstock and drill the tuner holes too.

[tuuur]

Nice work!
One thing I never understood about necks is that trussrod thingiy that has to be bent in a certain way etc. etc. I think your method might work better for simple souls like me...
Theoretically, using your method, should you be able to make a neck from softer material like pine?

[Maricopa]

I've been doing 'static' truss rods like Mike's for about 10 years now and every one I've made has remained dead flat. Including those on resonator guitars that use 13s and sometimes 16s.
The trick is in how you put them in. Most people think of Harmonys or Silvertones when they think of a 'steel reinforced neck' and yes, back in the old days those necks weren't always so successful. But then they would usually wallow out a trough and toss in a piece of steel pipe, typically gluing it in with hide glue (I have an old National that actually was routed for a bar and *nothing* put in....great QC back then! ) I use 5/16" square steel set into a tight slot with the ends fitted well and epoxy it. This creates a rod that works through compression, not bending and really has nowhere to go.
Yes, it's non-adjustable but I typically end up with about .005" relief after finishing the fret work. As a plus I think the necks sound better (at least when you rap them with a knuckle) without the space that adjustable rods create in the neck.
For those that still want an adjustable neck and don't want to deal with a curved slot there is always a double-adjustable rod like the Stew-Mac 'Hot Rod'. They are as easy to install as a static bar.

PS, I still would not use pine for the neck. Doug fir at a minimum but I'd stick to hardwoods like maple, mahogany, cherry, walnut etc.

[Mike Simpson]

I picked up a piece of Bocote for $13 to make a fretboard out of.

[Mike Simpson]

I taped a couple of pieces of paper together and rubbed a pencil lead on another neck I have to get the fret spacing.

[Mike Simpson]

I drew a center line on the board and a center line on the pattern and cut the pattern in half. Then I lined up the pattern with the centerline on the board taped it on, and with a small square I marked the fret positions at the centerline. I removed the pattern and drew the lines across the board using a square. I also drew diagonal lines from corner to corner mark the location for the dots where the lines cross the centerline.

[Maricopa]

Coolio board Miguel!

[68thinline]

That fretboard has some wicked grain! Like your "truss rod" too.

Looking good.

[jkingma]

Originally Posted by Big Mike Simpson

I picked up a piece of Bocote for $13 to make a fretboard out of.

I just picked up a piece of Bocote yesterday for a fretboard as well. Nice looking wood. Mine cost me $13.50 though.

[jlock1028]

Great work so far. Like how you are doing your neck... I'm picking up a lot. Keep it coming.

[CJFearn]

Your build is looking good dude, and I really like the fingerboard. I've never come across bocote before but I'll be looking for it now.

If it's of any help I've attached a pdf with the fret spacing calculated for a 25.5" scale (done on a spreadsheet using the 12th root of 2). You might like to check it just to be sure.

Like your neck reinforcement as well. I've been using the same system for a number of years. More sustain and better overtones.

Looking forward to seeing this one finished.

PS: nice looking bike, is it done yet?

[Mike Simpson]

CJ, Thanks for the pdf. The bike is not done yet. I seem to keep building guitars instead of finishing the bike project.

I made my own fretboard dots using a 1/4" plug cutter out of a piece of ivorid plastic that I bought about 10 years ago... it was supposed to be a heel cap blank for an acoustic.

[Mike Simpson]

I cut 10 of them out of about half of the piece and lost a few when they flew away somewhere in the garage.

Here is a shot of the color contrast against the bocote fretboard before they are glued in.

[Mike Simpson]

I set up the drill press so the stops would make all the holes the same depth and drilled the holes for the dots with a forstner bit.