Well this week has been a bit of a blur of activity. The excitment of "I've built a guitar neck" was overtaken by "this needs to be assembled by friday" so there's been a couple of late nights and the neck was even brought to work to apply the oil on Thursday.
On Wednesday at the club I managed the sum total of a pickguard and a trem cover, not as good as I had hoped and I forgot my camera so no pic's but you all know the routine. I made a paper template and stuck it to a bit of 6mm MDF, cut it out and sanded it, checking it on the body till I was happy. I really should have had the pup and the control plate fitted at this point but I didn't so there's a huge gap between the pup and the guard, not to worry you get to see more wood that way. When I got home I got my fret wire and some borrowed tools, Stew Mac fret cutters and fretting hammer (although in the end I prefered my Thor plastic faced one). The wife went to bed and I sat in the living room fretting my neck, before I retired for the evening I filled the ends and sanded it all smooth.
On Thursday I brought the neck to work, and between servicing bikes I got a good few coats of oil on it. I started with a couple of coats just rubbed in, then one heavy coat worked with 600 wet and dry, then wiped down. I finished with 3 coats rubbed on lightly with a cloth. I really liked the way this ended up.
When I got home it was time for the assembly to start. I got my little box of hardware I bought earlier out
and set a nice workspace up in the livingroom, where I could have all my tools, hardware and a pint of Guinness within easy reach. Starting with the body. Looking good after it's oil in my opinion
Pick up and Trem in first
Control plate and pickguard on. That pickguard is a bit chunky when you see it up close. I bought 3mm perspex for it because it was cheep on ebay, but I'm not really happy with it, just too thick. I'll check my budget tomorrow and see if it will stretch to some real pickguard material.
Next up was the tuners, the stepped holes aren't an easy task when all you have to hand is a dewalt and a box of bits, but it's the end result that matters. Not bad I think.
Lynne captured me setting the neck after fitting the Floyd Rose locking nut
A little while later I have something that resembles a guitar, built but not set up in time for the club competition.
