tehcnalp's Former Challenge Build

[RogerC]

Yep. It's gonna be sharp. What type of finish do you plan to do?

[crazydave911]

An all maple build , somewhere, Bill Lawrence is smiling

Really sweet design,

Dave

[tehcnalp]

Thanks everyone.

Roger, finishing is probably my biggest weakness. I will likely keep it simple at least for this challenge. Maybe just hand rub several layers of shellac. I'm leaning towards an amber shellac so that I can get the neck and body to look a little more like the fretboard in color. This will double as a sealer coat so that I can come back later and do a lacquer top coat.

(To be honest, I think the fretboard wood may have been mislabeled at the wood store. The more I look at it, the more I think it might be a curly cherry instead of maple. No worries though, I grabbed it for the figuring. I'll either use a clear shellac or keep it naked and let a patina develop from playing.)

I also may try the stain and sand technique on just the top with a black stain to help the figure look more 3-D. I have several scraps, so I'll be testing this in a couple of weeks - after I get through the routing.

I've already learned the hard way about the drawbacks of hand rubbing shellac on a stained body, so I may end up spraying the first several layers. (And for anyone using Padauk on their builds, it will bleed just like a stain if you try hand rubbing shellac on it.) Trial and lots of errors has been my approach the last couple of years. I've learned a great deal from a great number of mistakes. I just hope I can remember the mistakes.

[tehcnalp]

The Good
First the work that I'm happy with. I've started working more on the body (the fun part.) for the back I'm joining three pieces of maple with two thin strips of mahogany veneer between them.




I glued two of the maple pieces with one strip of mahogany together first. The glue caused the wood to shift slightly. I caught it while the glue was still soft. And was able to force it into place using a couple of extra clamps.

After the glue dried I moved on to the third piece. This time I taped off the wood next to the seem to help keep from making a mess with glue overflow. I also used clamps to hole the wood tight against the table. I then added weight to the top.


This worked out much better. You can see the excess glue on the bottom. I'll clean this up before gluing the top in place. Lesson learned.



The thin strip of mahogany veneer will look much nicer once I sand the back and sides.



I also took a moment to to check out the placement of my hardware and electronics. I picked up the Bigsby-type knock-off bridge from Guitar Fetish. We'll see how I feel about it And I'll be using a single concentric volume and tone pot. I'll cut a cat's eye Rickenbacker style f-hole. I planning on gluing mahogany veneer to the back of the maple top. And the Area just behind the f-hole and the electronics area will be routed to about a 4 mm thickness. The top is currently 3/8" thick.


The Bad
Let me start by saying, I blame my drill press. (But I could be the reason I screwed this up.) I've always had problems trying to drill precise holes. So I switched to brad point bits. That helped. But I noticed that the drill press has a slight wobbled on the bits. I've also had trouble with the bits drifting. (This is one of the reasons I opted for the Bigsby-style bridge.)

So everything started out just fine for the tuning pegs. I carefully lined up holes for the tuning pegs. I marked off the placement for each hole on both sides of the headstock.




I then drilled the holes. First from the back I used a 10 mm bit and from the top I used a 9 mm bit.


The holes are are not perfect - not even close. This is, however, closer than I've done on recent neck builds.


From the top once the the tuning pegs are installed, they appear to be lined up properly.


From behind the A peg is a little too close to the E. I may be able to fix this. But I'll save that for later. There's still plenty of time for me to further screw up this neck.


...and the Ugly:
Speaking of screwing up the neck further... the inlays. Again the drill press wobbling may have caused the holes to be slightly off.




The 19th fret inlay seems to be the worst. Of course having all the pencil markings on the fretboard are making it more obvious. We'll see how I feel about this after I radius the fretboard. Visually this may not be as ugly as I'm making out to be.


Today, I'm hoping to get the side dots drilled and start routing out the interior of the body blank. And later this week, I'll need to glue the mahogany veneer to the back of the top.

[fretman_2]

I wouldn't worry about the dots being a little off. I don't think it'll be that obvious...not worth scraping the neck in my opinion.

Originally Posted by tehcnalp

I.













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...and the Ugly:
Speaking of screwing up the neck further... the inlays. Again the drill press wobbling may have caused the holes to be slightly off.

The 19th fret inlay seems to be the worst. Of course having all the pencil markings on the fretboard are making it more obvious. We'll see how I feel about this after I radius the fretboard. Visually this may not be as ugly as I'm making out to be.

[ItZaLLGooD]

Looks good to me. I wouldn't worry about.

[tehcnalp]

Thanks guys. I started radiusing the fretboard tonight. Without the center line the inlay looks better. I also put in the side dots today as well. I'll have some more pics after after I radius the fretboard through 320 grit.

[emoney]

And don't forget, the last I checked an inlay marker being just barely a smidgeon off has
NEVER affected either tone OR sustain. You're doing great.

[tehcnalp]

Lol. Thanks emoney. I'll keep that in mind.

[tehcnalp]

Not much to report, just finished radiusing the fretboard to 14". I started with 80 grit sandpaper for the heavy sanding, then progressed through to 400 grit. Looking at the fretboard now, I'm back to believing that this is curly maple. And I'm leaning towards putting a shellac finish on it. Just a quick question for everyone, do you apply finish before seating frets or after? I'm inclined to do it before. But I'd like to hear some input first.

Here are the photos of the progress.







One minor concern, it's looking like I will have to re-saw the fret slots just slightly deeper to accommodate the frets.

[RogerC]

That neck has a really nice chatoyance to it. It's going to look great under finish

[Picton]

That's some yummy looking figure on the FB; it shimmers very nicely, and the fret dots are a good complement. Trust me: nobody but you will notice they're off-center. Looks great.

I almost always need to deepen my fret slots. I think it goes with the territory for many of us.

[Barncaster]

Hey T,

Although shellac is beautiful, it gets sticky, discolors and gummy when wet. If you like the look of it for the neck, follow it up with some clear lacquer to keep the look, seal it and avoid the gumminess. I love the look of amber shellac.
Your fretboard is stunning! Maybe the nicest I've seen yet for light wood.

Barncaster

[emoney]

Y'up, resaw the slots after radiusing. You're better off having them a tad too deep, as
opposed to too shallow. Nice looking fretboard, btw.

[tehcnalp]

Thanks everyone.
Barncaster thanks for the advice on the shellac. I will definitely follow up with a clear lacquer now. I'm probably weakest at finishing. So it's great to get a few pointers before I get there.

Today, I finally turned my attention to the body. First, I glued the mahogany veneer to the back of the curly maple top. I taped the veneer on both sides of the area to be cut in order to stop the veneer from crumbling and splitting. I then clamped the veneer between two pieces of wood before cutting it. I then covered the back of the curly maple top with a generous amount of Tite-Bond. I placed the veneer over the glue, then used a pipe to smooth out the bubbles. I placed several pieces of wood on top of the veneer, clamped them into place and then added weights.




I then turned my attention routing the body. I started by working on the electronics cavity. First I drilled holes all the way through the body. Then I routed out the excess wood.



I flipped the body over, clamped a jig for the cavity cover and routed for the cavity cover.


Next, I grabbed the piece of wood that was re-sawn off the original piece of maple. I lined up the location of the electronics cavity and cut out the cover. This way the grain lined up. As always I cut to just outside the lines. Then I slowly sanded the edges to the lines. Followed that by slightly beveling the edges.






Finally, I'm a little concerned about that the top has started to bow. I've run into this issue before on the Steinberger copy. In that case the Tite-Bond and clamping while glue helped secure the top evenly to the body. However, there was a lot more surface area glued to the top. On this build I will be routing out quite a bit of the interior before gluing. Has anyone run into this issue? Is it really an issue at all?

[BR06623]

Looks great to me! I am just hoping to make my neck somewhere in the same ball park.

[tehcnalp]

I started routing the interior cavities of the Tele today. First I created some Swiss Cheese, using three different drill bits on the drill press. I drilled dozens of holes to remove as much wood as possible.




Here's the finished Swiss Cheese:


After finishing the drilling and creating a great deal sawdust, I started freehand routing the interior. I did use a straight edge on the interior lines.



Next up, I'll route channels for the wiring between the pickups, and start working on the top - cutting an f-hole and drilling the holes for switches and pots.

[emoney]

Great work, and I for one, don't think you'll have an issue with the top. Once it's glued
onto the body, it'll be flat as a pancake. Just don't skimp on the glue.

[nosmo]

Looks good, I like the way you matched the grain in the cover. I agree with emoney about the top. Don't think it will be a problem. If it makes you feel better, you can keep it flat with weight or clamps until you're ready to glue it to the body.

[RogerC]

Nice work. Looks like you did a great job on the chambering. It's very clean.