Danecho283's Former Challenge Build

[tklaavo]

Your body looks very clean and well made. I see no reason why you couldn't finish in time. Just choose a fast-drying finish!

[Matt Haskins]

Looking good. Don't stress, you'll get the guitar done. You're from Fullerton! You live on sacred ground for any Telecaster fan.

[rcole_sooner]

Yeah, template building is time consuming. But once you got some good ones, you are set. I'll work several hours (or much longer) building a single template/jig, and then spend 5 minutes making the actual cut.

My wife even noticed, and says "I spend more time making jigs than guitars".

I go, "Yeah, I guess I just need to make a lot more guitars with the jigs I have.".

That is always good for an eye roll.

[whodatpat]

Just focus on the next step and get that done. Dont focus onthe deadline, success or failure. All you can do is the next right thing. I have faith in you finishing it if you really want to. Honestly you are not that far behind me, and I have no plans on moving my thread to the incomplete pile.

[Matt Haskins]

Originally Posted by rcole_sooner

My wife even noticed, and says "I spend more time making jigs than guitars".

So funny! My wife says the same thing.

[danecho283]

well i am very encouraged by you all and appreciate hearing, "take your time, dont worry about progress." there is a lot of encouragement on this board
today i put the 1/8" round on the body.
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then i turned to my pickups, i had this idea a while ago and thought it would be fun. here are my pickups stock
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i decided to wrap the bridge and neck pickups in white string

and painted on a clear coat for a little rigidity and durability.
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i found this can in the top of my dad's garage and i gurantee its been up there for at least 25 years. He passed away in January so its been fun to involve some of his clutter in this process. RIP Pop 1-16-2012

[danecho283]

worked on thicknessing the neck a bit this afternoon. i built the sled a while ago but this is the first time i have done this process. took down the maple to a bit over 3/4"
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took the rosewood fretboard down to a bit over 1/4"
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but some how altogether it is pretty close to 1", i think the process went well for the first time!
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[danecho283]

i was able to spend a little time on the neck tonight and am happy with the results, the bit i used to route the truss rod channel was totally toasted but i got through it.
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drilled the adjustment hole, honestly this was the most nervous part for me yet, i wanted it to be really clean
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with the truss rod in the channel it fits nice and snug and the access hole came out really clean, spot on for a first time!
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[danecho283]

well i got one step closer today, roughed out my neck on the bandsaw.
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then i workd it a little closer to the line on the ross.

this is the headstock i am going with, found it somewhere on this forumn, it doesn't match my 52 avri and its different than a warmoth neck i have.
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the post i got it from labled it 50s 60s.

[Matt Haskins]

Nice progress. Looking good.

[Davecam48]

Mate that body looks excellent, really clean and well done! Well Done!!

[danecho283]

...is better than no progress, jack cup hole
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fits like a glove (or close enough)
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my hang up right now is i need to radius my fretboard and i am not sure what method i want to move forward with...at some point i am going to just have dive in and do it. wish me luck!

[danecho283]

laid out my fret spacing via the stewmac fret calculator. i had no idea how hard rosewood is. i scored it with a razor blade but when i practiced cutting on some scrap it was really hard to get the saw blade started. we'll see how it goes once i get the neck unclamped and start for real.
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trimmed down my fretboard a bit and put in a couple of pins to hold it in place while gluing
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glued and clamped
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while that was setting up decided to get started on a side project. i bought a piece of steel from home depot to make the neck and control plate out of
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roughed it out with the jig saw
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and fine tuned it a bit on the ROSS
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got a little work to do on the corners but i am pretty happy with my first ever metal work. i don't plan to polish it, just sand it for the brushed look, thanks.

[Guitar novice]

Great job so far. The bodywork looks perfect.

Cheers

[danecho283]

well i got my first neck ever out of the clamps this morning...cant wait to clean up the edges of the fret board with the router and then...
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fret board, shape neck, frets, actually there is lots to do!...lots to do!

[junk mutt]

Nice clean work going on here, great job on the body and neck!!

[crazydave911]

Different folks have different methods, but one reason I slot my board before gluing on and radiusing, is so that if I have major boo boo's starting my saw or chipping with my saw, it's then on an edge that gets cut off

Great job on the build



Dave

[danecho283]

well it seems the weekend is the only time i have to work on this project so i got back to the neck a bit tonight. i had lightly scored my fret scale with a box cutter and was not happy with trying to freehand cut the slots so i made a makeshift miter box/thingy that worked pretty well (the deep gouges in this picture cleaned up when i radiused the board).
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next i quickly radiused my board with a homemade block (i will post a pic of it tomorrow), i figure it is about a 10 in radius, tomorrow i may go back and try to make it closer to 9.5.
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i layed out some holes for my fret markers, you can see the 12th fret. i always really liked that detail on the GE Smith necks. i lightly chisled it out with an exacto and tiny screwdriver.

put on some durhams and painters tape trying not to be too messy or fill my fret slots. i know they are gonna need a lot of touch up. i was nervous i would go too far and did not know how much of the slot the radius would erase.
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removed the tape and now i will wait till the morning to rough off the extra material and see if i need to touch any up.
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i know i left on a lot of the puddy but i am hoping i dont have to do it again

[danecho283]

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and its not even the weekend!

[danecho283]

drilled holes to connect pickup pockets to the controls
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made it
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drilled my first set of tuners, not bad for free hand, no drill press in this shop
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i guess this is what it could look like, starting to go together
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