Guitarnut - Hardtail Strat Build (x4)

[Guitarnut]

Four Strats in one build. Yep, it's a lot but I've had a burst of build energy despite 14 straight days of record heat topping out at 107° and a 95° shop. Today looks to be only 98° air temp so maybe the shop will stay around 85° or so.

I almost didn't start this thread because my builds may have become somewhat predictable but I plan a few new twists in this one involving the swing arm belt sander I built for my Shopsmith.



The plan is 4 hardtail Strats. 3 with 2-piece basswood bodies and the 4th is 1-piece alder. I've really become a fan of basswood. My last 2 Strats were basswood with .25" maple tops. And alder is just cool vintage vibe.

The colors will be:

Alder
2-tone vintage sunburst, rosewood fretboard, clay dots markers, maple neck, mint guard, hand wound A3 single coil PUs, vintage tuners.

Basswood 1
Bright Silver metallic, maple fretboard, black clay dot markers, maple neck, W/B/W guard, hand wound A5 single coil PUs, vintage tuners.

Basswwod 2
Antique white, maple fretboard, black clay dot markers, maple neck, white guard, hand wound A5 single coil PUs, vintage tuners.

Basswood 3
Trans Purple over silver metallic base, maple fretboard, black clay dot markers, maple neck, white guard, hand wound A5 single coil PUs, vintage tuners.

[Guitarnut]

So it begins...

I started with 2 large blocks of basswood. they were rough sawn so I needed to joint one edge before taking them to the band saw.



Then I trimmed them down to just under 6.75" wide...the widest my Shopsmith band saw can resaw.





Resawn to 1.875".



Then cross cut...3 @ 19" and 3 @ 17".



The necks will be made from this maple billet. I've used it as a sled for my planer for the last few years. It's not fancy...just good old rock maple with some figure here and there. At 28"x8.50"x2.75" it will yield 4 blanks.



I ripped it in half for resaw.



Then each half was resawn.



The last step was to trim them to 4" wide for my truss rod jig.



The results...

[Guitarnut]

Time to glue up the blanks. The shorter piece of basswood had a nasty knot that I had to avoid. I laid the pieces out, checked my template and then made a Sharpie mark to guide me during glue up.





The other 2 blanks were no problem. I flushed up the joints against the bottom bar clamps. This lets gravity assist with alignment so just a skim pass thru the planer will clean them up. That gives me plenty to work with on the other side during planing.



After clean up in the planer with the template traced.



Rough trimmed on the band saw. I did these with a 1/2" blade because it's a bit of a chore to change out the blade on my band saw...not because it's difficult but because my resaw setup is just the way I like it and going back and forth between 1/2" and 1/4" blades takes a bit of realigning to get the resaw dialed back in. Since the SS band saw is so easy to remove, I should just get a second, unmodified saw to keep a 1/4" blade on.



And here's the alder blank that was already trimmed to this point.

[Guitarnut]

On to profiling the bodies. Since I use the 1/2" cut bit from StewMac, I've gotten in the habit of using thinner templates. I can make a pass with the template, remove it and make a second pass without adjusting the router.

A single pass on each body.



With the template removed, I use the first pass as a template edge and...



...make a second pass on each.





Then, I just keep making passes until I get to the last little bit.



I change out the router bit to a flush trim bit and remove the last edge.

[Guitarnut]

Next is the neck pocket route. With the neck pocket @ .625", the PU routes @ .750" and controls @ 1.250" I takes everything at once. Since these are hardtails, I put some tape over the bridge route to keep me from doing something stupid.



Since the control route is going deeper than the neck and PUs, I use it as a testing ground for depth. Here, I'm check my router setting for the .625" depth of the neck pocket. The next pass will erase the test cut. I'll do the same for the PU routes.



Everything down to .625"



Then I remove the template and take PUs, control and output down to .750"



Then, I add a block to guide the bearing and take control and output down to 1.25"

[Guitarnut]

After adding the round overs, I roughed in the transitions to the neck pocket.







Forearm and belly cuts are next...that's where the SS belt sander comes in.

[budgetbuild]

Cool another Guitarnut build! I wouldn't say there was anything predictable about your builds, you invent new tools and stuff- the only thing I would say was predictable is you work faster than I do!
Hey, do the A3 and A5 magnets make the pickups sound different?
well were watching.

Andy

[guitarbuilder]

Wow, somebody else uses the stew mac bit besides me..... :-) I'm a fan of the basswood too. Plentiful, stable, and cheap on the east coast.

It works like pine in my opinion although a bit dustier. Put some clear oil on some scrap and watch the grain pop.

[junk mutt]

Hey, Nice going Nut ! That alder body is going to look sweet. I always like to watch you work- gives people like me something to aspire to. I'm not doing too bad though, got 2 finished and one ready for final sanding since march.

[Guitarnut]

I started this morning on the forearm cuts. My plan was to build a simple jig that would attach to the SS sander. It would hold the body so the top of the cut was parallel to the travel of the belt. A hinged plate would hold the body and allow it to drop as wood is sanded away. Wedges under the plate would limit the travel to the roughly 20° angle of the cut. Cutoffs from the body would be lined with cork and used to position and hold the body in place. A clamp could be attached thru the bridge routes on trem bodies.







Before building the jig, I wanted to hand cut one of the bodies to assist in setting angles. The cut went so fast and easy, I decided to save the jig build for cooler weather.

I marked the cut on the front of the body and carried the lines around to the back. This gave me a visual reference for keeping the cut parallel to the belt travel. It took about 20 mins to do all 4 bodies. I really need to build a dust collection solution for this sander...yuck!



You can see how easy it was to keep the cut on track.



This is the alder body, which I did last. Right up to the line with no problems.



Last thing I did was ease over the top of the cuts. A little bit of blocking to flatten things out and they're done. The heat drove me out of the shop, so the tummy cuts will have to wait.

[Guitarnut]

Originally Posted by budgetbuild

Cool another Guitarnut build! I wouldn't say there was anything predictable about your builds, you invent new tools and stuff- the only thing I would say was predictable is you work faster than I do!
Hey, do the A3 and A5 magnets make the pickups sound different?
well were watching.

Andy

Thanks!

To my ear, the A3 magnets pick up a sweetness in the top end when slightly over wound.

Bare Knuckle Apache A3

The A5 magnets have a throatier, fuller mid range.

Bare Knuckle Slow Hand A5

[Guitarnut]

Originally Posted by guitarbuilder

Wow, somebody else uses the stew mac bit besides me..... :-) I'm a fan of the basswood too. Plentiful, stable, and cheap on the east coast.

It works like pine in my opinion although a bit dustier. Put some clear oil on some scrap and watch the grain pop.

Yep. the smaller cut keeps me from getting in a hurry. It really cuts down on tear out. The basswood is dusty for sure...like baby powder dusty.

[Guitarnut]

Originally Posted by junk mutt

Hey, Nice going Nut ! That alder body is going to look sweet. I always like to watch you work- gives people like me something to aspire to. I'm not doing too bad though, got 2 finished and one ready for final sanding since march.

Thanks! Congrats on the builds. it just makes a man feel good to play a guitar he built with his own hands.

[glen smith]

Alright, more builds to follow!

[melomanarock]

Nice work! I'm building two strats at the moment, and one of them is hardtail too..
One "advice" if you can call it that: I don't know how much you care about building them to vintage specs but look at various pics of forearms cuts and you'll see that they are not flat as they would look with your jig.
This is from a Ron Kirn thread:



I'd say forget about the jig a do it by hand as it was done in the old days, I think is one of the coolest parts of building a strat.

Keep up the good work!

[Guitarnut]

Originally Posted by melomanarock

Nice work! I'm building two strats at the moment, and one of them is hardtail too..
One "advice" if you can call it that: I don't know how much you care about building them to vintage specs but look at various pics of forearms cuts and you'll see that they are not flat as they would look with your jig.
This is from a Ron Kirn thread:

I'd say forget about the jig a do it by hand as it was done in the old days, I think is one of the coolest parts of building a strat.

Keep up the good work!

Thanks!

The cut, whether by hand or the jig, would be rounded when hand finished. If I used a jig for this, it would be for hogging off the bulk of the wood. Then I would block it out as RK shows in his tutorial. This was super easy on the belt sander and will require much less blocking.

[Guitarnut]

Originally Posted by glen smith

Alright, more builds to follow!

[melomanarock]

Originally Posted by Guitarnut

Thanks!

The cut, whether by hand or the jig, would be rounded when hand finished. If I used a jig for this, it would be for hogging off the bulk of the wood. Then I would block it out as RK shows in his tutorial. This was super easy on the belt sander and will require much less blocking.

great! maybe you can think of a jig to do it like this (go to 2:33)

[oramac7891]

Another great start to another great build thread. Your efficiency at building makes most of us look bad

[Guitarnut]

Originally Posted by melomanarock

great! maybe you can think of a jig to do it like this (go to 2:33)

Thanks for sharing that video.

I could add a fence to the side of the sander and work in a similar way. Standing behind the fence and having it to bear against would really cut down on fatigue. Even though I only ran the sander for 20 mins or so, countering the pull of the belt really cramped up my forearms.