Wood score in preparation for my first commission

[RogerC]

Well, I got my first commission today. It's not the young blues guy, though. The owner of our local bike shop is a tele player and a friend of mine. I took my barncaster by for him to see, and he decided that he wants one. My wife really needs a nicer bike and her birthday is coming up on New Year's Eve, so he offered to trade me a guitar for a REALLY nice bike for her . I'm pumped and really nervous all at the same time because now people have expectations

So on to the wood score. He decided that he wanted an extremely figured neck, so I headed to the wood sale at the shutter mill today and picked this up. It's 2 1/2" wide x 1 1/2" thick x 10' long, and I paid $10 for it.





This should look very sweet under some tung oil.

[hemingway]

Lovely, look forward to seeing it.

[glen smith]

Nice! I will be following along.

[adirondak5]

Congrats on the commission Roger , nice looking hunk of maple ya got there .

[Rich Rice]

Good job on the horse trading, and exceptional score on the wood. That piece would run pretty close to $100 by me.

[RogerC]

Originally Posted by hemingway

Lovely, look forward to seeing it.

Thanks, hemingway

Originally Posted by glen smith

Nice! I will be following along.

Thanks, glen

Originally Posted by adirondak5

Congrats on the commissionRoger , nice looking hunk of maple ya got there .

Thank you, Herb. I'm pretty excited to get started. The guy I'm building for is a tremendously nice guy, so I really want to make him something special.

Originally Posted by Rich Rice

Good job on the horse trading, and exceptional score on the wood. That piece would run pretty close to $100 by me.

Thanks, Rich. WOW! I had no idea on the price. The place where I usually get my wood has tons of stuff like this, as well as just about anything else, and it's all pretty cheap. The best part is that they're 5 miles from my house

[nosmo]

OK so last time might have been premature. Congratulations......again

[RogerC]

Thanks, nosmo

[R. Stratenstein]

So, odds are that you'll be running TWO commission threads here soon, right??

Have you turned in notice at your day job yet

Great work Roger, that is a super score, and ought to yield some gorgeous necks.

[RogerC]

Hehe I hope so, Rick.

It's funny, one of my co-workers who's a semi-pro musician made a comment yesterday how I was in the wrong line of work. My boss was right there and quickly said, "No he's not!" It's really nice to be wanted

[R. Stratenstein]

Definitely
Might have been a bit awkward if your boss had piped up with something like, He sure is!

Any hoo, I understand the anxiety, you want to do a superlative job, but on the other hand, you've already proven you've got it in ya. Even if there are a few bumps along the way. (Or there might not be, who knows?) Hope you do have time to share the build(s) with us.

[Bentley]

Agreed, i want to see this build! Good job on the comission! What kinda of bike? I wish i could do something like that, my bike just got stole, and i dont really have 700 bucks to buy a new one.

[acalan]

Great .I hope you give us a bunch of pictures. I'd love to follow this build

[Colt W. Knight]

Is that hard or soft maple? Beautiful figure.

If it is soft maple, I would recommend a double action truss rod.

[RogerC]

Originally Posted by R. Stratenstein

Definitely
Might have been a bit awkward if your boss had piped up with something like, He sure is!

Any hoo, I understand the anxiety, you want to do a superlative job, but on the other hand, you've already proven you've got it in ya. Even if there are a few bumps along the way. (Or there might not be, who knows?) Hope you do have time to share the build(s) with us.

I will definitely be chronicling the build here.

Originally Posted by Bentley

Agreed, i want to see this build! Good job on the comission! What kinda of bike? I wish i could do something like that, my bike just got stole, and i dont really have 700 bucks to buy a new one.

I know what you mean. My wife has been borrowing a friends Canondale because she doesn't have a nice bike of her own. This will be a mid-level Trek (retail of about $1200), so she'll be set.

Originally Posted by acalan

Great .I hope you give us a bunch of pictures. I'd love to follow this build

Definitely

Originally Posted by Colt W. Knight

Is that hard or soft maple? Beautiful figure.

If it is soft maple, I would recommend a double action truss rod.

It is soft maple. I've used double action rods in all my necks so far, so that was the plan with this one as well. Since the stock is so thick, I'll have plenty of room to cut off a slice for the fretboard and then glue everything back together. It should be seamless.

[Bentley]

You can do double action from the bottom too, can't you? And why would you do anything other then double action, they're so easy to put in, and so versatile!

[Jupiter]

Wow, that piece of wood around here would be...not around here.

[Colt W. Knight]

Originally Posted by Bentley

You can do double action from the bottom too, can't you? And why would you do anything other then double action, they're so easy to put in, and so versatile!

Weight
Tradition
looks

[axedaddy]

Hey Roger, congrats, I'm sure it will turn out awesome. Since you are so averse to tying anything new or non traditional :-) I may be wasting my time . But to me, that fine piece of timber looks like a fine candidate for the G&L bi-cut truss instal using a double action rod. From the G&L site:

"The Bi-Cut® neck design is another revolutionary patent granted to Leo and G&L. The traditional method of truss rod installation involves routing out the back side of the neck, installing the truss rod and covering the route with a rosewood stripe commonly referred to as a "skunk stripe". Alternatively, a traditional installation puts the route for the truss rod from the face of the neck, covering it with the fingerboard.

The Bi-Cut method involves cutting the neck blank in half longitudinally, making a rout on the inside, inserting the truss rod then gluing the two halves together. The new completed neck blank is then put in a Taylor press with approximately 350 pounds of pressure, assuring a nearly invisible truss rod installation. The design goal that the Bi-Cut method achieves is exceptional resistance to warping and twisting, because the centrally located glue joint is actually stronger than the wood on either side."

I will be using this technique at some point int he future. IHHO it's hard to beat when you have such a pretty piece of maple.

[RogerC]

Originally Posted by Bentley

You can do double action from the bottom too, can't you? And why would you do anything other then double action, they're so easy to put in, and so versatile!

Yes, but he doesn't want a skunk stripe interfering with the grain on the neck.

Originally Posted by Jupiter

Wow, that piece of wood around here would be...not around here.

I'm lucky with the supplier being so close. They do really high-end custom shutters, so they have a lot of really nice wood. The downside is that since their full-time work is shutter manufacturing, they only sale wood to the public once a month.

Originally Posted by Colt W. Knight

Weight
Tradition
looks

Yep

Originally Posted by axedaddy

Hey Roger, congrats, I'm sure it will turn out awesome. Since you are so averse to tying anything new or non traditional :-) I may be wasting my time . But to me, that fine piece of timber looks like a fine candidate for the G&L bi-cut truss instal using a double action rod. From the G&L site:

"The Bi-Cut® neck design is another revolutionary patent granted to Leo and G&L. The traditional method of truss rod installation involves routing out the back side of the neck, installing the truss rod and covering the route with a rosewood stripe commonly referred to as a "skunk stripe". Alternatively, a traditional installation puts the route for the truss rod from the face of the neck, covering it with the fingerboard.

The Bi-Cut method involves cutting the neck blank in half longitudinally, making a rout on the inside, inserting the truss rod then gluing the two halves together. The new completed neck blank is then put in a Taylor press with approximately 350 pounds of pressure, assuring a nearly invisible truss rod installation. The design goal that the Bi-Cut method achieves is exceptional resistance to warping and twisting, because the centrally located glue joint is actually stronger than the wood on either side."

I will be using this technique at some point int he future. IHHO it's hard to beat when you have such a pretty piece of maple.

Wow, that sounds really cool, but I'm not about to attempt something brand new like that on my first commission