Barn build #3... again

[RogerC]

I was one of the primary violators of the non-commercial posting rule, so a couple of my threads got deleted , so I figured I'd start this one again, but keep it within the rules.

So it started with this piece of barn wood from a barn built in the 40s in southern Oklahoma. Kinda cool to think about what all was going on during that time.




Also was this piece of walnut that was given to me. I was going to try and make the neck from this, but as you may remember, I was having problems with it bowing, so I'll just do the fretboard from it instead, and use some nice mahogany I have for the neck.



And just to refresh your memory, here are the specs:

-25" scale
-PAF pickups
-Wilkinson bridge and tuners


And here are the body construction pics up to this point

























That's all I'd done for a while, but I had time to go ahead and get the fretboard blank milled tonight.



Once I finish the Punkcaster, I'll be devoting all my time to this one, so there should be some more progress soon.

[Barncaster]

Looking spectacular Rog!

Check your PMs. What are you going to do for a bridge on this puppy? Are you going to theme the pickguard again? I had a thought. Maybe a vintage B&W family photo with the barn in the background under a clear pickguard? There I go being sentimental again.......

Rob

[RogerC]

Thanks, Rob. This one won't have a pickguard and will be rear-routed. I'll be using this bridge.

[JustPlay]

Hi Roger -

It looks like you're off to another great start! Lookin' good... Ya' know, your previous posts on those Barn Wood Builds were what lead me to give it a try myself...

So, fair warning to all who read this: Be careful following Roger's thread(s), or the next thing you know you'll want to try building one yourself!

Then again, there are worse problems to have in life!

best'
Will ~

[RogerC]

Hehe. Thanks, Will

[Barncaster]

Excellent, solid bridge Rog. You can take a Tele anywhere with that bridge. I like what GE Smith does. He uses a shorty bridge and screws the bridge pup right into the wood. Says it allows the Tele to reliably function in really high gain situations without going all squealy. And if you are using a humbucker ya kinda have a few problems solved right off the bat!

Rob

[edchavez]

Man I love your barn builds. Simple and rustic.

[guitarbuilder]

I like the "Ye Olde "nail holes :-)

[RogerC]

Originally Posted by Barncaster

Excellent, solid bridge Rog. You can take a Tele anywhere with that bridge. I like what GE Smith does. He uses a shorty bridge and screws the bridge pup right into the wood. Says it allows the Tele to reliably function in really high gain situations without going all squealy. And if you are using a humbucker ya kinda have a few problems solved right off the bat!

Rob

Yeah, that bridge offers so much versatility.

Originally Posted by edchavez

Man I love your barn builds. Simple and rustic.

Thanks, Ed.

Originally Posted by guitarbuilder

I like the "Ye Olde "nail holes :-)

Yeah, I wanted to save as many of those as i could.

[R. Stratenstein]

Thanks for re-posting this build, Roger. I had no idea you could run afoul of the rules so easily, but I re-read them, and shazaaam!

Are you going to, as Rob suggests, do a GE Smith type build with the pups securely anchored to the body? I really like the idea, and certainly am a big fan of GE Smith. Heck of a nice guy, as well as great guitarist.

Only thing I don't fully understand about this mounting method is how you could possibly calculate the exact pickup route depth, without having first fully assembled the guitar, fine tuned everything, including the nut, and then measured for the depth of the pups, knowing the string clearance you want to the pole pieces. (Hmm, maybe I just described the method without realizing it. Sounds tedious, but like me old mum used to say, nothing worthwhile is ever easy! )

[RogerC]

Thanks, Rick. I am going to mount the pups directly to the body. As for depth, I'll just rout the pockets slightly deep (not much) and then use shims as needed for final height.

[RogerC]

Progress! WOOHOO!

My focus has been getting the neck made. I was originally going to use some of the walnut from that billet, but it just wasn't behaving, so I thought I'd use some other wood that I already had on hand. I'll use some of the billet for the fretboard, though, which is what I have pictured above.

I picked up a couple of large boards from a commercial woodworker who was going out of business. One board was 8" wide x 8' long, and the other was 6" wide x 8' long. They're both 1" thick. The guy told me they were mahogany, and I just took his word for it. I also got a large piece of 4/4 maple from the same guy, and he sold everything to me for like $2. Seriously.

So I brought it all home, and I thought I had 2 large pieces of some species of mahogany. I didn't have reason to believe any different even though it looked nothing like the other mahogany species I've worked with. It had a reddish hue and was quite dense and hard. It also had large pores. Well, after working with it, I've realized that it's some variety of walnut. There's no mistaking that walnut smell. I'm not complaining at all, though. It's some beautiful wood, though a bit paler than the species I'm using for the fretboard.

Anyway, here are some progress pics. All of these have taken place over the last few days.

Here's the raw board. The reddish hue isn't really showing up in the pics.






These boards had some warped sections, so I made sure to cut out a piece that was nice and flat. I started planing it down to thickness and ran into this on the end.




Unfortunately that didn't leave me enough length, so I had to shelve that piece and cut another from the other board. I was able to anticipate the end cracking this time, though, and made sure the piece was plenty long. I got it planed down to thickness and ready to go for the next available work day. Here's a good shot showing the color difference between the 2 species.




That all happened over the course of the last couple of days. Here's tonight's progress.

Since this guitar is going to be 25" scale, the neck is going to be slightly shorter. Since the neck is going to be shorter, I couldn't use my standard template. Here's how I tackled the job.

First I cut my fretboard to length and marked my nut position and center line. Then I marked a center reference line on my neck blank. It wasn't necessarily the center line of the board, just a line to represent the center of my neck. The board is actually wide enough that I'll be able to get another neck out of it later.

Once I marked my center reference line, I made lines for the end of the neck and the nut position. Then I took my neck width at the nut and did some maths. I divided it by 2 so that I could make a mark on either side of my center line. Thusly.






Then I did the same at the heel end.






Once that was done, I took a straight edge and connected the heel mark with the nut mark, giving me the sides of my neck.




I then made a cardboard template of the headstock and lined it up with my neck center line. I then traced that onto the neck section I just finished drawing out.






Then I spent the rest of the evening cutting that out on the band saw and then sanding down to the line, which gave me this.




Since the colors of the walnut aren't a match, I'm thinking of setting the fretboard off by adding a layer between the fb and neck. I've got a piece of nice, amber-colored maple that looks like it'll do the trick. So looking down as you're playing, you'll see the fb, a 1/8" thick slice of maple, then the neck.




And lastly, I got a nice package in the mail today-- some blue label PAFs




Should only be another 2 -3 weeks and this one will be ready to go.

[nosmo]

I hate to bust your ballon, but the "blue" labels are really just painter's tape

I didn't just fall off the apple cart you know.


Nice neck by the way.

[RogerC]

Dang it, nosmo. That only looks like painter's tape. I was assured by the manufacturer that it was really a super mojo-inducing coating that would make this guitar sound like the best LP in the world

[nosmo]

LP? Not you too? You can't swing a dead cat around here without hitting an LP thread.




Disclaimer: No cats were harmed in the composition of this post.




It was dead when I found it

[clsatt]

Originally Posted by nosmo

LP? Not you too? You can't swing a dead cat around here without hitting an LP thread.




Disclaimer: No cats were harmed in the composition of this post.




It was dead when I found it

[adirondak5]

Originally Posted by nosmo

LP? Not you too? You can't swing a dead cat around here without hitting an LP thread.

Disclaimer: No cats were harmed in the composition of this post.

It was dead when I found it

Hey , don't be swinging no cats by my thread , dead or mostly dead :-D

[RogerC]

Originally Posted by nosmo

LP? Not you too? You can't swing a dead cat around here without hitting an LP thread.




Disclaimer: No cats were harmed in the composition of this post.




It was dead when I found it

. No. I'm not making an LP. That's what makes these pickups so spectacular

This is a 25" scale tele with PAFs... so it's not really a tele...or an LP, but it's somethin'

[crazydave911]

Originally Posted by RogerC

So it started with this piece of barn wood from a barn built in the 40s in southern Oklahoma. Kinda cool to think about what all was going on during that time.

Ahhhhhhhh, the 40s








Sorry about the threads Roger, but post your pics in PicasaWebs and just post a link................to anybody BTW, that wide board resembles Butternut, a walnut relative

[OpenG Capo4]

Originally Posted by RogerC

This is a 25" scale tele with PAFs... so it's not really a tele...or an LP, but it's somethin'

A PRS, maybe.