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Lovely, on the "13th"...

And I was wondering why I couldn't get the intonation right......

Dry fitted everything together today. While there are a couple of high spots on the frets on a few notes I will need to sort out (and I didn't have a high e string spare), I am really happy with the sound. The response on higher frequencies is great, the lower frequencies are fine, but not as...

Yeah, I figured the X brace would be best left if possible so I will take your advice, it's just that the crack runs right through it. Maybe fix the crack as well as I can with CA glue and spilt the sound holes around it. If it wasn't for my crude sketching ability, I think something like this...

Nice! I am thinking an extended bottom half of an "f" coming out from the bottom corners of a longer fretboard than I had originally planned. Main concern is that it would cut directly through one of the X brace limbs, but it will be what it will be...

I am trying to stay positive about it; I was clumsy in the workshop and still have all my fingers after all. Plus I had the thought of perhaps steering into the skid with an unorthodox soundhole.

Looks like there will now be significantly less pew in this, as I clumsily dropped body and neck while trying to pry them apart as I was fitting/adjusting the neck joint. Landed face down and cracked the top... My plan is to slice the top off, keep everything else and make a new top...

Spent some time sanding the body to 400 grit today. Decided to do a practice run on scrap for the neck joint. Not the neatest but it won't move unless hit repeatedly with a mallet, so I guess that's a good thing. I got a Japanese pull saw for this and I really like the way it cuts..

Binding is now on. I think the maple helps tie the walnut and the pine together a little better. I've got some sanding to do and some more work on the neck next...

I've done a couple of posts on this on the "What's on your workbench...", but as I am getting a bit more progress on it lately I figured I'd do a full thread on it. To summarize where I'm up to: Last year I made my first guitar (Tele) out of an old church pew end. I had a small piece left...

Chiseling off some excessive kerfing as my foolish self forgot to take into account where the neck block should go. Still, fixing mistakes is all part of the fun!

Appreciate the point on riving. I'd been given 3 sections on a cherry tree trunk by my boss after my guitar making endeavours came up in conversation and he mentioned he'd cut down a cherry tree the previous day. I'd handsawed the first into chunks that could be processed on the table saw but it...

Cutting box joints to make a router table cabinet. Very simplistic but effective jigsaw jig with 2 parallel fences spaced to cut the correct width and a perpendicular fence to stop at the right depth. Underneath the jig is a "peg" that fits into the previous cut for correct spacing. Getting...

Just for the fun of it I decided to give my pewkelele an archtop. Took the basic topography from a Les Paul plan I found online, pencilled in the lines and routed the steps free hand with my cheapo Aldi palm router. Offset corresponding patterns on the inside. Now in then process of smoothing...

Making the black walnut sides for my Pewkelele (which will actually be 6 strings but tuned to A). The wood came out the table saw a smidge too thick at around 3.5mm, so I thinned it out with my Dad's old Stanley block plane to just over 2mm ready for some final sanding. Walnut is nice to work...

I get why he does; there's plenty of them around here in reclaimation places for cheap. Probably many are decades if not centuries old, so nicely seasoned if nothing else. And whatever it contributes to the tone on mine when played unplugged, I like.

Just finished the first of 3 hand re-saws of this piece of church pew I have left over from making my Tele. Thinking of making a ukulele or guitalele type thing (a pewkelele if you will...). Hand re-sawing this "softwood" is not easy....

Still have a few things to tidy up (string tree just ordered as I can't currently bend the B & E, control cavity cover needs making, pickup cover needs corners rounding.... etc.....) but I have a functioning guitar! I am actually really happy with the feel and the sound of it despite the...

Bit further along, slightly delayed by the arrival of my baby son a couple of months ago, so I am just grabbing the odd 20 mins here and there when I can. The diy radius beam idea worked and I also used it to clamp in the frets (and level them, though I now understand technically you shouldn't...

Coming from a rank amateur, so take it for what it's worth but I had success joining 2 pieces for a neck and additional pieces as wings for the headstock using the pattern cutter run along a straight edge method. I used double sided tape to avoid issues moving clamps around. The budget Diall...

Proof will be in the hearing (not that I'll be able to tell if it's slightly out) but from what I can see with a visual check against my strat it looks like my cheapo fret slotting jig has not let me down (can't really show it here as it would need 22 photos panning across, but it looks like it...

Since I am doing a very frugal build I decided to make a zero cost slotting jig from bits I had l laying around including wheels that came on the bottom of a wardrobe I'd expected to be flatpack but arrived assembled (and glued! not a fun thing to get up the stairs when lockdown rules mean no...

I glued on the fretboard yesterday using a spare section of aluminium angle I had left over from the router sled as a sort of caul to keep the pressure at the edges. Can't remember who exactly but I am pretty sure I got the idea from someone's thread on here. Seems to have worked pretty well and...

Thanks Dave - that makes sense. I am doing a headstock adjust, but I can picture how it would work (hadn't really planned for the access beforehand) - I know it's better to have a plan with guitar building, but I tend more towards being a "cross that bridge when I get to it" type.....

I began routing the truss rod channel yesterday. As shown I went as simple as possible - drew a centre line then 2 parallel lines 1.5cm either side, straightened off a couple of strips of plywood and fixed them on the parallel lines with 2 scraps at the end as stoppers. Checked the 3cm guide...