BB 2023 - A "Mini dual pickup Tele Noventa"

[Yonatan]

Technically I'm already a month or so into this build, but I might as well join it in:

My main inspiration is from "A Trio of Tiny Teles" - https://www.tdpri.com/threads/a-trio-of-tiny-teles.211585/ but with some customizations:
1. Scale length. The idea is to have something that my youngest daughter will feel comfortable with, but on the other hand I don't want the scale length to be too much of a novelty (translation "I plan to play it as well"), so I decided to go with a compromise of 596 mm, which if you think about it, is almost Fender short scale.
2. P90s pickups
3. Inspiration for pickguard will be the Noventa
4. Pickup selector switch will be on the lower horn - Jazzmaster style
5. And - this part wasn't intentional - but it looks like I'll be building my first tilted headstock neck (scarf joint). As you can see, the fretboard that I ordered is cut off right before fret 0. Seems that the supplier I used doesn't think that anyone would want to build a Fender style neck with 596 mm scale length! (This is 100% my fault, as the supplier's product pictures clearly show that only some of their fretboards have enough of an extension here for a Fender style neck, and I hadn't checked this carefully.)

One new thing I learned with this build is that while I love working with poplar, it burns very easily with power tools. I couldn't avoid it no matter how much I tried not to stay in one place for too long with a sander or router. Hopefully I'll be able to sand the marks out.

That's it for now, good luck to everyone on your progress!

 

[crazydave911]

Welcome

 

[Yonatan]

Welcome

Thank you!

 

[crazydave911]

23.5" is a great scale length, very playable. Just make sure you make the neck standard widths at the heel and nut. Width is the key to playability in short scales

 

[Newbcaster]

23.5" is a great scale length, very playable. Just make sure you make the neck standard widths at the heel and nut. Width is the key to playability in short scales

strangely enough. after messing around for so long on an old brian may prototype neck, i can't play ibanez anymore. its too thin and the thinness, imho is what causes carpal tunnel.... that and the width. 1/58ths for a nut is is for the birds imho. wider fatter necks call for a lighter touch which, for those of us who love to be able to shred someday.... well thats key.

If i could go back intime I'd tell Leo "dude.. your 6 strings should be NO LESS than 1.75 at the nut and no less than 1.125 at the nut for thickness.

 

[crazydave911]

strangely enough. after messing around for so long on an old brian may prototype neck, i can't play ibanez anymore. its too thin and the thinness, imho is what causes carpal tunnel.... that and the width. 1/58ths for a nut is is for the birds imho. wider fatter necks call for a lighter touch which, for those of us who love to be able to shred someday.... well thats key.

If i could go back intime I'd tell Leo "dude.. your 6 strings should be NO LESS than 1.75 at the nut and no less than 1.125 at the nut for thickness.

The prototype Snakehead Tele was 2" at the nut

 

[Yonatan]

@crazydave911
@Newbcaster
Thanks for the great feedback, width at nut will be 42-43 mm, and I'll probably go for 21-22 mm thickness at the 1st fret.

 

[Yonatan]

The body is mostly complete. I did the roundover (more on that soon), drilled the output jack hole, and drilled the channels connecting the cavities as well as a small hole for a ground wire that runs from just under where the bridge plate will be to the control cavity. You've seen, or done, these things many times, so I won't bore you with the details.

On the roundover, I made a rookie mistake. This is my first time doing a roundover with my laminate trimmer, since on my first few builds I just sanded it in, so I ordered an 1/8" bit and a 3/16" bit. I did the back with the 1/8" bit and thought that the radius was a bit too sharp, so I decided to try the 3/16" bit for the top, but it was an even sharper radius! As you might have guessed by now, it turns out that the specs for the 1/8" bit were given as radius, and the specs for the 3/16" bit were given as diameter! So it will remain 1/8" for now, unless I decide to get another bit.

So the remainder of this will be focused on the neck. One thing I will need to sort out for the body though is that my prep for the glue-up wasn't perfect, and there are some gaps. Not sure yet how to deal with this, as I was thinking of an oil finish, and oil over glue won't look great. Any ideas?

 

[crazydave911]

Do you have fish glue where you are? If so run the cracks full and pack with fine sawdust of the darkest wood (I use my spindle sander to make the dust. Save the remainder in a sandwich bag, you never know)

 

[Yonatan]

Do you have fish glue where you are? If so run the cracks full and pack with fine sawdust of the darkest wood (I use my spindle sander to make the dust. Save the remainder in a sandwich bag, you never know)

It looks like my best bet is to order it from SM, but the shipping is very expensive (though it looks like I have some local options for getting hot hide glue).

But I saw an article online about sanding in BLO and pumice as a pore filler - I wonder if it could work for something this big.

 

[crazydave911]

No clue, maybe

 

[RiversQC]

It looks like my best bet is to order it from SM, but the shipping is very expensive (though it looks like I have some local options for getting hot hide glue).

But I saw an article online about sanding in BLO and pumice as a pore filler - I wonder if it could work for something this big.

Re sanding in a filler. I would think you could sand in pumice, or a slurry method using oil and fine grit sandpaper and cover the gap... but, this would be easier done if the lumber was the same. With different woods meeting it would be hard to control? Packing it in in some way then scraping it down seems better IMO.

 

[Yonatan]

As I mentioned, this is my first time building a tilted headstock neck!

I started by marking out the cut, based on its angle (13 degrees) and based on the required headstock length (7 inches). After mocking it up with a piece of paper, I ended up moving the cut away from the headstock a bit - just to give me a bit more room for error.

Then, I clamped a piece of plywood to keep the saw at a right angle and made the cut. It came out not worse than what I was hoping for

And, I started to flatten the surfaces of the joint with some 80 grit on a piece of glass. The top of the headstock piece (after flipping) will get thicknessed before the glue up, so no point in sanding it.

 

[Yonatan]

It was slow going getting the gluing surfaces trued up (sandpaper on a piece of glass), but there wasn't any rush. Then, before I'll do the glue up, I thicknessed the top of the headstock using my trimmer and some scraps of MDF that a local carpenter was more than happy for me to take, as it saved him from having to haul them to the dump.

 

[hopdybob]

The body is mostly complete. I did the roundover (more on that soon), drilled the output jack hole, and drilled the channels connecting the cavities as well as a small hole for a ground wire that runs from just under where the bridge plate will be to the control cavity. You've seen, or done, these things many times, so I won't bore you with the details.

View attachment 1098138

On the roundover, I made a rookie mistake. This is my first time doing a roundover with my laminate trimmer, since on my first few builds I just sanded it in, so I ordered an 1/8" bit and a 3/16" bit. I did the back with the 1/8" bit and thought that the radius was a bit too sharp, so I decided to try the 3/16" bit for the top, but it was an even sharper radius! As you might have guessed by now, it turns out that the specs for the 1/8" bit were given as radius, and the specs for the 3/16" bit were given as diameter! So it will remain 1/8" for now, unless I decide to get another bit.

View attachment 1098140

So the remainder of this will be focused on the neck. One thing I will need to sort out for the body though is that my prep for the glue-up wasn't perfect, and there are some gaps. Not sure yet how to deal with this, as I was thinking of an oil finish, and oil over glue won't look great. Any ideas?

View attachment 1098142

i have learnt that sometimes you have to make the mistake bigger.
i know, i know, why would you do that?
well the idea is to make it look that it has to be that way.
my first thought.
route a channel with a round bit so it fits a rod of?????
and do it on both sides.
ore do like @Laren did and fill it with color

The Cut Off / Scrap Wood Set Neck practice build

Hi guys. Just thought I'd create a thread for those interested. I've not built a set neck guitar before so I thought I'd give it a try to see how it's done, learn the pros and cons as it were. I'll be using a wrap around bridge so that I have to have a break angle on the neck. This doesn't...

www.tdpri.com

 

[Yonatan]

For anyone who hasn't glued up a scarf joint before, the headstock portion REALLY wants to slip away from the neck portion. I had of course clamped a block down at the end of the headstock (not shown in the picture), and even still, the clamping pressure on the joint still managed to push away the block a bit! Fortunately, I had overlapped the pieces more than was necessary, so the end result looks okay.

 

[crazydave911]

Good job

 

[Zepfan]

For anyone who hasn't glued up a scarf joint before, the headstock portion REALLY wants to slip away from the neck portion. I had of course clamped a block down at the end of the headstock (not shown in the picture), and even still, the clamping pressure on the joint still managed to push away the block a bit! Fortunately, I had overlapped the pieces more than was necessary, so the end result looks okay.

View attachment 1104097

View attachment 1104096
View attachment 1104095

That's how I do my scarf joints. Putting the 2 pieces together with glue and getting them to stay in place while clamping is a PITA.
What I do is dry fit the 2 pieces and clamp tight. Then drill 2 pilot holes through the thickest area of the scarf joint on each side of trussrod channel and run in 2 wood screws.
Back out the screws, glue up the pieces and screw them back together insuring that it's all straight and let dry without having to use clamps.
When dry, back out screws and drill holes for dowel rods, glue in dowel rods, let dry and trim away excess.
Done.

 

[Yonatan]

 

[Yonatan]

Haven't had a chance to update lately, here's where I'm at:

1. So, this "ARDEN" came in the mail (that's 3/8 in diameter not radius), and we wind up with a slightly rounder profile

2. Fingerboard glued on

3. The fingerboard didn't come with a 21st fret - so I added one

4. And, here is where things went sour - after drilling the holes for vintage style tuners and installing the bushings, the tuners were too crowded to fit together! I'm using a hand drill, and didn't have any trouble at all on my first two neck builds, but those use modern tuners, and I guess that accuracy on the spacing isn't as critical as with vintage tuners.

So I had to plug them. The front of the headstock is getting a veneer anyway, and the back will get covered by the tuners themselves. This time, I plan to mark the centers with an awl directly from a printout of the headstock diagram glued right to the headstock (And yes I did confirm that the spacing in the printout matches the spacing of my tuners, although ironically the product page for these tuners says that they are spaced at 15/16", however from my measurements they exactly line up with the "Fender Headstock" PDF that I printed which - as far as I can tell - is spaced out closer to 31/32''. But anyway this is all probably much less important than how accurate my marking, and then drilling, will be.)