Minimalist lightweight offset bolt-on with Formica!

[mtorn]

That is one brilliantly elegant neck joint!

Thanks!
I'm still waiting for my pickup to be delivered (apparently EMG make these to order) - and only after that can I finalize the size of my pickup template, and make the pickup cavity. And only after THAT can I drill all the holes for the neck attachment bolts. And one I have done THAT, I should know how well it all works in practice. Can't wait!

 

[mtorn]

The Formica top and back necessitates that use binding for the edges. Well, it's not entirely required, but the Formica edges are not very pretty, so I don't want to leave them exposed.

I haven't done binding before on an electric, but I have done it on a few ukuleles. I have this StewMac Dremel attachment (not my picture):

It works pretty well for the flat surfaces. This is just a preliminary binding channel, I'll do a final pass at it when the Formica has been glued on.

The hard part, I found, is doing the binding around the forearm contour. Since the whole contraption is at an angle, the spacer bearing distance changes as you roll along. So I just semi-freehanded it, and then did some follow up with a chisel, and sandpaper on a stick. It needs more refinement.

The bright side is that the Formica, the binding itself, and the black dye and epoxy on the edges, will eventually hide most of the wonky imperfections.

 

[mtorn]

I'm installing the frets!

I skipped the steps to do the side dots. And in keeping with the minimalist theme, I'm not doing any front dot markers. I find that I never miss them.

This will be my first opportunity to try out my new modified Kreg clamp fret press jig! I wrote about it here:

http://www.tdpri.com/threads/fret-press-using-a-kreg-clamp.712364/

Well, to make a long story short, it works well!

The Richlite is tough stuff, so it takes a few squeezes (middle, upper side, lower side) to do a fret. I eased each fret slot edge with a triangle file before pressing, so they could seat completely.

The fret organizer in the background is a true sign of an anal builder...

After all the frets were in, I spot checked the entire board with a fret rocker. A few frets were a little bit high in places, but a couple of more squeezes, and they are all remarkably level! You could play on these frets without a fret leveling, although I'll do one later.

It's lovely to start out the fret work with frets that are completely and evenly seated, and that aren't all beat up from frantic hammering. Leveling and dressing should go much quicker now.

 

[Asmith]

Love the fret press jig, it's pure genious!

 

[mtorn]

I'm still waiting for the Formica, the EMG pickup, and the Graph Tech wraparound bridge. So I might as well do some more work on the neck.

The carving process is pretty standard. First I marked it out, and then did a typical "facet method", with (Microplane) rasps, card scraper, and sandpaper.

I ran into some issues with scraping, and prior to this also with jointing and planing. The 3-piece neck glue up method, where the middle layer is flipped 180 degrees, means that I'm scraping in the wrong grain direction a lot of the time. It's especially noticeable when scraping at the glue lines. It's a bit like petting a hedgehog in the wrong direction.
The tearout-prone mahogany is worse that usual.

Hot tip: You can use the table of your drill press as a height adjustable aux clamping surface. Well, at least you can if your drill press is on a cart with wheels.

After an hour or two, the neck shape is done, and wiped down with mineral spirits. This is how it fits at the heel.

I'm shooting for a chunky "boatneck" profile here (thicker than usual, and slightly v-shaped). I'm convinced that a big neck is a significant help sonically, and perhaps I'll like the feel of the profile as well?

That glue line pops out more than expected... Another strike against the 3-piece neck approach. Maybe I'll just use a single piece of wood in the future. And if I need more stability and strength I can always add carbon fiber - that was quite easy to do.

After the final sanding, I can tape off the fingerboard, and start the grain filling (lots of pores here!). I use Z-poxy, and use a small squeegee to spread it thin. I like how it warms the wood color, and it's a good flat starter base for tru-oil.

The blobs of epoxy on the headstock is where I had some of the grain tear out from double stick tape (!), so I need to fill those divots a bit extra.

I will need a couple more coats, with a little sanding in between. This stuff cures very slowly, probably needs to go overnight.

 

[Ripthorn]

I use my drill press table too, but that is because the corner of it is about 30" from the edge of my workbench corner, so I just wind the vise out and clamp on to the drill press table and the big vise chop.

 

[MM73]

Cool looking build.

Been mired in my own work stuff...so nice to observe neatly organized builds!

 

[mtorn]

There's been some progress on this one.

While I was waiting for the some stuff (Formica sheet, wraparound bridge, EMG pickup), I could nearly finish the neck.

It turns out that I only needed two coats of Z-poxy, so that was followed by Tru-oil. I think I did about 6-7 coats - with the epoxy as a base layer, it doesn't seem to need as many coats as I hear others are using. I was shooting for a satin sheen here.

Afterwards I could drill for the the threaded neck bolt inserts. This was a new thing for me, and I learned the best technique after doing a somewhat crappy job on the first one (of three).

You have to drill it a little larger than you'd expect. And the inserts, at least these ones, are made from brass, so they are a little soft. That means that it's easy to mangle the end of it if you are using a flat head screwdriver to screw it into the wood. That's what happened on the one in the butt end of the neck.
Instead I found a bolt that fit the threads, and a nut as a spacer, and then drove the whole package in with a wrench. Much cleaner, and easier to screw in straight.

And here is how the secret special butt bolt sits. It's a little nerve wracking to tighten it, it feels like the wedge action could split the body in half, if tightened too much.

I could also mount the tuners now. Nothing special to report on this, apart from a reminder to clear out the epoxy and and other finish before you force the tuners in. I've learned the hard way that you can crack a headstock if you get too energetic.

Another weird side effect of the wedge design is that by tightening the bolt less or more, you'll actually change the guitar's intonation a little, since it moves the whole neck a little bit closer or further from the bridge.
If I build another one with this design, maybe I'll make the pocket a little shorter, so you will bottom it out when fully tightened. That would address both those issues, but it would be a little tricky do determine exactly how short the pocket should be, so you still would get a lot of wedge action tightness.

And this is from the front. Very nice tuners, these staggered Hipshot open gear locking ones, apart from that they don't seem all that light. It makes me a little worried that I might have built the body too lightweight, and the guitar will be neck heavy? We'll see.

You can see that I extended the finish up to the nut on the fingerboard. The Richlite with some finish makes for a nice "piano black".

 

[mtorn]

About the pickup. I had intended for to use the guitar to try one of EMG's new mini-humbucker designs. Those pickups seem to have been gone under everyone's radar (or maybe people just didn't care), and I have barely heard of anyone who has tried one. The one I had ordered (direct from EMG) was the M-60, which was described as a humbucker sounding like a fat single coil.

Well, after not hearing from them for two weeks, I gave them a nudge. When I heard back from them I was told that they've had some production issues, and will be delaying their release, and have removed them from their website. Of course, they didn't tell me about this while I was waiting for my order...

So instead I'll be using a passive pickup I have sitting around. It's a Dimarzio EJ Custom, which is essentially their take on the Filtertron sound. So again, a bright jangly humbucker. I think it will work nicely.

Earlier I forgot to show you how I drilled the hole for the secret special butt bolt. Mostly I just think it's funny how my long drill bits are ridiculously long!

Oh, and my bridge arrived! It's Graph Tech ResoMax Sonic 1 non-adjustable wraparound. I love the concept of having as few moving parts as possible. Let's see how I like it in practice.

I'm not drilling for the post holes yet, I'll do that once the Formica is mounted, and the neck in place, so I can find the exact location. With so little adjustment I want to make sure it's as precise as I can get it.

 

[mtorn]

The Formica has arrived!

The first order I made with Home Depot somehow got cancelled in the shuffle. That actually turned out to be a good thing, since I had changed my mind on what color/pattern I wanted. Once I got the proper order in, it took about two weeks, even though the matte surface of this pattern was a special order at Formica.

The smallest size I could get a sheet of this is 4x8 feet! It's still not terribly expensive, I think around $67. It arrives in a loose roll in a big cardboard box.

I could cut off a few sections using regular scissors, but it is a little brittle, and cracked a little around the edges.

The varying light in the pictures makes these seem to be all kinds of green, but I do like the actual color. And I'm glad I went with matte for this pattern.

I marked the outlines (don't forget to make the back one mirrored!), and cut it roughly to shape on a jigsaw.

I found that I got the cleanest cut with a very fine reverse tooth blade, and it still cut reasonably fast. It's a little hard to steer in a straight line, but you can make super sharp turns easily!

 

[mtorn]

The edges will be black on this guitar, and I'm using artist's ink to dye the wood.
I can do it easily before gluing any Formica, although I'm expecting to have to touch it up a few times as I sand the binding, and do other fine tuning. Before dying the wood, I wetted it to raise the grain, and sanded off any fuzzies.

Not exactly pretty...

 

[adamkoop]

This is shaping up to be another really cool build .. that color scheme is going to look great I think.

 

[metecem]

wow.

 

[mtorn]

Time to glue!

First the back. This is the same kind of contact cement as you use for countertops. This is the smallest size, and I ended up using about half of it for the front and back.

First you spread a thin coat on both the Formica and on the guitar (I used the included brush and an old credit card). Then you let it dry, until the surfaces aren't tacky, about 15 minutes.

Another countertop technique, that I learned from This Old House. First you lay out some spacers over the surface to help you align the two parts. You can't let the two touch, this stuff grabs immediately!
One aligned, you pull out one spacer at a time, and press it all together, with your hands or with a roller.

You don't have to wait long before you can route it flush.
Flush, in this case, is a bit of a misnomer, since I already pre-cut the channels for the binding. I still have to route the binding channels in the Formica.

I decided that I wouldn't put Formica in the belly contour, I'll just leave it black. It's certainly easy to bend the Formica, but it would be a little tricky to get a clean joint between the two pieces.

Then the top. I had precut starting holes for flush routing the pickup and control cavity holes.
The forearm contour was very easy to bend, but a few clamps helped keep the surfaces tight until the glue set (which was very quickly).

And a quick mockup. I like it!
Next I have to make the cutout for the fingerboard, and then start prepping for binding.

 

[jayyj]

Stunning!

 

[RickyRicardo]

Wow! Very cool..

 

[MrTwang]

I'm a big fan of Formica My double neck is made of it...

 

[Barncaster]

Ooooooo I like the green! Not much curing time there!

 

[61fury]

Really impressive, all of it. The head stock is very elegant and professional, I like it much better than the PRS ( which I don't like at all)

 

[Muzikp]

That is very cool, the green looks great.