First Scratch Build: Maple Walnut neck through-RD

Talk about modding or building your own guitar from scratch.
Post Reply
User avatar
ForcedFire
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 276
Joined: Fri May 06, 2011 6:59 am

First Scratch Build: Maple Walnut neck through-RD

Post by ForcedFire » Sun May 08, 2011 5:40 am

I've built a couple of guitars out of kits but this will be my first build.

Well here we go! I cheated a little and had some boards planed to size to get me started. I picked them up yesterday. The neck is laminated soft curly maple and black walnut and the body is soft curly maple wings. I have a hefty 2 way truss rod so I hope it will be stable enough.

Image

Image

Image

Image

My drawing of what I'm trying to do, kind of a hybrid RD/firebird. The original lumber stack up is a bit different from what I bought:

Image

I hope I can do it!

User avatar
ForcedFire
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 276
Joined: Fri May 06, 2011 6:59 am

Re: First Scratch Build: Maple Walnut neck through-RD

Post by ForcedFire » Sun May 08, 2011 5:42 am

I used double sided tape to stick some 80 grit sandpaper to this old hand plane and did 2 light passes to the joint faces and blew out the dust with compressed air. Hopefully this will help get a good joint.

Image

I hope I used enough glue. I put a thin even layer on the first board, laid the second board on and slid it around to make sure the glue was on the full face. I just used the amount I thought was right, a good zig zag bead and spread it out evenly. Seeing as though the boards felt nice and greasy when I slid them together I think there should be enough glue. I had some beads squeeze out but as I went I think I added too much glue to the last joint and you can see it formed bigger bee bees on the bottom when I clamped it.

I wiped the top off before I took the photos. I only used clamping cauls on the walnut where the body wings will be later.

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

User avatar
Telenator
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 1583
Joined: Wed Apr 16, 2008 10:22 am
Location: Connecticut
Contact:

Re: First Scratch Build: Maple Walnut neck through-RD

Post by Telenator » Sun May 08, 2011 6:00 am

That's going to look beautiful with a finish on it! Looks a little Rickenbacker right now.
If you're bored, you're not groovin' - Telenator®

User avatar
ForcedFire
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 276
Joined: Fri May 06, 2011 6:59 am

Re: First Scratch Build: Maple Walnut neck through-RD

Post by ForcedFire » Sun May 08, 2011 8:21 am

Telenator wrote:That's going to look beautiful with a finish on it! Looks a little Rickenbacker right now.
Totally. I originally had a National / Supro style headstock with no veneer and it really looked like a Rickenbacker.

I bought some rattle can Deft clear Lacquer for the finish. I want to do a stained dark amber maybe with denatured alcohol, then sanding sealer, then lacquer.

User avatar
the older brother
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 10693
Joined: Wed Aug 29, 2007 12:12 pm
Location: Gothenburg, Sweden.
Contact:

Re: First Scratch Build: Maple Walnut neck through-RD

Post by the older brother » Sun May 08, 2011 11:26 am

Looks cool! +1 on the Ric look.

I like RD's...and Rics! ;D
Someone knows where I can find the nearest woodchipper to throw my pieces of junk into?

User avatar
duncanjames
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 609
Joined: Sun Jan 17, 2010 2:43 pm
Location: Not Detroit, Michigan

Re: First Scratch Build: Maple Walnut neck through-RD

Post by duncanjames » Sun May 08, 2011 11:35 am

Looks really cool! Just curious, what are those slide switches going to do?

User avatar
ForcedFire
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 276
Joined: Fri May 06, 2011 6:59 am

Re: First Scratch Build: Maple Walnut neck through-RD

Post by ForcedFire » Sun May 08, 2011 1:44 pm

duncanjames wrote:Looks really cool! Just curious, what are those slide switches going to do?
Most people call it the Jimmy Page circuit or wiring.

I don't do it quite the same way. Most of the schematics you see online have it wired so you have to have the toggle in a certain position to get any sound when in the master series mode (both humbuckers in series) and it disconnects the bridge controls. In my version, when the master series parallel switch is put on the series mode, it disconnects the rythym treble toggle and the bridge controls are still connected depending on how they're wired (50s wiring / modern wiring / dependent or independent volumes) they have a different effect on the overall master series sound.

The other 3 switches are phase, bridge coil tap, neck coil tap.

User avatar
duncanjames
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 609
Joined: Sun Jan 17, 2010 2:43 pm
Location: Not Detroit, Michigan

Re: First Scratch Build: Maple Walnut neck through-RD

Post by duncanjames » Sun May 08, 2011 2:15 pm

Ahhh I see... That's really cool! I thought about doing that same sort of thing once, with the master series switch. However, I never took the time to actually figure it out. Have you done it before?

User avatar
ForcedFire
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 276
Joined: Fri May 06, 2011 6:59 am

Re: First Scratch Build: Maple Walnut neck through-RD

Post by ForcedFire » Sun May 08, 2011 2:59 pm

duncanjames wrote:Ahhh I see... That's really cool! I thought about doing that same sort of thing once, with the master series switch. However, I never took the time to actually figure it out. Have you done it before?
Yup, I designed a stealthy little circuit board that fits in the back of my Les Paul. I flick the switches with a guitar pick:

Image

Image

Works great.

User avatar
duncanjames
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 609
Joined: Sun Jan 17, 2010 2:43 pm
Location: Not Detroit, Michigan

Re: First Scratch Build: Maple Walnut neck through-RD

Post by duncanjames » Sun May 08, 2011 4:23 pm

I really, really like that! Funny enough, I thought of doing something very similar to that(again!). But judging by the 2009 copyright, it looks like you had it completely finished before I had ever even thought of it. I really hate sounding as if I'm trying to brag, but I just wanted to say how happy I am to see people actually doing these sorts of things.

User avatar
ForcedFire
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 276
Joined: Fri May 06, 2011 6:59 am

Re: First Scratch Build: Maple Walnut neck through-RD

Post by ForcedFire » Sun May 08, 2011 7:44 pm

The rosewood fretboard blank I picked up was pretty rough:

Image

I went at it old school with my block plane. After a bit of elbow grease it's looking pretty good:

Image

I found I really needed to kind of micro-adjust my blade to get the right cuts in the rosewood. Too much blade and it would just dig in or take little bites out of the rosewood. Too little it's just like a cabinet scraper making dust. With the plane blade protruding just the right amount I got really nice shavings and smooth cuts:

Image

I picked up my MOP block inlays from Bezdez on ebay. They aren't advertised as LP custom sized inlays and they are much smaller. I'd rather have larger inlays like my drawing above (not LP custom sized) but I got these for cheap and they look quite nice. I think I'll be happy with them:

Image

They have a nice figure:

Image

The RD had a 25 1/2" scale length.

To calculate my fret positions I wrote a little script using the adapted "rule of 18". I used the denominator of 17.817 instead of 18 (I found this online somewheres). The scale length is 647.7mm so I would want my 12th fret at 323.85mm, this doesn't quite happen with the rule of 18 but I'm nearly dead on with 17.817.

Here is the code and printed fret locations:

%%%%%%%%Fretboard scale: 25.5" = 647.7mm

%%%%%%%%Rule of 18

frets = zeros(23,1);

scale = 647.7;
divisor = 17.817; %Adjustment from rule of 18 17.817

string_l = scale;
nut_dist = 0;

for i = 1:1:23
frets(i,1) = string_l/divisor + nut_dist;
string_l = string_l*(1 - 1/divisor);
nut_dist = frets(i,1);
end

frets


%frets =

%1 36.3529
%2 70.6655
%3 103.0522
%4 133.6212
%5 162.4745
%6 189.7083
%7 215.4137
%8 239.6762
%9 262.5771
%10 284.1925
%11 304.5948
%12 323.8520
%13 342.0283
%14 359.1845
%15 375.3778
%16 390.6622
%17 405.0887
%18 418.7056
%19 431.5582
%20 443.6894
%21 455.1397
%22 465.9474
%23 476.1485

^The 23rd fret is used for the end of the fretboard. The 12th fret is at 323.852mm, error of only 20 microns, not bad!

User avatar
Blitzkrieg59
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 99
Joined: Mon Mar 28, 2011 11:18 am

Re: First Scratch Build: Maple Walnut neck through-RD

Post by Blitzkrieg59 » Mon May 09, 2011 7:46 pm

This is gonna be cool!

User avatar
ForcedFire
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 276
Joined: Fri May 06, 2011 6:59 am

Re: First Scratch Build: Maple Walnut neck through-RD

Post by ForcedFire » Tue May 10, 2011 3:30 pm

I laid out my fretboard and ripped it down. I made a Lexan depth stop for my fret saw and cut starter slots for the frets and have inlaid about half of the board. My inlaying skills aren't too masterful but they're looking okay. I was getting a bit tired by the 9th fret and ended up with a bit of a gap. Oh well, I've seen expensive guitars with sloppier inlay pockets. It should be fine once I glue them in.

Image

I unclamped my neck-through body lamination. It still needs to be cleaned up but I think it looks pretty good:

Image

User avatar
Perry
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 325
Joined: Sat May 01, 2010 5:24 am

Re: First Scratch Build: Maple Walnut neck through-RD

Post by Perry » Tue May 10, 2011 3:38 pm

Great Work! I'll really enjoy watching the build process/progress of your RD.

User avatar
the older brother
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 10693
Joined: Wed Aug 29, 2007 12:12 pm
Location: Gothenburg, Sweden.
Contact:

Re: First Scratch Build: Maple Walnut neck through-RD

Post by the older brother » Tue May 10, 2011 4:20 pm

Great work there!

For the gap at the block marker - use the rosewood dust and some super glue.
Pour/pile up rosewood dust in and above the gap; Drip superglue on it; sand flush with the fretboard.

No one's going to see it. :)
Someone knows where I can find the nearest woodchipper to throw my pieces of junk into?

Post Reply