Build thread (not a les paul)

archey said:

Routed for the trussrod today. I've been digging the spoke style trussrods. I like the idea of the adjustment being at the end of the fretboard instead of taking mass out of the headstock.

View attachment 849631Also i had this fretboard laying around. I slotted it a year or two ago and just hadn't used it yet. It's very old brw. Not too exciting to look at. But it's nice and dark with fairly straight grain.
View attachment 849627

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Truss-rod adjustment at the body end is the best strengthening option for the Gibson-style headstock!



How are you planning to anchor the t-r at the far end?

LPTDMSV said:

How are you planning to anchor the t-r at the far end?

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Uh oh. Maybe I've been doing it wrong? I've never anchored a truss rod. I've always used two way rods and just routed the channel just long enough to accommodate them. Is that incorrect?

archey said:

Uh oh. Maybe I've been doing it wrong? I've never anchored a truss rod. I've always used two way rods and just routed the channel just long enough to accommodate them. Is that incorrect?

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That’ll be my mistake! I have only used traditional-style one-way rods … installing a two-way rod is outside my experience, sorry!

Been at it again today. Cut out the profile of the neck.


After getting the heel to the correct angle I made a box jig ala Freddy to cut the angle of the cheeks.


After that I routed out the neck cavity into the body. Pretty good fit!


It's getting there!

yeah buddy!

archey said:

Been at it again today. Cut out the profile of the neck.
View attachment 850919

After getting the heel to the correct angle I made a box jig ala Freddy to cut the angle of the cheeks.
View attachment 850921

After that I routed out the neck cavity into the body. Pretty good fit!
View attachment 850923

It's getting there!
View attachment 850925

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Good progress!

Do you plan to have the end of the fretboard flush with the body, or are you going to put a wedge in there?

Awesome! Trying a Huber put me on to spanish cedar, I enjoyed the weight of my krautster ii a lot.

archey said:

Uh oh. Maybe I've been doing it wrong? I've never anchored a truss rod. I've always used two way rods and just routed the channel just long enough to accommodate them. Is that incorrect?

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You don't have to anchor two-way rods. But you do have to anchor one-way rods. One-way rods work off the anchor point. Two-way rods work off each other.

"After getting the heel to the correct angle I made a box jig ala Freddy to cut the angle of the cheeks."
I musta missed this in my travels. Please...Can I have some more Sir?

Awesome design and progress!

lowatter said:

"After getting the heel to the correct angle I made a box jig ala Freddy to cut the angle of the cheeks."
I musta missed this in my travels. Please...Can I have some more Sir?

Awesome design and progress!

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Sure! Here's a video in a series of some Pauls he did a few years back. This particular video explains the box jig. If you haven't watched them, I highly recommend doing so. I learned a lot.

A little more progress. I got the headstock cut out. A little disappointment, the neck alignment got off somehow. Im not sure it will be very noticeable once it's done. If it is, the only real option that i can think of would be to paint it a solid color. That would be a huge bummer considering the figure in the top.

Hopefully that won't be the case. If it is, is there an option where just the raised center portion is opaque and the "wings" are left to shine through?

emoney said:

Hopefully that won't be the case. If it is, is there an option where just the raised center portion is opaque and the "wings" are left to shine through?

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Gloss black center would look pretty classy. Hopefully it doesn't look too wonky. I'd hate to cover it up!

archey said:

the neck alignment got off somehow

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Have you worked out where the misalignment is? If it’s in the mortise or tenon, there would probably be a way to square it up, glue in a fillet of wood and then re-machine it truly square.

No-one would ever know! Apart from us

LPTDMSV said:

Have you worked out where the misalignment is? If it’s in the mortise or tenon, there would probably be a way to square it up, glue in a fillet of wood and then re-machine it truly square.

No-one would ever know! Apart from us

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I'm not sure i wouldn't make things worse trying to fix it.

archey said:

I'm not sure i wouldn't make things worse trying to fix it.

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I know what you mean. It's not entirely without risk, but I think it's do-able.

An alternative would be to re-cut the treble-side border of the raised reversed-vee area so that it was symmetric to the bass-side with respect to the "new" centreline - that's probably more of an aesthetic compromise though.

Do you know if the tenon is not quite square to the rest of the neck, or is it that the mortise is not quite square to the body? The latter is probably a slightly easier fix, but they are both possible.

FWIW something like this is what I would attempt (in plan view) - I've exaggerated the angle, I think it would be much less obvious in practice. The cavity for the truss-rod adjuster wheel would need some thought/care.



Produced using my CAD system (Crayon-Aided Doodling).

One other possible source of misalignment - could the fretboard have slipped sideways a little when it was being glued to the neck?

LPTDMSV said:

One other possible source of misalignment - could the fretboard have slipped sideways a little when it was being glued to the neck?

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The fretboard isn't glued yet. This line was drawn straight from the neck.

How about a "racing Stripe" just wide enough to hide the book match?



That way you "fix" the issue, but keep most of that beautiful top.