Andyjr1515

It is well recognised in guitar and bass building circles that hand radiussing ebony fretboards is: - the quickest way to insanity (takes days but insanity is assured) - likely to result in a tapered or skewed profile down the board however hard you try I built myself a router rig a few years ago - better but not perfect - then invested in the excellent G&W router jig a year or so ago. It's b****y wonderful After about 25 minutes, I'd got the shape roughed out over two passes Then another 15 minutes with a radius block to just remove the router cutter lines: And done

Two things have happened that should speed things up a bit. First is that the main build that is running alongside this job has got to the "apply finish and wait for it to dry" stage (isn't self-promotion a wonderful thing ). The second is that the truss rod has (eventually!) arrived and I can now cut the slot: It is a modern two-way rod and will be fitted with the hex adjuster at the rear in the same position as the fretted neck. A note for the observant, by the way - the rod when fitted will be the other way up, with the steel plate side uppermost otherwise there is a frequently suffered scenario of tighten rod, hmmm...still too much relief...tighten more...hmmm...doesn't seem any better...tighten...BANG (as the rod energetically bursts its way through the fretboard ). I say this because - for the same reason that I've photo'd it this way up as it won't balance on its correct side - many of the sales web sites (including much respected ones) show the rod the wrong way up and almost none provide fitting instructions...so often new builders fit them the wrong way round, at which point 'righty-tighty' becomes 'righty-CRIKEY!' The fretboard blank has been cut and planed to size... ...and next job is the radiussing. We are going for 12", the same as the fretted. The dastardly plan is that both the slot cut and the radiussing will be done before the footer comes on

Splendid

Thanks! That said, it's not for the faint-hearted

Well...for a mere king's ransom.... Thanks, Paul

Steinberger holes drilled - so time for a gratuitous mock-up When sanded and buffed, the fretboard and headstock plate will polish up to the same sort of satin finish as the ebony on the body. The remaining visible neck laminates will darken with the application of the Tru-oil but will buff up to a similar sheen. They don't do the Steinbergers in nickel but I think they are far enough away from the main body. Only a few jobs left on the basic build and then I can move onto the final sanding and finishing.

And so to the headstock plate. Before gluing, a vital thing not to be missed - cutting the access to the trussrod: The cunning plan is to use the cut out above as the cover, fitted flush with magnets: There will be a shallow scoop at the apex as a finger-nail access (this will be a snug fit!) And no, you can't have too many clamps! The plate is presently oversize at the edges and will be sanded flush with the headstock once the glue has fully cured.

OK - I think we are on the final furlong With grandparenting duties done for a few weeks I have a fairly uninterrupted run to finish this off. Jack and I have been doing some work on the headstock arrangement and he has come up with a shape that I think works beautifully. It gives a respectful nod to the original but is its very own. This is a mockup, but later today I will be cutting and gluing on the actual ebony plate. At the same time, I've been experimenting with some ebony offcuts from the top wood to see how well a 'no finish, just sanding & buffing' approach (think violin fretboard) works. The trials went well and so I did a quick and nasty to see how it works on the whole top. I know beauty is in the eye of the beholder but...I reckon it works

Well, it doesn't half make it easier when you have an exact scale template to hand The maple is AAA (top) grade from David Dyke - it's important for a single piece neck, especially a 5 string, that the grain is completely straight and the timber length is aberration-free. I've lined up the neck exactly to the grain direction - the green line at the top on the above photo is where I will plane the slight angle off so my datum is also exactly in line with the grain: With around a mm oversize, all except that datum length is cut out on the bandsaw. The extra lines you see here are David Dyke's pencil template lines for them to position and cut the blank to. Happily, I know which one's are mine (and hence the green pen!) : So why that datum face? This, being parallel to the centre line, is what I will use - running along the guide fence on the router table - to cut the truss rod slot Well then, pretty much done. Agreed it's a bit on the chunky side, but I think @Happy Jack will soon get used to it once I've hammered those 6" nails in...

And so, back from grandparenting duties, back to the necks and back to bare wood! And a second go, this time with the inks. Colour match isn't quite as close but it is much, much more even and still feels just as silky smooth: Time to move onto the fretless!

Nice job, done well

Lovely job

Interesting concept ref the string length. How short scale are you thinking?

I might, of course, be wrong. That said, all of the photos I've ever seen of that model have headstock adjustment with the plug and small hole. A single action headstock adjustable would have a bullet nut. I am a great fan of Squiers - stunning bang for the buck and excellent in absolute terms too, IMHO.

Apologies - I'm late to the party on this one! I'm pretty sure the Squier VM's have a modern 2-way truss rod and so, as said above, the washer fix isn't relevant as the adjusting nut on these rods are welded to the rod. The washer method only applies to single action trussrods with a removeable nut. If the rod is 'maxed out', there are things you can try, but they may or may not help. The first thing to try is to put a set 'backbow' into the neck by taking the neck off, putting the nut and heel end of the fretboard upside down on some blocks and, with the truss rod still tightened as it is now, putting some weight in the middle of the neck to bend the neck the opposite way from the way the strings are trying to pull it. A couple of 1kg bags of sugar or a single large (2.5kg) bag of flour is probably enough - but not too much - weight. This is left like this for a day or two. With luck, the wood will hold at least some of that bend when the weight is taken off and give you a little bit of a reduction of the neck relief when the neck and strings are back on.

This is going to look great!

Yes, it certainly will Going to be a beaut!

Very interesting indeed! Thanks - I'll investigate, especially next time I'm after something 'strident'! And yes, paper/wood is the same material and so the characteristics of inks - and watercolours, which I'd never thought about - on the two media will be similar. Certainly, the two or three where I've used red calligraphy ink should last at least as long as the Lindisfarne Gospels or I will, indeed, demand my money back! In the first 8 of the 1300 years, they do indeed seem to be just as bright as the day they were done. I'm optimistic of the result

Nah...close but no cigar. I put a couple of coats of oil on and then, this morning, slurry and buffed it up. The good news is that it feels great! The bad news is that the stain is acting like a coating rather than a stain and that isn't what I'm after at all. For some reason I thought that the Chestnut stains didn't do that (I have used them before a number of times but not on an amber neck) but they do and it compromises the effect I'm after. So off it has to come! And so - although it will probably be a few days before I get back to it - I'm going to sand back to bare wood and go back to my preferred stain - pen ink. Yes - good old fountain pen ink! Being water based, ink really does soak into the wood surface rather than sit on top of it. I've used pen ink many times and there are great advantages: there are a myriad of colours; you also don't have to pre-mix the colours to get a particular shade - you can literally wipe on one colour and then wipe on the second colour; it is very cheap and so you can afford to try multiple combinations without breaking the bank. The only disadvantage is that there are some colours that fade - but there are fountain pen forums (yes - really) and some where folks do fade tests on a makers' full ranges (we are talking dozens and dozens), so it is pretty straightforward to avoid the ones that fade. @TheGreek 's 'Silk' bass, from a good many years ago, was done with ink...still orange, Mick? I have yellow and amber inks here so will be able to redo @Happy Jack 's neck as soon as I get back to it and then move onto the fretless

The amber in the original finish will have been sprayed over the clear primer - and any 'proper' builder would strip the whole thing down and replicate that But then you have issues of losing all of the decals, etc etc. And I don't have any spray expertise or equipment anyway But also, we are trying to get a much more slinky feel to the neck - which is why I'm going this route. Stains, though, have their own foibles, not least the degree to which the adsorption differs between end grain, straight grain, knots and ripples in the timber. Which is a long way of going about saying, 'there's something a bit odd with the stain at the volute' I may be able to sort this or it may turn out to be a case of 'it is what it is'. The nice thing about this method is that you can work further on particular areas even when the rest of it is finished. Here it is, with the first sealing coat of oil on it (I will add 2-3 of these and then slurry and buff the hardened oil as part of the process). Trust me - it works The finished neck will be satin rather than this coat which has a touch more gloss in it. Colour match-wise, it is pretty close when you see it against the fretboard: As the saying goes, maybe 'close enough for jazz'? And then, finally, the timber has arrived for the fretless neck from David Dyke: In absolute terms, you don't get a lot for your £100+...but in relative terms, this is beautiful timber hand picked by David's team. And for necks, you can't take chances. I now just have to make sure I don't massacre it...

So, with the extra Chestnut Spirit Stain (Yew) arrived, here is the cunning plan: - Jack ideally would like a 'silky smooth but still feels like wood' finish at the back of the neck. Normally, builders would favour a 'slurry and buff' application of Tru-oil, which achieves just that. - The conventional wisdom is that you can't stain a slurry and buff bit of wood, because the slurrying (using wet and dry abrasive where the wet is Tru-oil) will just sand the stain right off. But when did conventional wisdom...nay, wisdom...ever come into my builds and mods?? - The back and sides will be finished, but stopping short of the headstock and the concealed info on the back of the heel: - The stains I will be mixing are both Chestnut Spirit Stains (Yellow and Yew) and will be a trial-and-sandoffagainifitdoesntwork process to try to get a colour that is at least in the right ballpark (it won't be an exact match) - First I will need to make sure that every last bit of the fiendish and invisible primer spray that a lot of commercial builders use is off, because I need bare fresh wood for the stain to soak into - The fretboard and headstock front will be unaffected: It should be stained and the first couple of applications of the Andyjr1515wingingit method done before the end of today. The other bit of news is that, in about an hour's time, the timber for @Happy Jack 's fretless neck should be arriving (although probably a week before I will be able to start work on that one)

You can't imagine how long it took me on photoshop to make it look like it was a close fit!

Excellent result!

We're still fine tuning the shape of the headstock, but it is likely to be in the Firebird/Thunderbird ilk. The original Trini Deluxes seem to have had a number of variations but most appear to have had something like the Firebird. This will be fitted with the Steinberger banjo replacements so, within reason, the wood can be any shape. Also the neck carve is basically done. Jack took me some profiles from his favourite playing guitar and I've used those to try to gain a familiarity of feel with this build. I use a combination of spokeshave, micro-plane blade and cabinet scraper to creep up towards the shape: The chalk line along the spine is so that I never dig into the spine which would affect the neck depth. The neck carve is my favourite part but is often too quickly done and gone! And then the preparatory work on the finishing of the body. I use a rough version of the Tru-oil slurry and buff method early on to act as a: - grain fill / gap fill / sanding sealer - 'reveal coat' to show up any glue residue, sanding marks etc. To do this, I sand with some brutal 120 grit emery (with the grain always) used wet where the wet is lashings of Tru-oil. You end up with a slurry of wood dust that is then wiped off and allowed to dry. Even at this early stage, it's showing some promise

The Luminlays come in stick form and - as long as you have an accurate brad-point drill - are very easy to fit. You drill the hole a few mm, check fit the stick, pop a drop of superglue at the end, wait a couple of minutes and then razor-saw it flush. At the neck pocket, the body would overlap the larger dots and so I will use the smaller size. The end fret will have to stay as a black dot as the overhang isn't deep enough to take a larger drill hole - but generally the end of the fretboard is easy to find even in the dark : And with a final sand, done: So just waiting for the stain to arrive and I can finish this one off