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Pain in the custom neck


fleabag

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3 hours ago, Richard R said:

Yes, yes it is. And if your indestructible fretboard breaks Andy then the entire forum will be round your way with pitchforks.

 

 

If he breaks, i'm off.  You'll never find me

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I wont see any more progress till  Thurs eve, as i'm off to the Somerset Levels in the morn for 2 days wildlife photography.

 

I'd hope someone will post if the if the worst happens so i can get the hell out of Dodge,  like sharpish

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And....all the frets are in  :)

 

5HoBCvpl.jpg

 

And now work on the neck itself can start.  I have a lovely piece of maple for the project but, I am going to explore the merits of getting a different piece before I start cutting.

 

The problem is the depth.  The piece is designed for a one-piece neck, which is what @fleabag is after...but those are usually cut to Fender-type proportions.  And, because those have no headstock angle, the blanks tend to be relatively shallow. 

This is fine if you are going to use string trees/retainers - you can have a modest neck angle and the retainer provides the break angle on the longer string runs, like the one I recently did for Happy Jack's fretless:

 

wIVhNoDl.jpg

 

But it's not enough angle without.  The above is around 3 degrees and I would be looking at around 10 degrees for one without retainers.

 

So I need to order some more/different sized wood.

 

That should come through pretty quickly and, in the meantime, I can be sorting the fret ends of the fretboard and the template for the 2-a-side headstock and so it should not impact on the overall timescales.  :)

 

 

 

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And...fret ends trimmed :)

56QVtKXl.jpg

 

And why the clamp?  Left to their own devices, the fret tangs in the slots would curve the fretboard.  Normally, a small strip of double sided tape in the middle would hold the board to the beam.  But, yes, this is Rocklite Richlite - and so... 9_9

 

That said, the frets seem to be nicely held and it is very black.  Just like the ebony of legend that the Vikings used to talk about around the camp fires of yore  :)

 

Edited by Andyjr1515
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11 minutes ago, Happy Jack said:

I bet you're missing that fretless Mike Lull neck by now ...

 

Certainly am :D

It looks and sounds GREAT in some of your Junkyard Dogs videos.  Pretty slick playing in 'The House is Rocking' - that neck finish doing its stuff?

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Why thank'ee kindly, Young Master. The neck feels just great, an absolute delight to play.

 

The only thing I'm having to fiddle with is the action. As you know I usually have a much higher action on my basses, and I haven't quite got my head around having it as slick as this. 😂

 

It's fine at the start of each set but, as I get more & more carried away, I dig in more and start to choke the strings. They tell me, it's all in the fingers ...

 

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On 23/03/2022 at 16:13, Andyjr1515 said:

And...fret ends trimmed :)

56QVtKXl.jpg

 

And why the clamp?  Left to their own devices, the fret tangs in the slots would curve the fretboard.  Normally, a small strip of double sided tape in the middle would hold the board to the beam.  But, yes, this is Rocklite - and so... 9_9

 

That said, the frets seem to be nicely held and it is very black.  Just like the ebony of legend that the Vikings used to talk about around the camp fires of yore  :)

 

 

 

Richlite, you slag   :)

 

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On 23/03/2022 at 16:13, Andyjr1515 said:

And why the clamp?  Left to their own devices, the fret tangs in the slots would curve the fretboard.  Normally, a small strip of double sided tape in the middle would hold the board to the beam.  But, yes, this is Rocklite Richlite - and so... 9_9

Sorted  :D

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I always draw the headstock angles full size - as you are drawing it your mind is almost sub-consciously double checking everything, something that still feels different to me with CAD (then again, I am an old git).

 

At 28mm, the blank is deep enough to be able to get a 6 degree angle for the headstock - plenty enough, given the raised position of the fretboard and nut slots for a decent break angle, of the strings over the nut

 

MzNwvTL.jpg

 

The sequence of most things on this neck is going to be slightly different to most of my necks as the blank is full width so that everything, including the full headstock width, will be out of one piece of maple. 

 

I will double check my sequence over the afternoon, but the first thing I will probably do is cut the truss-rod slot while I have still have side of the blank as the datum for the router fence.  Then (I think) the blank will go into my thicknessing rig jacked up at an angle to get the top face of the headstock ( the width is too great for me to be able to cut that on the band saw).  Then I can cut the plan and side profile shape.

 

I will sketch those phases out to see if there are any fatal flaws in the plan!

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This is the blank on my router table, with the 6mm bit sticking up from underneath.  I've just done a 1mm cut here to make absolutely sure this is going to be in the right place before I deepen it to 9mm.  The datum side, which I planed square first, is, in this photo, on the LHS and will butt up to the router table fence on the right:

OfcdrEsl.jpg

 

The yellow pusher is an essential piece of kit when you are dealing with something as potentially dangerous as a router table:

JGLf2sql.jpg

 

 

Raising the bit 3-4mm per pass, the slot was now 9mm. 

 

And - with the slot widened and deepened for the trussrod adjuster - the first step is done :)

sws5a76l.jpg

 

 

Just as an aside, for anyone interested or anyone thinking of trying a neck build for the first time: on this type of truss rod, the adjuster has a surround.  Functionally that is great because, apart from anything else, it keeps the fretboard fixing glue out of the truss-rod threads.  That will be particularly helpful on this neck where the richlite fretboard is going to need to be glued with epoxy resin. 

 

But that surround adds a quite a bit of extra depth needed in the slot at this point.  This will be fine with the rock maple I'm using here (and they are good adjusters) but, for mahogany necks, I tend to use a type with a more basic but slimmer adjuster (the maths is: neck depth at nut, say 21mm minus 6mm fretboard minus 11.5mm trussrod slot depth at the adjuster on this type of rod = only 3.5mm of timber under the trussrod end that is actively pushing all its force against it at this point.  And yes - truss rod ends sometimes do pop out to say hello on slim mahogany necks  ;)   The volute helps, but that is more there to strengthen the neck where the headstock cranks down and tends to start thickening slightly behind where the trussrod end would make its grand entrance if it felt inclined.

 

It doesn't happen often...and I've never seen it happen on a maple neck.  But if you are venturing into the dark art of neck building for the first time, always double check by doing the maths :)

 

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40 minutes ago, Richard R said:

Unrelated news - I have permission from my better half to build a workshop at the end of the garden!😃

That is so, so, good.  Mine still keeps me down in the small, damp cellar.  Probably more than I deserve, though...  ;)

 

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Our heating is due to be replaced urgently, so hopefully the big oil tank will go and my available space for "workshop" will double and a bit.  It'll still be in the cellar though. 

 

See Bench Build Diary for pictures, if they're still there!

Edited by Si600
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