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Post by lefranglais on Apr 7, 2021 14:20:17 GMT
Thank you gentlemen.
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Post by lefranglais on Apr 10, 2021 9:35:28 GMT
At this point I had second thoughts about the Mighty Mite neck. When I ordered it I thought I’d be able to customise it a bit but now I realise it would have been almost as much work as making one, and some things weren’t even possible so I decided to make one. Even so, I’ve ordered a slotted fingerboard which I can customise and that will also save me having to buy a 12” radius sanding block, etc. I think I have just about everything else I need. Mahogany neck blank LMII truss rod Pearl dots, etc. One of the things I wanted to do was veneer the headstock to match the body; difficult, if not impossible with a ready-made neck. There are some large off-cuts of the drop-top so I used a piece to make headstock veneers. Cut two pieces of dyed black veneer and re-sawed an off-cut into two veneers for front and back of headstock and sanded them to 1.5mm thick. Also made a template for the headstock. That brown thing behind them is the neck blank.
Glued two pieces together for the back veneers.
Skimmed the equivalent of the veneer thickness off the end of the neck blank and made a clamping caul. Drilled two holes in areas that will be cut off later and placed two headless panel pins in the holes. The veneer and caul have corresponding holes so it won’t all go sliding about when it’s glued and clamped.
Forgot to take a photo of it glued, but as the veneer was oversize I skimmed it flush on the router table.
Positioned the template on the neck blank and drilled holes at the tuner positions. The holes are only 5mm diameter and they’ll be opened up to 10mm later, but, for the moment, I can use them with 5mm dowel pins to locate the template. Take it off, put it back on, front or back, etc.
Routing the slot for the truss rod on my ultra-sophisticated router table. The fence rotates on a 5mm dowel pin (the black dot at the left-hand end) and fine adjustments are made by tapping the right-hand end with a hammer. The ‘stops’ which determine the length of the slot are fixed with double sided tape.
Et voila! Once I’d cut the slot to depth I had to widen it slightly as my router cutter is 6mm diameter and the truss rod is 6.35mm wide for some strange reason. Question: What does the US have in common with Liberia and Myanmar?
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Post by Craig on Apr 11, 2021 12:15:22 GMT
This thread needs Eastenders duff duff drums, I can't wait for the next instalment!
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Post by lefranglais on Apr 11, 2021 12:54:05 GMT
 Coming soon ...
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Post by lefranglais on Apr 12, 2021 10:51:37 GMT
By the way, the answer to the silly question at the end was that they are the only three countries in the world still using the Imperial system of measurement. But you all knew that.
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minorkey
C.O.G. 
On book 3 of the Guitarist's Way, thanks Keith
Posts: 3,691 
My main instrument is: a 20 year old Fender DG-5 Dreadnought named Tilly
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Post by minorkey on Apr 12, 2021 13:13:38 GMT
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Phil Taylor
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Post by Phil Taylor on Apr 12, 2021 17:49:46 GMT
By the way, the answer to the silly question at the end was that they are the only three countries in the world still using the Imperial system of measurement. But you all knew that. This is just a bit of fun but strictly because the UK still uses Imperial measurements for some things along with metric for other things you answer isn't quite correct. The answer should have been 'three countries mostly or officially using'  Gorgeous looking telecaster this. May I ask have you ever built a telecaster with a 630mm or 24 7/8" scale length? Or is that just not the done thing with telecasters? Companies like Mighty Mite seem just do the 25 1/2" standard telecaster scale length. Phil |
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Post by lefranglais on Apr 13, 2021 7:08:40 GMT
Hi Phil,
Yes, you're right of course. They're the three countries where the Imperial system is the official one.
The short answer to your question is 'I've never built a Telecaster' but it does seem that 25 1/2" is the only option. It may be that people like me have built them with different scale lengths.
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Post by lefranglais on Apr 14, 2021 7:42:30 GMT
To continue:
I fitted the truss rod, glued in a fillet on top of it, skimmed the fillet flush with the surface of the board and completely forgot about taking any photos. Sorry.
I then trimmed some of the thickness off the headstock on the bandsaw and finished off on the spindle sander. I’ve added a fence to the spindle sander. It’s hardly any more sophisticated than the router table, in fact it’s a bit off the end of the router table.
I now need to bend the veneer for the front. The boiling water and clamp method worked OK for the body binding so I decided to try it for the headstock veneer. The lower caul was shaped in exactly the same way as the headstock in the previous photo, and the upper one with the radius 2 mm smaller to allow for the thickness of the veneers.
It worked. I just dipped the part to be bent in a pan of boiling water for a few minutes and then clamped the veneers between the cauls and put it in a low oven for about an hour.
I know if I don’t put my name on this guitar Olivier will want to know why not. He insists I should put my name on instruments I make. Because I use a little home-made pantograph to cut the recess for the inlay, I need to inlay the veneer before it’s glued to the head. Cutting out initials in abalone with a piercing saw.
The way I do inlay involves taking an imprint of the shell using ‘Friendly Plastic’. It’s plastic granules that become soft in hot water. I explained it in this thread:
so I’ll not bore you with it again here.
I used the upper caul I made for bending the veneers to clamp them while gluing them to the head and here’s the result.
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minorkey
C.O.G.
On book 3 of the Guitarist's Way, thanks Keith
Posts: 3,691
My main instrument is: a 20 year old Fender DG-5 Dreadnought named Tilly
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Post by minorkey on Apr 14, 2021 8:41:01 GMT
Looking good
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Post by lefranglais on Apr 16, 2021 22:09:03 GMT
The overlapping veneer was carefully shaved down flush with the surface of the neck.
The head profile was then cut slightly oversize on the bandsaw.
The grain of the maple veneers is so squirrely that it chips out very easily so, rather than cut the finished profile on the router table, I took the head down to its final shape on the spindle sander.
Here it is.
I had to cut that hole to get access to the truss rod. Because it’s a double acting rod and the nut is lower in the neck than the normal Fender one, the hole has to be fairly big, to have room to turn the Allen key. But the more I look at it, the less I like it, so I decided to make a cover for it. I started by milling a slot the size of the hole but longer.
Then I made a rosewood ‘bung’ to fill the hole. It conforms to the curve of the headstock but it’s a little bit proud of the hole (about 1mm) as it needs a bit of clearance to be able to get it out easily and it looks much nicer a bit proud than if it was flush.
But how do I get it out if I need to adjust the truss rod? Watch this space . . .
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minorkey
C.O.G.
On book 3 of the Guitarist's Way, thanks Keith
Posts: 3,691
My main instrument is: a 20 year old Fender DG-5 Dreadnought named Tilly
Mini-Profile Background: {"image":"","color":"72dd99"}
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Post by minorkey on Apr 16, 2021 22:37:05 GMT
I'm guessing it will slide upwards
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Post by Onechordtrick on Apr 17, 2021 15:45:01 GMT
I'm guessing it will slide upwards I think if you take the neck off, loosen the nut on the end of the truss rod and then push the rod up it will push it out. |
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Post by lefranglais on Apr 17, 2021 18:03:00 GMT
I'm guessing it will slide upwards I think if you take the neck off, loosen the nut on the end of the truss rod and then push the rod up it will push it out. Doesn't quite slide upwards and there isn't a nut on the end of the truss rod. 
You just press one end down, the other end pops up and you flip it out.
It’s held in place by two small neodymium magnets and the opposite end from the magnets is bevelled.
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minorkey
C.O.G.
On book 3 of the Guitarist's Way, thanks Keith
Posts: 3,691
My main instrument is: a 20 year old Fender DG-5 Dreadnought named Tilly
Mini-Profile Background: {"image":"","color":"72dd99"}
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Post by minorkey on Apr 17, 2021 19:22:45 GMT
Simple and clever!
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Coming soon ...
Jo whoever he is.
