2 new Walnut OO 13-fret gits

So far we have two fingerboards with fret slots cut, now as these are to be steel string guitars it is conventional to add a radius to the board, classical players of course manage perfectly well with a flat board, but steel string players can be a bit precious so better pander to their inadequacies and add a radius.

I use a 16" radius on them, I rough this in with the drum sander and a series of shims that raise one side into the sanding drum, this gets me pretty close to the final radius as you can see in the second picture.





The radius is then refined with a radius sanding block, I always do this sanding on the bed of my bandsaw which is perfectly flat.







The radius is checked with a 16" radius press insert and the board checked for straightness along its length. This is really the start of the fretting process, making sure that the board is straight along its entire length at this point will save a lot of phaffing about later, though it will be checked again after gluing to the neck.

Those paying attention, the swots among you, will have noticed that I cut the fret slots when the board was flat, and as I have now sanded a radius into the board that I will have sanded away part of this slot at the outside edges, some get over this process by cutting the slots deeper initially, but I like to have the fret slots even in depth across the finished board, so I re-cut the slots using a depth stop on the saw, this ensures that the slot is also at 16" radius and of even depth across the board. Will this make any difference to the final product? I don't know but it would bug me if the slot varied in depth across the board.



Colin

Not sure I can click 'Like' on the most recent photo update after seeing Colin's fingers which were a difficult thing to see for someone as squeamish as myself!

Fine work on the guitars as ever.

I'm in agreement about the lack of fretboard markers, maybe down to spending most of my time playing nylon strings.

I'm like that but it's my head which isn't the full nine yards

:/

Leo, the advantage, as I see it, of the ones I do is that they operate as both side and face markers, just a bit more discrete than the more usual style. I guess it's because I also played a lot of classical guitar, where of course people would point at you and laugh if you had fret-markers!

I am a few knuckles down.

Colin

So, (see I did it, I started a sentence with 'So'!) far (wait 'So far' at the start of a sentence is acceptable English, so I'll start again.) So far we have two wooden boxes and two sticks, time to join them together.

To cut the mortise in the top for the neck extension I clamp the complex jig to the guitar and drill through the bolt holes into the body, the jig can then be bolted to the body.





Using my small router and a guide bush I then rout the mortise incrementally to the exact depth of the extension.



Repeat the process for the second guitar. At this point I drill through for truss rod adjuster access, I forgot once and wondered why I couldn't adjust the rod.

I now need to put the inserts into the heel, to line up the inserts I use two registration plugs in the bolt holes and press the neck into position.



The holes are then drilled and the inserts screwed in with a little epoxy, and squeeze-out cleaned up with some alcohol.





When the epoxy has set the necks and bodies are bolted together and the cheeks of the heel (do heels have cheeks, I know my face does and my backside, but heels?) anyway, the heels are flossed with some 80 grit sanding belt until they are nice and flush with the sides and the neck is on the centre line.



I also need to make sure that the neck is at the right angle so a straight edge is put onto the face of the neck and the gap measured at the bridge position, I'm aiming for a 2mm gap, and bingo, spot on, sometimes I amaze myself.



Now we have two boxes with two sticks bolted to them, starting to look like guitars now, Oh, and I managed to put the correct neck on the correct body, wonders will never cease.





Colin

Dave, "The Tree" does look amazing, even more so in hand. The tap is very promising, it has a rich 'chocolaty' sound. It does seem a little tight at the moment, I'll probably thin the perimeter a little, but I have high hopes for it.

By the way, your billet splitting was bang on, the top has zero run-out and is perfectly on quarter.

Colin