$100 build - fretless neck-thru

[bob7point7]

OK, I've started my $100 guitar build. The plan is to make a fretless guitar. I've been wanting to try one since seeing a video of one on here, so this seemed like a great way to do it! The first pic shows what I'm starting with. I have a piece of maple that I bought ages ago when I had the urge to build a fretless bass, but then abandoned the project (although I did build a cigar box fretless bass). The maple is 1 1/16" thick, so it won't be the entire thickness of the body. I also have a blank ebony fretboard that I bought for the same project. The rest of the body will be made of some poplar I had laying around. The truss rod will be a steel rod. I chuckled a little when I saw the supplies that knucklehead G purchased for his build. It looks like we're almost starting with the same pile of lumber (I promise I didn't copy, hehehehe). I scoured ebay for the hardware and was suprised to find a bunch of auctions with $0.99 starting prices and no bids! The second pic shows the ebay auctions I won. The third pic shows the side profile for the neck.

 

[bob7point7]

Here is the parts list so far:

Tuners: $15
Nut: $0.99
Fingerboard: $28.32 (ouch!)
Strap buttons: $0.99
Tele bridge with pickup: $0.99 (score! totally makes up for the $$ I spent on the fretboard!)
Pots: $0.99 (wish they were 250K instead of 500K - oh well)
Les Paul jack plate: $1.10
Chicken head knobs: $0.99
Maple for neck: $11.52
Total so far: $60.89

I still need a jack, a tone cap, strings, and finishing supplies. I also need to figure out how much the steel for the truss rod would cost, since I'm using a piece I already have.

 

[bob7point7]

Here is what I accomplished today.

The first pic shows the process of roughing in the neck. I just ran it accross the router table with the bit at various heights to remove the bulk of the wood.

The second pic shows what I ended up with. You can see I'm going for an angled headstock with a neck volute.

The third pic shows the channel for the pseudo truss rod. Not perfect, but it should work.

The fourth pic shows the neck with the wings glued on. The center will be raised like a Firebird. You can see where I started to sand the headstock but gave up. Maple is some hard stuff! I need some 40 grit to get the shape roughed in.

 

[bob7point7]

One final pic for today. This will make up the back of the body.

 

[ihavenothingprofoundtosay]

Good stuff so far!  I'm always impressed by those folk that try building their own neck.

Plus: another fretless guitar, whoo hoo!  :guitarplayer2:

 

[dmraco]

what are you useing for a truss?  what are you going to fill the void with after it is inastalled?

I am creating a laminate neck that I am hoping will not need a rod if I use light strings.  If I can easily make it with a truss, I would be will do do so.

 

[Cagey]

You can see where I started to sand the headstock but gave up. Maple is some hard stuff! I need some 40 grit to get the shape roughed in.

No kidding! You might want to get ahold of a bastard file or a convex wood rasp. They're not terribly expensive, and they not only will pay for themselves in saved sandpaper, they cut faster and are easier to control. A set of 3 wood rasps like these...

is only $11 at Amazon, so they can't be too much more than that locally.

Nice sawdust mess, btw. Isn't routing fun? Seems like you end up with 10 times as much wood as you removed <grin>

 

[bob7point7]

DMRACO: I'm not really using a truss rod, just some steel reinforcement. I routed a 1/4" wide 1/2" deep groove, and I'll be gluing two 1/8"x1/2" steel bars into it. I plan on filling the groove with wood glue then placing the bars in. I did this on a cigar box bass I built a while back and the (poplar) neck has stayed pretty straight on that one, so I'm hoping this one will stay straight as well. It looks like knucklehead G is using a similar technique on his $100 build.

ihavenothingprofoundtosay: Don't be too impressed yet, I'm not sure if this thing will even be playable!

Cagey: Thanks for the advice on the wood rasps. I'll look for some today. I bought a rasp bit that goes in a die grinder to help rough in the neck countour, but I didn't think about using a straight rasp on the headstock.

 

[dmraco]

DMRACO: I'm not really using a truss rod, just some steel reinforcement. I routed a 1/4" wide 1/2" deep groove, and I'll be gluing two 1/8"x1/2" steel bars into it. I plan on filling the groove with wood glue then placing the bars in. I did this on a cigar box bass I built a while back and the (poplar) neck has stayed pretty straight on that one, so I'm hoping this one will stay straight as well. It looks like knucklehead G is using a similar technique on his $100 build.

thanks...I am using a 3 piece laminate neck...make from maple...I hope that is strong enough.  I am keeping the contour thick to keep a much wood a possible in the neck...

 

[bob7point7]

OK, here are the updates from this evening.

Pic 1: The first step for tonight was to sand the front face of the headstock. I followed Cagey's advice and went to the hardware store looking for a wood rasp. They didn't have a rasp that looked up to the task, so I ended up buying the 'pocket planer' shown in the picture (it's basically a large wood rasp). It saved me tons of sanding and easily paid for itself in the sandpaper it saved. Thanks for the tip, Cagey!

Pic 2: The rear of the headstock and neck volute went even faster as I got a little better at the technique.

Pic 3: Tracing out the headstock.

Pic 4: Starting to trace the body. I ran into a snag since the center board is raised...

 

[bob7point7]

This evening's progress continued...

Pic 1: I cut the wings off the template to trace them onto the body accurately.

Pic 2: After rough-cutting the shape with a jigsaw. I realize now that it would have been a good idea to drill the tuner holes while I had all that extra wood on the headstock. Oh well, it shouldn't be a problem.

Pic 3: I took a piece of scrap wood left over from a speaker cabinet project, bored a big hole in the middle, and mounted it to the table of the drill press. This let me drop the sanding cylinder through the hole in the plywood so I could use the drill press as a drum sander to finish the edge of the body and headstock. Worked like a charm!

Pic 4: Here is what I ended up with after a little sanding. I set it on some pieces of sheetmetal for more color contrast. It's starting look and feel like an actual guitar!

The next step will be to glue the back layer of the body to this piece, then use the template bit in the router to trim the back flush with the front. Unfortunately I forgot to pick up some extra clamps for this huge glue joint, so this seemed like a good stopping point.

 

[Cagey]

Pic 1: The first step for tonight was to sand the front face of the headstock. I followed Cagey's advice and went to the hardware store looking for a wood rasp. They didn't have a rasp that looked up to the task, so I ended up buying the 'pocket planer' shown in the picture (it's basically a large wood rasp). It saved me tons of sanding and easily paid for itself in the sandpaper it saved. Thanks for the tip, Cagey!

No charge. All I did was shorten your path. Any time it feels like you're working too hard, it's almost certain the necessity of avoiding that work has been the mother of invention. After all, there's beer to be drunk, tail to be chased and stories to be told before we sleep <grin>

 

[bob7point7]

I got a little bit of a late start the past two nights, but here is the progress report. I'll start with last night:

Pic 1: Time to glue the back of the body on. You can see the top of the guitar is sitting on the larger back piece, which is sitting on an even larger piece of plywood to spread out the clamping load.

Pic 2: Here it is glued and clamped. I called it a night after this.

 

[bob7point7]

Now for tonight's progress:

Pic 1: I started by trimming the excess off of the back piece.

Pic 2: A little work with a pattern bit in the router cleaned it right up.

Pic 3: The "neck joint" (there's no actual joint) area was looking pretty rough.

Pic 4: I used a wood rasp bit in a die grinder to start shaping the neck joint. I'll probably need more work here once I shape the neck back contour, but this makes me feel better about it for now. It's about time to start cutting up that ebony and shaping the neck...

 

[DangerousR6]

:headbang:

 

[B3Guy]

ya, you could take a fair bit more off of that heel, I would think, what with it being a neck-thru and all (I'm not a builder, but I would guess that it wouldn't hurt) . . . give yourself lots of access to the upper fretboard (ha, I almost said frets . . . but it is fretless, right?)

 

[bob7point7]

I got to work on the guitar for a few hours tonight. Here is the progress:

Pic 1: I cut out the fingerboard. I forgot to take pics as I went, but I just screwed it to another piece of wood and used a pattern bit in the router to cut down the sides. I then cut the ends off with a jigsaw and used the drill press / drum sander to radius the corners on the body side. This fingerboard is long enough to reach the 24th 'fret' on the low strings and about the 26th on the high strings.

Pic 2: The ebony sawdust is a little bit bizarre.

Pic 3: I used a couple staples to locate the fingerboard on the neck, then used the router with the pattern bit to cut the sides of the neck flush with it.

Pic 4: I used the drum sander to blend the narrowed neck into the body and headstock. (My wife shot this pic.)

 

[bob7point7]

Today's progress continued:

Pic 1: Here is the neck after routing and sanding.

Pic 2: I used the wood rasp bit in the die grinder to start roughing in the neck contour. You can also see that I routed the back of the body with a 1/4" roundover bit.

Pic 3: Here is the back of the neck after sanding it. I'm really happy with the feel. I'm epecially happy with the shape of the neck volute. I may do a little more work where the neck meets the body, but I haven't decided how I want to change it yet.

Pic 4: The last step for tonight was to sand a small radius around the top edge of the body. I set the fretboard back on for today's final photo.

 

[dmraco]

I am starting to have TOOL envy.

Nice job!  Beats my travel/box guitar by a mile!!!!!

 

[Nando Vallart]

It looks good!

But I didn't understand: you're really using a truss-rod or just a piece of steel?
If it's the 2nd option and you still have money, I really suggest you to buy one:
http://www.warmoth.com/Truss-Rods-C46.aspx
http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Truss_rods/Adjustable_truss_rods/Hot_Rod_Truss_Rods.html