Leaderboard

$100 build - fretless neck-thru

DMRACO: Thanks, I'm really digging your build! A travel guitar is a great idea, and I really love the top you're using. My tool addiction may be worse than my GAS.

NonsenseTele: No, I'm not using a truss rod, just a couple of steel bars. The neck will also be about 1" thick. I'll try using a real truss rod on the next build.

Here is today's progress:

Pic 1: I drilled holes in the side of the fingerboard and filled them with wood filler to mark the fret locations. I'm not super happy with the result, but it will be OK.

Pic 2: Time to make a control cavity. You can see the patterns I made, the cover plate, and the location on the body.

Pic 3: I cut a pattern for the cutout that the cover will sit in. I used the drum sanding bit to open it up until the cover fit inside easily.

Pic 4: My pattern bit is 1" long, so I had to add some 3/4" plywood to my pattern so the pattern itself ended up 1" thick.

 
Today cont'd:

Pic 1: Halfway through routing the control cavity.

Pic 2: I finished the first part of the control cavity. I need to rout for the cover, but I ran out of double sided tape.  :tard:

Pic 3: The final step for today was to drill for the output jack. The side of this thing is thin! There is barely enough wood to mount the jack.

I REALLY hope the bridge and pickup get here soon!
 
Right after my last post, I decided to try the Les Paul style jack plate to see if the body was thick enough. Suprise! It wasn't even close to being thick enough. My first thought was to go with a football jack or an electrosocket, but they're almost $10! I decided to turn a les paul plate into a football jack. Wouldn't you know it, as I was grabbing some tape from my toolbox I found another roll of double sided tape! So I made the football jack, then routed for the control cover.

Pic 1: Here is the new football jack plate next to an uncut LP plate. It could use just a little more sanding and polishing, but I'm pretty happy with this direction.

Pic 2: Here is the control cavity after routing it for the cover.

Pic 3: Here is the guitar with the cover in place.
 
All i have to say is....IS IT FOR SALE??????
cool17.gif
 
when I finish my actual project I was planning to build a really expensive neck through but a cheap one... it's an interesting thing. I'm not trying to copy your project, but it's a good way to improve my woodworking and at the end build a complete neck. 10 points for your project.
 
Thanks for the kind words, guys! A busy work week combined with band practice and Gov't Mule  :headbang: coming to town did not make for a very productive week, but I finally got back on track yesterday. Here is the progress made over the weekend:

Pic 1: I finally drilled the headstock for tuners.

Pic 2: I cut the steel bars for the neck reinforcement. I wound up having to grind and file them to get them to fit properly. I thought I had measured, but apparently I hadn't routed the slot in the neck quite far enough. After a little elbow grease I ended up with a nice tight fit all around, though.

Pic 3: Here are the bars in the neck.

Pic 4: I finished out the day by gluing the fretboard on. I used two little cut-off staples to realign it with the neck.
 
I got home late from work today, but the bridge and pickup had FINALLY arrived! Unfortunately today was the first day where I was unhappy with my work. Here's the story:

Pic 1: I checked the limits of the saddle travel, measured the scale length, and marked where the bridge holes and pickup should sit.

Pic 2: I drew up a pattern to route for the pickup. This is where I made my first mistake, although I wouldn't know it for a little while yet. Notice how thin pattern gets on each side of the pickup, and how the grain of the wood is running the wrong way for those thin spots to have any strength.

Pic 3: The 1/4" thick pattern is done. Unfortunately my only pattern bit is 1" tall, so I needed to add another 3/4" thickness to the pattern. I stuck a piece of 3/4" plywood to the 1/4" pattern, then realized that I forgot to rough out the shape in the 3/4" wood with a jigsaw first. No big deal, I thought, I'll just take a little bit at a time with the router until I have the entire shape cut out.

Pic 4: On top you can see the aftermath. I apparently went too deep with the router and it caught the wood, tearing up both pieces pretty good. You can see that part of the original pattern is missing. On the bottom right you can see the new improved 1/4" pattern. On the bottom left, the 3/4" piece I'm about to attach to it. I was smart enough to cut away most of the material with the jigsaw this time, but my troubles didn't stop there...
 
Tonight continued...

Pic 1: I stuck the new and improved template onto the body.

Pic 2: The result of routing.  :sad1:  Apparently the set screw holding the collar and bearing in place on the pattern bit came loose (probably from the last catastrophe). While routing the body, the bearing slipped down the shank and let the bit cut out too much material. Fortunately, the bridge will cover the mess.

Pic 3: The final small disaster of the evening was drilling the hole for the pickup wire. I drilled the hole at as shallow an angle as my drill and bit would let me, but you can see that it came throught the other side right where the cover mounts. Oops! I grabbed the dremel and made a recessed area for the wire to lay under the cover, but you can still see just a little bit of the hole with the cover installed.

Pic 4: After the 3rd close call of the evening I decded to stop for the night. Here is the mockup of the bridge and pickup. Thankfully all of the major cutting work is done - now it's just drilling pilot holes, sanding and finishing. I'll try to get back in the groove later this week.  :toothy11:
 
That's pretty cool, really diggin' that, although I would have put a.....nevermind... :icon_biggrin:
 
great god, that is cool. I'm really loving the 100 builds. Nice to see folks getting their hands dirty!
 
OK, here is the progress from the past couple nights. Last night I sanded the guitar down to 320 and clearcoated the maple.

Pic 1: You can see the poplar is masked off and the maple has the 1st coat of wipe-on poly. You can also see where I tested the ebony stain on the control cover plate. I applied a second coat this morning.

Pic 2: Tonight I masked off the maple to stain the poplar with ebony stain.

Pic 3: The wife snapped a picture of me starting to apply the stain.
 
Tonight continued...

Pic 1: Here is the front after the stain was applied.

Pic 2: Rear view.

Pic 3: Detail of the maple to poplar transition.

And I still have $4 left in the budget!
 
Woo! I finished the guitar today! I put the final coat of clear on last night and started the assembly this morning. Here are a few pics:

Pic 1: After mounting the bridge and tuners I wired the guitar up. Wiring is pretty simple when there's only 1 pickup.  :toothy11:

Pic 2: I carved the nut from the "40 year old camel bone" blank that I got off ebay for $0.99. Does that mean the camel was 40 years old, or the camel gave up the bone 40 years ago? I have no idea, but it was pretty easy to work with.

Pic 3: The knobs looked a little bright compared to the tuners and nut, so my wife put them in some tea to try and stain them. It helped a little, but not as much as we had hoped.
 
After the final assembly I did a quick setup and plugged it in. The pickup is a little low on output, but the thing sounds pretty good! I used flatwound strings with a wound G, and they make sliding up and down the strings very nice. It's hard to get a good sound when you get much past the 12th fret or on the unwound strings. I think the pads of my fingers are just damping the vibrations too much. It sounds great with a slide, though, and the upper fret access makes it very easy to get those Duane Allman bird sounds. I probably could've taken some more material off the back of the neck (it's fatter than 'fat'), but I don't really mind it. I'll have to record a video, but for now here are some pics of the finished product (and the final tabulated cost):
 
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