Blackbird Telecaster: Neck work in progress...

[BigSteve22]

A little background first. The neck for my Jazzmaster went to Cagey to experience his tender loving care and excellent fret work. This was a two fold decision: First, I wanted to see for myself if his repute matched the actual finished product. (No doubt about it, it certainly does! As I said, excellent work.) The second reason, was that although I enjoy the therapeutic rewards of doing a build myself, I had found neck work to be a challenge, mainly because I had trouble keeping the neck solidly in place while working.

So this time around, I decided to do things right, and build myself a neck fixture.

It's got a maple bed with 2" poplar spindles on each end that sit in poplar pillow blocks so it can turn to any angle needed. The mounting surface of the bed is level with the central axis of the spindles. This is mounted to a board which can be clamped to any stable surface.

One spindle can be locked in place to keep things from turning unexpectedly.

The neck mounts to the bed using the standard mounting holes and rests on cork pads to protect the finish.

So, on to the frets. I adjusted the truss rod, and checked the frets for level. As you can see, Warmoth's fret install is pretty damned good right out of the box.

Using a fret rocker, I did find 2 very slightly high spots, center line at the 4th and 7th frets. Everything else was fine. So I used an extremely fine fret end file and just barely lapped these spots until they were almost where I wanted them. (Because the amount they needed to be taken down was so small, I was able to maintain the crown by moving the file from side to side as I went.) I then brought the frets down to final height using 1000 grit abrasive paper.

When that was done, I taped up the whole thing so I can go to town on the fret ends. That'll be my task for the week.

I couldn't justify, (or afford!), the price if Stew-Mac's "Erlewine Neck Jig", but my poor man's version at least gives me a leg up over just sitting it on the bench and hoping for the best.

 

[bagman67]

That appears to be a quite effective ghetto jig you've rigged up there.  I salute your ingenuity!

 

[BigSteve22]

That appears to be a quite effective ghetto jig you've rigged up there.  I salute your ingenuity!

I come by my talents via genetics. My Dad's nick name was Rube Goldgerg, (Amongst other thing!)
:icon_jokercolor:

 

[stratamania]

That looks a good approach. I like the fact that it turns very useful.

 

[Verne Bunsen]

Nice piece of equipment you've put together there!

 

[DangerousR6]

Necessity is the mother of invention...Jigs always make thing much easier...Nice job.. :headbang1:

 

[rgand]

That's darn inventive. I like it a lot. If I get into fiddling with necks, I'll make one much like that. That gets the double thumbs up. :icon_thumright: :icon_thumright:

 

[Cagey]

Well done! A good jig forces the neck to concede half the battle. It's also good that you made it so that it mounts easily to a sawhorse (or anything like one) so you can attack from both flanks as well as from above. Mine angles, too, but in practice I've found that to be less necessary or useful than you might think. At least, for me.

If you ever do a ver. 2.0, you might consider making the neck mount crossbar slightly longer so you could mount a bridge at one end. Any old bridge will do, as long as it has saddle height adjustments. That would allow you to string the thing up, which is invaluable for fine-tuning the frets. Necks distort slightly under tension, plus there's the deliberate distortion of the truss rod. You don't have to have a viable scale length because you're not going to do anything musical with it, you're just going to check geometry and fret clearances under tension, as well as whether any frets boink out when you bend a fretted string across the frets. Also, you want the thing strung up to fine-tune the nut slots, which is much easier on the jig than built up as an instrument.

 

[Logrinn]

Excellent jig, Steve. So smart and yet so simple. Love it! :icon_thumright:

 

[BigSteve22]

Thanks for the compliments guys! I wish I had plans to post, but I just sorta fit things together as I went. I like the way it turned out. The tilting feature was my main impetus to building it, I found getting a good angle on the fret ends a real problem while working on my Strat neck. This should alleviate that.

If you ever do a ver. 2.0, you might consider making the neck mount crossbar slightly longer so you could mount a bridge at one end. Any old bridge will do, as long as it has saddle height adjustments. That would allow you to string the thing up, which is invaluable for fine-tuning the frets.....

I like that idea Kevin. Truth is, I could easily modify this version to that end. On the "top" there's only about 2.5" between the end of a 22 fret, 24.75" scale, neck and the end of the spindle. But on the "other" side, there's about 7.5" because the bed extends all the way to the pillows. (You can see this in the pic of the spindle lock.) I'm thinking it will be easy to adapt a flat mount bridge, maybe a short Tele style. As you say, it doesn't have to intonate, just hold the strings at the proper height. My mind is awash with ideas now, thanks!  :sign13:

 

[Cagey]

I actually have two bridges on my dummy block, one for guitar necks and the other set back a bit for bass necks. For the guitar necks, I used a Schaller 475 bridge for several reasons.

First, it's a flat mount, so that made mounting it easier than drilling for posts/lugs, which also may or may not hold the bridge in place when it's not under tension. Second, the saddles all have height adjustment, which is important. Third, the string spacing is variable. The vast majority of the necks I work on are 2 3/16 wide at the heel, but not all of them, plus nut widths vary. Either way, you end up needing different string spacing at the bridge to accomodate. Finally, the strings are top-fed, which is just convenient.

 

[BigSteve22]

I actually have two bridges on my dummy block, one for guitar necks and the other set back a bit for bass necks.

Schaller 475 is a great bridge, but I don't think I want to spend that much just to mount it to a jig that'll maybe get used once a year. Gotta look around some, please feel free to send along any ideas.  :sign13:

 

[rgand]

These are $3.59 on ebay. Don't know the spacing, though. It says 10.5 mm but that's only 27/64". Top-loading, too.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/65mm-6-Saddle-Hardtail-Electic-Guitar-Telecaster-Tele-Bridge-Top-Load-Guitars-/182269965602?hash=item2a7022f522:g:kwUAAOSwGtRXzncl

 

[Sovereign_13]

I would guess 10.5mm is the spacing between strings, which works out to something like 2.07" E-to-E.  A cursory search of the internet suggests that most of the adjustable-spacing bridges are Kahler models, but I did find this:

That's a Gretsch "Space Control Bridge".  From what I can tell, it's basically a threaded rod with rollers that move along it.  I've no experience with them, so I could be mistaken as to how it works, but it's a lot cheaper than the Kahler unit.  You'd still need something to anchor the strings, however.

 

[BigSteve22]

I came across this one on ebay:

sort of a poor man's Schaller 475. Guess that matches the rest of the jig.... :icon_jokercolor:

 

[Cagey]

Top/flat mount, top feed string ball stops, adjustable saddle height - the only thing missing is the string spacing adjustment, but since it's just for testing purposes you could probably live without that. I say go for it.

 

[BigSteve22]

Fret work's done! Leveled, (only two slightly high frets), ends filed smooth, and polished.

Jig made it real easy. Flip the jig, rotate the bed, and it's ready to hit the other side.

Big lighted magnifier puts things into focus.

A view down the treble side from 11 thru 22.

A Dremel with a felt wheel and some stainless polish made quick work of the polishing job. I put a couple of blemishes in the lacquer during the insert install and the fret work, so I sanded them back a might and hit them with several coats over the last few days. Now to let things dry for a bout a week and it'll be time to install the tuners. (Everything's aleardy drilled so that should go easily.) In the mean time, the bridge for the jig came in, (the one pictured above), and I'll be setting that up so I can install the Zero-Glide nut.

 

[stratamania]

There is something about fretwork that is satisfying to do and to see. Well done.

 

[BigSteve22]

There is something about fretwork that is satisfying to do and to see. Well done.

Thanks Brother. I call it "Luthier Therapy", although I'm no luthier by any stretch of the imagination! My day job doesn't allow much "satisfaction in a job well done". Most of my time is spent pissing on fires and holding the place together, under the guidance of a largely incompetent and politically motivated administration. Any day all my people go home in one piece is a good day, but tomorrow it all starts again. In the end, nothing really gets accomplished except that everybody is one day closer to retirement. Working on a build helps me remember that not everything turns into an endless parade of as&h0les, I find that very soothing.    :-\

Edit: Sorry, crazy day. On the bright side everyone went home in one piece.....

 

[mayfly]

Wow!  I'm very sorry to hear about what you're going through at work.

Take it easy - or at least try!