Building my first body.
- Thread starter line6man
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ccasion14:
line6man
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rapfohl09 said:
I've not taken a proper photo of the body, cut to shape, as it's not quite done yet. Today I did the neck pocket route, then jumped ahead to roundovers and the forearm contour. When I'm in the mood, I'll finish the horns and neck pocket, then round it over. That part takes a bit more work because of the curvature of the horns and the detail needed to cut/shape/sand the neck pocket area.
Anyways, today I did the neck pocket.
Because of the way the sapwood flows through the wood, the bookmatched Walnut core has sapwood on one side and heartwood on the other, at bottom of the neck pocket.
Thankfully, the neck pocket came out super tight! As most recall from earlier in the thread, StewMac's templates are absurdly oversized, and I had issues with that before.
The pocket can hold the weight of the body with no screws, and probably even more weight. It's a great fit!
DangerousR6
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Looking good, that top is kick ass
:icon_thumright:
:icon_thumright:
line6man
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Ok, I did the control cavity and there is some good news and some bad news.
The good news is, a nearly perfect routing, with no burns! The bad news is, as I began one of the deeper passes, the router became devil possessed and bounced out of control, fudging up the walls of the cavity until I could regain control over it. Fortunately, the bit ONLY hit the inside of the cavity, and not anywhere that would be visible on the finished body.
Preparation with a Forstner bit.
The finished cavity.
And the damage done by the router bit.
Instead of hiding it with shielding tape, I'm going to call this "Heavy relicing," which adds mojo to the guitar. I am also going to make up some data on how the specific shape of the router dings affects the body resonance in a pleasing way. :blob7:
The good news is, a nearly perfect routing, with no burns! The bad news is, as I began one of the deeper passes, the router became devil possessed and bounced out of control, fudging up the walls of the cavity until I could regain control over it. Fortunately, the bit ONLY hit the inside of the cavity, and not anywhere that would be visible on the finished body.
Preparation with a Forstner bit.
The finished cavity.
And the damage done by the router bit.
Instead of hiding it with shielding tape, I'm going to call this "Heavy relicing," which adds mojo to the guitar. I am also going to make up some data on how the specific shape of the router dings affects the body resonance in a pleasing way. :blob7:
reluctant-builder
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It's such a joy to see this come together. I was not a maple naysayer. I think the whole sandwich looks mighty tasty.
Edit: How hard would it be to make one's own neck-pocket routing template, if you had a thick piece of plexiglass and already owned a Warmoth neck? Seems like that would be a better recipe for accuracy than relying on seemingly unreliable Stew-Mac.
Edit: How hard would it be to make one's own neck-pocket routing template, if you had a thick piece of plexiglass and already owned a Warmoth neck? Seems like that would be a better recipe for accuracy than relying on seemingly unreliable Stew-Mac.
Cagey
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Be a lot easier if you had a body, rather than a neck. Lay on an appropriately-sized piece fixed in place so it can't move, drill an access hole, then use a router with a "flush trim bit" to follow the interior of the pocket and you're there. Makes a helluva mess, though, and those little plastic shavings have a mind of their own so they're a bitch to clean up.
Great job! This is looking great!
And its good that the neck pocket went well. If you want anything to come out perfect on a guitar, its that.
Edit: I missed this...
I did exactly what you are thinking for my body build:
http://www.unofficialwarmoth.com/index.php?topic=15770.0
It is really very easy as long as you have some straight pieces of something. It might get a little more interesting for a strat pocket, but I made an insanely tight, perfect neck pocket for my Tele neck in about an hour. I then made 4 more in about 20 minutes. Ka-ching!
And its good that the neck pocket went well. If you want anything to come out perfect on a guitar, its that.
Edit: I missed this...
reluctant-builder said:
I did exactly what you are thinking for my body build:
http://www.unofficialwarmoth.com/index.php?topic=15770.0
It is really very easy as long as you have some straight pieces of something. It might get a little more interesting for a strat pocket, but I made an insanely tight, perfect neck pocket for my Tele neck in about an hour. I then made 4 more in about 20 minutes. Ka-ching!
Cagey
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rapfohl09 said:
It's all in the setup, right? One-offs are always a bitch. That's one of the reasons custom work is so expensive. You can almost always make a bunch of something for little more than it takes to make one. Ol' Henry Ford had the right idea with his assembly line. The first few cars took months, or even years. But, the 100th through the end of the run only took a few minutes apiece. Lotta parallelism involved, but still. The principle stands. Once the pioneer takes the arrows in the back, the trail is blazed, side issues be damned.
line6man
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Some Walnut colored wood filler that I conveniently found a tube of in the garage is fixing up the router dings. :blob7:
Ok, so I'm just about ready to order a Warmoth neck for this thing. Someday I'll take a stab at building a neck, but for now, I want a nice one from Warmoth.
The shaft will be Indian Rosewood, the fretboard will be Ebony. The question is, Black or Macassar?
I'm really digging this particular board from the gallery. (Macassar.)
Can I get away with it, or is it too busy for the body?
I know Black Ebony would be the classiest option, but I tend to dislike plain fretboards.
Ok, so I'm just about ready to order a Warmoth neck for this thing. Someday I'll take a stab at building a neck, but for now, I want a nice one from Warmoth.
The shaft will be Indian Rosewood, the fretboard will be Ebony. The question is, Black or Macassar?
I'm really digging this particular board from the gallery. (Macassar.)
Can I get away with it, or is it too busy for the body?
I know Black Ebony would be the classiest option, but I tend to dislike plain fretboards.
