Fretless Progress - Done! (well, mostly)

[ihavenothingprofoundtosay]

Finished coating the back of the neck w/TruOil, stopped at 3 coats, then buffed lightly with 0000 steel wool, and taped it up to start on the fretboard.

In the pix below: that's the final coat of oil there, curing in the brief bit of sunshine we had yesterday.  I also Tru Oiled an old mirror frame that came with my house - I stripped & sanded off the badly applied paint, and figured it would be good practice for future TruOil usage.  Also, it was handy to have some place else to wipe the oil onto once I was done with the neck, so that I didn't waste the oil I'd already put on the rag.

The Stratacoustic body is definitely totally wack in terms of the neck pocket, but it turns out my drummer (an electrician by trade, but dabbler in many other tool type things) has a drill press! So between that & my wife saying something to the effect of "I think you're going to screw it up" in her own special way  :icon_tongue:, I'm going to try filling the current neck holes & drilling a new set.  Not sure if it will work, but I'm really trying to hold myself back from short cuts, and I'm picking up some experience as well.

 

[Dan025]

does this neck have lines to show where the frets should be? :icon_scratch: the warmoth bass necks do.

if so the mounting of the neck in the right position will affect the acuracy of the lines. if the neck pocket is goofy you may want to measure the distance of the bridge to the nut.

what is this gonna be? slide guitar? or actually played fretless? i always wondered how that would sound and feel.

 

[bbl4ck]

Very interesting project...
I will be watching this one closely.  I have always loved V necks  :headbang1:
Good luck and welcome to the forum  :rock-on:

 

[ihavenothingprofoundtosay]

Further progress: Almost done!  Finished the last coat of TruOil on the fretboard last night, let it dry overnight.... it's smooth!  I waited a few more hours to buff it, then put the tuners on.  One minor mistake  on my part (see the pick of the back of the neck), but easily hidden, not affecting sound.  Meanwhile, it was over to my drummer's house to use his drill press to fit the new neck mounting holes - success!  Still have a bit more work to do on the pickguard (there's a test fit of it below), and I have to wait until Monday for my strings (won't play without flatwounds), but it's coming along nicely.  I will indeed be going with the Stratacoustic body; whether or not I did depended on the drilling process, and it was a complete success.

does this neck have lines to show where the frets should be? :icon_scratch: the warmoth bass necks do.

if so the mounting of the neck in the right position will affect the acuracy of the lines. if the neck pocket is goofy you may want to measure the distance of the bridge to the nut.

what is this gonna be? slide guitar? or actually played fretless? i always wondered how that would sound and feel.

No, I wanted it an unlined, solid piece of wood.  I don't know if they offer a lined fretless option for guitar (probably, if you ask & pay for it), but I've wanted a totally clean fretboard for some time.  My next Warmoth is likely to be a 7 string baritone, and for that, I'll get a regular neck, with just the cuts for the frets.  Then, I'd fill in the frets, and finish the board with epoxy, giving it a lined fretless kinda look.  I did indeed make extra effort to be as precise as possible with the neck mounting holes (quite the pain with the Stratacoustic body, which doesn't have a flat back) so the neck lines up properly, but the intonation is mostly in my ears & fingers anyway.  :icon_biggrin:

More info on the project, plus some links to fretless guitar stuff here:
http://www.unofficialwarmoth.com/index.php?topic=11710.0

 

[DangerousR6]

Pick guard...... :icon_scratch:

 

[ihavenothingprofoundtosay]

Pick guard...... :icon_scratch:

You'll see  :glasses10:

I'm not much of a fan of the Stratacoustic's look as is, and I wanted to make it something a bit more individualized.

 

[ihavenothingprofoundtosay]

Just a quick update - it's [almost] done.  All the major stuff is done - stained, sanded, sealed & gloss-coated the pickguard.  I was hoping to get the sort of "weathered fence" look, but under gloss, and I think it came out ok.  The shape was a little off from what I intended, but it's close enough.  I was divided between this look and a white vinyl pickguard (which would have had a sticker on it that said "本机杀死法西斯主义", a nod to both the body's country of origin and a certain musical hero of mine), but once the first coat of stain was dry, I knew this would be the one.

I'm absolutely itching to try it again (have to ask my band's guitar player if he needs a nice new American built guitar to replace his korean Epiphone and Danelectro.  :toothy10: )

Glued on the pickguard, set the neck to test the new holes, and I'm 99% sure I'll need a shim, but I'm waiting on the strings to come in before I do the final setup stuff.  Sound samples coming.... some day ???

 

[whyachi]

Of all the guitars I've seen... that there is definitely one of them.

:icon_scratch: I may not agree with it, but its kickass that Warmoth helped you to build it.

 

[dNA]

Of all the guitars I've seen... that there is definitely one of them.

haha. i don't know why, but that had me rolling when i read it.


and while the guitar does look a BIT awkward i kinda like it. Now i just want you to put a tele neck pickup in there. even if it was just for looks (though if you could install a nice acoustic pickup in a tele kind of housing that'd be awesome.

 

[DangerousR6]

Interesting to say the least.... :icon_thumright:

 

[ihavenothingprofoundtosay]

Of all the guitars I've seen... that there is definitely one of them.

:icon_scratch: I may not agree with it, but its kickass that Warmoth helped you to build it.

Haha - yeah, fretless isn't for everyone - it does look a bit weird, but I'm hoping it's going to suit my needs quite well in terms of playing.  And it does indeed kickass that Warmoth was able to build that sweet neck.