Prepping a New Roasted Maple Neck

[BigSteve22]

You might find this video also useful.

Stratamania, thanks for posting this.  :icon_thumright:

 

[Cactus Jack]

Here's a great link to setting up a compound radius neck:

https://hazeguitars.com/blog/compound-radius-setup

This diagram is especially regarding fret leveling:

 

[Cactus Jack]

A little more reflection.

Intuitively I think I leveled the frets properly. I let the bar do the work and simply guided. By sheer dumb luck, I leveled along with the strings per the image above.

One aspect I didn't do well was crowning. After leveling I remarked the frets, however, I wasn't sure exactly how much material to take off during crowning. I went too far, which is why I removed so much material.

What I did, was I crowned the frets until all the marker was removed. What I should have done, and will do next time, is crown the frets until only a thin line remained. During the final sanding process, the frets would've been properly rounded off and as little material as possible would have been removed.

Another learning is to constantly check your work. Several times during leveling I should've stopped and used the fret rocker to check progress than simply trusting the ink. Throughout the crowning process, I should have rocked the frets. During the polishing process, I should've rocked the frets. Basically, the slower and more detailed you can be, the better the results will be.

Starting to plan my next job already .

 

[stratamania]

The diagram from the Haze guitar blog I think appeared a little while after all of this got discussed in a lengthy thread on TGP which amongst others both myself and Cagey participated. But it does illustrate what I mentioned earlier about the lie of the strings.

In general it is probably worth getting hold of some older or cheaper necks for people who want to practice techniques out before doing so on a more expensive neck.

 

[Cactus Jack]

The diagram from the Haze guitar blog I think appeared a little while after all of this got discussed in a lengthy thread on TGP which amongst others both myself and Cagey participated. But it does illustrate what I mentioned earlier about the lie of the strings.

In general, it is probably worth getting hold of some older or cheaper necks for people who want to practice techniques out before doing so on a more expensive neck.

I totally agree with practicing on old/cheaper necks and would advise others to not follow my example. Similar to gambling, if you can't afford to lose, don't put your money on the table!

My reflections aren't an indication that the neck is bad in any way. In fact, it turned out very well, albeit, far from perfect. I've been able to set up the guitar with nice tight buzz-free low action, and it plays very well. I'm still tweaking and dialing things in, but she plays as well as any of my other guitars.

A few playability surprises. First, I have a set of Callaham compensated saddles on the guitar. Using my Strobe tuner, Sonic Research Turbo Tuner, I've been able to achieve perfect intonation. Literally, it's as good as any six-saddle guitar I've set up and better than a few Tune-O-Matics I have. I'm very impressed.
Second, I've fallen into a cycle of trying a bunch of different boutique pickups. I installed a leftover, cheap, mismatched Seymour Duncan Jazz and JB into the guitar. I absolutly freaking LOVE the pickups! I don't know what it is but they sound incredible, and the guitar is so fun to play. It makes me question the value of going boutique...maybe I got lucky...don't know...don't care.

 

[Cagey]

The Seymour Duncan Jazz and JB set is my "goto" pickup set when I can't decide exactly what, if anything, different would serve better. After all these years (47?), it's still a great design/sound.

 

[Cactus Jack]

Polishing Papers for the WIN! WAY better than sandpaper and pads. Different guitar but a few quick pics .

 

[BroccoliRob]

What polishing papes did you get and where? Those frets look as shiny enough to eat off of

 

[Cactus Jack]

What polishing papes did you get and where? Those frets look as shiny enough to eat off of

Zona 3M off Amazon for $13. Totally worth it.

 

[BroccoliRob]

What polishing papes did you get and where? Those frets look as shiny enough to eat off of

Zona 3M off Amazon for $13. Totally worth it.

Nice. Cheers, brother!

 

[Cactus Jack]

More fun with polishing papers. I've banished all sandpaper from my workbench .

 

[Cagey]

More fun with polishing papers. I've banished all sandpaper from my workbench .

Miracle stuff, init? Works wonders on frets, too.

Curious - have any sense of time spent on that neck so far? I've found that while polishing is very  rewarding, you need patience in the bank. It quickly becomes clear why OEMs don't offer it.

 

[Cactus Jack]

More fun with polishing papers. I've banished all sandpaper from my workbench .

Miracle stuff, init? Works wonders on frets, too.

Curious - have any sense of time spent on that neck so far? I've found that while polishing is very  rewarding, you need patience in the bank. It quickly becomes clear why OEMs don't offer it.

I spend 2.5 hours. My progression in minutes is 10/15/20/25/30/35, plus 15 minutes of touchup work. I spend 50% of each interval polishing from neck to heal then switch to heal to neck. I've also found that I prefer to polish with with the tuners installed. I like the extra bit of weight. Because the work is so tedious I set an alarm that way I'm not tempted to cut a corner. I follow a near identical process polishing frets. Yes, it's OCD, it's just what I do and so far have really like the results.

 

[BroccoliRob]

Does the polish go away over time as you play it? i hope it's not a stupid question I like to think th ere are no stupid q's, you know? like when my niece asked me what twerking was, I didn't tell her it was a stupid question, I just lied like any adult & told her it was when twins go to each other's job for a day.

 

[Cagey]

In my experience, it tends to last a long time, although to be fair, I don't play like I used to. Still, I've got necks with years on them. Consider that there's nothing to wear off. No finish, oil, wax - nada. The wood itself seems to seal up as well, so it doesn't absorb moisture and whatnot that might make the grain rise.

 

[BroccoliRob]

I guess I didn't mean "wear off" in the sense of taking layers of physical material away, but if the constant vigorous hand rubbing from taking 'er to Shred City™ would dull the gloss. but maybe it's more like how the formerly-matte lookin track pad on my laptop is now shiny af where my finger(z) use it the most while i blaze the ISH (information super highway) .

 

[Cagey]

You might be overestimating how glossy it gets. It never gets quite like a gloss finish, like you might get out of poly or lacquer. What you see in the pics is a bit of a trick of the light. Looking at it from an angle, it'll seem fairly glossy, but straight on? Not so much. Looks like a fine satin.

 

[BroccoliRob]

Cool cool, I think I'm resonating what your vibraphoning. With your brains and my body... And my brains, we're unstoppable. Or prolly, like pretty difficult to stop. Somebody might nudge us and then we'd be all "don't".

 

[mayfly]

With your brains and my body... And my brains, we're unstoppable.