Happy NGD to me!

DesmoDog

Desmo was my dog. RIP big guy
Well, maybe not so much new guitar DAY as week(s).

Here it is. Some assembly required.

Post_3351.JPG


Here's a better shot of the neck (wenge), fingerboard (ebony), and body (mahogany).
Post_3363.JPG



Another forum I'm on has a homebuilt section. They used to run a "Build Challenge" every year but the drama queens took over and ruined it, so they stopped. Well this year some people started builds at the same time, no challenge or rules, and I decided to try to use up a bunch parts I had around. I didn't realize when I started I'd be spending so much time at home.. but here we are.

Anywhos, the plan is to build a Jaguar copy with simplified controls, no whammy bar, and humbucker shaped P90s. Something like this:

Jag_3341.JPG


We'll see how this works out...
 
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DesmoDog

Desmo was my dog. RIP big guy
I actually started this on the 5th, so there's more done. This will be a condensed version of the build with a lot of the details left out. (AKA I won't show all the screw ups and how I worked around them! Yes, two weeks in there have been numerous mistakes already)

Here are the fingerboard and neck after they've been planed to the right thickness. and cut to length. Don't mind the tearout on the ebony, that part gets cut off anyway. There's a knot in the wood that was giving me fits...
Neck_3391.JPG


So... a little confession. I tend to spend a lot of time planning things and then improvise when I actually do the work. That leads to the aforementioned mistakes. The neck blank was too narrow to do a '62 Jag peghead shape. I could have added wings to it, but I don't care for the larger peghead anyway so I modified it. Multiple designs, chose one, put the pattern on the blank, then sanded it to a different shape anyway because once I satarted cutting and sanding I was going by feel and thought I felt a bump that shouldn't be there. Actually... acording to the drawing I made the bump should have been more prominent, not removed, but oh well. Here's what I ended up with. This is the back of the neck, it's not left handed.
Neck_3413.JPG


I used to use a more complicated set up to slot the fingerboard, but now I just glue a drawing on the wood and get out the squares and a saw. Saves lot of measuring...
IMG_3428.JPG


Then glue it all together
IMG_3431.JPG


This is still at a very rough stage - the ebony will look much blacker once it's done right, but this gives an idea of how the woods play togther.
Neck_3443.JPG



And while I was typing that, a box of fret material and marker dots showed up at my door so I'm off to do some mock ups. I discovered I was a few frets short of the fret wire I was going to use, so I ordered new stuff. I was going to go with stainless steel, but when I read more about it, it turns out SS isn't the cat's meow like I had been led to believe. There's a different alloy that's gaining a following and I ordered that instead. I had seen it before but never considered it due to one feature I am not at all a fan of, but sometimes ya gotta put function over form so I'm giving it a try. For now I'll leave it to you guys to figure out what the heck I'm rambling on about, I'm guessing somebody here knows exactly what I ordered... and what I don't like about it.
 

JestMe

Student Of The Blues
What a great way to spend, stuck in the house time! Looking forward to future chapter updates.
 

BigMike

Blues Oldie
Great work. My home built guitars are always a compromise of my mistakes over careful planning. Looking forward to seeing how the fretting goes.
 

DesmoDog

Desmo was my dog. RIP big guy
Evo gold fretwire? I’ve used it and like it. In fact now that I think about it, I have enough for my current build.


We have a winner! I knew somebody here would know what I was talking about.

As long as I'm going with gold fret wire I'm going to use something other than my favored fake mother of peral markers.

IMG_3454.JPG


Ok that's a pretty poor picture, I'm not a photographer. The color is more noticable in better lighting. It is what it is, I'm not going to FRET about it. :p

The fret wire note on the print wasn't intentional BTW. I didn't even notice it until after I posted the photo on the other forum.
 

TwoNotesSolo

Student Of The Blues
Looks good. I'm on TDPRI also as papaschtroumpf (it's Smurf for chief procrastinator)
Love the look of that wenge! I'm still a hack so I go for cheaper wood like pine and poplar, although I just posted what I worked on today, and it was plywood and masonite :)
 

jackderby52

Prehistoric blues knob (not newbie)
I have seen your work desmo, I expect nothing but greatness...

This is about how far I would get with a project like yours;

guitar.jpg
 

CapnDenny1

Student Of The Blues
I got a cheap neck from China once. It looked OK, but was a little dry looking. So I put some oil on it and used a little steel wool to clean it. As I cleaned it an orange stripe appeared in the fret board. They had taken a permanent marker and drawn a line over the orange stripe to make it look black. I liked the orange streak, but I couldn't get rid of the marker completely. It bothered me more than the orange streak.

Interesting project.
 

DesmoDog

Desmo was my dog. RIP big guy
I used a template for a lot more on this one than I have on others. I'm not a big fan of templates for one-off stuff, they take a lot of time and if you're never going to use it again what's the point? But I did it this time... and screwed up a few things. Which wasn't a big deal because it was only a template... so maybe they are worth it on one offs? I dunno, none of the mistakes would have been show stoppers anyway.

In any case, after fixing multiple screw ups I finally used it to make progress on the body today. First I hogged out the routes with a drill before routing.
Body_3476.JPG


I think I trashed my router bits on the MDF for the templates so there's a lot of burning. I'll need a different size round over bit later on too so I would have just gone out and bought a couple today, but the gov shut everything down around here yesterday and I'm not sure what's still open. Maybe I'll order one. Or maybe I'll just use what I have, we. As for the burning, it doesn't hurt anything, the pickguard hides a lot of sins.
Body_3483.JPG


I also cleaned up the neck profile on the pick guard template as long as the router was out.
Body_3486.JPG


Tomorrow I'll probably cut out the body and sand it to it's final shape. Some people route them but I'm not a fan of that. I need to add some wiring channels too. I didn't put them on the template because it makes using different depths for pickup and control routes a little harder.
 

DesmoDog

Desmo was my dog. RIP big guy
After a little cutting
Body_3489.JPG


And then some sanding
Body_3505.JPG


It's not there yet, I still have to do some hand sanding on the edges to blend some of the transitions but it's close.

I need to round off the edges of the body. I only have a 3/8" radius roundover bit. Vintage Jags used a 7/16 radius, modern ones use a 1/2" radius. Is it worth ordering a new tool and waiting for it to be delivered? The decisions I struggle with, I tell ya...

In other news the material for the finish arrived today. It's going to be a two color tobacco burst but it will be a while before I'm ready to spray anything.
 

DesmoDog

Desmo was my dog. RIP big guy
I decided to go with the 3/8" roundover. Close enough for who it's for. I also added the wiring channels. The plan is to be able to remove the pickguard without disconnecting anything, or more to the point it can be completely wired on the bench and not sitting on the guitar body.
Body_3513.JPG


Then I started on the belly cut. The power tools I had weren't working like I thought, so I tried by hand. Nope, takes too long. So tomorrow I'll break out more tools and give it another go.
BodyBack_3510.JPG
 

DesmoDog

Desmo was my dog. RIP big guy
I ended up breaking out the air tools and shaping the belly cut with the same stuff I grind metal with. It worked but isn't the trick set up... I may have lost the plot along the way but it's there now and there will be no big changes.
BodyBack_3519.JPG



After sanding it smooth it was time to add the roundover along the cut area. I added a couple lines showing the general edges of the curves and then put some new paper in the sanding block.There is more sanding to be done with finer grits but this is the rough shape anyway.
BodyBack_3531.JPG


I'll do the final sanding some other day, I'm sure when I go back to look at it again I'll find something to change up a little more.

After doing this I decided to route the pickup openings in the pick guard template. Like a maroon I went off the drawing instead of looking at an actual pickup and ended up with holes that were too big. So, out came the filler again. I've got a Strat pick guard with humbucker routes, I'll use those as a pattern next time.
 

JestMe

Student Of The Blues
Nice! Making great progress and coming out nicely. Thanks for sharing the trip with us all.
 

DesmoDog

Desmo was my dog. RIP big guy
Who wants to do some detective work? After I took this picture I realized it gives away where I'm at with this and what I screwed up...
Plug_3542.JPG



So, what happened was... I screwed up drilling the hole for the bridge post. Skipping the details but the post fit too loose and none of the quick fixes sounded like a good idea, so I cut a plug out of the scrap from the body
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Then I drilled the hole out to a larger size and cut the plug's diameter down to a tight fit. Spread on some glue, gave it a few taps and let it sit overnight.
Plug_3553.JPG


Today I went down and cut it off and sanded it down. No need to get it too perfect as 99% of it will get drilled out again anyway.
Post_5252.jpg


From there I figured out where the holes needed to be and drilled/redrilled everything to mount the bridge and tail stop or whatevr it's called.
Bridge_3562.JPG


In the background of that picture is an amp I built a while back but never got around to building a cabinet for. I found a pine board that I think I bought for a shelf but never used it. I just found out I have next week off of work so my thought is I'll put something together for it using the pine. It won't look very nice but the price is right!
 
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