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Had a call at 0800 offering us 70-80 tonnes of decent topsoil (FOC!) . So, my morning has been removing some fences, and shifting a few of tons of gravel off the driveway, so there's somewhere to put it all.
Luckily I had assistance from a man with a mini-digger
NTD thread later?
But when he comes back, I'll take some muddy mini digger pics, just for you.
Luckily, the TTony workshop stocks are sufficient to accommodate a slight change in plan. So, I'm keeping the neck and will build a new body around it. *If* time permits towards the end of Q1, then I might try to build a neck to fit the original DC body. Big IF.
Time to build a LP-shaped body, with a couple of P90s. Mahog body, thin maple top.
Body partly shaped, just so that I can do enough work on the neck pocket to make 101% sure that all will be well ...
I might use that top (which needs jointing) which is only c3.5mm thick, so will be flat fronted with just a bit of roundover.
Or I might use another one that's a bit thicker. Trouble is, if I use the thicker one, it's thick enough for some carving, so I'll feel that I *should* do the carving!
Nice tight fit in the pocket - though it's not routed out to depth yet.
What was the decision ref thin top flat vs thick top carve?
Been a bit busy here to get any workshop time, without incurring the wrath of Mrs TT. Plus it's been a bit nippy out there, so I've not really felt too inclined to do workshop things. Plenty of time, plenty of time ...
Had to get a few things sorted out before my recently surgery, and today's been the first day post-op that I've felt like doing anything workshop-py.
There was a bit of a "gotcha" with that LP body that I was working on. I jointed it at the same time as I was doing my cabinet making course, so I made use of Mr Cabinet Maker's kit to thickness it, and square up the edges for jointing.
He recommended using biscuits for the joint, so I did.
Naturally, when I started routing the neck pocket, I revealed a biscuit at the bottom of where I wanted the pocket to me.
I guess it wouldn't have fatally compromised the neck join, but I would have always known that it was there. So, I had to increase the depth of the neck pocket sufficiently to get past the biscuit, and the pocket that it was sat in. That in turn meant that the neck was set too deep to allow for the thick maple cap (which would have been carved).
So, it's got the thin (3.5mm) cap on top - all glued and clamped and left to set overnight.
To get the neck angle, I drew it all out full size. The pocket needed to be 5mm deeper at the outside end than the inside end. I measured the angle at 2.5deg - which seems to be in the acceptable range for a LP style neck join. I then worked out the angle trigonometrically just to double check. 2.43deg. Close enough for me!
Might get to do some more tomorrow.
3 guitars in 3 months is looking a bit more of a challenge now!
That bit of hardboard underneath the body went over the top of the cap when I glued it on - just to protect the cap from the clamps. I glued it and left it clamped overnight.
And this morning ...
Cut the cap to shape and put the p'up cavities in, rounded over the sides, belly carve, and quick bit of sanding.
There is a cock-up on this - or an opportunity to apply a creative solution - but more on that later. (Depends on how creative I decide to be, including the option to just leave it as-is!).
I'll use some of the body and cap offcuts to try out (crimson stain) colour options.
Now for some more sanding ...
When I made the neck cavity, I didn't put it far enough into the body. So, when the neck is fitted, there's a 13mm gap between the end of the fretboard and the first edge of the p'up cover.
Which looks a bit naff.
Option 1,
Increase the size of the neck p'up cavity to take a HB. Combination of the wider p'up and the HB surround would reduce the gap to about 7-8mm.
Still naff.
Option 2,
Extend the neck cavity further into the body, and move the bridge back a corresponding amount (bridge holes not yet drilled, so this is viable. But I've only got 9mm that I could extend the neck cavity. Could do that, and trim 4mm off the end of the neck tenon.
Doable.
Option 3,
Take a piece of offcut from the cap, and trim it to fit over the 13mm gap, matching the grain as closely as possible. This is doable because there's only any visible grain on the treble edge. Needs some precision cutting, and might still look odd.
Doable
Or, as I've found in the past, there's often a really simple and obvious Option 4, that's staring me in the face, but I've completely missed it!
Remember, it's easier to criticise than create!
i would only do option 1 if it’s what you actually want
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build another body that fits the neck and another neck that fits that body...
Option 3 is the easiest, and I'm hoping won't look too odd once it's done ...
:P @poopot.
I’d go with option 3.
If it was mine, I would find some capping with similar figure match, but break the eye view with a contrasting demarcation strip either side, probably matching the wood of either the fretboard or headstock.
Great cap, by the way. All these builds are looking very splendid!
Surprisingly, no-one spotted the much easier and much prettier solution that I'd completely missed, despite it staring me in the face (which is what usually happens in these situations)!
Meanwhile, body #3 is thicknessed, jointed and bandsaw cut to within 1-2mm of size.
Yup., looks pretty ugly. The back is prettier.
But I don't care because it's getting capped
Cap also jointed and is now in the clamps ...
So, an Ash/Walnut combination.
The Ash is from some stuff that I bought years ago, and has already provided a body or 3. This piece is pretty heavy though.
I thicknessed it to 35mm and the top is c10mm - which'll produce a reasonably standard 45mm body thickness.
Rather than thicknessing it some more and making a slimline Strat, I I think it's going to get chambered to take some weight out.