songofthewind

Bummer, man. I have had good luck filling deep scratches with superglue, building it up gradually and then fine sanding very carefully around the scratch. I thing Grangur is right about the wood fibrous being cut, though, so sweating probably wouldn't work.

Hopefully the 12mm round-over and (necessarily substantial) belly cut will hide some of the disaster. I was looking at David Dyke's Instagram feed, at Steve's suggestion, and saw a nice myrtle drop to for £35. I was going to order it, but now I'm not sure. I may regard this build as a proof of concept and make better job of the next one. I'm also wondering about using an Artec SE3P preamp on this one, because it comes with a pan pot, instead of the Ray 34 preamp. Anybody got a view on the Artec?

Well, a bit more progress, and a disaster. Makes me want to give up right now. All went well as I cut out the outline with my trusty new jigsaw. I decided to press on as my wife and daughter were, unusually, out of the house. Freedom! Noise! Wood shavings! I clamped the template very carefully to the blank, and commenced to rout the outline and neck pocket. The neck pocket went well, but with a wee bit of snipe.. I set the depth far too low for the outline, thus making a very ambitious deep initial cut. Mostly it went well, but I was beginning to tire, and soon chunks were flying. Bad enough they were out of the blank, but worst of all they were also out of Steve's precious template. I am so annoyed that I rushed and didn't think it through. I will repair the template with epoxy based wood filler, but I am very embarrassed, I can tell you. I will leave it for a couple of days until I've simmered down. A further annoyance is that I can't seem to find a reasonably priced bridge with a 20mm string spacing. Anyone got any ideas? Gratefully received. Pictures of the proceedings. You can see Frankie scrutinising my dodgy efforts:

Philistines.

Good work! That’s how I was going to do it, initially. I got onto YouTube for ideas, and found the guy on Popular Woodworking, and his video Planing with a Router immensely helpful. I can’t post a link from this iPad, but it’s easy to find. The rig I made is based on his, but more agricultural.

Oi Strat knobs NO!

Nice work on the neck carve! I’ve just thicknessed a blank using a 25mm diameter router planer bit. I screwed flat straight timber battens directly to the long sides of the blank to make a bearing sled (see my MaybeRay build thread). The planer bit made short work of thicknessing the blank, so I heartily recommend acquiring one.

Try Stewart Ward (Award Session) for cables. Any combo you like.

Well, the trend template bit arrived yesterday. I am not allowed to make any noise, so progress is slow. But under Frankie's supervision it all went well. I did a test cut with the new bit and the neck pocket template. Very satisfactory. I didn't relieve the pocket since I was not going all the way down, just used the cutter from the free edge of the wood. I am considering a book matched cap. Can anyone advise on a reliable source? BTW the butt of the neck is a slightly different shape and width from the template, so I will final shape the butt, and I will have to reposition the template for the cutaway side.

I think it’s one of those expensive torrefied finishes. And it’s very definitely finished..

Sorry to hear you’re struggling, Stew. Look after yourself.

Tasty.

"Bet you can't eat just one."

That could be tricky. I would use a router and a template.

No, we actually talk to each other like that. Dave is channelling Doric Scots, and I’m channelling my maternal grandmother, who spoke an Ayrshire dialect. be fun to try Google Translate on it, though. Thanks for your encouragement, I’ve been meaning to get this going for a while!

Trend top bearing template bit ordered this evening. Can’t wait!

Top job!

Nice score, Dave! I know you had the hots for one.

Not much progress since the last post. Took off the sled and checked the slab for flatness. Pretty good. I will sand to final thickness. I spent this afternoon anxiously measuring and re-measuring to align the neck, so I could locate and draw out the neck pocket. I was set to rout it (before cutting out the body outline) when I realised my trimmer bit had the bearing at the bottom, not the top. Gah! I’m going back online to buy a top bearing bit, which will take a while to arrive.

👍

Liberon Finishing Oil is very easy to use. It was recommended to me by a Well respected local maker of classical guitars. It is really a varnish which is applied With a rag or paper towel in as many thin coats as you need. I refinished a maple Jazz Bass neck with it recently and it looks and feels great. Previous experience includes refinishing a Tacoma koa acoustic guitar, which I gave about thirty coats. It will get glossy with a sufficient number of build coats, or semi matte with two or three coats. Leaving a maple neck in a sunny but not too hot area will cause the wood to darken, which might help you to get the results you seek.