Twin Guitar Projects (Solid Body Electric)

[Philly]

Byron
Great stuff - never attempted a re-fret yet. How difficult was it?
Oh - and I prefer Kit Kat Chunky to Bounty for guitar work :wink:
Philly

 

[ByronBlack]

Gotta love them kit-kat chunky's!! \

The fretting was surprisingly simple really. There are two things I've learnt from the process though, the first being to over-cut the length of the fretwire by at least 10mm on each side as the pliers tend to mash the 'tang' of the fret so if you cut them only a little over size, the altered tang stops the fret from going in perfectly, I only had one like that, but it was simple enough to remove the fret and put in another.

The other tip is to radius the fret wire a little tighter than the radius of the fret-board, this ensures that the ends stay in when you tap in the middle section of the fret, you don't get the ends 'popping' up as you would if the fretwire was flat.

I'm pleased that I've done it as it makes the thought of making more necks a lot more 'do-able'. I would highly recommend anyone to have a go, it's a lot more simple than it first looks.

 

[Philly]

Thanks Colin - might have a go then.
Cheers
Philly

 

[ByronBlack]

With the frets installed, it was time to file the sharp edges off from the ends that were left when trimming back to the fretboard, the frets also needed to be levelled, as there is no guarantee that they were all perfectly the same height due to the inconsistencies of the hammering process. The fret ends also needed to be bevelled (approx 35deg) and 'dressed' this is to take of any sharp edges from the bevelling process.

Filing of the sharp bits from the trimming:

Here's a tool I made to present the file at a 35deg angle to bevel the ends of the frets:

It's just held in a groove with three wood-screws.

A piece of cloth is attached to the underside as not to damage the frets, you can see how by running the file down the fret board, the file is presented at a consistent angle

nicely bevelled fret ends, these still require to be dressed and have the sharp edges either side of the bevel removed, I need to take a small triangle file to the grinder to adapt it for this task so as not to scratch the fretboard

Using my radius block and 320grit and 400grit abrasive paper, I level the frets. This was done by felt-tipping the tops of the frets and sanding until all the ink was removed, I now know that all the frets are equal height, and match perfectly the radius of the board

However, as you can see from the picture, it leaves a flat top to the fret which is not at all good for playing, it will dull the note and often cause a lot of buzzing and general intonation problems.

So therefore the next challenge is to 'crown' the frets by re-introducing a round profile, this is done by filing the two side of the fret so they meet in the middle, it will be done by again adapting a larger triangle file. When the frets have been crowned, it's time to polish them!

This work is pretty slow and quite intensive, lots of manual skill and checking and double checking, but it's very rewarding, the more work put in at this stage should lead to a fantasic playing instrument.

 

[Slim]

Riviting stuff BB. I had no idea so much work was involved with fretting. I'm glad i had the chance to see you do it before I attempted it on my LP. It looks like we are getting another guitar building session this weekend, so I should have some more progress to post next week.

Smashing work so far. Keep it up. :wink:

 

[Fecn]

Absolutely superb work BB. I can't believe how fast you're working.

 

[ByronBlack]

Slim - If you need any help in regards sourcing tools for the fretting, just give me a shout and I'll send you some links, as stew-macs are overpriced for their tools, I bought mine before I realised there were very cheap alternatives!

Fecn - It's coming along nicely, it feels really slow for me because it's constant work on the neck and not much physical progress on the guitar as a whole, but they are all quite intricate time intensive jobs, so it's nice to see it coming along. I'm only spending about an hour to and hour a half every evening, but each night I seem to manage knock off another line on my very long to-do list

My pickups arrived today!! This should motivate me to get the neck finished so I can concentrate on the body and get it put together for its first test!

 

[Slim]

Byron, consider yourself shouted at. I would really appreciate the links as I was thinking that Stewmac were pretty pricey - even with the exchange rate.

 

[mr]

Stewmacs prices have been one of the things that have stopped me getting on with my long promised tele project. Having said that I was watching a modern tele neck on the bay last week, it ended up going for somewhere in the region of £140 which was a bit on the steep side I thought.

Cheers Mike

 

[mailee]

WOW! Now surely Colin this can't be the same Byron Black that requested so much help on his workshop build? :shock: That is excellent work mate and so fast too! that is way beyond my skills got to admit. Well done mate. Can't wait to see it completed even if I can't play one. :wink:

 

[ByronBlack]

Simon, I'll post some links up here tomorrow (my bookmarks for these things are at work).

Mike - Thats not bad for a tele neck assuming it's a fender one. You would be hard-pressed to get a good aftermarket (warmoth) for any less - of course, it's not overly difficult for you to make your own! Or I could always help you out in that area if you're interested.

Mailee - The workshop build was quite a long time ago now, which is quite surprising as the time has gone by quite quickly, so thanks mainly to chaps like yourself and others on this forum, I feel I've improved on the whole woodworking malarky a little, although to be fair, I did have a little experience of guitar building before getting into the woodworking thing, so I find doing this work is a lot more in my comfort zone than furniture/workshops etc..

On to todays progress.

Today's work has been the most laborious, its not a task that can be rushed and is one instance where a dedicated tool is probably worth the cost, i'm talking about fret 'crowning'.

Yesterday, I left with the frets levelled, but flat on top, so crowning is needed to restore the rounded shape, I decided against an expensive dedicated file for the job and ground a 'safe' edge on a triangle file, this worked to a degree, but was very slow.

The pics:

Safe edge ground on a triangle file

Board taped up ready to file the crown back into the frets

You can see the 'triangle' shape on each side of the fret, the flat top starting to disapear, I kept going until there was only a small slither of flat on top of each fret.

Using a stew-mac fret dresser, I filed the shape I wanted in the green stick, a belt of abrasive is then installed and rubbed up and down the fret to polish away the deep filing scratches, it comes with a number of abrasives, and you just work up the grits, removing each successive scratch pattern, this also helps restore the shape of the fret.

About half-way through the abrasive dressing processing - you can now see how the fret has lost it's flat top and has a nice round profile.

After the dressing, the frets are rubbed with various grades of steel wool until they shine! It's hard to photograph how shiny these are, but they are like mirrors now, should be nice to play on!

I didn't get as much done tonight as I hoped, just this process of crowning, dressing and polishing took over 2 and a half hours! Much longer than I anticpated, mostly due to the inadequate file, I shall be investing in a dedicated crown file for future work.

But, thats the hard-work now all finished!! I just have small jobs left now, such as drilling the holes for the bridge mountings, and the machine-heads, then I can put on the final finish, add the electrics and then it's a case of perfoming the final setup of the action, setting the nut, and testing for intonation - then, it's metal time!!

If I can get hold of a video camera, I'll try and upload a vid and record some riffs.

 

[MIGNAL]

Fancy fretting tools. I use a £2 Chinese ball pein hammer, a back saw that cost £2 (new!) and induction hardened end nippers at £4. I did make the mistake of buying one of those 3 in 1 re-crowning files but only ever used it on 1 single fret. It seemed more appropriate for an agricultural Blacksmith. I now use one of the small flat Axminster (Grobet?) smooth cut files. I doubt that the specialist re-crowning files are any quicker, at least that one I tried. You'll spend more time trying to get rid of all the deep scratches they leave behind.

 

[ByronBlack]

Mignal - I did look at the crooked handle 3-1 file and was tempted to buy it, but glad you mentioned it was no good, I have heard a lot of good things about their diamond cut files, quite a few ppl on some other boards seem to get on well with them.

Slim, here's some links that might be useful to you:

Fret pre-radius Jig
http://projectguitar.com/tut/bender.htm

End Nippers
Cheap pair from screwfix etc.. (might need to grind them flush)

Crowning file (and other useful files):
http://www.axminster.co.uk/product-Axmi ... -32487.htm

Radius Sanding Block/Neck Radius jig
http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index ... opic=32216

Cheap Arbour fret-press
http://www.setchellguitars.co.uk/ant/blog/?p=160

 

[Slim]

Thanks very much for the links BB, much appreciated. :wink:

 

[ByronBlack]

Completion is near!

It's been quite a productive saturday, I managed to knock off early from work and get motoring on with the explorer.

I've managed to get the neck attached, the bridge installed, the nut fitted, the machine-heads installed, and I even managed to get the wiring complete (first time with a soldering iron - went surprisingly well). I've only wired in a single humbucker so far just to see if the wiring works (Its all got to come out again so that I can apply a finish to the guitar).

Here are the pics:


Machineheads installed

Drilling the counter-sinks for the neck screws (not using a metal plate)

Neck attached

Drilling of bridge holes to hold the studs (modified auger bit was used with the thread ground off, gives a very smooth hole)

Bridge and tailpiece fitted, can anyone notice the mistake? (I was due a mistake sooner or later)

Nut adjusted and fitted, and strung up (A relief! The string spacing has worked out fine - the joy of centre-lines).

Looking quite smart (Without finish applied)

Wiring completed with the bridge pickup installed - sounds great on my new little modded valve head! (I just need to make a new cab for it)

So there we are. I need to dismantle it and start the sanding/finishing process, there are a few set-up tweaks that I need to make, the action is a little high at the heel so I need to alter the neck angle a little, but it's only off by about a mm so I'm pleased with that, the neck plays really nicely, although strangley I find the profile a little heavy even though it's a template of one I used to enyoy - I must have gotten used to a thinner profile on my other guitars, I need to alter this a little with some gentle sanding.

It's a shame having to take it all apart again to finish because it's such funn playing it, it sounds better than I thought it would and plays surpisingly well off the bat without a setup, so thats encouraging.

While this is in the finishing process, I'll be starting work on the maple guitar, and also making another neck for a third project, I was back at my old home (mums house) last week and found a really old guitar that I forgot I had in the garage, it's a complete wreck, but I can salvage the body and the truss-rod and use this as a basis for a new project!

 

[Philly]

Sweet! Must be a relief to have the thing strung up and playing
Look forward to seeing it all shiny,
Philly

 

[ByronBlack]

Aye, I was a bit worried about the general action, luckily I only need to make a few small adjustments.

Here are some pics of the electrics - I made a little platform with holes that matched that of the guitar to make the soldering a little easier, trying to solder inside the cavity is a real test in skill and patience - none of which I have!

You can see my wiring diagram sketch, and my little jig

The wiring coming along nicely. I've used some good quality shielded wire to help keep the hum down, the cavity will also be lined with sticky back copper.

Wiring fits perfectly in the cavity (due to making the support jig) and it's a simple process of soldering the pickup wires which is relatively straight forward.

 

[Slim]

Looks great. Can't wait to hear a little tune. . Are the pots for volume or tone?

 

[ByronBlack]

Simon, there is a master tone pot and master volume pot, I was considering have an individual tone and volume for each of the pickups, but I've never really used that setup so decided to keep it simple. The pots in this are 500k but I was thinking of changing them too 1meg pots as they bleed less treble and give a brighter tone

Do you have your electrics already? If not, I can recommend the wiring kit from www.axesrus.com they do a gibson LP kit (2xtone, 2xvol, 3-way switch and jack, wiring etc..) for just £21, nice quality kit too - the cables are shielded and the pots are 'Alpha' which are considered to be quite a good make.

 

[Slim]

Thanks BB, I have bought some machine heads from Axesrus before and their service is pretty good.

I have been studying the pictures to try and spot your mistake. Should the Tuneomatic not be set at an angle?