Home Depot Build Challenge 2013 - I'm Losing My Head!

[BlackMastodon]

Since you guys were so nice as to hold off the contest until I was done school wub, I figured that now I'm obligated to get off my ass and make a guitar!

Ze plan: use the cheap Steinberger knockoff bridge I bought from ebay years ago with some low end Ibanez pickups and make a baritone headless.

Ze specs:
- 27" scale 6 string baritone
- 24 fret poplar neck with oak fretboard
- Maple body
- StoneBurger headless bridge
- Ibanez INF pickups from My RG350EX
- Medium frets bought from AllParts, dual action trussrod from StewMac.
- Either a Steinberger broom body shape or some kind of ergo shape a la Strandberg.

So today I went to my local Rona (basically like Home Depot) which was having a store closing sale and grabbed the poplar and oak for the neck. I was hoping to find a decently sized wooden cutting board to use that for the body but they didn't have anything. Any wood that was usable for the body came in way too big a length and was usually warped.

When I came home I looked around the garage and saw a big enough piece of pine and figured "good enough." When I asked my dad if he needed it he told me to just find a slab of maple that would be wide enough; luckily there was such a piece. Now, in the spirit of this competition, this maple slab was cut from a huge maple tree that was in our backyard that my dad cut down on his own, because he is manly as f**k and refuses to pay people for things he can do himself.

Enough talk, PICTURES.

Oak fretboard:

Poplar for the neck:

Really like the black parts of the grain, makes it look really interesting and is the reason why I bought this piece.

And here is the maple:

Depending on the body style I got for it's either going to be a 1 piece (broom) or 2 piece (ergo).

More updates when I actually do stuff.

 

[Just A Box]

Looks like this competition is gonna be half full of headless guitars! Interested to see how the oak fingerboard comes out. Good luck.

 

[skeels]

skeels likes this

 

[icos211]

How dry is that maple, do you think?

 

[Overtone]

Janka Wood Hardness Scale

I think you can get away with the oak FB but I worry a bit about having a polar neck.

 

[BlackMastodon]

How dry is that maple, do you think?

Hmmm that's a good question. I may need to go pick up a moisture meter or something. The wood has been drying for about a year now, though, so it's accumulated to the humidity around here for a little while.

Janka Wood Hardness Scale

I think you can get away with the oak FB but I worry a bit about having a polar neck.

I'm not too worried about the poplar. It'll have the dual action trussrod to take care of any necessary adjustments and this is a scrap build anyway so I wouldn't be losing out on a whole lot if it goes awry.

 

[Necromagnon]

I too worry about the poplar neck, but we can be really surprised.
ME WANT SEE MOAR!!

 

[hk_golgatha]

Keen to see this one come together. My interest is peaked.

 

[AndrewG716]

I really want to see that maple come together! And as long as you didin't get the worlds worst poplar boards, your neck will be fine. Probably will require more adjustment, but who cares?

 

[callankirk]

I think you can get away with the oak FB but I worry a bit about having a polar neck.

Ditto....ditto...Poplar is kinda temperamental.

Edit: .... it, it's the Home Depot Build '13! Build the shit outta that Poplar neck dude.

 

[BlackMastodon]

Figured it's time I move my ass on this, no?

Got a body shape laid out. Decided on a more .strandberg*-esque design since I could make it fit and because brooms are boring. Huge props to dudeskin's design in his 8 string fanned build thread that he has up, without his single cut .strandberg* mockup I wouldn't have been able to make mine look half decent, though I did prefer to keep some of the original design stuff in there (.strandskin shape? dudeberg*? )

Got the pieces for the body blank cut out of the original maple and tried my damndest to plane them by hand since the table saw doesn't cut all that straight:

Wish I knew how to use a hand planer...

Didn't turn out half bad, though it was on a slight angle.

Before I could correct this, I needed to plane away the bowing that was happening on the body wood pieces:

Qu'est qe ce?!

Zut alors! We have some quilt, non?
Just a smidge of the figuring on the front and back but it's surprisingly nice for being in such a small area.

Unfortunately, there's also this:

My Z-poxy came in so I'll give that a go with try to fill these voids/worm holes.

Other piece planed up:

More worm holes.

Now let's fix up those joining sides:

Much better, who needs a joiner when you have a router with a flush-trim bit and a straight piece of plywood?

Time for the trussrod channel. Wasn't a fan of this part, as I had to do some sketchy stuff that involved the bearing being to small to fit on the router bit.

Prepped, for science!

Not particularly clean, but it works and it's snug:

Got the hole drilled in the headstock end:

As stated in my 8 string build thread, will work on getting the fretboard to size and gluing it on soon. Need to pick up some more clamps tomorrow to glue together the body blank, too.

Wish I would've done more before the weather started going to shit, but alas.

 

[dudeskin]

hahha, dudeberg. love it!

nice one dude, looking forward to seeing the rest of this too!

 

[Sithman55]

looking awesome

 

[BlackMastodon]

Time to get the neck to the right width. Here's my magical set up for that:

Figured I might as well gut the fret slots started (not full depth yet) before I lose the fretboard layout to double sided tape.

Not terrible for a first attempt but there's definitely room for improvement.

Was a little hasty with the 16th fret.

After that, finished up the neck width:

Rough cut the body shape, too, and sanded away the glue spill-over and tooling marks from the router as well as the epoxy I used to fill in the few voids/worm holes:

After all that, I got the side markers epoxied into the fretboard. I'm just using steel wire from the dollar store.

 

[BlackMastodon]

Update time.

Cut the headstock, it's a little uneven but I'll fix it later. Also cut down the metal wire side dots.

Routed the thickness of each section of the neck and marked out the profile.

Roughed out the neck pocket with a forstner bit and drill press and then set it up for final routing.

Squared off the edges of the pocket with a chisel and hammer.

Fits pretty well, there are some gaps where the neck pickup is going to be but those will be covered up so I'm just gonna load the shit out of them with glue.

She passes the Ormsby test!

Cut the shelf for the nut. Not quite sure what I'll do with the oak that's showing on the headstock. Dunno if I'll follow the pattern or what.

I'm starting to like using chisels a lot more. Just need a set of better ones now.

Started radiusing the fretboard. Note to self: next time use less spray adhesive. Was a pain in the ass to sand off and some of it stuck in the oak's grain.

Almost there.

Also routed the body to the almost final shape. Did get some tear out from the router in some spots though so I'll have to fix that up. No pics of this stuff, though, since it isn't too exciting. Drilled the wire channel between where the pickups will be before I glue the neck in. Next step will be doing the pickups and control cavity routes, then shaping the neck profile and fretting.

 

[Yimmj]

holy Fuk this is impressive

 

[skeels]

Looking sweet, Mack!

Also, those aren't worm holes- those are burls from bits of twigs from the tree's own growth.

Also, nice use of a locking trem nut on the headless headstock.

 

[ormsby guitars]

She passes the Ormsby test!

Wanna job?

/jb

 

[russmuller]

This is awesome. I'm really liking that oak fingerboard. It looks classy.

 

[BlackMastodon]

Wanna job?

/jb

Maybe after I get a couple dozen more builds under my belt.

This is awesome. I'm really liking that oak fingerboard. It looks classy.

I had forgotten what it looks like under the printed fretboard layout and I agree, I'm liking how it looks thus far.

Quick question to others, though: the oak seems to be pretty porous so will I need to do grain filling and a finish on this fretboard?