My 4th Build - Singlecut Neck-Thru 6-String, Mahogany, Flame Maple, Ebony

[StarbardGuitar]

Worked on the top today. I got the pieces flatter than they were but not perfect. Ran them over my jointer again and the seem looks much better. So I started working on the pocket around the neck in preparation for the glue-up. Here you can see how if I squeeze it together the seem is very tight.

Rough cut the shape of the body out of the top.

And glued the top up.

Unfortunately, I learned the hard way why you should glue the top pieces together first then glue them onto the body. It is next to impossible to get them tight against each other while also clamping them down to the body as you're trying to clamp it up. I ended up with a little bit of a seem showing since I did it this way. It's not too bad, but it's a little disappointing and definitely something I will remember for next time.

 

[StarbardGuitar]

Routed the top flush with the mahogany back.

Mounted the bridge, I probably measured and checked the alignment a hundred times because if it's off even a little I would have to fill the holes and re drill them since it's a neck thru. At least with a bolt on neck if it's just a little off you can usually move the neck in the pocket a little and it's usually enough to fix it.

It seemed to be aligned well, but I couldn't check under string tension since there was no where to mount the strings. So I measured and drilled out the string thru holes and checked the alignment when those were done. Luckily it was spot on.

They're not perfect, I'll definitely make or buy a template if I attempt this again. You can see how a couple of the holes are a little off, but it went pretty well seeing that this was my first string thru attempt. (I haven't cleaned up all the glue on the back yet lol...)

Next I started working on the routes. Bridge pickup first. I gotta admit that this guitar would look killer as a single-humbucker guitar, but that's not my style. I need that neck pickup tone.

Neck pickup rout. I also nailed the wire channel, as it goes through the pickup cavities right where I planned on. I wasn't sure how that'd go, I'd never routed a wire channel before gluing a top on before and I figured I'd probably be a little off, but it ended up perfect.

Also drilled the holes for the pots and switch. I like seeing the stripes of the neck in the routes, it looks cool. Though no one will ever see that when it's together...

 

[JuliusJahn]

The key is to only drill your e and E string holes (only so the barb pokes out the back), then space the rest equally on the back. Drill halfway from each side.

 

[StarbardGuitar]

The key is to only drill your e and E string holes (only so the barb pokes out the back), then space the rest equally on the back. Drill halfway from each side.

Thanks, I'll try and use that trick next time. I was going to try drilling half way from each side, but it was hard with the set up in my workspace to set the guitar up to be drilled from the back with the drill press. (I'm not used to working on a neck-thru guitar yet haha). I actually think the reason why they didn't come out even is due to my measurements or any slop when I center punched the spots out before drilling.

 

[StarbardGuitar]

Routed the recess for the bridge since I went without a neck angle.

Inlays. Still need to do the headstock inlay. I'd used waterslide decals for my logo in the past but they were so easy to sand through that I'd just rather do my logo in a different way. I'm working with a friend who is a graphic designer to come up with some sort of simple "S" (for Starbard) logo that I can inlay into the headstock.

Hit the back with a belt sander to remove the excess glue from when I glued the body wings on, and also routed the recess for both cavity covers. The control cavity cover recess looks massive, but I used stewmac's control cavity cover & template. However, the guitar is very light and I didn't want to rout out so much for the control cavity because I don't want to cause the guitar to neck dive. So I free-handed a much smaller control cavity to save a little wood, but stuck with the stew mac cover.

Also fretted the neck. I've never fretted a bound neck so that was new for me. I used the same fret cutters to cut the tang and then filed it flush. It wasn't as bad as I was expecting.

I don't have much left before I can finish this bad boy. My to do list is pretty small:
Still need to:
-Sand the body sides to clean up glue squeeze out
-Get binding on the body
-1/2" roundover on the back
-Carve the contours
-Shape the neck
-Inlay my headstock logo

I should start testing my finish ideas on scrap when I have some time.

 

[StarbardGuitar]

Filed the fret ends.

Thinned out the neck. There is a spot around the 4th or 5th fret where when I originally cut with my jigsaw it got too close, but that'll be taken care of when I shape the neck so that's fine. I routed the back of the neck after sawing it to get it flat. Still need to work on the volute, but I think I'll work on that while I'm also working on the heel transition.

Routed the 1/2" roundover on the back of the body. I don't bother sanding at this stage so that's why there's still router burn. I always wait and do the sanding all at once so I don't have to go over one spot multiple times, since I'm bound to scratch it up while I'm working on it anyway.

I also routed for the body binding. Got as close as I could to the neck then filed/chiseled the transition of the binding channel into the neck. I also wanted some sort of arm contour though I don't have a way of doing binding around an arm contour so that it follows it and routes the correct depth (like this - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilF8Vq5yRjU). I also personally don't like the look of the arm contours that BM's have so I just put enough of a contour to take the hard edge off so it's more comfortable. What I like about this is that the front will still look the same as it did.

Bent the binding around the body and got it taped up. I'll finish that tomorrow. Looks like all I have left to do now is the headstock inlay, contours, and the neck shaping.

 

[Blue1970Cutlass]

This is turning out really well!

The Schecter Tempest is one of my favorite shapes so this is right up my alley

 

[StarbardGuitar]

This is turning out really well!

The Schecter Tempest is one of my favorite shapes so this is right up my alley

Thank you! The tempest shape definitely grew on me the more I saw them, and now they are one of my favorite body shapes too. It definitely looks good as a single-cutaway guitar too - I'm surprised Schecter never tried that. If I ever build another guitar like this, I think I'll do a carved top. That would look great seeing how curvy the guitar already is.

 

[StarbardGuitar]

Scraped the binding flush, and here you can see how the binding around my small arm contour looks. It is surprisingly a lot more comfortable for being a very small contour.

Thinned out the neck just a little more, it was still a little too thick. Also got the belly contour roughed in.

Started shaping the neck, this is right when I roughed in the initial shape with the rasp.

Then after a lot more work, and rough sanded with 80 grit.

Just a picture appreciating the beauty of a neck-thru. No neck plate, no screws, no bulky neck joint...

Also got the jack route done. This is the jack location I used on my last build, and I really liked it so I tried it on this one. It was a bit harder but will work fine.

 

[pel]

very nice.

 

[Blue1970Cutlass]

Interesting jack placement / design, kind of a cool touch

 

[Taylor]

This is starting to stoke my singlecut GAS. Looking fantastic so far!

 

[StarbardGuitar]

very nice.

Interesting jack placement / design, kind of a cool touch

This is starting to stoke my singlecut GAS. Looking fantastic so far!

Thanks guys! @Blue1970Cutlass (nice taste in cars btw, one of my dream cars would have to be a blue 72 Chevelle.) I actually got the idea for that jack placement when I saw a picture years ago somewhere online of an Ibanez that had a strat style jack on the side under the strap button. I thought that was a cool idea, but my designs tend to be too round & curvy to put a strat style jack on the side. So to make it work, I cut a bevel on the side to make a flat spot. I feel like this is a good location because it is easiest to wrap the cable around the strap without bending the cable very much like you would with a strat jack or side jack (without an angled cable).

 

[StarbardGuitar]

This will be a rather boring update, but here's where I'm at...

I've been testing stain ideas on scrap offcuts from this build, and I think I will actually go for a different finish than I originally planned on. I'm not very good at doing those rub-in bursts since I've never tried them before. I think if I wanted to achieve the finish I originally planned on it would just have to be a spray burst. But I did get a nice red mahogany stain for the back of the guitar.

You can see the red mahogany on the top, the sides are natural. I also filled the pores with dark brown filler. I think when I actually go to stain the guitar though, I will either add more of the red mahogany stain to the stain/water mix or add just a little brown to darken it up. I would like it just a little darker.

Here's the same test stain on the neck scrap. There's also a coat of clear on top.

My awful attempts at doing a faux burst (or poor man's burst, whatever you want to call it...) I originally thought I may be able to rub in a brown-red-amber burst, but I'm not thinking that would turn out well seeing my first attempts haha. The piece on the bottom gave me an idea to try though. That was amber with red mahogany stain rubbed into the side to give it a burst. The burst looks bad, but I like some of the parts where the amber is on top of the sanded back red stain. I am going to try on another scrap one coat of red mahogany, sand back, then amber stain. I think that may look awesome, and if it does that is what I will go for.

 

[StarbardGuitar]

Have been pretty busy lately so I haven't had much spare time to do any work on this build. I did have a little time today so I tried some more finish ideas and am having a bit more luck. So here's what I've got so far that is very close to what I'm looking for.

To get this finish I started with a stain mix of mostly amber stain, with a little red and brown mixed in. Sanded that back, then stained again with a lighter amber/red mix to get a more orange color rather than amber. Then I sealed that, and sprayed a mix of red and brown together for the burst. I bought one of those preval sprayers that is like a hybrid of a spray gun and a rattle can. I didn't realize these even existed until I was at the hardware store getting things like sandpaper and I saw one of these and decided I should try it. So I mixed some finish and red and brown stain and attempted some bursting. It was very easy to get runs if I got too close (much more than any other cans I've used), so I will have to keep that in mind when I'm doing the guitar. The bursts in the picture were just one coat. It is like a very dark red, and I think if I do it as a couple coats I can get a much darker edge and end up with sort of a brown-red-orange burst like I am aiming for. You can see on the piece on the right how dark it gets if you really lay it on thick, vs the piece on the left I went much lighter with the burst.

So, I am going to use the ideas I used here on this test scrap with some slight variation. The first coat of the orange stain I would like to add a lot more brown, so that when I sand back and stain with the orange mixture the second time, the figure should really pop. Also, I will do the burst in a couple spread out coats to avoid runs and hopefully get a good burst with a nice transition rather than a hard line look.

I just need to do a lot more sanding on the guitar, then I can start the finishing. I've also decided against attempting a headstock logo inlay on this guitar, since I really have no experience doing so, and it is harder to hide mistakes on maple than it is on ebony. I think I will practice intricate inlays on fingerboards first. So instead, I will use my old logo on the truss rod cover.

 

[pel]

very nice, thanks a lot for the tips on stains. I might try it for my 1st build.

 

[StarbardGuitar]

very nice, thanks a lot for the tips on stains. I might try it for my 1st build.

No problem, that's why I like posting my builds on sites like these. I learned a lot of what I do from reading other people's build threads so I figure hopefully some people can learn from mine as well (whether it's from my mistakes or from things I actually do right haha...) Like everyone says, you should always test finish ideas on scrap first if you've never tried them. That's some of the best advice, if I didn't do that with this guitar I'd have a pretty awful finish on it right now. I will post more details as I actually attempt to stain the guitar so you can see how my finish turns out and how I achieved it. Good luck on your first build!

 

[StarbardGuitar]

Got to the part that always makes me question why I like building guitars... the sanding. I really just hate sanding so much haha. I also found it is definitely a lot more difficult to prep sand a neck-thru guitar than a bolt-on since there's a lot of tight, hard to reach spots around the neck heel.

Here's the back sanded, no more router burn.

One thing the sanding brought out is that my scarf joint is eeeever so slighty off. If you look at the wenge stripes you can see how they don't quite line up perfectly. It's literally like a hair off. It's only noticeable when you get really close but it kinda sucks. Though, I guess it's not that bad if that's my only problem with my first attempt at a scarf joint. It is still structurally stable.

Got the first coat of stain on the top. It's a pretty ugly color honestly, but it's going to get sanded back anyway and its only purpose is to darken up the flames. I mixed together amber, a little cherry red, and a bit of tobacco brown to get a very dark orangey brown color. I'm thinking that when I sand back with 400 and stain it with the lighter orange mix without any brown that it will make the flames pop.

You can see the orange when it's under a lot of light like the light coming in from the windows in my room.

Also, I didn't stain the recess for the bridge yet because I figured if I stained it now, it would be impossible to sand in there and then it would be too dark. So I think if I only stain it with the lighter orange stain it will look just like the rest of the top, and it's getting covered with the bridge anyway.

 

[Steinmetzify]

This looks great man.

Despite having zero woodworking skills, I'd really like to attempt this when I move; you guys drive me nuts with all the cool builds that pop up here daily. Threads like this always get bookmarked because of all the tips in them that I know would make me straight crazy if I attempt this on my own.

Much appreciated, and this guitar is gonna look sick. I really like the design, the neck thru looks great and I LOVE the 2nd try that you got on the scrap for the burst idea. It's beautiful and would look stunning on this guitar. Good luck and I'll keep watching.

 

[StarbardGuitar]

This looks great man.

Despite having zero woodworking skills, I'd really like to attempt this when I move; you guys drive me nuts with all the cool builds that pop up here daily. Threads like this always get bookmarked because of all the tips in them that I know would make me straight crazy if I attempt this on my own.

Much appreciated, and this guitar is gonna look sick. I really like the design, the neck thru looks great and I LOVE the 2nd try that you got on the scrap for the burst idea. It's beautiful and would look stunning on this guitar. Good luck and I'll keep watching.

Thanks for the kind words! You should definitely give building a try, it's a lot of fun. Honestly, you don't need any experience with woodworking to start building. You don't even need fancy tools to do a lot of this stuff, those just make it easier and quicker. My suggestion for when you want to start building is to start simple and build something with cheap parts. Build a simple copy (or something based off) of something like a strat or a tele. You will learn a lot on your first build. The best part of building instruments is when you finally get to play them in the end. Even if it turns out to be a POS you will love playing it anyway because of all the time and effort you put into creating it. Good luck to you when you start your first build!