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Hello everyone, firstly let me introduce myself since this is my first post. My name is Brian, I'm from Scotland and I am a complete noob about to start the guitar building adventure. I have always had a passion for the guitar as an object and as an instrument and have been lucky enough to play lots of very rare and expensive guitars all my life due to my father being a collector of high end vintage stuff. I was dragged around countless guitar shows all over the world as a youngster and I guess the bug hit me young lol. I work as a mechanic/engineer and fabricate all kind of things from metal and sometimes carbon fibre. The engineering side of things is all cool but I'm sure along the way I'll need to ask you guys many dumb and incredibly stupid questions so i apologise in advance for those

My first project is going to be a hardtail ash tele with 25" scale, flame maple neck, Macassar ebony fb and headstock veneer. The wood blanks are all ordered and I am now looking at hardware and inlay materials etc but for my first attempt i intend to keep it quite simple.

My first stupid question is about truss rods. What benefit is there in fitting a 2 way rod? My understanding was that a truss rod held the neck back against the tension of the strings, so why would it be necessary to put pressure in the opposite direction?

Brian, sometimes back bow can happen and the string tension may not be enough to pull the neck back.
The double action rod is security.

Got ya, thank you Sandy.

The first of the wood has arrived and I may have an issue already. The ebony for the finger board has some cracks in it a it appears to go almost an inch into the centre of the blank. Can I just glue and clamp this as a fix, or would I be better asking for a replacement?

Brian, I would not use that piece for a fretboard.

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I agree with Dan.

Thanks guys, I've emailed my supplier asking for a new one. Its a dang shame too because its a beautiful piece of wood, i really liked the bold stripes. I will ask if i can purchase that at a reduced price also and may use it for something smaller in the future. The bottom of it is fine lol. I'll let you know how i get on.

I'm making the router templates tomorrow on a friends fancy new saw and I will get a start made to the neck hopefully too. Here's a pic of the curly maple neck blank. It's going to look amazing once its got clear coat on

Man, that is one swell looking piece of Maple!
Gonna be awesome finished.

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Ok so my supplier still aint got back to me. Decided to cut an angle down the damaged side of the piece I was worried about and its left more than enough that is undamaged. Used the drum sander to take it down to 1/4" and squared an edge to saw the fret slots tomorrow. By pure chance, Cutting the angle to remove the damage has actually made the grain striping much straighter up the neck also which I think will look a little better in the end. Its funny how things work out sometimes I guess

After many different design ideas ive opted for a 3+3 reverse headstock look. Trying to be different but still keep the musicman/strat/tele theme in the guitar. I even made the template but to be honest im still not sure on it.... What do you guys think??

Couldnt sleep so I had a mess around with the shape. needs proportioned better but you can see what im trying to do, tele with a slant

Your design looks really cool! I like it!

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Hi, Brian. I'm just chiming in to say that I like your "slant" on things, too.

Thanks guys. Im glad you like it, I was worried it looked strange but people seem to like it so i made the body template tonight. Took me hours with a jigsaw and sand paper but its spot on as per my drawing. 25" scale and neck length is all correct size and mocked up to see what it kinda feels like if you know what I mean. Its ended up quite small, this is the mock up against my strat and lp for size comparison. Unfortunately I dont have a tele to compare but im pretty sure its bigger than that??

Do I increase its size by say 1/4"-1/2" allround or should I leave it? id appreciate your thoughts on this guys.

If the mockup has a good feel, I'd leave it as-is.
That's a great idea making a mockup. I stick the neck blank onto the body blank to get a feel for balance. you may want to do this to decide if the body should be larger or thicker to balance the neck weight.
I think the small body looks very cool.
Dan

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Thanks for the tip on balancing the weight dan. I'll do that. I done another drawing slightly bigger and it doesnt look as good tbh. The mockup seems comfy too so im sticking with it. I cut the body shape last night.

I like the mockup. I like the head too...I didn't care much for the original design - it seemed to be a left hand neck on a right hand guitar.
I know it's just preference but made a big difference to me.

Yeah me too michael. It defo looks better the right way around but im still not sure on the design. I will be starting the neck at the weekend so I still have time to tinker with the headstock a little, but I can see this being the first of many guitars from my workshop so I can develop the hs shape and stuff as I go.

Still need to think of a name also. Tbh thats been the hardest thing to come up with so far. There is already a wilson guitars so I need to come up with something else and im stumped lol.

Ok complete headstock redesign. Something along these lines. 4+2 and small to compliment the body size. Not sure how pointy to go though. Which looks better? Right or left?

Brian how it looks is what you prefer IMO.

I do think it is important to consider how the strings pass through the slots in the nut.

Maybe presenting accurate to scale ideas would prevent others from possibly misunderstanding your plans...?

To me, the one on the right.

The one on the left looks too squat, unless it balances the overall design somehow.
Kevin Looker

edit - I also agree that you need to give some serious consideration to the string paths.

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I'm not a luthier.
I'm just a guy who builds guitars in his basement.
It's better than playing golf.

Yeah those were just rough sketches to get the shape I had in mind. Got the final design drawn to scale tonight its closer to the right but kinda inbetween, string paths will be perfectly straight.



My intentions are to repeat the inlayed scratch plate (Michaels idea) in the headstock too. I want to use the same piece of wood for both inlays to keep it uniform. The curly maple neck should almost appear like binding from the front of the headstock around the inlay. Almost all the parts are either here now or on route but I still have to decide what kind of wood to use for the inlays. I'd like something almost like a tortoise shell effect in these pieces but im not really sure what to go for. Needs to be oranges and dark browns with lots of fine detailed grain. Any ideas guys?

Not had too much free time over the last few days so progress has slowed a little but im gettin there.

Question for you guys.. Do i use the roundover bit on the edge, then rout the pickguard inlay or the other way around??

If you are doing a pick guard inlay, I'd definately do the inlay before rounding the edges to maximize the amount of wood on the outside edge of the inlay routing. I would have done the inlay prior to cutting the body to size, but I'm timid when it comes to routing.
The build is looking very good. I like the body wood grain.
Dan

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I like to have the body sanded down very good before I do the roundover - inlayed guard or not.