First Project - A rebuild

Take us through building your guitar step by step. Post pictures and tell us what you're doing.
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Diane Kauffmds
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Joined: Sun Mar 09, 2014 8:13 pm

Re: First Project - A rebuild

Post by Diane Kauffmds »

Keith Reilly wrote:Didn't know I needed to figure out the scale length before the top was attached. I'd figure with a new bridge plate and bridge even if I had to move the position I would be able to without any problems. The neck is not attached to the body. I already steamed that out. Does that make a difference? Also the neck pocket definitely needs to be fixed up from the damage that occurred when I took it off.

My plan was to attach the top, fix the neck - set the neck angle, then measure out to where the bridge is supposed to be for the correct scale length. I figure it should be at or near the original bridge position. Is this not the best way to move forward? The top is not attached yet so if their is another method...
The scale length is determined by fret distance measurement, as you know. As long as the position hasn't shifted too much, you should be okay, assuming it was in the right position to begin with. I've found that manufacturers don't always put the bridge in the right place, so I determine the plate position, rather than relying on the manufacturer's original position.

You've probably already done the math, but determine the proper scale length by measuring from the nut to the center of fret 12, then multiply by 2; that's the real scale length. I haven't looked back to see if your guitar is a 12 or 14 fret model (14, I think). You can make your own measurements and do the math for the bridge, or simply go online and use a fret calculator, using the real scale length. Stewmac has one.

https://www.stewmac.com/FretCalculator.html

Use the calculator to determine your bridge plate position. They put the information at the bottom, in red. Just subtract the distance from the nut to fret 14 (or 12, if it's a 12 fret) from that number, and you can extrapolate the right position for the bridge plate.
Diane Kauffmann
Country Roads Guitars
countryroadsguitars@gmail.com
Keith Reilly
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Joined: Wed Dec 06, 2017 10:58 pm

Re: First Project - A rebuild

Post by Keith Reilly »

Okay I see what your saying now. I was going to measure out the scale length and not use the original bridge position, I just didn't anticipate it being that far off from original position. But better safe than sorry so I'll take the measurements in case I need to move the bridge plate while I can.

I got the kerfing all notched out. The guitar fits nice and it almost goes on perfectly. Their is a slight overhang I can feel in some places so that must mean in other places it doesn't quite go to the end of the body, but this is so subtle. I'm happy with it.

When I rebuilt the go-bar deck I did so with extra long rods. This was anticipating I'd use it to glue up the top to the body. Now with this MDF form I can't do that as it won't fit in. Can I just use weights to glue up the top? I've seen another method with some kind of rope or twine wrapping around the guitar. again with the MDF form I don't think that will work either. Need to find a solution for that.

The guitar is a 14 fret with a 25inch scale length. A zero fret guitar which is kind of rare. Thanks for the tip about the bridge plate placement. I'll take care of that as my next step.
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Keith Reilly
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Re: First Project - A rebuild

Post by Keith Reilly »

I glued the top on! Its been off for over a year, I feel like real progress has been made. I checked the scale length and the bridge plate was in the right spot before doing this.

I used the bottom of my computer desk as a go bar deck. I used some 2x4 to elevate the radius dish a little as the desk was too high. To my surprise the go bar rods lifted the desk off the floor before I got all the ones I was going to use in. I was using hide glue so not much working time. This desk is in my studio apt (I've been working on this in my parents garage), where I don't have many objects that are heavy. But I found a few things ;)

Now I need to fix the truss rod before figuring out how to set the neck. That I think is going to be the most difficult part of this project. My plan is to just separate the fingerboard from the neck and dig out the truss rod. We'll see how that goes. I might put the binding on before tackling the neck since that might be an easier job for me.
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Diane Kauffmds
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Re: First Project - A rebuild

Post by Diane Kauffmds »

This is a true milestone. Congratulations! You've done good.
Diane Kauffmann
Country Roads Guitars
countryroadsguitars@gmail.com
Keith Reilly
Posts: 54
Joined: Wed Dec 06, 2017 10:58 pm

Re: First Project - A rebuild

Post by Keith Reilly »

I've decided to work on the neck next rather than continue with the body. First step was to remove the fretboard. Their is something wrong with the truss rod, even before I took the nut all the way off, and I don't think I could fix it with the fretboard in the way.

The first step in taking the fretboard off was making some kind of jig to hold the neck. It took me three tries to cut out a female dovetail in a block of wood. But I finally got it and was able to hold the neck in place with the block of wood, that the neck was in, clamped down. This held surprisingly well
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Keith Reilly
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Re: First Project - A rebuild

Post by Keith Reilly »

It was difficult to get this started. With some persistence and patience I got it going. Once I was in a groove and figured out how much heat to apply to the fretboard and how long to try to separate the fretboard from the neck before heating the spatula again, it went along at a good pace.

I did switch from using the heat gun on the fretboard to the iron. I heard a crack while applying the heat from the heat gun and sure enough I did put a crack in the fretboard. Just from the heat, not when I was using the spatula. Its small and I think CA glue will fix it. So my method was iron on the fretboard and heat gun to heat the spatula.

I'm not an expert but I don't think the truss rod was put in correctly. I thought their was supposed to be a bow in the rod. This looks perfectly straight. I'm not sure how it was supposed to adjust the neck and maybe thats why it wasn't. Their also used to be a slight vibration noise coming from the guitar. I thought it was coming from the body but could never find out what caused it. I'm wondering if the truss rod could have been vibrating and the noise just transferred to the body.

Time to start researching how to install truss rods now. I'll remove the old one at another time.
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Diane Kauffmds
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Re: First Project - A rebuild

Post by Diane Kauffmds »

The truss rod just lays in the channel. If it fits loosely, you can put a small amount of glue in the channel, then lay the truss rod in. Some people make a thin piece of wood which lays in the channel on top of the rod.
Diane Kauffmann
Country Roads Guitars
countryroadsguitars@gmail.com
ruby@magpage.com
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Joined: Thu May 24, 2012 8:03 am
Location: Chestertown Maryland

Re: First Project - A rebuild

Post by ruby@magpage.com »

You want the rod to fit a little snugly side to side and also be flush with the top of the neck, either with a piece of wood on top or not. That way the rod has less chance of rattling in its groove as you play.If you design it so the rod is flush with the top without a wooden piece, then the groove is a little less deep.

Ed
Ed M
Keith Reilly
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Joined: Wed Dec 06, 2017 10:58 pm

Re: First Project - A rebuild

Post by Keith Reilly »

Well I took out the old truss rod. I don't understand how this thing was supposed to adjust the neck. At first glance I thought the rod was broken. The nut I took out of the headstock was a female cap nut type. So I expected male threads. Their was a nut in the channel and a gap between the rod and the nut. So whatever was in there from the beginning must have been a screw and not a nut.

This was confirmed once I took the russ rod out. There was no break, this design just had a screw push into the rod. Don't know how it was determined which way the rod would bend since the Channel wasn't bowed or anything. I need to determine what kind of truss rod to put in. Two way or one way. I haven't had much time to work on it or read into it. Also their is a bit of twist in the neck I'm going to try and take out. hopefully I won't ruin it.
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Keith Reilly
Posts: 54
Joined: Wed Dec 06, 2017 10:58 pm

Re: First Project - A rebuild

Post by Keith Reilly »

I removed the old frets from the fret board. The were not glued in and it wound up being very easy and I did not damage the board. When I put the new frets in I don't think I will use any glue since these frets never gave me a problem as far as coming loose. I will re-radius this board. The fretboard itself is very uneven, its thicker on the bass side by almost an eighth. So it needs to be reworked anyway. I will try and do a compound radius on this. I saw a youtube video on it and it seems within my capability. Also I'm going to replace the plastic fretboard dots with abalone. Those have seen better days and they aren't placed in the exact spot they should be in. Most are a little off center. These are 6mm and the replacements will be 8mm so I can get them a little closer to the middle of the fretboard.

I can tell a lot of my early guitar playing woes came from these frets. They were all very flat, no crown, so I'm guessing this was %60 of the reason I had a lot of buzz playing this thing.
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