Stratocaster Project Part II

Please see part I for a detailed description of what I have done so far.  This is part two.  Part I composed of stripping the guitar down to the wood and doing an inlay on the body.  Part II will be making a custom neck with inlay, Part III will be painting the body and Part IV will be the electronics and putting it all together.

The plan for Part II will to purchase an ebony fingerboard and do the inlay.  Then separate the rosewood fingerboard from the existing neck and glue the new ebony finger board to the existing neck. Obviously the first step was to decide on the inlay for the fretboard.  This was not an easy decision.  I had to way my minimal (but steadily increasing) skillset with what I "really" wanted.  I feel for this project I have decided on a good compromise.

I have decided on the open hexagon.  This design was actually part of a Martin Limited Edition.  Since the guitar body will be black and the fingerboard ebony (I am considering painting the actual neck black also) I wanted to stay with white Mother of Pearl (MOP).  I thought the design simple but elegant.  The routing should not be an issue which will leave me to focus on all the other things that need to happen.  I ordered the fingerboard yesterday from Stewart - MacDonald and should receive by the end of the week. 

They come preslotted, radiused and cut.  I can then do the inlay and sand them down.  On the existing neck, I will have to steam and pry the old fingerboard off of the neck which I have never done before.  Once the old fingerboard is removed I can then glue the new one on.  I will then sand down the neck.  I want to try sanding the back of the neck to an elliptical shape to custom fit my hand.  Then the plan is to either paint or finish the neck and then attach to the body once I have painted it.  As I go through the steps of the neck I will post them here...

Sunday October 18th

OK, this is going to be a process.  I ordered the material from Stewart McDonald.

I ordered some painting supplies which came with a book "Guitar Finishing".  The ebony fretboard looks nice, it has a lot of light brown streaks to it.  I also received some black dye in case I decide to dye the fretboard.  I also bought some unrelated items, chisels, potentiators etc...

a

 As with any inlay project, time to get a visual on the end result.  I laid out the inlay on the 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th, 12th, 15th, 17th, 21st and 13rd frets for a total of 10 pieces. 

 

I decided on centered hexagons for the inlay design.  I then numbered the frets that I was using.  I then measured the Width and Height of each fret to be used to center the inlay on the fretboard.  

I then convered the area where the inlay was to go with white out.  I then take the measurements and draw a vertical and horizontal line in the white out.  This let's me see the exact center of the fret area.  I then glue the inlay down and let it dry.  I then take my scribe and scribe around the glued inlay piece.  This is probably the most important part of the process, getting an accurate inlay outline on the wood.

Here is a photo of the Inlay glued to the fretboard.  Notice the cross in the middle of the hexagons that lets me know where my center is.  The project would be a failure if the inlay was not lined up correctly.

Here is a close up of the hexagon routed out about 90%.  I leave the perpendicular corners to a chisel although splint out is common in ebony.  

I use a dremel tool with the braces and it works very well.  I usually use a 1-3/32 router bit depending.  Frequent fitting of the Inlay caused me to break about 4 pieces.  Although I consider the Inlay of high quality it is extremely fragile.  But for a good tight fit you need to frequently check.

As always I then glue the inlay in the fretboard usually overnight.  The next day I will sand up to about 220-280 depending on the pores in the grain.  Finer for larger pore and coarser for small pore.