Ibanez SA Series - Neck

Time to look at doing the neck.  I want to preserve the neck that came with it.  It is a Maple Neck with a rosewood fretboard.  I will do an inlay on an ebony fretboard and replace the rosewood one but the hard part about neck construction is already done...  I of course went to Andy Depaule's Website to look at his choices.  He by far has the greatest variety of pre-cut inlay that I have been able to find.

As usual I went through all different combination for weeks on end, but finally decided on the thorn vine.  I like vines because they can be somewhat free form.  You only have to really worry about the width and not if everything is square to the fret.  The difficult part is there are a lot of pieces and trying to get them all to line up the same way more than once is very challenging
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I first soak the inlay in a bowl of hot water to melt the adhesive.  I now weight the cardboard down because if you don't the board will move as it absorbs water and the inlay falls off into a big pile which you get to sort out.  This of course is a lesson from experience :-)

Once pieces are removed from their backing I like to lay them out.  This serves as both practice and a check of the design.  The vine length can vary depending on the angles you put the vine together at.  You will want to pay attention to frets 3, 5, 7, 9, 12, 15 and at least 17 as those traditionally have a marker associated with them.  With a vine I try to make sure the leaves are in the right frets.   So I now draw out a fretboard on a board so I can ensure I am "in the lines".  I will refer back to this often.

Once that is all done I  then have to transfer the pattern to the ebony fretboard.  I first put whiteout on the fretboard and assemble the pieces as I go. Usually I will white out one fret at a time, placing the inlay down while it is still wet so that it sticks.  Care must be taken to pay attention to the angle of the vine or you could end up with a real problem towards the end.  Always remember, you could hand cut a piece or two for a transition if you were really stuck.

I then scribe around each of the pieces of inlay.  Scribing is to inlay, what sanding is to a supreme finish.  It will be the basis for the routing.  I try to scribe lightly the first time, in case the white out doesn't hold.  But with each pass I will press a little harder and deeper.  The idea is NOT to cut into the wood but clearly leave an outline within the white out. Any scratching of the wood is just a side effect, not the main intent.

 That's where the chisel comes in...  I usually will use a chisel and hammer to 'reinforce' the outline,  Now cutting into the wood is the main intent.  You don't have to go deep.  What you are doing is creating a stop line for the router.  It will sound and feel slightly different the closer you get to it.  It is a nuance but if you can develop it, a very handy one.

 All of the planning, measuring and scribing so that we can route!  I won't go into all the different bits and sizes, I use mainly a 1/8, 1/16 and 3/32 bit and assorted chisels and knives if needed.  I will say it takes time to develop the ability to inlay.  It is a skill and skills are learned.  So I am learning.

If you were accurate in your scribing, the routing is fairly straight forward.  I use a hand held dremel with a precision stand that works well for me.  You need to watch for "runs" where the bit grabs the wood and goes.  Split outs can happen depending on the type of wood.  I am not worried about fret lines at this point.  I just cut right through them.  When I am done gluing I just recut the frets.

I work my way slowly and methodically down the fretboard.  I always hold the piece up to the outline just as a double check, re-scribing when necessary.  Again as long as your scribing was spot on you should be good.  If not you will either need to redo the scribing and etching or go where it takes you.  Because once you are off your pattern it is very difficult to get back.  Again, scribing is the key.

Usually I will start with the big bit and do the leaves.  I will normally only route a 1-2 fret space at a time.  I want to make sure that the shell fits and if I need to do some small adjustments it doesn't have ramifications to something that is already cut.  So fret by fret I go. On average a fret area takes about 20-30 minutes to etch, route and fit the piece in.  But speed is not the goal here, accuracy is.  You get a feel for the bit and the way it bites the wood after a while.

I am going to try something a little different with this one in that I will stop around fret 5 and glue it in.  Then continue, stop and glue another 2 or 3 times until I am done.  Then I can do a second glue time to fill the small holes and crevices.

Here it is glued.  If I continue at my current pace of 2 frets a night I should be able to do my second glue and sand on Labor Day.  I will then pop the fretboard and sand the neck done and do the inlay on the headstock.  The body is drying... this one is starting to come together!

Continuing on down the fretboard.  Notice I tape the pieces I haven't glued in yet.  When I use my compressed air I frequently blow them out of their slots and onto the floor so now I tape them which works well.

Here is the lower half scribed.  I have a pretty good outline here.  I will then reinforce it with the chisel.  Depending on the width and the bits I have available I will decide where to start and end.  Changing the bits is a time consuming process if done frequently, so it is good to plan to maximize your time with a particular bit.

Here is the design.  I had to change it slightly from the original design.  Sometimes I get a little confused and can't get the pieces to line up properly, so I just throw them in a pile and start from scratch, which is what I did with the lower roots.  It did however come out fairly close anyways.

I have routed as much as I felt comfortable with the larger bit.  Now I am ready to start using the fine bit and shaving away the excess.  It is a slow process.  A lot of running the drill, blowing the sawdust out, stopping the drill, trying the piece, repeat...  Of course when you get impatient is exactly where you will make your mistake.

Here I have fitted the inlay into the routes.  I am not worried about the fret lines at this point.  Once everything is glued in I will have to re-cut the fret scores and then put frets in.  I am pretty happy with the overall fit.  I would say this one of my best fingerboards so far, but I still have a long way to go...

Here it is as I work down the fretboard.  I will do the inlay over a period of a few hours.  You kind of get in a zone and just groove along.  You have to be very focused and deliberate on your placement of pieces since the margin of error is really small.  Once I have completed routing process I will fit all the pieces in and evaluate, tweaking here and there.  Hopefully no big errors.  Then I will take all the pieces out and arrange them on my layout board and then fill the routes with black epoxy.  I then cover it with wax paper and clamp it and let it dry for at least 24 hours, 48 or more if I can.

 
While that is drying time to address the neck.  I am going to use the neck that came with the guitar.  So the first thing I need to do is remove the hardware, and pop the fretboard off the neck.  I do this with a iron, no steam.  I  put the iron on hot, put a folded old t-shirt between the fretboard and the iron and heat it up.  I then work a spatula like tool in between the fingerboard and neck.  It takes some time and patience but I have done this several times now and it is a pretty simple procedure.

I will also be putting a faceplate of mahogany with a trinity inlay over the face so I will sand this down to the wood.  I will remover the truss rod and scrape and sand the neck down to bare wood.  Then  I need to consider total thickness of the neck and fingerboard with what I want on the bridge.  The thicker the neck because I am adding height on the fingerboard, the higher the bridge will need to be adjusted.

I chose a sappalle (sp?) Mahogany blank from LMI.  I will glue this to the face and using a scroll saw trim it accordingly.  The piece was quite a bit a thicker than I thought, as an afterthought I would have been better served just doing a veneer.  I will do an inlay of a Trinity in it.

Using my scroll saw I was able to trim it to shape.  Then using my spindle sander on my drill press I will shape it to the design of the old face.  Then I need to decide what I want for tuning pegs and drill the appropriate diameter hole.  I checked on the body which is still drying and it is looking very good.  Still some issues in the pickup area, but we will see what polishing will do for it.  I will probably look at polishing the first week of October.  Finish the neck and decide on the type of bridge.  This one is starting to come together!

I need to drill the tuning peg hole before I get to choose where the inlay goes.  I can approach the drilling from the rear or from the front.  If I approach from the rear I already have the hole as a guide.  However it tends to break out this way.  I got some splintering around a couple of the holes which you will see later caused a minor issue which the tuning peg washer will cover up anyway.  Having done that I could now position the inlay.

As with any Inlay project I applied a liberal coating of white out and stuck the pieces.  The trinity is actually three inter locking pieces.  I stuck them and aligned them with the angle of the face plate and using a scribe created an outline of the shapes.  I felt like I got a very clear outline.

Then taking a chisel I provided a stop line for the outline.  Using my Dremel Router I routed the interior.  I had a bit that was almost perfect in size, perhaps a tad wide and used that for 80%.  I used my thin bit for the rest and clean up.

Once routed I then mixed up my black epoxy.  I applied that and filled the outline then pressed the pieces into place.

I then covered the area with wax paper and applied a caul, clamped and let dry for 24-48 hrs.   I am seeing a little longer dry times with this new epoxy.  Once it dried, I removed the caul, sanded and cut back the faceplate closer to the headstock.  I then finished up with the drill press sanding bit.  I then sanded the face to about 400 grit.  I had to trim the bottom of the faceplate where it meets the nut.  This was a bit a tricky and had to be perfectly square.  I then took the prepared fretboard and placed it on.

The work usually moves fairly quickly during this process and again I forgot to take detailed pictures.  Placing your fretboard on the neck is an exacting process.  Any deviation and there will be some type of consequence.  So it is measure once, measure twice, and why not a third time?  Once I have the placement to my satisfaction I clamp it and then drill three small holes through the fretboard and into the neck.  These will help keep the fretboard from drifting when I glue it.  Then I go ahead and glue and clamp it.

Then using a band saw or scroll saw I trim the excess of the fretboard away.  I then use the sanding bit on my drill press to bring it in close to the neck but still leaving a fraction of a mm for hand sanding where I can put a small radius on the lip.  I made a fretboard once and it was too sharp on the edges.  You can also get carried away and do too round also where the bottom and top string don't have a straight fingerboard under them.

Here's a peak at what she might look like when done.  Looking pretty nice in my opinion. 

Here's the headstock after a couple applications of shellac.   I will build up the coats and shine then let it dry for a month.  The grain has a great 3D look to it.

Next is fretting the neck.  Once the body is done I need hardware!

Stratocaster Project Part III

Although originally I had wanted the hexagon fretboard to be the fretboard for this project, I ended up starting another fretboard project which ultimately become the final fretboard.  I decided on a vine inlay design that I saw in Andy DePaul's gallery.

The piece is derived from the Ibanez Line.  I decided on Gold MOP because initially the guitar was to all black and thought it would make a nice contrast.

As with any inlay project I layout my pieces to get a feel for how they will fit.  There were 2 issues that I needed to deal with right away.  Some of the pieces were large and could only fit one way.  This made it imperative that the vine flow just right or it would pus the larger pieces off the fretboard.  The second was the vine itself, it ran through the entire piece and its location had to be precise.

I put the pieces in order on an 81/2 X 11 piece of paper and marked off the frets.  Unfortunately for me the paper fell on the floor and the pieces were mixed.  It was almost impossible to recreate the design so I went with the flow and improvised.

I had done a few inlays by this point so I had a bit of a process.  I always ordered my fretboards pre-slotted.  I normally get them from stew-mac but have purchased some from other suppliers.  After laying out all the pieces and putting together the map, I paint white out over the area to be inlayed.  I will put the piece on the white out before it dries.  After about 10-20min the piece usually is held fairly tightly.  I then trace with a scribe the outline of the piece.  I then pop off the shell and use a chisel to outline the shape.  I then take the dremel and carefully route out the area.  I leave any fine detail or corners to a chisel and/or chip knife.

This process can take some time but usually once I have all my materials I can complete the inlay routing process in 2-4 hours.  The most important aspect I think is planning the work and working the plan.  The routing just takes patience and practice.  Fortunately Ebony is fairly forgiving.  It is not the easiest wood to work with, it is hard and usually dry and chips easily.  The positive side is you can mix in ebony shavings into the epoxy and after sanding it is very difficult to tell.  Once finished and oiled I think Ebony is absolutely beautiful.  I never die my fretboards, I love the natural variation.  Here is a pic of the finished fretboard with a fresh coat of oil.  Notice the grain and color towards the right hand side.  This is characteristic of un-dyed ebony, you can get some visual swirling that is just visible to the naked eye.

One issue I run into consistently is the breaking of the inlay pieces.  They are rather intricate and delicate and trying to fit them into a rout on a surface with a radius can be tricky.  I also break them when I clamp the board to glue them.  They actually add character to it (IMHO) but some times it can be tricky sanding it out if the ends do not line up just right.

Once I am done with routing it is time to glue.  Epoxy is nasty stuff.  Exposure needs to be limited and proper planning is called for.  It all needs to be done in one smooth step.  Usually I will mix the epoxy and hardner in a 1:1.  I always eyeball it.  I then mix in the ebony dust until it becomes more of a paste.  I will stir this for a good 5 min.  I then apply the paste in the route, press the inlay piece in, wipe any gross glue squeeze and continue down fret by fret.  I then have a caul which has the reverse radius of the fretboard.  I put wax paper over the fretboard then clamp on the caul on the wax paper and let it sit for 24 hours.
The next day when you unclamp it you will see an absolute mess.  It will look horrible.  Now I get my radius sanding block and start working.  I use the stew mac ones, they seem to work fine.  The trick is not to move your arms, but your whole body.  This produces a more consistent stroke and you won't get an uneven radius.

For sanding I will take 120 grit (Flat) sandpaper and start to take off the glue.  I don't care if I flatten the fingerboard a little, I will be re-applying a radius later on.  When I have the major gunk off I start with a radius sanding block with 180 gold bond sandpaper and start working it.  You need to have a bit of perspective here.  The inlay has a radius from the caul pressing on it but sometimes the piece will break or sit un-even due to a bad route or something.  So taking into account the thickness of the inlay you sand carefully until most of the glue and whiteout is gone.  At this point you will start to see some gaps or wholes from air bubbles.  I will then clean the area with an exacto knife and re-apply the epoxy and do the whole thing one more time.

The second time around with 180 grit sandpaper, I will continue sanding for another 5 minutes until the white out is almost gone and there is very little to no glue over the shell.  Then I will switch to 220 for the remainder.  I like 220 because it really smooths the board out but doesn't put a high gloss on the ebony.  I love that high gloss look but not on my fingerboards.  I prefer porous but smooth.  I sand until the radius is firmly in place, the inlay is clear in all areas and the wood is smooth and uniform.

You will notice that a lot of the fret slots will be filled in with epoxy at this point.  You can try and prevent this by putting razor blades into the slots.  This particular inlay ran across allt he fret lines anyway so I knew I would have to recut them anyway. 

I have a fret saw from Stew Mac but the fret size seems just a tad large for there frets.  So when I re-saw my fret slots I usually need to epoxy the frets also.

Here is the finished product.  I did the headstock in a matching motif.  I installed gold frets, they are fairly large and seem comfortable.  I go through the entire fretting process which is to install them with a fret hammer.  Trim, file, dress, level, sand, polish.  Usually all said this takes about 4-6 hours.  I am fussy about my frets...

Meanwhile I have stained the body ebony.  It came out with a streaked effect but pretty nice looking.  I decided not to re-apply the stain but let the streaks and grain really stand out.  I then attached the neck to the guitar.  I usually do some checks to ensure that the finger board is straight and a straight edge on the frets will point to a spot about 2-3 mm above where the bridge saddles will sit.  I will double check the levelness of the frets and correct any issues.  Other than that I just bolt it on.  Once I string it up I will do a full setup on it which includes the tension rod and intonation.

In retrospect I probably should have applied the finished without the neck attached, but oh well, for some reason I did not.  I put the guitar in a tub and began a series of Danish Oil baths. 

The general idea here was to apply enough oil to saturate the wood.  What was extra hardened on the surface of the wood.  You then wet sand that down creating a slurry which fills the peaks and valleys, the goal being as flat a surface as you get.  This took me about 8 baths with graduating sand paper.  With a day between baths for drying it was about a 2 week process.

I was personally impressed with the finished product.  It was very smooth and flat.  The appearence was a matte with a medium gloss.  The issue with oil finishes are that they are not very protective. Normally you are going to want something on top of that for added protection. 

I decided to try and do poly-urethane.  Not having spray equipment (yet) I went the brush route.  I won't go into it here but it was a very long process but very satisfying.  I applied about a dozen coats in total (with a day drying between each).  I then used a polishing wheel to buff.  There are numerous websites already that details this process quite well.  I was very pleased with the gloss I was able to obtain with the wheel and several varying grit polishing solutions.

I of course had to also do the headstock.  I took a piece of ebony I had and cut out the shape of the headstock on my jigsaw.  I then inlayed the ebony headstock onto the maple one.  I had a little tear out I had to repair in the headstock when I drilled the tuner holes out.  I also did an inlay on the headstock.

In between the drying and sanding times for the finishes I went pick guard shopping.  Since I already had a yin-yang in the body, I thought that one on the pick guard would work also.  I found this one on a custom site some where.  I ordered one with the bridge pick up to be a humbucker.

 I also started to evaluate wiring schema and pickups.  I had enough pickups on hand to complete the guitar but don't know if it will be the final configuration.  I have all Seymour Duncan Pickups, in the Bridge Alnico's V's, middle cool rails and neck are dumbuckers.  My standard wiring includes the neck pup on demand and a 5-way switch.  I insulated the cavities and internal pick guard surface with copper foil and grounded it.  This makes a huge difference in hum and I do it consistently.  I also had three ebony knobs on hand for the volume and tone controls.  Right now I have a chrome output jack but will probably swap that out with a black one later.  I used black screws for the pickguard.

The project took just about one year.  I did have an issue when I strung it up.  I had a bit of a back bow to the neck.  When I put a straight edge across the top there was a slight rock (about a mm or so) right around the 6th and 7th frets.  I loosened the tension on the truss rod and put a single string on to check for the buzz.  The buzz was fairly noticeable but alleviates after the 7th fret.  From my perspective I had two choices, I could have re-filed the fret around the 5-9 fret area or put some heavy gauge strings on and see how it worked out.  I did the latter putting on .12's on the tops and that seemed to provide the necessary pull and resulted in moving the neck into a very slight relief, almost perfect :-)

The finished guitar plays very well.  As I have been playing I keep a list of touch up's for the next string change where I can address anything I need to.  Right now there are a couple of areas where I need to polish the frets a little smoother.  I am also contemplating some poly on the back of the neck, but am evaluating just the wood and oil finish I have on the neck now...