Fret Board
Started shaping fret board curve. Needs to match curve radius of sanding block (14′)
- Start by block planeing straight chamfers on either side of fretboard
- Work back to centreline, but don’t take any height off centre
- Once nearly at correct curve, sand with 80 then up to 180 to get smooth and curve
- Mark centre line and punch centre holes for pearl inlay using 6mm drill
- Glue inlays in place with super glue
Neck fitting
- Attach guitar to vacuum clamp and trace round dovetail jig with pen for the groove
- Michael drilled out the bulk of the wood using a wide drill (but slipped and took a chunk off the front!)
- Attached body to vacuum clamp again. Attached routing jig using two ‘c’ clamps in place
- Router cut the inner dovetail join using large router. Start from centre then work way slowly to outer edges till router guide running on side of jig.
- Measure location for bridge to under the saddle for scale length location
- Tape temporary bridge in place at body
- Tape 2 x 7mm thick blocks onto neck at nut and bottom of neck (for fretboard and fret height)
- Temp put neck into socket and measure height along blocks to bridge with straight edge. Looking to be 4mm at bridge (for saddle height)
- Use a sharp chisel to take off some of the bottom of neck block. It needs to match radius of sides at top but also have enough angle to make height 4mm.
- Keep measuring till height is 4mm