Today I decided that I wanted to go ahead and champher the edges of the peghead to give it a thin light colored outline from the maple center inlay. I set up my router table and ran the peghead through. This only got the straight edges so I had to use a file on the two clipped corners, and on the edge close to the nut. I am very happy that I did this. It looks very nice in my opinion. Once this was done, it was time to glue the fingerboard to the neck. I clamped the peghead to the workbench and propped the tail end up to give it a bit of a forward bow. This is to counteract the back bow that is created in the fingerboard by driving the frets in. I glued the fingerboard down and clamped with a big rubber band. After the glue had set I unclamped it and sanded the edges flush as well as scraping off some of the glue squeezout under the rubber band locations. I noticed that the fingerboard did not get clamped tightly enough at the nut location and there was a thin gap about 3/8" long on both sides. I rigged up some clamping cauls and clamped it down so the gap was eliminated. Then I wicked in some thin superglue from the nut end and along both sides and let it cure. Once it was dry, the fit is tight and I finished sanding the neck. I decided to bolt the neck to the body to see how everything lines up.
This is where one of my past errors caught up to me.
You may remember a couple of weeks ago, I noticed in one of my pictures that the soundboard ended up getting glued on just a little bit off center on the bottom end. At the time I thought this wasn't anything to worry about as the center seam is almost impossible to see. I was wrong. The thing I forgot about is that with the soundboard being shifted about 3/8" to the right, the soundhole is now about 3/16" off center too. No big deal you say, let me tell you it is a big deal. You see, when I string it up, the strings are off center and it looks bad. It is not a problem of playabilty or structure, it is a cosmetic problem. After a lot of head scratching, and failed ideas including moving the bridge and shimming the neck at an angle, I decided the best option was to sand the soundhole over to the left as much as possible without it looking off center of the rosette. After a lot of sanding and measuring, I have it a lot closer to center. It is not perfect, but I think it won't be noticeable to anyone unless it is pointed out to them. Huge lesson learned here!
Anyways, here are some pictures.
This is the bit I used to champher the edges of the peghead. Notice how it only peeks above the table about 1/8" Just enough to clip the corner.
The peghead after the edges were clipped. I like the light colored outline effect this gives.
My setup just before gluing the fingerboard on. Notice the slight bow to the neck. I hate doing this. It makes me nervous just waiting to hear that dreaded 'crack'!
The fingerboard all glued up. I love those huge rubber bands that came in the stewmac kit!
Here is the guitar all assembled and the bridge taped in it general location.
Here you can see my issue with the strings not being centered in the soundhole. The whole thing is shifted to the right. Also the two corners of the fingerboard are not perfectly alligned with the rosette.
The neck fit without any work as of yet. It is pretty close. It looks like I won't have much work to do to get a perfect fit.
Here is the string location after adjusting the soundhole. I don't want to do any more sanding on it for fear of making it look obvious.
A straight down the neck shot to show how it lines up with the soundhole.
2 comments:
David, I think you're eyes are too "tuned" into this guitar. At first, I couldn't picture what you were saying about the sound board being off centre.
Is there going to be a pick plate on this one? Will there be issues putting that on? Looks great without it.
I'd say, like all of us, you're looking too hard at the faults.
I think it looks great. Relax, or otherwise you'll be sighting that tiny error for decades.
If I do a pick guard, I will do a clear mylar one so it is not visible. Maybe I am being a bit too critical with this one. I am trying to be as accurate as I can so when things like this come up, I tend to be pretty hard on myself.
You are right though, I know that I will see all the flaws and most likely nobody else will even notice them. The good thing with these small errors is that it makes me think 'outside the box' for possible corrections/solutions. That in the long run will make me a better builder.
Thanks for the compliment!
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